AJS

So many unknowns are this point. I believe we’ll find out the ruling on Wiltshire & Scott. Status of Erkman & Kamara. All playing? None of them playing? Any update on Jy Martin?

Not sure, but he missed the St. Thomas game. Dressed and played a handful of plays in second half against PSU, per Miller’s article below. UND corner Ben Kamara also played a bit through a nagging injury against the Vikings. "I shouldn't have put him in late," Schmidt said. "The best thing would've been to keep him on the sideline."

Good news. • Offense was really good, again. In some ways as importantly, the second unit. It was clean, run game was dominant. JTJ looked like he could run an offense. • Piggy back off the improvement of 2nd team Offense, RB room looks really good. Also, kind of a question mark after LIU game which is no longer. • Kludt was really good. Another immediate question that seems to be working out. I have no worries w/ Noland & Kludt starting. Bad news. • The lowlight of the game - run defense. Haven’t seen that during this Schmidt era. That was Bubba teams bad. We’ll call a mulligan and move on. • Injuries - Defensive depth. Kamara injury feels Walker(ish). Erkman seems like it’ll be touch and go all year. Feels like we could be one court away from being in big time trouble (Jonnie / Scott / Martin?). Other. • Kicking. Felt like we were at rock bottom. So going 1 for 1 in FG’s is encouraging

@SIOUXFAN97 I would say this is like watching the last few years of the Bubba / Berry eras. We all remember, more people than you’d think were saying they were doing good jobs. Prediction: Next Fall we’ll see a decline as the SR and FR classes will be similar in size, no longer covering up the issues that came to light this fall. Bubba 2.0.

The freshman classes prior to 2024 were small (2023 was just over 1,800). Then the on-campus revival with the 2024, 25 and although they declined from 25, 26. Common sense would tell you that if you’re bringing in much larger FR classes than graduating, you should see decent increases in total enrollment. Which was the case. First day totals are essentially even, which tells us something is broken (awful retention most likely). Not good, which by the silence from the University they also agree. Whatever broke, let’s hope they are working to fix it.

https://www.inforum.com/news/fargo/ndsus-new-president-to-lobby-for-expanded-tuition-reciprocity-to-boost-enrollment Nice to see someone with some initiative.

Even with a 2,200 FR class, that would still be replacing incredibly small SR classes (anything class prior to FR in 2024). Only up 25 year over year? What a disaster. We’ll remember Fall 2025 fondly. Fun few years to follow.

I would argue, depends on who you're playing Saturday. There's clearly a reason every "like" institution feels like they have a plan to get out. Does UND? Maybe. Other schools are publicly saying it. One thing I'm extremely confident in, is if other key schools leave, nobody is going to like what's left when they look around. We're not even talking about when the Summit League implodes. But hey, let's all point and laugh at the amount of money they are paying because they can't get out of this situation fast enough. I do believe rivalries matter, regionality matters, playing peer institutions matter. UND has more in common with FBS / schools looking to move up than the leftovers.

As they are constructed now, I would agree. The issue is, you continue to lose the top of the FCS, it won't be long until UND will be looking around and not liking what it sees. Competition will be gone. Losing SDSU and adding Lindenwood will really excite the fanbase. I've grown to accept it, it's just disappointing how little foresight so many have. I'm including the leadership group in this one. Think small, be small, the UND motto.

Can someone wake up Andy & Chavez and give them a courtesy heads up. Hate for them to always be the last to know. Let’s start workshopping some new rivalry games once UND is left behind. MSU-Moorhead could be a fun one. UNDs leaders with other Dakota & Montanas

Would be quite the zag if the numbers that have been in recent articles (putting FR class around 2,200) was actually the on-campus or full-time FR total or something along those lines.

Depends on the % - if it’s down 15% (300 students) then that’s really bad. Which unless that previous article was misleading appears to be the case. If it’s just a few %, then correct, no big deal

Both schools have a key metric (guess is UND FR class size / NDSU total enrollment) that they won’t be able to spin. Won’t release anything until they have to. Since the numbers historically increase from first day to census day both are hoping those metrics will at very lease look a bit better than they do now.

To be fair, NDSU in recent years has always released first day numbers first. In a much easier to digest format than UND's release. MSU-Moorhead had theirs out last Monday. Weird deal - I have my theory's but guess we'll see. Might just have to wait until September.

Any update? Based on previous years, very odd first day numbers have not been released at either UND or NDSU.

MVFC schedule and a playing a P4 team. SOS will be fine. Please provide one example of a FCS team that has a strong non-conf schedule.

Same place it’s coming from for NDSU. UND is raising over 100 million a year during their Forever UND campaign. Will soon again overtake NDSU will their endowment. UND has donors - need someone who can sell the athletic vision like they have on the academic side.

Jax State Fordham @ Sac State @ San Jose State —— LIU St. Thomas @ Portland State @ Nebraska Sac State lost by 11 to EMU. Nebraska by far the best of the 8. Pick em. Nobody thinks LIU is better than Jax State, but also talking two bad teams. Is Sac State really that much better than Portland State?

That brought them back to even. Under paid originally, once Berry’s buyout was paid, made them whole.

They have been. Spending a lot more once Schmidt was hired, cutting into Hockey. Chavez also has an extra $500k open up with cutting M-Tennis. Even more open by cutting W-Tennis. $ is there to get it done. Needs to be top priority.

What would be the long term ROI on an extra million a year to the FB budget? Or you might be able to make it work with an extra $500 to $600k. Everything is in place and we’ll see this program improve year after year. It’s critical that this administration realizes that the only thing stopping that is Schmidt leaving before the program is a well oiled machine (think Jacks). We need him through 2030. It should be the athletic departments #1 priority to lock him up long term. I would think between 600 and 700k, 8 years with huge buyouts for these first handful of years. Extra $ on top of that, give assistants a raise as well.

I probably under sold it as well with my phrasing. More accurately, those two were a handful of standouts on a defensive unit that gave up 36 yards in a half.

Game 1 left me with two giant concerns, which clearly is shared with everyone. Kicking and Backup QB. Both were incredibly disappointing to watch. I don't remember a game where they pulled the 1's as soon as they did. Which I loved. My question would be was the % breakdown between 2's, 3's, 4's in the second half? Especially defensively. Not overly concerned with it. Two non-returning starters that really deserve to be pointed out. Ethan Boll and Brody Thornton. They were good. Thornton will be an All-American.

Year to year freshman class, yes, unless that 2,210 number was taken out of context. Doubtful, but maybe was talking on-campus freshman only. We’ll see, could have sworn there was an article about how applications were up over previous year.

Fair, but having a freshman class be 15% lower than the previous year seems problematic.