MIBT

There is a huge difference between generating billions of dollars of revenue and making billions of dollars. Contrary to popular belief the school and conference athletic budgets and especially the NCAA budgets are very tight. There are a lot of expenses tied up in those revenue dollars. There are some coaches who make ridiculous money but that number is probably less than 100. The G5 and FCS coaches make good livings, but they don't get that income for a long period of time in most cases. D2 and D3 coaches aren't in poverty, but they aren't making any more than the average person at their age and stage of career. The FCS football championship doesn't pay for itself. Some costs are underwritten by the other championships that do make more than they spend (most of it basketball). The individual schools though are able to use football to pay for many of the other non-revenue producing sports. A good friend of mine has a son who plays for a B1G school and the amount of services and perks they get above and beyond scholarship and COA is impressive. College sports were never intended to be minor leagues for professional sports, but it's not their problem to solve that the professional leagues have failed to create their own professional minor leagues. The NCAA is responsible for all divisions and all sports so we are talking like 2% of the student athletes causing this issue. The juice isn't worth the squeeze for them to get into the issues of paying student athletes or governing external payments. I'm sure it does at some level, but it would be so much worse if these laws and policies are enacting. You are potentially getting into labor laws and athletes becoming employees. This would make them subject to income tax. It sounds great in a vacuum, but we can't possibly know all the ramifications of doing it. Ultimately boosters want to use their money to influence what student athletes come to their school. This is not being done to ultimately benefit the student athlete.

This is exactly why I think this is a very bad and dangerous idea. Let's say school A is recruiting Jonny Linebacker and let him know if he enrolls and hosts a camp in his hometown over the summer, a "sponsor" will pay him $100k annually to do it. School B finds out and says if you enroll here and speak to a group of alumni at homecoming, we feel the value of that is $200k. This is 100% a recruiting issue and a huge pandora's box that would ultimately end the NCAA as we know it. The colleges were never intended to be a minor leagues for professional sports. Baseball has this right and they are still one of only 5 money makers for the NCAA (basketball, wrestling, hockey, and lacrosse are the others) of their 85 championship sports across all divisions. If you want to make money developing your skills, do the bus routes in the minor leagues. If you want to get an education paid for while playing your sport and possibly go pro, then take the college scholarship route. Both are very good options.

I think they could probably afford it. The question is if it's worth it to spend that much more money. Most teams in FBS and FCS have no chance to win a championship yet they still see value in their programs. Some will compete for conference championships. Some will compete to win a playoff game or two. Your goals change. Even in D2 there were a lot of sports for UND and NDSU didn't have a realistic shot at winning a national championship. If they do move up Bison fans will be accustomed to a new normal and I think be just fine. But is the extra cost worth the jump in the current environment. I personally like UND and NDSU at the same level in the same conference. They are peers in every way and should be peers in athletics as well. It's not like Ohio/Ohio State or Illinois/Illinois State.

I would be surprised if NDSU would want to be a part of the MWC for the same reason I think UND to the Big Sky was a mistake. The core recruiting market for UND and NDSU should be Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa. If they recruit there it will be harder to get athletes if they know all their road games are far away. If they try to recruit in the footprint of the MWC they'll be targeting far from Fargo/Grand Forks. I think that's the main reason UND struggled to be consistent in the BSC and should do better at least in recruiting in the MVFC. From a geography standpoint the MAC is a better option and possible the AAC. The AAC would need to be a football-only option though because the cost of travel for all the other sports would be prohibitive. I expect them to stay FCS for the near future.

He was the starting kicker at the beginning of the season but got hurt in the first quarter of the first game. This was his first game back. That's why he hadn't kicked any FGs all year. He kicked all 4 extra points in the game so he was more than capable of making that FG. His presence was not a clue they were going to fake it.

Wishful thinking. He's from Georgia and decommitted because he doesn't see going to school that far from home. I'm guessing UND won't be highly considered. Not to mention his list of suiters include teams playing January bowl games.

Potentially depending on what else is going on downtown. I have a client there and one time the cheapest room I could find was a Hampton Inn for $375 due to a huge convention. The last time I was there you could find several rooms in the $175-$225 range. if you want to stay at the nicer properties it will usually be $300+ most of the time. I just checked for FCS Final weekend and most were $225 and below. Not sure if the FCS Championship would bring enough demand on it's own to drive up prices.

