dakotadan

And people were trying to say he isn't a troll? Thanks for adding so much to the conversation. Now run along you rube.

Haven't you heard? It puts most SEC schools to shame.

New logo will be released at the BSC football meetings on the 16. The new website release doesn't have an exact date yet but will be later on this summer sometime.

That is a theoretical question that is trying to change the past. The fact of the matter is that the coaches and players did pull out wins in those games. So to ask a hypothetical question about if history was different has no bearing on what actually DID happen. I have said it many times and I will say it again. Comprehension is not a strong point of people associated with NDSUA&AS. The people on here believe that UND has young talent being led by a 5th year BCS quarterback transfer and other QBs with another year of experience under their belt going into this fall that may have some success and build the program for the future. The key words there are "this fall" and "future." UND fans believe that there has been some good talent recruited in the last few classes that will only improve on what happened this last season. You are twisting the excitement that UND fans have for the next few years and are trying to apply it to UND's talent the last few years. I don't think you will find too many people that will classify Muss as one of UND's greatest coaches of all time yet. What you will find are people that acknowledge the difficulties that Mussman has had to face while taking over as head coach. His first year as head coach was the first year of the transition. Lennon took some assistant and possition coaches over the years that would have offered valuable experience to UND during this time. The coaching staff upheld their standards and the dignity of UND football and let some of our best players go for academic and attitude reasons. This is something that they definitely deserve credit for. It would have been easy to look the other way just to help out their own win/loss record and career. Hopping from NAIA to FBS to DII to FCS teams as competition each weekend (UND had possibly the worst football schedules during transition of the Dakota schools) can't be easy to keep the team focused. The nickname soap opera was constantly dragging on with possible sanctions involved. And even after we received a conference invite, there was the slight possibility it may not come to fruition. At this point, what UND fans are excited about is that we are officially in the best DI conference that UND could have ever possibly asked for. Not to mention that right now, besides the Ivy League and the Big 4, it is arguably the most stable conference in all of NCAA DI. We are excited that come September our schedules going forward are so far only DI schools, including all FCS schools in 2013 with 7 of those games at home. Our latest recruiting classes have steadily become stronger on paper. Between Bradley and Hanson, we appear to have a good bridge until Joe Mollberg is ready to take the reigns. It sound like the indoor practice facility with new locker rooms, football offices and training areas is right around the corner. As fans we can't help but view the fact that our athletic budget is about to crack $20 million (higher than some FBS schools), we just signed a $1 million TV deal, and the ND Champions Club continues to break their fundraising records year after year as positives for us to continue to build up all of our sports to compete nationally. And as a cherry on top, we have the Montana Grizzlies playing in our house for the next three seasons. What fcs school wouldn't wet themselves for that opportunity? As for coach, I have had concerns about his reserved style of coaching during the transition. When we had the lead and the ball at midfield with just under a minute to go in the 1st half at Idaho and we basically sat on the ball, I was furious. Who knows what pushing the ball down a bit for even a field goal going into halftime may have changed how the 2nd half played out. But as the season went on, we began to see that change. Anyone who watched the UND/USD game knows that the coaches took some risks and pulled out all of the stops to win that game. And the players executed. I am sure that injuries, some of our top players being dismissed, the crazy schedule and other reasons that we may never know all played a role in coach's conservative game plans. No matter how much posters from a certain school want to discuss strength of schedule, the team turned around a 3-8 season to an 8-3 season. He was named the GWC Coach of the Year and was one of three FCS finalists for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award. I have to admit that I saw some growth in the coaching staff as the season went on. With the way this last season went and especially ended, Muss deserves some time as a playoff eligible team in the Big Sky. If I was Faison, I may have just went with a 1 or 2 season extention to see if the program continues to head in the right direction. But so far I have been extremely happy with Faison's choices, hires and accomplishments. He is the one that has had indepth conversations with Mussman about what Mussman's plans are for the program and where he wants to take it in the future. I will trust his judgement on this one. Buy.

