Long ago, Vince Lombardi said, “Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.”

Lombardi won five total NFL championships in seven years. The NFL’S Super Bowl trophy is named after him, so it is safe to say he knows a little bit about football.

Like Lombardi, North Dakota State has been pretty successful on the football field: four straight Football Championship Subdivision National Championships, a 21-1 record all-time in the FCS playoffs, including 16-0 at home.

Oh and don’t forget the records since 2011: 70-5 overall and 32-3 inside the Fargodome.

With the dismantling of the University of Richmond Spiders on Friday, the Bison will have a chance at winning a fifth straight title on Jan. 9 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas against Jacksonville State.

A fifth trip to Frisco in as many years. This is just video game-like.

NDSU is this good because, like Lombardi said, “confidence is contagious.” And it’s a dominant trait.

NDSU has an opportunity to win five straight championships with three different quarterbacks.

When Brock Jensen graduated, the NDSU coaching staff confidently handed the playbook over to Carson Wentz.

Turned out to a pretty good decision by head coach Chris Klieman and his crew, huh?

But then Wentz went down with an injury against the University of South Dakota earlier this season, and again, Klieman and his crew had the confidence to give a redshirt freshman the nod.

And now, Easton Stick has an 8-0 record under his belt and has led the Bison back to Frisco.

But it wasn’t just the NDSU coaching staff that had confidence in the young man from Creighton, Nebraska; the Bison offensive line had the confidence in him as well.

Joe Haeg, Zack Johnson, Austin Kuhnert, Jeremy Kelly and Landon Lechler are the men protecting the quarterback who has thrown 13 touchdowns and three interceptions in the last eight games.

Earlier this season, sports experts were worried about NDSU’s defense because there were only four returning starters from last season’s championship team.

But the confidence that the young defensive guys such as Brad Ambrosius, Nate Tanguay, Robbie Grimsley and Tre Dempsey have kept this Bison defense just as dangerous as the previous years.

Confidence is key, and NDSU has loads of it going into its fifth straight title game.

This isn’t a dynasty; it’s a damn empire.

Lombardi also said that lack of confidence can also be contagious, but hopefully with a win or loss at Toyota Stadium, NDSU won’t lose its confident sting.