Reality of college football hit Bryce Lance quick

FARGO — It was all business with Division I FCS football for Bryce Lance in the weeks leading up to the national championship game against Montana State. The North Dakota State receiver was busy leading his team through the playoffs.

He was locked in, engaged. In four postseason games, Lance had 25 receptions for 375 yards and seven touchdowns, perhaps the greatest offensive individual performance in an NDSU playoff run. And that doesn’t include a few highlight-reel receptions that bordered on ridiculous.

The drama, or the business, didn’t end with the 35-32 win over the Bobcats, either. The days after the Monday night victory in Frisco were what he called “a crazy experience.”

“Stuff I had never been exposed to,” Lance said.

The Power 4 schools and their big collectives came calling, proposing unconfirmed offers but most likely in the high six figures if not $1 million. For a player who had one career catch heading into the 2024 season, this was unreal territory.

Lance, speaking publicly on his potentially fluid situation for the first time, announced on social media Jan. 10 that he was returning to NDSU. He posted three words on his X account: Run it back.

“In this new world of college sports, it was something I had to find my way through,” Lance said. “It was crazy but it was all good and happy with the way things are going now.”

He said there were moments when it got overwhelming, but that’s when he turned to his support system, which consisted mainly of his family. His parents, Carlton and Angie Lance, ran interference from other schools until after the season. They handled the inquiries so Bryce could concentrate on the season, especially the playoff games in December and January.

Distractions are the nemesis of football players and coaches after all.

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“That’s how they handled it,” Bryce said. “And then after the season you have only so many days to make your decision.”

The 30-day portal window closed Dec. 28, but players at NDSU like Lance had five days to make a decision following the conclusion of the season. That was Jan. 6.

In making it, Bryce said he also leaned on his older brother, Trey Lance, to decide what was best. Trey went through a similar life’s decision in 2020. He led the Bison to an undefeated national championship in 2019, and the table was set for the loaded Bison to do it all over again in 2020 until the pandemic limited NDSU’s fall season to one game against Central Arkansas. Two days later, he announced he was leaving early to enter the 2021 NFL Draft.

It paid off, literally. He was the third overall selection by the San Francisco 49ers. Three years later, his younger brother had a similar financial decision to make.

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In the end, a junior who had already invested four years into NDSU including a redshirt year, Bryce remained in Fargo, following the lead of left tackle Grey Zabel and quarterback Cam Miller and taking the program over more money.

Zabel had six-figure offers with Power 4 programs after the 2023 season, but opted to remain with the Bison for his senior year mainly citing NDSU’s offensive line lineage in the NFL. It appears it will pay off; he’s regarded as a late first round or early second round selection later this month. Miller had plenty of schools after him, but wanted to finish what he started with the Bison.

There was no question The Green and The Gold Collective played a role with Lance. Since it’s a private entity, numbers do not have to be made public and they probably never will, but it’s safe to say what Lance is getting at NDSU is much less than what he could have gotten elsewhere.

“This program has done so much for me and I think it’s my time to give back,” Lance said. “I know a ton of guys could have left this past year, too, but it’s truly a brotherhood here. Leaning on those guys, seeing Grey staying, Cam staying, and the opportunities they still have was a huge part of my decision.”

Perhaps the NFL contacts have already begun with his participation in Miller’s Pro Day workout in front of 28 NFL teams last week. Certainly, the scouts took notice of a 6-foot-3, 209-pound receiver who caught almost everything that was thrown at him last season. A couple scouts asked him his height and weight, “but nothing too crazy,” Lance said.

He blew up more in one season than any other Bison receiver in the Division I era, finishing with 75 catches for 1,071 yards. His 17 touchdown receptions set a single-season team record and tied a Missouri Valley Football Conference mark.

He’s been named to several all-academic teams and already has his undergraduate degree in marketing.

Head coach Tim Polasek said on a few occasions he vowed to get Lance bigger and stronger for next season — and beyond. It’s already happened. Lance said he set personal records in all of his measured workouts, whether it’s a cone running drill or a weight lifting exercise.

“One thing I’ve done through my whole college career, I’ve trusted the process, I believe in the coaching staff and the strength coaches,” he said.

Said Polasek: “We’re excited how motivated he is.”

David Samson / The Forum

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough” and “Covid Kids.” He is the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.