The Sicatoka

Not to repeat myself, but what about the other 15 sports?

Michigan took him to a BB game to show him 11,000 fans cheering for the home team. North Dakota can show him that at a hockey game. I hope he can see that difference.

The grass is always greener ....

Serious answer: Set performance criteria for all participants. You must have one of the top four (next year six) SSIs, by a well-defined formula, in your region. Everyone knows what it takes going in. I credit DIAA for giving auto-bids; however, sometimes autobids go to teams that may, on the surface, appear undeserving (not to single this case out but Montana State at 7-5), or to conferences that are perenially weak, and that can cause controversy. DIAAs eight at-large bids appear to be just that, at-large. With no defined measure of performance the system is open to political manipulations. Should "the cut" be based on the objective or subjective? Is there a perfect system? No. The best I've seen (again, not perfect) is a hybrid of the two. (The Bison fans won't like this.) It is the one used by the NCAA to seed the DI mens hockey tournament: The six conferences each get one autobid. Then, the top 10 teams per the Pairwise Rankings without an autobid are also taken. Those teams are then seeded per a set criteria.

Just as much as I want to find Dru, I want the ------- that is responsible.

I'll bite. So who is responsible?

Any time a Sioux player wants to win it is fine with me, but from this unexpected source? Well, now I think I've seen it all (not that I'm complaining).

I'd say Jerome Beasley for starters.

One opinion: With a present day referee, the 1987 team would win in a walkaway. The 1982 team would always have a man in the penalty box. (We daren't have contact in college hockey any more. ) However, if the game were played with Medo Martinello officiating, The Hrkac Circus line would have been worn down and the 1982 team would win on a late goal. I'd say they'd play a seven-game series to six or seven games with 1987 coming out on top. At this point I almost feel obliged to say, "Ditka, in a school bus. Da Bears!"

In one system you get hosed by a formula. In another system you get hosed by 'politics.' At least with a formula you can see clearly why you got hosed and can work to come out of the equation better next time. PS - Some really smart guy pointed these problems out already.

... for football. What about the other 15 sports?

The INCH "one-liner" this week regarding UND holding the #1 ranking is pretty good: Can the Fighting Sioux's scoring line be stopped? You know the one: Prpich, Genoway and Stafford.

I've had one person question my Sioux leather jacket. They got pretty quiet when I showed them where, in the logo's feathers, American Indian and UND alumnus Ben Brien autographed the work.

Winona put up a valiant fight in 2001. That group of freshmen and sophomores are now juniors and seniors. There is nothing to "look beyond" to. Win this week; there's nothing else. One by one.

Let's see .... UND's men have lost to an NSIC and an NAIA already. NDSU's women got beat twice already, by NSIC teams no less (UM-Duluth, C-SP). NDSU's men got dinged twice by Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech. How low can it go?

I'm sure that someone here can confirm that those are to be officially known as: "Ciccarellis!"

Dit-ka, driving a school bus.

Must .... resist .... temptation .... to mention .... last .... we-e-e-e-ekend. The trap; right-wing lock; weak-wing high; one-man forecheck; whatever you want to call it, recent history shows that focusing on defense first and counter-punching the other team's turnovers and other mistakes can win games. PS - I read the title of this thread and "man bites dog" flashed in my head for some reason.

"In college football sacks count against a quarterbacks rushing totals, ... " and attempts. Stauss doesn't run the ball and yet had more "rush attempts" than Bowenkamp. I'll buy that, but it also means that Stauss was sacked more times (obviously for loss). Let's see, he doesn't run and is sack-prone. I can see them pinning their ears back now.

One more thought: If you don't like DII's formula method of tournament selection, here are the DIAA criteria for non-automatic qualifiers:

'bisonfan1234' is incorrect when claiming: From the DII Handbook (right after that table): Now if you go to the reference made, in the appendices, you see that Northern Colorado and UC-Davis are not DIAA tournament eligible (via qualified conference or qualified at-large, key work: qualified, meaning DIAA tourney eligible) and thus to a DII are only worth 4 points if you beat them or 1 point if you lose to them. NDSU will enter the same category next season.

(From the link) The strength-of-schedule index is calculated as follows: Win versus a Division II opponent with a record greater than or equal to .700 on the road

A Sioux fan on this board will probably get more latitude than say a Bison/Gopher/Huskie/etc. fan. In that same vein, a Bison/Gopher/Huskie/etc. fan probably won't be given quite as much latitude here. When I used to have the time to "play" with tony (and The Yellow) over at Bisonville I knew I was a guest in "their house." I'd speak, but I also knew I was a "guest" in "their house" and should act with some level of respect to my "hosts." That's good advice to everyone. PS - That "The Yellow" jab is a good example. That'll probably slide here but would raise some ire in Bisonville.