FARGO, N.D. (KXNET) — The 2023 homecoming court royalty winners at NDSU were announced last week. But the result caused a lot of controversy in Bison country.

Two young men, Zachary Quirk and Connor Dilse, were announced the winners. Out of 12 people on stage, seven of them were women and five were men. And when Zachary and Connor received their crowns, they saw a lot of strong comments and opinions online. So much so, that the university began deleting the comment, and ultimately turning off the comment section overall.

KX News reached out to the university, who provided us with the following statement from Mackenzie Mueller, Student President of Campus Attractions, who talked about the whole process, specifically phase two with the voting.

“The process for homecoming court is done in two phases. The first part is nominations and an interview process open to the whole student body. After interviews, the 12 court members are chosen by a panel of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The second phase is out of the 12-member pool, the whole student body votes during homecoming week. From there, the top two vote recipients are crowned homecoming royalty. This process was implemented starting in 2021, and that year two male winners were crowned. Students are really excited for our two winners as they represent our overall bison pride and are involved with a number of clubs and organizations on campus. The student body is excited to have Conner Dilse and Zachary Quirk as our 2023 homecoming royalty.”