If anyone has any contacts with the Nashville Sports Council (https://nashvillesports.com/) this is the group who would drive the FCS to Nashville bid. They are likely the agency coordinating the UND hockey game there next year so UND has connections. Make it happen!

The NCAA requires a local school or conference to be a part of the bid to host championship events. If you look closely at the scoring table banners in NCAA tournaments you'll see the school or conference referenced somewhere. Southland would definitely make sense. It's usually a local sports organization that drives the bid though and not the school or conference. That sports entity will then engage a local organizing committee to take care of the details with support from the NCAA and sponsoring school/conference. But the bulk of the heavy lifting is done by the local organizing committee and a slew of volunteers.

Nashville would be a great location as well. Weather could be similar to Dallas which has proven to not be a guaranteed warm day. Nashville is likely in the 50s in January. The city would have a ton to offer for fans. Hotels downtown have become very expensive but if people want to stay around the suburbs they can find more affordable options. The host venue is not determined by the NCAA deciding where they want to go. They rely on local sports organizations to submit bids to host. The local organization does the bulk of the heavy lifting for the details of the event so they need to see value in hosting it. It could depend on other events planned around the same time and availability of venues. Frisco likely gets the event each year because they love hosting it and continue to submit bids. If someone else was really interested I'm sure the NCAA would consider them. But those markets have to decide to want to host and put the effort into submitting the bid.

Butler and Drake are non-scholarship programs so essentially D3 programs. They are generally better than D3 based on the ability to recruit the athletes to a D1 school and everything else that offers. D2 and NAIA both offer scholarship and most schools would be better than or very competitive with Pioneer teams like Butler or Drake. These results are not unusual or reflect negatively on the Butler or Drake programs.

As I recall the 12 game win streak the Bison had in the 80s and 90s the teams were competitive many of those years. There wasn't a big talent gap between the teams and the 1993 game wasn't a huge upset. It was just the ending of a curse. The Bison finished 7-3 that year and UND was 8-2 (regular season). This year's teams aren't that close talent wise. That doesn't mean UND couldn't do something and surprise everyone, but I would say it's extremely unlikely. UND fans being optimistic and predicting otherwise is fine and expected of fans of any team and Bison fans talking down to them is also indicative of a rivalry. Whether or not the game is competitive has nothing to do with whether or not it's a rivalry. Alabama-Tennessee is a huge rivalry but Alabama has won 12 in a row by an average of 25 points (most were over 30). Alabama has been ranked 1 or 2 in 8 of those games and Tennessee has only been ranked twice (20th in 2007 the only time Alabama wasn't ranked in the top 8 and 9th in 2016). Are these schools rivals? Absolutely. Does that mean the game will be close or competitive? Absolutely not.

I thought the numbers were higher than 45/36 but i do remember hearing at the time the Bison had a huge advantage because they were one of the teams funding the scholarship limit and most others couldn't do it. Especially as new teams were coming into D2 they had a hard time funding that many so they collectively voted to reduce the scholarship limit which brought NDSU back down to the level of the other teams. They were still successful but not at the same level as previously. I have no idea if the other Dakota schools were at the same level, but they were relatively competitive at the time. The NCC was a tough conference.

Some of those games in the 12 streak were close though. Right now on the field these teams aren't close. But that can change in the next couple years. UND fans who think there is a chance to win this game or be competitive aren't being honest with themselves. But that doesn't mean it can't be close in a year or two. Bison fans who say this isn't a rivalry are also not being honest with themselves. They like to think of themselves as Ohio State to UND's Ohio. That is not a valid analogy. They are much more similar than alike regardless of the current level of athletic success. UND took a path to D1 that made it much more difficult to be successful. Now that their recruiting and conference footprint are more in alignment I expect we'll see vast improvement in the quality of their recruits. They still need coaches who are good recruiters, but there is no reason they can't find them or don't already have them.

There is definitely a rivalry between the schools. Between the players it won't be as intense as it was in the D2 days, but it will get there quickly. The sooner UND can become competitive in the game again the sooner the rivalry will become more intense for the players. That probably isn't this year but with UND likely having more success recruiting since their playing footprint and recruiting footprint are now more aligned. Having been on many football fields I can tell you the intensity between players does ratchet up for rivalry games. It's not just a fan thing.