AJS

I know you know this, but it's not the coaches / players who are setting their budget. I have heard that this past year, Football budget increased while Hockey decreased. There is something to the bus trip to Omaha. Clearly, not enough $ to go around. Strategically, I like where they're at. Keep hockey at a high level, increase Football and once Football gets going, then start really concentrating on basketball.

Let's take part of this. A few years ago, I noticed they flew to Omaha. Couldn't be a bigger waste of money. This year, they bussed. Smart. Every year when they play Bemidji everyone complains. UND has a great contract signed with them. Bus trip. I think it's they do home and home for 3 years and 4th UND gets two home games. Play Mankato or Augie non-conference along with Bemidji & MN every year. There are small tweaks to scheduling for hockey that can really save some $ and that won't affect the product.

It's crazy to me how much the moving to FBS landscape has changed in such a short period of time. For the Dakota / Montana schools, it seems pretty straight forward. You can't afford to do it, but you also can't afford to get left behind. Taking @The Sicatoka post from 12/29 and @SIOUXFAN97 it seems like it's a case of having to buy your way into a conference. I just don't understand what not only what the long-term plan would be, but even just the 5-year plan for the conferences. You get a short-term influx of cash but then have to split the small MW tv pie more ways. For the schools looking to get in. Each school probably has more alumni than one would think that could write a 25-million-dollar check, but from that group you need to find the one person that actually will for this type of situation. Different and considerably bleaker topic than a few years ago. The amount of money needed for a far worse situation is tough.

As someone who was a bit worried about the portal class, I think they closed very well with Macklin, Weir and Kamara. I liked some of the pieces before (especially Lawson and Miller), but I do feel good about this class. NDSU losing their middle linebacker on the last day has me a bit apprehensive to give my thoughts on the overall retention. I do think it's so far so good! Was tough at the beginning, but if they are able to keep it at 4 impact players, could be much worse.

Schmidt was on the 360 pod. They don’t expect a ruling on the JUCO waivers until Spring, but Samuels-Parker & Wiltshire are going to be participating until they are told they cannot. Sounds optimistic based on their situation of it being granted. Getting those two back would be a game changer for 2026.

I could be reading too much into it, but seems to be a little more juice behind this one.

Hot take. This team has tremendous depth with 15 healthy F's. Good depth with 14 healthy F's. 13 healthy F's it starts to get really thin. Not having Croal last weekend was noticeable. Zakreski is such an X-factor for this team. IMO, this team will be so much harder to beat come March if the 3rd line is 19-8-21. That line dominates other team's 3rd lines. For that to be a possibility, you need someone who can step into a Top 6 role, the only candidate that isn't there currently is Zakreski.

DE / LB / WR The way I look at it, you have potentially the Top starting DE combo in the country. What is behind them? Mohr? He’s been hurt consistently. Is the Albany transfer DT or DE? If he’s DE then I still think you need one more. If he’s DT then I think you need DE X 2

Does anyone know how this works? Can they participate in off-season activities while they await word on an additional year?

This program just caught in incredible break the last two weeks. Let's pump it up! I'm actually surprised that anyone would hold a grudge against a coach that left at the end of the Bubba tenure. That was a sinking ship. I look at these two ways, not only is Freund a step up as an OC, but with how poorly the 2nd half went last year, I don't know how the Freuchte / Kaminksi era could have been revived. Multiple factors, not all Freuchte's fault, but this is a hard reset for Jerry and the offense. The outlook for next year is different today than it was two weeks ago.

This can seem like I'm getting ahead of myself, but IMO, there's an extra level of importance, given that Denver hosts a regional. Felt like this when they played Omaha as well. UND can do their part in making Denver start to feel a bit uncomfortable with their NPI with a couple of good results this weekend.

Well said. Programs that don't embrace this type of thinking will be at a disadvantage. Key of course will be this will be done on a case-by-case basis. Asking yourself that simple question.

Agreed. My question currently is who are the Winona / MSU-M WR’s replacing? I know 360 speculated that Gross / Ryan are done. If that’s the case and there’s more spots open than is public (Graduation + portal), I’m not as worried. Still need to hit in the portal, but at least there will be others committing.

Good offer list as well. Great add!

Theo Grace was an unknown. Important to note, impact vs depth. #’s don’t tell the story. UND has 4 impact of 14. NDSU has 7 impact of 11. That’s an awful ratio.

I do think SDSU recruits the portal the best, NDSU / USD similar (step down from SDSU). Then there's the Hawks. On paper. I have said, there seems to be an extra degree of difficulty in projecting who will hit out of the portal, so who really knows. Edit: "On Paper" rankings. SDSU ahead by a lot, USD, NDSU, UND. I will say, NDSU *on paper* didn't really knock it out of the park either. Relative to HS recruiting, they seem to struggle as well.

On paper, fair assessment. Portal recruiting, one is not like the others.

Thought Roehl would be a better option?

Few notes here. Retain and develop key players. I like the new portal dates better, but it seems less than ideal for programs trying to get pieces. Non-JUCO / D2 players have realistically a week to visit / commit. It's highly risky. You strike out a few times and you are SOL. Is there a lot of talent in the portal, yes. Is it easy to get them to commit in a short window, doesn't appear to be. You do not want to be an FCS program with a lot of holes to fill and think the portal is the way to do it. That being said, there seems to be way less rhyme or reason to players that "hit" vs those that don't. Who would have thought that Fleming (4th WR on NAU) would have been the breakout star from last year's WR group? The JUCO guys on defense who were great last year. How highly recruited were they? I'm not going to get overly excited, but also won't be getting too down on anyone how commits. Wait and see.

7 D1 offers. Would be a key commit. The new portal dates. Preferred over the old, but really can put programs in a tough spot. You have to hit on an incredibly high % of your visits.

As it stands, big need now is WR. Would think minimum two needed.

Classes start next Monday @ 4pm. Anyone know who is visiting this week? Only seen one.

First game back after break. Not sure how many key players will not be in the lineup? Smart scheduling