NDSU is the recipient of the inaugural National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Award of Excellence.

Selection for the award was based on progress and growth of the campus Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, community service and outreach, sportsmanship initiatives, teamwork, originality and leadership.

NDSU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee quickly stepped in to mobilize their teams in an effort to fight the flooding Red River in March. Over a five-day span, student-athletes, cheerleaders and athletic training students spent more than 7,200 hours sandbagging in and around the Fargo-Moorhead area.

"The leadership shown by the North Dakota State University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is a true testament to the very idea of community service," the selection committee said in a statement. "Both collectively and individually, all of the student-athletes – whether they were in-state or out-of-state – articulated the need to give back to their community."

The NCAA Division I National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is a committee of student-athletes from each of the 31 multi-sport conferences. Committee members serve two-year terms as student-athlete liaisons between the happenings on campus, conference and national levels.