Some links for following the BSC. Be sure to add them on facebook and twitter. www.bigskyconf.com http://www.facebook.com/bigskyconf https://twitter.com/BigSkyConf And be sure that you are following UND on facebook and twitter as well. http://www.facebook.com/myUND http://www.facebook.com/UNDSports https://twitter.com/myUND https://twitter.com/UNDsports

With the Fighting Sioux nickname going away, the athletic department has started a new facebook page. The old page will eventually be going away, so be sure to go "like" the new page. http://www.facebook.com/UNDSports

Boise State notified the MWC that they were leaving yesterday just hours before the deadline to do so. While they could still back out of going to the Big East, it is very unlikely they would have withdrawn from the MWC if they were still considering staying. Now they just need to find a home for the rest of their olympic sports. It'll be interesting to see if the WAC invites UVU, CSU Bakersfield, UTPA, Grand Canyon or even Chicago State to stay alive or if Boise State manages to come up with a big enough travel stipend to convince the Big West to give them membership. Boise State beats deadline, will leave Mountain West This gives Idaho and NM State a sliver of hope that the MWC may give them invites down the road to get to 12 members. In the meantime, do UI and NMSU bring in a bunch of the previously mentioned schools they have nothing in common with to keep the WAC alive for now or do they look to the Big Sky as home to their oly sports while they wait for the MWC? Does the Big Sky want to invite Idaho for non-football sports knowing that in just a few years they could possibly leave again for the MWC?

The Big Sky is headquartered in Ogden, UT. It is officially July 1st in Ogden, UT.

12:00 Central!!!

We are down to one hand!

Want to know what the fans of our fellow BSC schools are talking about? Check out http://www.bigskyfans.com/ for all of the member schools' fan forums. Or looking to talk FCS football? Check out http://www.anygivensaturday.com/ .

A Big Sky fact for today: The BSC is the ONLY conference out of the 31 recognized DI all-sports conferences that does not sponsor baseball! The BSC, however, will begin sponsoring softball this upcoming season with UND, Idaho State, Northern Colorado, Portland State, Sac State, Southern Utah and Weber State participating. The BSC will sponsor the following sports for 2012-13: Men's Sports Football Basketball Cross Country Tennis Indoor Track & Field Outdoor Track & Field Women's Sports Basketball Cross Country Golf Soccer Softball Tennis Indoor Track & Field Outdoor Track & Field Volleyball

With a personality like this, I would expect BigSkyBears to be a fan of an ag school.

Big Sky Conference fact for today. The Big Sky Conference has been represented in 13 football national championship games, coming out with 7 national championship and six runners-up. This includes four of the current members. 1976 - Montana State - Div. II National Champions 1980 - Boise State - I-AA National Champions 1981 - Idaho State - I-AA National Champions 1984 - Montana State - I-AA National Champions 1990 - Nevada - I-AA runner-up 1995 - Montana - I-AA National Champions 1996 - Montana - I-AA runner-up 2000 - Montana - I-AA runner-up 2001 - Montana - I-AA National Champions 2004 - Montana - I-AA runner-up 2008 - Montana - FCS runner-up 2009 - Montana - FCS runner-up 2010 - Eastern Washington - FCS National Champions The current 13 BSC football members have also won five national championships while not members of the BSC: 1956 – Montana State - NAIA National Co-Champions 1980 – Cal Poly - NCAA Division II National Champions 1996 – Northern Colorado - NCAA Division II National Champions 1997 – Northern Colorado - NCAA Division II National Champions 2001 – North Dakota- NCAA Division II National Champions

Al Carlson.

