Is it really though?
Population determinations are pretty accurate these days and they don't generally use mail to determine it. It's electronic these days. And likely use cell tower data usage to help determine these numbers.
They use the same population protocol for everywhere so if they see a trend downwards, it's likely to be accurate.
The poop count in Williston is down.
https://www.willistonherald.com/news/census-shows-small-population-drop-from-to-in-williston/article_6f51fd68-10f8-11e7-91ea-7ff9e2319986.html
We are entering year 5 of the predicted 15.
Just 10 more years.
Going to need Williston to quite losing people though like they have been the last couple of years if it's still going to pass Fargo.
Watford City could become the size of Minot in 15 years by having a total population of 40,000.
But if that happens Minot will probably be at 90,000+ in 15 years, as Minot was adding more people every year than Watford City during the boom.
Good teams get first downs on 3 plays. Thus don't need to go for it as much as UND (SDSU only had to go for it 6 times on the year).
Half those 4th downs are when UND has no choice but to go for it down 8 with 2 minutes left.
Highly flying EWU is 8 of 21 on the year.
Full time on campus students from the United States is what 7 to 8,000?
I dont see the large foreign population of flight students voting as their education is usually already paid for by the airlines.
Please. The schedule isn't that tough.
No FBS games. Just NDSU.
Play Drake.
Sam Houston at home who UND already beat this year.
EWU didn't make the playoffs last year. Who knows how good they'll be.
Every other team has its ups and down. It's the Big Sky not the Pac 12.
The possibility of "pinning" NAU within the 20 is probably the same as getting the first down on that 4th. Therefore you have to assume you just told NAU "here's the ball 30 yards back from where we just had it."
Assume the D forced a 3 and out and punts, 40-45 yards down the field. And the offense needs to go even further to score a touchdown in a game which everyone admits knows the offense had trouble moving the ball....or in layman's terms hoping to get back to where they were...and likely facing a 4th and short again just with less time on the clock. The statisticians will have told you going for the original fourth down would have lead to a greater chance of winning the football game.
Edit: Not to mention they were down 8 points at that point ( "1.5 scores"). Which increases the desire to need to go for it on fourth down at this point in the game (7 minutes left).
Good thing Bubba didn't play any d2 or less opponents this year or last.
hence the Big Sky comparisons...Bubba just got to coach again after going 3-8 while Muss did not.