Recognizing the North Dakota State University Bison Football Team

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the North Dakota State University Bison football team, and I am really excited to be able to do that. Last weekend, the Bison capped another impressive football season by winning their eighth FCS national title in 9 years. The Bison broke their own record for the most FCS titles of all time, eight in the last 9 years--an unbelievable accomplishment.

They have now won 16 NCAA football championships. NDSU just had a truly impressive team this year, and they just have a tremendous program, as they have demonstrated year after year.

I had the chance to be in Frisco last weekend with Bison Nation. They have an incredible following. We call them ``Bison Nation'' because they go wherever the football team goes, and they make a lot of noise. I had the opportunity to be there with them and cheer on the team as they faced off against James Madison University, the Dukes. It was a hard-fought win for the Bison, and the Dukes should also be congratulated. They have a great program--a first-class program--and great fans. I talked to a lot of them. They could not have been not only more supportive of their team, but they could not have been more complimentary of the Bison and their great program. Again I just want to say: James Madison, a real great program and a real class act--their team, their program, and their fans. Kudos to them as well.

It was just a great effort by our team all around. Just a few stats: The win by the Bison on Saturday capped off an unbeaten season of 16-0. That is the first time a Division I team has gone 16-0, unbeaten, since Yale did it in 1894--pretty remarkable, a pretty amazing accomplishment.

You also have to realize that that brings their current winning streak to 37 consecutive games, so they finished the year unbeaten, and they are now up to a 37-game winning streak.

Next year, the second game of the season, we go to Oregon and play Oregon at Oregon. That should be a really exciting game. It just shows the caliber of football this team plays and just how great these student athletes are. They are great young men as well. I am very pleased that I was joined by my colleague Senator Cramer in sponsoring this resolution, so I certainly want to express my appreciation to him as well.

We recognize and we congratulate the players, including freshman quarterback Trey Lance, who became the first player in the history of the North Dakota State Bison football team and the first freshman player in history--the first freshman player--to win the Walter Payton Award. It is the first time a freshman has ever done so, which just shows you what a great player he is and is just indicative of the kind of athletes we have on that team.

We want to congratulate and honor the whole team. It was truly a team effort, a great team, led by Coach Matt Entz and his staff. This is Matt Entz's first year as head coach--what a way to start off for Matt and what a great guy and what a great coach. Also, the athletic director, Matt Larsen, again, just runs a class program of not only football but all of the athletics at North Dakota State University, as well as, of course, the fine leadership of NDSU president Dean Bresciani at the university there, a good friend and somebody who has done a great job leading the university.

Again, I also want to honor Bison Nation. The game was nationally televised on Saturday at noon eastern time here on ABC. It wasn't just our great team; it was Bison Nation, all the fans being there and showing up in such a great way, too, with not only wearing the green and yellow and Bison regalia but cheering and just doing a great job like Bison Nation always does.

We are so proud of the program, so proud of the student athletes, the coaches, and Bison Nation as a whole. We want to congratulate everybody on another incredible year and an unbelievable achievement: eight championships in 9 years.

With that, there is only one other thing to say: Go Bison.

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