Sorry LSU & Clemson: NDSU Is College Football’s Finest
By: Brandon Anderson
Tags: NFL, College Football, Sports, Television, Football

In 2010, North Dakota State finished what most college programs would consider a heck of a football season. In their third year of FCS eligibility (formerly Division I-AA), the Bison made the playoffs for the first time. They defeated Robert Morris 43–17, then went on the road to upset #4 Montana State 42–17 before falling in the quarterfinals in overtime on the snow-covered blood red-field of eventual champion Eastern Washington.

The Bison (it’s pronounced BiZon, with a Z!) went 9–5 that season, finished among the top eight FCS teams, and played the national champion as close as any team those playoffs. For most programs, that would be a banner season. For NDSU, it was by far their worst season of the decade.

Five losses?! The Bison have lost only eight games in nine seasons since.

The following season, the Bison entered the playoffs ranked #2. They opened the playoffs against James Madison and defeated them soundly, then beat Lehigh, Georgia Southern, and #1 Sam Houston State each by double digits to win their first FCS national championship.

In 2012, the Bison rolled to another title. This time they entered #1 and looked the part, crushing Sam Houston State again, 39–13. All that was left the following season was for head coach Craig Bohl and a loaded senior class to go undefeated — so they did. The 2013 Bison went 15–0 and left no doubt. They won their four playoff games by 31, 34, 38, and 28 points, completing the first undefeated FCS championship season since Marshall in 1996.

That was supposed to be the end of the NDSU dynasty. Bohl left for FBS pastures in Wyoming, where he would go on to coach first-round Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, and Bison QB Brock Jensen graduated and took his 48 wins with him, most in FCS history. Bohl was replaced by little-known defensive coordinator Chris Klieman, while Jensen handed over the QB reins to a local redshirt junior named Carson Wentz.

The Bison were supposed to take a step back in 2014, but no one told Klieman and Wentz. Things weren’t quite as easy for that NDSU team. Three of their four playoff games were one-score affairs, and twice Carson Wentz led the team downfield for the winning score in the game’s final minutes, including his first championship.

That meant high expectations in 2015 for a team coming off four straight national championships, something only Augustana (IL) had ever done at any level in NCAA football history, with Wentz beginning to garner some NFL Draft buzz. But Wentz broke his wrist that October, the Bison lost to South Dakota, and the team entered the playoffs ranked only #3 behind untested freshman QB Easton Stick.

You probably guessed the ending by now. Stick never lost a game, leading the Bison all the way to the championship game against #1 Jacksonville State. NDSU made the controversial decision to bench Stick for the title game, reinserting a finally-healthy Wentz into the lineup. The Bison romped to a fifth straight title with a 37–10 win, and Wentz was drafted #2 overall by the Philadelphia Eagles a few months later. He’s led the Eagles to three straight playoff appearances and was getting MVP buzz before an injury sidelined what turned into a Super Bowl sophomore season with the Eagles.

2016 was a down year for NDSU. Stick and the Bison began the year with an early upset win at #13 Iowa, an FBS team. But the Bison lost to hated rivals South Dakota State a few weeks later and then lost a home semifinal playoff game to James Madison. It was their only playoff loss of the decade.

A motivated Bison team bounced back in 2017, getting revenge on James Madison with a 17–13 victory in the national championship. The Bison won another title in 2018 against Eastern Washington, and Easton Stick finished his career 49–3, the winningest quarterback in college football history. Stick graduated with another huge senior class, and Coach Klieman left for the head coaching job at Kansas State.

And so, 2019 was supposed to be another rebuilding year. The Bison entered the season with a new head coach in Matt Entz, along with new offensive and defensive coordinators and three or four guys set to compete for the open quarterback job.

Five months later, the Bison are champions again. Still.

On Saturday they defeated James Madison in a hard-fought 28–20 victory. Freshman QB Trey Lance won the Walter Payton Award Friday night given to the nation’s most outstanding FCS player, the first ever freshman to do so, then went out and led the Bison to the title the next day, winning MVP. Lance finished the season with 28 passing touchdowns and not a single interception, adding 1100 yards and 14 scores on the ground.

The Bison finished 16–0, the first NCAA team to do so since Yale in 1894. It was their third undefeated season this decade and their eighth national championship in the last nine seasons.

Ho hum. Another Bison championship.