Will North Dakota State’s Trey Lance stay, transfer or declare for 2021 NFL Draft?

Will North Dakota State football’s Trey Lance transfer or decide to go pro?

North Dakota State football’s superstar quarterback Trey Lance has a huge decision to make.

The redshirt sophomore quarterback took home the Walter Payton Award (Best player) and the Jerry Rice Award (Best freshman) last season for the Bison. North Dakota State won yet another national championship as an FCS superpower. Even though everybody was hoping they’d play this season, North Dakota State University decided it will not play this fall semester on the gridiron.

Lance quote tweeted North Dakota State University’s official tweet on Friday with, “We did everything we could and handled everything the right way. It’s not fair, but we are unbelievably thankful for our coaches, staff, and administration for putting us in a position to have a chance to safely play this fall.”

Now, all we’re thinking about is if Lance stays, transfers or decides to go pro.

Should NDSU’s Trey Lance stay, transfer or enter the 2021 NFL Draft?

Staying may be prudent and ethically a good thing to do, but it feels like Lance only played one perfect season for the Bison. He didn’t throw an interception in his one year as the team’s starting quarterback. It doesn’t matter what level of football you play at, that is an unbelievably impressive stat any signal-caller would love to have on their resume. We can assume Lance is done in Fargo.

As for if Lance should transfer or get ready for the upcoming 2021 NFL Draft, now that’s a much more interesting conversation. Lance projects as the No. 3 quarterback off the board in next spring’s draft behind only Trevor Lawrence of the Clemson Tigers and Justin Fields of the Ohio State Buckeyes. At this juncture, he’s sure to go in the top half of the first round of the draft.

However, Lance is in an interesting and comparable predicament of Fields in that their talent is simply undeniable, but they only have one season’s worth of college starts under their belt. Lawrence played a good bit as a true freshman at Clemson, while Fields backed up Jake Fromm with the Georgia Bulldogs and Lance was redshirted by Chris Klieman at North Dakota State.

And this is where things get incredibly fascinating. Klieman didn’t coach Lance last year at North Dakota State but was obviously a big part of his recruitment out of Marshall, Minnesota. Klieman is entering his second year replacing a living legend in Bill Snyder as the head coach of the Kansas State Wildcats. Guess who is still planning to play college football this fall? K-State and the Big 12.

If Lance were to leave North Dakota State and transfer to Kansas State, the Wildcats become an immediate contender to win the Big 12 overnight. Kansas State has had several excellent quarterbacks over the last 30 years including Michael Bishop, Josh Freeman and Collin Klein. When things go right, Kansas State can play in, win major bowl games and contend for national titles.

By transferring to Kansas State, Lance would compete on a big stage in front of a huge audience. Keep in mind the Big 12 is the only Power 5 conference FOX has left to broadcast games this year. Look for anyone associated with FOX College Football to praise Lance like he plays quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners or the Texas Longhorns. He’d make Kansas State football a must-watch.

Lance may want to train and get ready for the NFL Draft. However, playing one year at a Power 5 school like Kansas State will do wonders for his draft stock. Cam Newton wouldn’t have gone No. 1 overall if he didn’t have that one season with the 2010 Auburn Tigers. Nobody would know who Gardner Minshew was if he didn’t have that one year with the 2018 Washington State Cougars.

If Lance can transfer and play in the ACC, Big 12, SEC or even AAC, he should consider it this fall.

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