AJS

They did send out emails, seemed to be fairly active on social media as well leading up to it. Better than previous years. Getting individuals / companies to match seems to be a good idea, maybe next year? My big idea would be, watch what NDSU does and copy it. Even if they copy it and do it worse, would still be better than whatever they are doing now. Until UND gets actual leaders, back to trying to poke holes in NDSU's accomplishments. Maybe it's not as impressive as it looks?

Impressive regardless and I do believe the individual donors number. My question, which I guess will be answered next year is regarding the ‘’Matches”, when they hit individual donors. For example 701 individuals donate, unlocks $5 million. Big $. $2.5 million when they had 600 individuals. Big $. $10 million in matches. Was that # completely separate from $ they raised originally back in late 2025/ early 2026? Or was most of the matches money they secured to make the move originally?

https://give.ndsufoundation.com/701-day

I have this personal tier system for recruits based on competing offers among other things. 5 Tiers. Just one person's opinion! Felton is a Tier 1 guy; Jaxon Wilson would be as well. From current commits I would also have Gutzmer and Stecker. I do think based on his brother being committed as well as him taking an official visit that he'll be one of the commits. Would be a big deal to double the Tier 1 commits in one weekend.

All privately money raised? Curious as well, @nodak651 what was your takeaway. They continue to only target athletic facilities?

UND was up 3.87% Spring of 2026 while NDSU was down 1.40%. UND was up 5.49% in Fall of 2025. My hot take is if there's actually concern from NDSU about enrollment, I'd rather have it not be in the papers. Here's to another Fall of them hovering around 12k while blaming MSU-Moorhead for giving free school and discounting any UND growth by saying it's all online*. NDSU does have this innate ability to bounce back, so I wouldn't be surprised to see an uptick this Fall (hoping I'm wrong). * I've been talking about this for years. Hoping to see an article about a new dorm being needed in upcoming years because of demand.

There we go!

Last one from me for the day. The only positional group I feel the panic alarms have been sounded has been O-Line. I know they don't have an RB commit for example, but their original offers are all still uncommitted. Just went through the current offers. Budde would be the last of the "original" O-Line offers and would be huge. Hoping they are all-in for him. Reiersgaard who was just offered would be a solid #2 guy in the class. We'll see. Hope they can finish strong!

Regarding Seil. I'm not sure NDSU is exactly throwing a parade for winning a recruiting battle with UND for an in-state kid whose first D1 offer was mid-June. Was this their Tabbert (Top 10 WI recruit who recently flipped to Wisconsin) replacement? Side note. I do appreciate how nobody anymore is pointing out individuals who were studs in college that were walk-ons or one offer guys out of high school. We've seen over the past decade how the XDSU's "average" recruit is and let's use that as the standard. The more recruits with more competitive offers the better.

True. Also, true that NDSU now has more scholarships, which does matter. Let's bring SDSU back into this conversation, because they are still going toe to toe with NDSU with the same number of scholarships that UND has and you don't have to go back too far to when NDSU was also at 63 and had no problem out recruiting a lot of the G6. There are a lot of people that follow this closely as well, I would argue that both of the XDSU's also have more 10+ offer guys, 5+ offer guys. The guys that have 1 or 2 other FCS offers they do have but call it the average recruit ranking is definitely higher than UND. Goes without saying, any Schmidt class will be head and shoulders better than the best Bubba had to offer. Also thought last year's class was getting competitive with the XDSU's. NDSU just closes so well (for example). They'll have 6 spots left and fill it with 6 of the top players in the class. Let's talk 2027 class. I brought up my concerns with the O-Line for weeks. They needed to get the OV's started sooner and in a week essentially all of the original targets were off the board. SDSU and Western Michigan owned UND. You know you're in trouble when the original offers (all have highly competitive offers from other school) are off the board and they are replaced with UND only or a Pioneer, NSIC level competing offers. Prior to last Friday, you had an uptick in 1 v 1 commits. The 2027 class started hot and I would say outperforming 2026, but it's getting watered down. You need to stack classes and stack positional groups. Let's see how they close. We could very well be having a different conversation in a couple of weeks. There are still 10+ high-end guys that have offers. Start to string a few of those together and things will start to trend in the right direction.

My thoughts exactly. Call it like you see it.

Watching the 2027 O-Line offers go 0-fer has been painful.

Saw a UND fan account mention it, but is that commit Carson Wilson's brother? Same town. But yes, would be a massive get.

UND trying to do anything during the Bill Chavez era.

Doesn’t feel like. I don’t think the infraction or penalty are really anything. What it will be is an exhausting issue to hear forever from other fan bases. Scarlet letter. Maybe someday UND won’t be the butt of the joke (non-hockey). Feel that day won’t come until there’s leadership in the AD office.

Really bad weekend for O-Line prospects as they are flying off the board after starting OV's last weekend. Schmidt, Diehl, Moranski, Blohm.

701 Day I received an email yesterday from the UND Alumni Association and today from the Champions Club promoting the 701 award. Included is a video, information, ect. This has been a point of frustration for me in the past that they've rectified! Push is for July 1st. Love to see it.

Bennett Stecker? Got the random 360 post, definite jump in following / followers. Would be a hell of a get.

Clearly, they wouldn't. Where I do think it can have an effect is it does two things. Helps build the hype among the fanbase / donors at the same time causing additional stress on the administration to get something done. Those three were relentless.

Disagree completely with your McFeely take. He knows exactly what he’s doing and it’s what @FSSD is talking about. We just witnessed it for the last 5 years with although calling it a “moon shot”, his non-stop FBS talk. Add this to the list of things I’m incredibly jealous of NDSU for. Reporters that go to work for the best interests of the University. It matters.

This is an example of something I would worry about for UND. Another example. They are going to leave the Summit with zero notice once they can fund other sports at MW level. The more pain they can cause to other schools the better. Again, NDSU plays to win. This can come in different ways, but what I'm really looking for is an example moving forward where UND has a pulse. Ambition. An example for athletics I've used is being the first FCS team to add scholarships above 63. Academic / Enrollment - things are going well, but they can change quickly. I really hope UND is looking into how NDSU matching the State of Minnesota's North Star program has worked out. Clearly, NDSU is still treading water, but how many students are choosing NDSU > UND simply because of that? Could UND really cause some pain if they also followed and matched the North Star program? UND has this incredible advantage with its Aviation program. 66% of its students are from ND / MN while 90% of NDSUs are. They could really cripple NDSU if they played to win in MN (things are fairly even in ND).

Parlay FB success into increased notoriety for the school, increased exposure meaning increased donations. Move all-sports to MW. Have your athletic department become a real player on the national scene (see Boise State). Move to the Pac 12. I believe their goal is to be a mid-major power. If they really catch lightning in a bottle, the academic side (enrollment, donations) will follow.

I’m looking at this through a lens of overall University health (both athletics & academics) and to me what it indicates moving forward. The schools you mentioned aren’t in direct competition with UND in every aspect. NDSU seems to be the school that realizes they are in a competition and they want to win. Going back to changing the funding model which is going to hurt UND. We know what NDSU wants to be, which if successful will hurt UND. If the past repeats itself, there will be no pushback from UND.