At what point this season did you think a NC was a real possibility?

[westnodak93bison]

I'm not one for making predictions because of superstition but after the Missouri State game, all liquored up at Labby's I told my friend Richard Sorenson we are gonna win the NC.
When did you call it?

[VanClubPres]

At the beginning.

I a world class homer. In 3 years on the Christopher Gabriel Show, I have picked NDSU to win every game, even when we were 3 and 8.

At the beginning of the year, I told him that in my opinion anything less than a national championship would be a disappointment to this team.

Still havent got those winning powerball numbers yet, but when I do, we will finish the SHAC.

Go Bison

[SDbison]

I was confident the Bison would go deep into the playoffs at the beginning of the year. My concern was how the Bison would handle the middle of the MVFC schedule. They passed that test and then after the bump in the road with YSU the Bison responded well so a National Championship seemed attainable.
I am surprised the Bison did so well with an often weak offense as that was and continues to be a concern. The Bison need to keep the defense at the high level where it is and figure out a way to have a more reliable and powerful offensive game. Relying on turnovers, special teams and putting the defense on the field too often will not always prove to be the winning formula.

[Hopeful-Bison-Baller]

After the Eastern Washington game last year. With the way we ended the season, the players wanted that feeeling back, to get to the playoffs and win a ship, and the number of returning starters, I knew we would win it.

[CalBison97]

After dismantling Minnesota on the road, I knew we had a real shot as we proved we were a complete team in all phases. Looking back on it, we beat Minnesota, who beat Iowa, who beat Michigan...interesting. I usually shudder at the phrase "a loss can be healthy", but I also feel that losing to Youngstown helped us. Sometimes knowing you CAN be beat helps to refocus and keep things in perspective (see SHSU and LSU).

[Wally]

Knew we were going to be good, but one never knows with injuries, a bad bounce, etc can derail a season. Thought for sure we we would make the playoffs and make a run.

After we beat Minnesota AGAIN, a few buddies and I went to BWW to have some foams and wait for the busses to calm down a bit. We walk in and we see a couple of rube Gopher homer friends and of course they start explaining the loss away and just overall ripping on the team, the state, the fans, etc. I am sure many of you heard the same quotes as I did: "You guys beat the worst Gopher team ever", "Your fans are annoying", "You guys make special shirts for the game, how dumb is that", "What's the state tree of ND, a light pole", "You aren't our rivals", "We shouldn't be playing you", and then comes "You guys aren't winning the national championship, you aren't good enough"

After the last one comment, I stated we are winning the title and I believed it. It just got so sickening to listen to their hater/loser attitudes. I asked for specific examples of why we wouldn't win and why another team would. No examples given of course because they are idiots.

So as the season goes along, we keep winning, but not always pretty. Believe me, there were some tense and frustrating parts of the season including the loss to YSU. After the loss, the texts come flying in about the game and how we suck and won't win anything and doing the ole " I told ya so" bit. I held my own, not stooping down to gopher level. I said it was a bad loss and we will be better for it.

Long story longer, I haven't texted, emailed, tweeted, facebooked, sent smoke signals, sent a carrier pigeon to any of them since last Saturday. Silence is deadly.


Looking back from the EWU loss to the SHSU win, it has been the most heartbreaking and most joyous 1+ year ever rooting for my alma mater.

[tjbison]

I told a friend after the Montana state game last year that we had a chance, then after the EWU game I didnt exactly "call" it but I said we will make the NC next year

[99Bison]

About two minutes left in game 15 :-) Ok, well more of a REAL possibility after seeing #2 seed come up when playoff's were annouced.

[Gully]

After we beat UNI I thought a NC was a real possibility.

[jimmyptubas]

As a vikings and cubs fan I suffer from "never get your hopes up" disease. It nearly ruined sports for me when I let my guard down in 2009. I said beforehand that if we lost to the Saints, it would never be as bad as 1998 against the Falcons. Boy was I wrong....after 6 months of intense psychotherapy I was able to watch football again in small doses.

Fast forward to the end of last year....Eastern Washington game was not good for me...but I did get over it....knowing that the future was very very bright for this team. I had my year all mapped out in my mind. I knew UNI would be tough and I was fairly confident about U of Minn. I knew we'd most likely make the playoffs but from there on...i didn't know. My "never get your hopes up" disorder kinda when like this:

any big game ( minnesota, UNI, all of the dome playoff games) I was less than confident...from week to week I was sure we were going to lose....but then after we finally beat Georgia Southern, I was confident we'd beat SHSU! Because i was confident....I thought we'd probably lose. Confusing, but that's how it goes. My team has never " won it all " in recent memory so i'm very excited about this but still cautiously approaching next year's success.