Big Sky Conference fact of the day: The Big Sky Conference was established in 1963 by six charter members: Idaho (1963-1996) Idaho State (1963-present) Gonzaga (1963-1979) Montana (1963-present) Montana State (1963-present) Weber State (1963-present) Members since then have been: Boise State (1970-1996) Northern Arizona (1970-present) Nevada (1979-1992) Eastern Washington (1987-present) Portland State (1996-present) Sacramento State (1996-present) Cal State Northridge (1996-2001) Northern Colorado (2006-present)

According to Stephen F. Austin's athletic site, we will be hosting them, UW Green Bay and USD on August 31 and Sept. 1 in our tournament. But obviously that conflicts with OU and Air Force's schedule that shows us at UNC's tournament that weekend. I am guessing that either SFA just has the wrong dates listed or that it is NDSU at UNC's tournament. http://sfajacks.cstv...lley-sched.html North Dakota Invitational: UW Green Bay, USD, SFA Fri Oct 31 Sat Sept 1 ? Sat Sept 1 Oklahoma & Air Force @ UNC Classic Thurs Sept 13 Montana State Sat Sept 15 Montana Thurs Sept 20 @ Weber State Sat Sept 22 @ Idaho State Sat Sept 29 Sacramento State Thurs Oct 4 @ Eastern Washington Thurs Oct 11 SUU Sat Oct 13 Northern Arizona Fri Oct 19 @ Montana Sat Oct 20 @ Montana State Thurs Oct 25 Idaho State Sat Oct 27 Weber State Thurs Nov 1 @ Sacramento State Sat Nov 10 Eastern Washington Thurs Nov 15 @ Northern Arizona Sat Nov 18 @ SUU

It appears that we will be playing both Oklahoma and Air Force at the Northern Colorado Classic in Greeley on Sept. 1. Not sure if we will be playing UNC in a non-conference game as well. http://www.soonerspo...lley-sched.html http://www.goairforc...lley-sched.html Sat Sept 1 Oklahoma @ UNC Classic Sat Sept 1 Air Force @ UNC Classic Thurs Sept 13 Montana State Sat Sept 15 Montana Thurs Sept 20 @ Weber State Sat Sept 22 @ Idaho State Sat Sept 29 Sacramento State Thurs Oct 4 @ Eastern Washington Thurs Oct 11 SUU Sat Oct 13 Northern Arizona Fri Oct 19 @ Montana Sat Oct 20 @ Montana State Thurs Oct 25 Idaho State Sat Oct 27 Weber State Thurs Nov 1 @ Sacramento State Sat Nov 10 Eastern Washington Thurs Nov 15 @ Northern Arizona Sat Nov 18 @ SUU

Nooooooo thank you to the Summit League. The Big Sky is by far the best possible option for a DI FCS UND. And Faison and Kelley made it happen. I cannot thank them enough! - - - - - - Big Sky Conference - - - - - -

The Alerus Center started on the new turf immediately following the UND and GF graduation ceremonies were over in May. Here is a photo gallery of the construction going on.

http://www.hbuhuskies.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=857&path=mbball The only thing that I don't understand is that he is from Texas, playing for a Texas school that will be joining a Texas-based league. Why would he be coming to UND? Either way, welcome to Dustin.

UVU finished the season on the bubble of making the NCAA tournament. The Wolverines were ranked 27th, are 47-12 on the year, have won 40 of their last 41 games and lead all Division I teams in wins (47), scoring margin (+4.0), batting (.350), slugging (.523), on-base percentage (.436), runs (522), runs per game (9.0), hits (711) and total bases (1062). The school hosted a selection show party on campus today in the hopes of making their 1st ever national tournament at the DI level. They were left out of the tournament. This is just more proof on how important being in an auto-bid conference is to ALL of our sports teams.

The team lost to Utah Valley and then Houston Baptist to finish 3rd in the tournament for the second consecutive year. Congratulations to freshmen Andrew Thome and Jeff Campbell and junior Kris Kwak for being selected to the All-Tournament Team.

I say keep playing for the nickel trophy. But due to the nickname fiasco slightly update the trophy. Instead of using a replica of the indian-head nickel that was used from 1913-1938 make a new replica trophy of the Jefferson nickel that was used from 1938-2003. It would keep the tradition of the Nickel Trophy alive. The fans of both schools would understand the history behind the trophy. Plus, it is the nickel that was used through most of the rivalry and even has relevance with the 2003 ending.