AJS

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.

I don't want this to read as everything is perfect at NDSU / Fargo or the wheels are coming off at UND / Grand Forks. That isn't the case. What I will say is unless UND / Grand Forks changes course (unlikely), I know which University I would bet on in the next decade. It's the one that is loud, aggressive, thinks big. Too many parallels between the cities and the Universities. NDSU raising 25 million and counting, probably raise a few more on July 1st. Turn into millions more from the state. Jokes on them though I guess reading these comments? Think they'd be better off not raising millions and instead cutting sports. Think small be small, it's the only way GF / UND knows. Note: As you can tell, there's a lot of frustration with a few things. UND's lack of response to Funding model / FBS move. It's been this way for decades, two most recent examples. NDSU leads / dictates, every time. I'm pushing my chips in the middle betting that this FBS move will be a huge success. Not only for fundraising for athletics, but it will turn this around on the enrollment side.

Sometimes Twitter makes it pretty obvious if you see a spike in Following / Followers. Nothing obvious this time. My guess though is Jareth Navarro.

Here's my thought. This weekend being a Holiday weekend will be slow. Starting the last weekend in May, it's Official Visit season. Maybe not for UND, but for other school's OV's seem to be kicking off that weekend. The only prospective recruit that actually tweeted out a date was Schmidt who will be visiting the weekend of the 18th. My guess is UND's two big weekends will be aligned with their two major camps (11th and 18th). So far, I've seen Hammell, Schmidt, Steger, Stecker, Wooden, Armuster & Mueller tweet out the official visit graphic. I know for example Schmidt has visits the two prior weekends as well. Two things will be key (1) Get those guys on campus one of those two weekends. Don't have them commit somewhere else before (2) Add to that #. There's a bunch of other offers to guys I hope they get in for OV's (Felton, Singler, Diehl, Mathis, Moranksi, ect).

At this point, although possible, I would think it would be highly unlikely. There was a level of pageantry put into the Carels commitment that I've never seen before from UND. It's safe to assume that Carels mind is made up, UND believes that Carels mind is made up. I don't think the commitment happens if Carels goal would be pushing for a spot in the Fall. It wouldn't make sense that a team would be so opposed to the college route for a year.

Not following. Leading in what way? Outside of writing the checks.

He said on last weeks pod that he had some vacation time coming up.

Is Michigan State going to win it all next year? Probably not. That also goes for every other team in the country. Only one can win and it probably won't be your team. They are going to win a lot of games and put themselves in as good of position as any. How much fun will those fans have though watching all that talent, not only next year, but following those careers moving forward in the NHL?