AJS

Posted in February. --- Forming a new Division for Conference USA seems like the move. For FB you play your division (8 games) and have a title game with the winner of each division. Even for Olympic sports, is travel that much more of a concern? Home and Home in your division, then one game against the other division. This is a win for everyone. Division Idaho Idaho State or Weber State Montana Montana State UND USD SDSU St. Thomas Missouri State Division Delaware FIU Jacksonville State Kennesaw State Liberty Middle Tennessee State NM State Sam Houston Western Kentucky

I can repost my dream conference realignment scenario if anyone would like, but it was instead of just the top of the summit / MVFC becomes the North division of CUSA, it was the Top of the MVFC / Summit + top of Big Sky comes the North division of CUSA.

@The Sicatoka should we move this topic to the Conference Realignment thread?

I don't think he was saying there's no way to increase revenue, but instead where is $25 million annually going to come from? Which seems like a fair question, but on the flip side, there's no doubt they'll figure it out (much like most others are able to do).

@Undertherock good post, I don't disagree with any of it. FBS is just part of the equation for schools like NDSU, SDSU, UND, USD. The Summit League and its instability might be the bigger part. These two things could (likely?) to happen in the next few years. St. Thomas leaves for the Valley, NDSU takes all-sports to the MWC. When discussing $ and NDSU, we have to realize they don't operate like any other school in the country. For example, you'd think having decreased enrollment would put a strain on their budget. Think again. For this discussion, NDSU will never have to worry about $. With those two moves, the Summit is officially a bust. The teams that they are looking to backfill will bring zero value to any of the remaining Dakota schools (ex: Lindenwood). Adding flights to all sports with no appeal at all. Dakota schools are all officially in scramble mode. Which I think will look a bit like, write a $20 million dollar check (SDSU) and you're in the MWC. Where your school is in ok shape is, you'll have that option. If you can't, maybe UND will get a chance. The problem is sooner than later; it's either figure it out and spend (move up) or stay in the status quo which will be the FCS looking more and more like D2. What we've seen over the past 5 years and realignment, logic doesn't have a place in it. Either look to improve your situation or you'll look around in a few years and be in a much, much worse situation.

Let's pretend that this St. Thomas news has some truth around. Let's also pretend that NDSU will leave the minute they can, while also giving little to no warning. To me the issue isn't finding teams to replace, since you'll always be able to. The issue is those teams will bring nothing to the table as far as value (imo). Like a Lindenwood. It's becoming incredibly clear, that the status quo for a school like UND will ultimately mean leveling down the athletics department.

Never believed a sentence more. I've ranted on this before, so will keep it brief. There's a lot of similarities between the D2 decision and the early 2000s and what's happening now. UND is a few peer institutions (most importantly SDSU, but also Montana's) from leaving away from being in the same place they were 20-some years ago. Maybe in a worse spot since the Summit League is so unstable (St. Thomas is on their way out, NDSU will take all-sports, same with SDSU in the scenario they leave). So yes, give me a poorly attended bowl game over an FCS playoff with no one left. I'm not saying FBS or bust, but I am saying, they need to be proactive in this. Plan accordingly. They cannot get left behind, again.

McFeely writing an article yesterday begging people to buy tickets caught me off guard. Thanks for posting, that’s a tough watch. Kolpack was close to tears.

Based on recruiting hype, I'm really interested in Michael Wagner - RFR - 6-6 (286), Aiden Wunderlich - FR - 6-7 (303), Ethan Beckman - FR - 6-5 (300). Young, yes, which is why it's nice that there's a buffer, but wonder if those 3 are in the 2-deep. Beckman a bit of a different story with the hype since he was an Iowa State decommit, but Wagner / Wunderlich have been the top 2 o-line recruits (competing offers) of the D1 era.

He doesn’t follow any teams

They have been called out before for just using schools that player follows on IG. That was their list. In Thompsons case, where they don’t have that info, pick a handful that would make sense logically.

If we see improvement on both lines over last year, depth included, I think we see 10 wins. Good class to start the new 5 in 5 rule.

Is there a school that's a bigger pain in the ass these days than Michigan State when it comes to opponent recruiting? They seem to cast an incredibly wide net. In the mix on any top kid. I mention this, because up until recently, the IG story would have told me that UND was the favorite for Carter Morris. undhockeyrecruit followed him, UND was the only school that he followed up until recently. The recently, of course, Michigan State.

Always a bit difficult to try to navigate the spin each school does when it comes to enrollment. My high-level overview of UND has been, prior to the 2024 FR class, the numbers for UND were rough. If the FR classes continue to increase, it'll still be at the earliest 2027, but more likely 2028 until you see the true transformation of UND's numbers. Back to the spin, the headcount number includes high school students enrolled in dual-credit coursework. Wouldn't read too much into those. Few quotes I found interesting. Highest %, but what about actual number? Did they also have the highest number of FR full-time students? Which will be the case for this Fall as well, regardless of FR classes, since UND's Senior class will be proportionately small compared to the other classes from NDSU / UND.

I haven't watched any of the coverage, but since NDSU announced, Zimmer and John Gaskins seemed to have taken a page out of the Fargo media book. Let's talk FBS into existence.

I've been incredibly critical of UND's leadership, but Chavez has done some really important things the past few years. To start, no, you have to continue to fund hockey at a high level. There's nuance to this. One of the things that was done last year is UND's Football budget increased while UND's hockey budget decreased. Entering the 2026 sports Calander year, both of those programs are on the rise (or in hockey's case, back as a premier program). Key is to continue to increase Football's budget. Cutting both M / W Tennis was another very smart move by the department. In this era of D1 sports, you should not have more than the minimum (still +1 for FCS level). Opening up funds to be distributed to other programs. Feels like Football is now getting properly placed with funding or moving in the right direction (along with facilities). Up until essentially last year, it's always felt like Hockey, then everything else. Now it's, hockey + football and everything else. Everyone will have different opinions. I would like to see for example the M-Tennis budget getting funneled into Football while W-Tennis getting funneled into W-Basketball. Keep hockey steady, keep increasing Football with minor improvements to M-W BBall.

Anything regarding costs pre-NIL / Revenue sharing era is moot. Completely different world.

This is where you, me, our friend @SIOUXFAN97 all agree. Unfortunately, the only people that might not be aware how bad of a position they are in on the pecking order is the UND "leadership", the word leadership intentionally in quotes.

UNLV / Air Force are gone whenever the MW uses up their reserve. Here's where I'm stuck a bit about future members. NDSU (& Sac State) have set this precedent about paying a large $ amount to join an FBS conference. Using the MW for example, if their last remaining "premier" teams leave and they have to backfill, wouldn't paying that new entry fee become a necessity? Their TV deal will either stay the same or decrease moving forward. These schools need additional revenue from somewhere. Good news becomes, if you can pay, you're in.

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.