Recognizing the North Dakota State University Bison Football Team

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRAMER. Mr. President, I thank the President for yielding the floor and thank you for your previous speech. It is a great honor for me to follow the senior Senator from North Dakota, Senator Hoeven, in congratulating this remarkable, singular accomplishment by this remarkable, singular football team: the North Dakota State University Bison.

Senator Hoeven did a great job of highlighting the highlights of this singularly great team as, last weekend, they did win their eighth out of nine FCS national championships; that is, NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision.

He went through the statistics that are very impressive: the stretch of 37 victories in a row; the 16-0 season; the singular accomplishment of Trey Lance, this redshirt freshman from Marshall, MN, who threw, by the way, in the course of the season, 29 touchdown passes and a grand total of 0 interceptions--remarkable to say the least. He was just named, in fact, the 2019 FCS National Performer of the Year.

Senator Hoeven paid tribute appropriately to Coach Entz. Senator Hoeven is exactly right--an incredible individual; an incredible, undefeated head coach. Not only was he named the Missouri Valley coach of the year, he was just named the AFCA FCS coach of the year--a tremendous person.

We can talk about all the great things that the Bison football team does, and it is appropriate that we do that and that we celebrate them in North Dakota and Fargo and the region and all of Bison Nation, as Senator Hoeven said. There is something they don't do that I appreciate so much. I watched the game on ABC, as we have watched lots of football games lately on the national networks, and the one thing they don't do that I love is they never point to the name on the back of their jersey because they don't put their names on the backs of the jerseys because this is always a team effort. This is a legacy of a team. It is a culture of a team. It is the equality of a team. As great as every performer is, they are a team. That is the way they win; and, if they ever lose, that is the way they lose, but they don't do that much.

They really have defined--redefined--excellence, but their excellence doesn't end on the field. I don't think it should surprise anybody to learn of a few other statistics of North Dakota State University. For example, just last year, for just the second time in our Division I history, all NDSU athletic teams reached a cumulative grade point average of 3.0. Let me say that again: All NDSU athletic teams reached a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or greater, while also achieving our highest overall student athlete GPA of 3.43. Over 280 student athletes at NDSU scored a 3.0 or better, with 72--72--of their student athletes receiving a 4.0--earning, I should say, a 4.0.

As you can tell, Senator Hoeven and I are proud Senators. We are proud of our team. We are proud of our university. We are proud of the entire university system in our State for lots of reasons. I think what the excellence of the North Dakota State University football team has illustrated is an excellence that can be achieved and can be applied not only to the gridiron, not only to the fields of athletic competition, but to life. As the Presiding Officer knows, their motto is that the strength of the herd is in the bison and the strength of the bison is in the herd. It is a good lesson in athletics and a good lesson in life.

I join Senator Hoeven in congratulating the Bison.

Go Bison.

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