The Textbook Definition Of A Sports Dynasty
There are numerous sports dynasties which certainly dictate respect.
You have the New England Patriots in the National Football League. There are the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball. In so-called big-time college football, the Alabama Crimson Tide have had a dynasty in recent years and were a dynasty in decades past. There’s the Duke men’s basketball program and all the hardware it has garnered. And don’t overlook what the Connecticut women’s basketball program has accomplished.
One football dynasty which doesn’t get as much attention from many sports fans, however, is the current one of the North Dakota State Bison football program. NDSU won its sixth national title in the FCS (formerly called Division I-AA) Saturday defeating defending champion James Madison.
Six national titles in seven years is quite an impressive accomplishment regardless of the level you are in. NDSU has set a standard which may never be matched although the Bison certainly are an early favorite to win another national title for the 2018 season.
Along the way to its six national championship trophies, the NDSU football program has knocked off some of the big boys. In fact, the last six times the Bison have played up a level they have won.
In 2016, NDSU defeated Iowa (on the road of course) when the Hawkeyes were ranked No. 13. Ironically, this was the season the Bison did not win a national title.
When Iowa bomb shelled Ohio State in 2017, there was talk by some that “Iowa is always a tough place to win.” That’s interesting because NDSU certainly went in and left with a victory. A headline after that win against the Hawkeyes read “It was no fluke” and indeed it wasn’t.
NDSU uses an old-fashioned power football game to win its titles. The Bison don’t do anything fancy. They don’t use a gimmick offense. Rather the program, for years, has simply been more physical than its foes across the line of scrimmage.
The dynasty began with coach Craig Bohl who is now the head coach at Wyoming. Bohl has the Wyoming program going to and winning bowl games which is not an easy thing to do.
The winning ways for NDSU continued when Chris Klieman took over. It has been an amazing run and one that shows no signs of slowing down.
Of course, the success by NDSU has caused most I-A programs to not show any interest in scheduling the Bison. Smaller or struggling teams know they are likely to be handed a loss and even more successful I-A programs, including ones in the SEC, know that it is of no benefit to play such a successful opponent, even if the success is at a lower level.
It will be interesting to see what the next higher level program team will agree to play NDSU.
In these parts all the hype was for the national title game between Georgia and Alabama. That’s certainly understandable.
However, I guarantee you that NDSU would more than welcome the chance to play either of those teams.
Monticello native Chris Bridges is a long-time newspaper columnist. He welcomes feedback from readers of The Monticello News at pchrisbridges@gmail.com.