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On Saturday afternoon in a sold-out professional soccer stadium (18,000) just north of Dallas in Frisco, Texas, the most successful American college football team of this decade just won another national championship.
No, it was not Alabama (though they have a chance to win another title on Monday night against Clemson).
The green and gold clad North Dakota State University Bison (pronounced “Bizen” by their boisterous and faithful fans) just took home their seventh national championship trophy in the last eight years participating in the NCAA’s college division for smaller schools (formerly called Division 1-A but now known as the Football Championship Subdivision or FCS).
NDSU (from Fargo, ND) withstood a late challenge by Eastern Washington University (near Spokane, WA) to claim this season’s title with a 38-24 victory.
The Bison completed an incredible 15-0 perfect season after plowing their way through the FCS playoffs.
In case you were wondering, the NCAA’s smaller division football playoffs are comprised of a whopping 24 teams where the top eight seeds (NDSU was ranked #1 and Eastern Washington #3) receive a first round bye.
Even with the first round bye, North Dakota State had to win four playoff games against Montana State (52-10), Colgate (35-0), South Dakota State (44-21) prior to getting the win in Saturday’s finale against Eastern Washington.
It seems like a brutal road to a championship, but most of these teams played “only” eleven regular season games. By contrast, many of the upper level universities now play a 12-game regular season game, and, for the winners, a 13th game for the conference championship.
Couldn’t the larger schools adopt the same playoff model as the smaller division schools?
As usual these days, the real answer is money. The extra regular season game (#12) in the large-school group generates a lot of money – especially for those teams who will not be participating in the conference championship game or the current four team BCS playoffs.
By winning on Saturday, the North Dakota State University Bison have the most FCS championships (seven) in history and have displaced Georgia Southern University (six) at the top.
The head coach of the Bison, Chris Klieman, has accepted a new job to become the head football coach of Kansas State University. He replaces legendary successful coach, Bill Snyder, who recently re-retired at K-State at youthful age 79.
With a record of 69-6 in his five seasons at NDSU, Klieman knows how to win and also knows how to recruit in the Midwest.
Klieman’s long-time defensive coordinator, Matt Entz, will take over the reins of the Bison next season.
Both universities’ football programs appear to be in very good hands.
With seven championships in eight seasons, Fargo, home of the North Dakota State University Bison, is becoming the new “Title Town” in the upper Midwest.