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The Al


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Despite what a lot of bison fans will try telling you, there is no minimum seating or attendance requirement for division 1-AA.  Hence the AA part.  

I'm to lazy to do the research but i'm sure there are quite a few AA stadiums with less seating than the Al.

You are absolutely correct. Maine, for example, has a football stadium capacity of 10,000. I suspect that there are many I-AA facilities that have even lower capacities than that.

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What do some D-IAA football stadiums have for seating capacity?

http://www.eteamz.com/I-AAfootball/locations/

It looks to me like Alerus Center is comparably sized to a lot of those stadiums. It's not in the top half for size in that list, but it's not in a major population center like Harvard or Penn either.

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Allright, here's a few avg. attendance facts:

UND trailed NDSU by about 1,600 last year.(10,517 vs. 12,115)

and that was without the 20,000+ sellout Nickel Game, a cancelled game vs. Maine that already had 17,000+ tickets sold, and a lackluster turnout for the last game.

In 1998 the margin was about 4,000 and the difference was even greater in the mid-90's.

Maine was ranked 89th in D1AA football avg. attendance last year with 4,068.

Fort Hays was ranked 89th in D2 football avg. attendance last year with 2,455.

Jackson St. led D1AA with an avg. attendance of 29,067.

Tuskegee led D2 with an avg. attendance of 12,957.

NCAA Football Attendance Stats

Yes, there are absolutely no minimum attendance requirements for D1AA football. There are for D1A(20,000?), but many of the big boys have 100,000+ seat stadiums that are full.

A new BB floor for UND could be to keep the momentum going in UND's newfound men's BB success.

I think JBB was just saying that at maximum capacity(i.e. best case scenario), UND's attendance numbers would barely be in the top 20, but NDSU would be in the top 5 for D1AA.

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NDSU was #2 in D-II attendance last year. UND was #3. (Well, you beat us at something football last year at least. ;) )

There is a huge drop in that D-II list from 5 to 6 (from over 10300 to around 7800).

Last year at least, UND looked like one of five D-II FB attendance "haves." (Those stats show 1998 on and UND isn't below #8 in any season.)

By the way, where does NDSU's "desired" I-AA travel partner (SDSU) show up on that 2001 list? #14, about 6700. ;)

One more quick note: UND's 2000 average (8500) would have been top third in I-AA last season. The 10000+ 2001 average would have been top quarter in I-AA in 2001.

And since butts in seats appears to be an issue, do you know who was second only to Wisconsin in D-I hockey attendance last season? ;)

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Allright, here's a few avg. attendance facts:

UND trailed NDSU by about 1,600 last year.(10,517 vs. 12,115)

and that was without the 20,000+ sellout Nickel Game, a cancelled game vs. Maine that already had 17,000+ tickets sold, and a lackluster turnout for the last game.

Speaking of that lackluster turnout, I would think that the crowd for the Omaha game last year in Fargo might be a source of concern in the athletic department at ndsu. It was the best home game the bison had, but since the playoffs were a virtual impossibility at that point, a lot of people stayed away. Of course, that is just as likely to happen here late in the season if the Sioux are out of the playoff hunt, but Fargo apparently has at least its share of fair weather fans. That's probably why attendance for basketball hasn't been too good lately in Fargo.

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I believe there also was something else going on the weekend of the NDSU/UNO game. Deer opener or something. I remember attendance was expected to be lower because of this other "event". There was over 13,000 for the SDSU game, and NDSU already had 2 losses-virtually eliminated from the playoffs.

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Could have a lot of NDSU fans seen the other conflict and decided to go to SDSU instead of UNO knowing opportunities were running out?

Reverse the attendance numbers for those two games and the numbers look more normal for each.

And no, Evil Goldie finished behind last year's #2 in D-I hockey attendance. You need a hint: The team has seven D-I hockey titles. ;)

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Umm, Michigan? ;)

No, they have 9 D1 hockey titles. ;)

I know it's UND.

Question for Sioux fans, especially residents of Grand Forks- Why is the comparison of a D1AA NDSU to a D1A U of M being made? I know the gophers are in financial trouble, but they also have hockey and a D1A football program with much greater expenses. It sounds like telling someone not to buy a new car because a new Ferrari costs $500,000.

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Question for Sioux fans, especially residents of Grand Forks- Why is the comparison of a D1AA NDSU to a D1A U of M being made? I know the gophers are in financial trouble, but they also have hockey and a D1A football program with  much greater expenses. It sounds like telling someone not to buy a new car because a new Ferrari costs $500,000.

I think they're talking about Minnesota because hockey and football at U of M are two of the only profitable sports (I think there might be one other?) Since football is the only sport with 1AA, any D-I school has the same obligations in other sports. If Minnesota's massively popular football and hockey programs can't support all the non-revenue programs, that may be a hint to the difficulties involved. (Minnesota, of course, has a theoretical capacity of like 60,000 at it's football games -- it's no Michigan, but it's no UND or NDSU either).

If Minnesota football (the only program classified differently from NDSU's potential affiliation) were non-profitable, you'd have a point that their expenses are higher being I-A instead of I-AA. I think the cold hard reality of modern college sports at the D-I level is that non-revenue sports are under immense pressure at all but the most successful schools. That's a vast difference from D-II where costs are much lower and UND and NDSU are among the highest revenue/most successful programs.

They're clearly not perfect comparisons because every school has its own revenue and cost structures, but U of M and U of Montana are interesting looks at some other D-I and D-IAA programs.

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Actually, FB was the least profitable of the three as well. There are still rumors swirling around MSP of program cuts next year, unless the alums step up and effectively "endow" certain programs and take them off the school's budget. As well, all teams' travel budgets are being reviewed, again. "Hello, Motel 6!" ;)

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Actually, FB was the least profitable of the three as well.   There are still rumors swirling around MSP of program cuts next year, unless the alums step up and effectively "endow" certain programs and take them off the school's budget.  As well, all teams' travel budgets are being reviewed, again.  "Hello, Motel 6!"  ;)

Noone has told me how Minnesota can bid the regionals (hockey), yet never have the budget to travel. What is wrong with this picture?

Back to football.

I checked the teams that Maine F-ball play this year I don't think I would brag if I were a Maine fan. UND and NDSU would beat up those cream puffs. ;)

Bisonguy, You would have us call the arena's, Grand Forks Dome and the Sioux Sports Arena? ;)

I like the Al &Ralph much better than Mary's-Oochie where the Rodents play. ;)

Or how about Montana. The Jungle?Are they not named after a Grizzly Bear?I would think The Wilderness. ;)

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Division 1-AA was formed in the late 70's as an alternative to high cost programs such as Minnesota and their kind. Teams that still wanted to compete at the Division I level, but without the fluff. It's a good philosophy.

And, University of Minnesota football, which does fund a lot of the other sports there, is nowhere near self-sufficiency.

NI

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