According to Dom Izzo, the sports director at WDAY Sports in Fargo, North Dakota the Bison are among a handful of programs that are planning to use cloth face masks inside their helmets this fall.
NDSU head coach Matt Entz believes they're one of the first schools in the country that has purchased the products from Performance Award Center out of Carrolton, Texas.
The cloth masks attach directly to the facemask of the helmet, and are a unique alternative to the full-face plastic visor / Splash Shield approach that popular visor companies like Schutt and Oakley had debuted in recent weeks. Quarterbacks are presented with another option because of their need to communicate constantly.
The cloth mask approach appears to be a popular choice in the COVID age, as a total of eight other programs in the Ohio Valley Conference have purchased these as well. Oklahoma has also purchased similar masks, according to Izzo.
"If we want to play a football, this is what we have to do," Entz told WDAY. "Our players are wearing masks in the weight room, everywhere they go. This is what we need to do."
See a full picture of the masks below.