Undertherock

How are ticket sales? SDSU was lagging about 4500 total all season as of Sunday compared to last year (when we had NDSU coming in and Sac St as a home opener) but seems to have taken a bit of a jump to start the week. Should be close to selling out the opener now even though it's a dog of an opponent, Beef Bowl (which is like a second homecoming), Dairy Drive and Hobo Day games. I assume eventually tickets will sell for the JSD game but there's still about 2500 left for that game. JSD fans don't go to their home games so it's no surprise they aren't buying tickets in Brookings. Hopefully the YSU game, which interupts the preseason schedule on 9/19 gets close, too. That might be the best team to come to Brookings this fall. I'm looking forward to a day when the Whioux visit Brookings again. It's been so long - do they travel?

I've resigned myself to the fact the the secondary will be a rebuild every year. Either the DBs excel (and as a position group, they seem the most likely to portal) or they'll stink, and then you're looking for guys in the portal. Deep front 7 can cover for a marginal backside to some extent.

Do the Whioux have D-line depth this year? SDSU won national championships when it invested in the trenches and was able to liberally sub, particularly on the D-line, without noticeable dropoff. Last year, SDSU had some D-line talent but no depth, particularly when Kirschenmann was lost for the season in game 1. Supposedly, the depth has returned. I know there's some top end talent on the Whioux line but is there depth?

I'm curious where these dollars you speak of will come from? Not ticket sales. See NDSU. Also see your small stadium with limited expansion potential. While there might be a few bucks from media rights, those dollars will disappear fast when the FB budget will need to double, or in the case of UND, maybe triple to get to a MWC or equivalent median. Not from the CFP. You won't sniff it. NDSU has to double their FB budget. They might have the scyophants, for now, to do it. But they are in full bake sale mode to get there. They were duped into propping up the failing MWC in the hopes that "if you play UTEP, they will come." They ain't coming. NDSU ain't going to CFP, and even the $2m in media rights won't be there when NDSU becomes eligible. When UNLV and AF bolt for the PAC and AAC respectively after 2032, MWC will my vying with MAC and CUSA for worst media deal. The math ain't mathing.

Good read except there isn't a single rational person who thought, at any time, that NDSU would ever get a P4 invite under any iteration of FBS FB.

They will make a bowl game. While its possible they win 5 or fewer, it seems almost improbable. That said, NDSU moved to FBS in a year where they probably have more question marks on their roster then they've had in 15 years. Still, if NDSU flounders this year, then a lot of us are probably wrong in our assessment of the level of FB being played in the MVFC vs the dogwater FBS conferences like MWC, MAC and CUSA. And when they do go bowling, they'll get a pretty big contingent. There are more than a handful of Bison sycophants who seem to think they can only leave North Fargo when there is a FB related charter out of town.

SDSU has won the men's Summit tourney 7 times. The women 13 times. The women winning is slightly more intriguing because they have a better than zero chance of winning a game. But the men, especially in the NIL/Portal era, have zero chance at playing the Cinderella, and the players that lead them there are gone come next season.

As an SDSU fan, I was opposed to the DI move and thought that it was foolish. 23 years later, while some suggest that we've just seen a golden age of SDSU athletics, I think the reality is a little more mixed, even though I admit to being wrong about the move. Football has been wildly more successful at DI than at DII, because the institution and donors decided to start funding FB. BB, VB and the Olympic sports have all prospered at the conference level but realistically, the hopes for these teams go no further than winning a conference tournament. And while Frost (now FBT) Arena is one of the best Summit environments, attendance pales in comparison to DII days and the bedlam that was old Frost against even non-NCC foes like Northern State. Even as arguably the top mid-major women's basketball program, the woman are lucky to win one NCAA tournament game. Of course in 2003, no one envisioned what the portal and NIL would do to men's college basketball. Still, I doubt anyone would go back to DII/NCC days. I think the big difference between moving from DII to DI vs moving from FCS to FBS is that for the the xDSUs and UxDs, and even some of the schools that stayed behind, those institutions looked more like their soon-to-be peers in the Summit/MVFC than they did the Morningsides, the Augies, or the Marys, etc. In retrospect, its easy to see that we would become the class of our conferences. But whereas our institutions look like the class of FCS institutions, we don't look like the class of FBS. Short of a reckless multi-billionaire throwing lavish money at an institution, there isn't a scenario where our institutions even sniff sustained competitiveness against the P4, let alone the P2. My hang-up with a potential move to FBS for SDSU would be taking the one sport where national championships are possible, and reducing it to a scenario like all the other sports, to wit: The conference championship game (if it still exists), is the pinnacle of that sport's success. The only attraction I see to FBS is if there is a some kind of a split where the G6 has their own playoff but as noted earlier, G6 won't instigate this for fear of losing access to CFP. If it would become a reality, effectively creating a new second tier of CFB, that's where I'd want SDSU to be, and I think the AD has made it clear that that is where SDSU belongs. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the admin feels like the window to move is closing, whether because of pending legislation or otherwise, and is feeling pressure from the NDSU move, and that we'll hear sooner, rather than later, that SDSU is ransoming their way into FBS as well. This belief is entirely uninformed but AD Sell plays things pretty close to the vest and it wouldn't surprise me one iota to learn that a lot of discussions are being held behind closed doors on just how to fund such a move and backchanneling to potential conferences.

And with P4 moving to expanded conference schedules, there will be less opportunity for buy games. B1G and SEC are already at 9 conference games and with CFP playoff expansion, 10 conference games might become a reality for those conferences and likely ACC and Big 12. The only way FBS looks attractive to me is if there ends up being a G6 playoff. But the G6 isn't going to instigate its own structure for fear of being left out of CFP entirely.

I read a Kolpack bit about QB battles across the MWC. ISUb and MurrSt have been replaced with San Jose and El Paso.

I'm pretty sure Forum comms have a $2 for 6 month special. I buy this time each year for siouxfallslive.com and it gets me regional rags like the inforum and herald. Cost shouldn't be an issue.

Bored of winning the Mountain West Conference already?

SDSU fan here. Good recruiting classes are fun, but SDSU's great recruiting classes really didn't come until after SDSU started getting to Frisco (and the best class ended up following Jimmy Rogers to Frisco). SDSU won with one offer guys. Don't get me wrong, I'll take recruiting wins against NDSU and other garbage FBS programs, and multiple FCS offer guys, but we have yet to see high ranking recruiting classes in Brookings equate to championships. No matter what, we're not talking about 4* and 5* sure fire guys and the development and retention is still just as important, if not more so, than subjective rankings. Hell, JSD loses every, and I mean every, head to head recruiting battle with SDSU, but they've fielded pretty darn competitive teams the last few years

NDSU has said it will get to 85 scholarships. I would imagine they are offering north of 63 already. They have an obligation to increase their budget commensurate with MWC schools and while there is no shortage of places to spend that money, scholarships will be a big part. I'd hate to be the coach of a non- revenue sport in North Fargo. SDSU, as of this spring, is still at 63. Coach Jackson has openly opined that he thinks increasing scholarships will be more valuable to State than increasing NIL.

Big kid. Moved to OL/DL last season from LB/TE. Switched from BB to wrestling last winter to improve as a lineman. Loves contact. Super loyal - if he develops he won't portal (maybe if your staff leaves). Won't turn 17 until Aug and will turn 18 during '27 camp. Outstanding young man and hard worker. Plays on a traditionally crappy HS team.