iramurphy

I can read a map. It is about money. Location is a huge factor related to expenses. We won't save money if we are mired in the middle of the MVC. We were just establishing ourselves as a Big Sky power in FB and WBB. We are there in VB. Hopefully now in MBB. We haven't launched any marketing with the new logo. We haven't stepped up our marketing for athletics and the University. We leave a lot of money on the table and tend to focus on cutting expenses rather than increase revenues.

I believe we lose a recruiting advantage for UND. Fly to Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Utah, California, Oregon, Idaho, Washington. Bus to Fargo, Vermillion, Brookings, Omaha, UNI. Do we fly to Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Denver and Oklahoma ? We go to a conference where the other schools are established and Fargo, UNI, SDSU, Youngstown, Illinois State etc are looked upon as the conference powers in FB. Remember how our coaches talked about how recruits felt the Big Sky was a positive factoring their decision process? Most Recruits don't know about or care about our old rivalries until after they get here. We no longer have that unique travel opportunity to offer recruits. How does this affect our established recruiting base? We assume we will get better crowds from visiting teams and I believe we probably will, but how much better? We certainly haven't shown we are ready to compete week in and week out with the best of the MVC yet. Are we ready for the Summit? We Should be for VB, WBB, and MBB. We forfeit the opportunity to be a conference champion and lose one of the opportunities to make the playoffs in FB and lose our best chances for playoffs in BB and VB. We don't make playoffs in WBB or MBB without winning conference tourney. I am not too excited about this. I also don't like asking someone to let us into the Big Sky then backing out when things get tough. Maybe we have no choice, but I would rather remain in the Big Sky.

Not sure I understand some of this. The AC is the premier FCS program in the country right now. The media exposure, hosting playoffs etc go with it. There is tremendous support in the region for them right now because of their success. Comments like " it took our new coach 3 tries to make the playoffs and they made the playoffs their third year" aren't a fair comparison. Their new coach made the playoffs his first year. Good for them. I've said it before, we need to focus on us. The rest will come. We made the playoffs this year, then laid an egg. I like where we are headed but there is no excuse for the loss to Richmond. We can fix that with recruiting and we extended Bubba's contract. We need to be willing to tear it up and give him a better one if we continue to improve and we need to quickly improve what we pay our assistants. We need to move past the Fighting Sioux fiasco. Doesn't matter how we might feel as individuals, we aren't ever going to be the Fighting Sioux again. We are too slow to establish the Fighting Hawks as our brand. It continues to cost us money when we are out front with our new name and brand. We need to fill the Alerus and upgrade our pre-game, game time and post game experience and entertainment. With a student population of 14-15,000 we should be trying to figure out where to put everyone. Just like the FB team we need to keep getting better as a fan base and with increased community support. We can't afford to take a step back next fall.

These guys must have overslept. Playing hockey in their Christmas pajamas.

I thought I read that Bubba said we need to improve at QB. I would agree. Studsrud completed only 56% of his passes this year after completing 60% last year. He was too inconsistent and too slow getting through his reads. We need 60-65% completions with same TD to Int ratio and he could be All - Conf. He needs to deliver the ball as the receiver makes his cut. He needs to be more of a positive factor next year or we will struggle to win another conference Championship. A fourth year starter needs to be able to do more than read a defense, hand off, and protect the ball. He hurt us in all three loses with inconsistent and mediocre play. He showed spurts of being a much better than average QB. We need that caliber of play every game, all game. Oline should be better, receivers should be better, RBs are outstanding. We need him to improve and play at a championship level and if he can do that, next year could be special.

Maybe 3500

I disagree. They had a poor game Saturday as a group, but we need to do a better job of getting them the ball on the break. Studsrud has done exactly what Bubba asked him to do. Protect the ball and read the defense. Needs to get through his reads quicker and deliver the ball on the break which will give your receiver a step or step and a half on the defender. He has an adequate arm and is a very good athlete. He did not have a good game in any of our three losses including Saturday. He showed signs of being very good mid season. We need that consistently all four quarters every game. If he plays like that every game we probably win all three. He doesn't lose games but he could be a bigger factor winning games. He is a gamer and played with pain against N Arizona but we need him all 4 quarters and if we are going to make play offs next year, he needs to continue to improve. Jerry Rice's " game speed" was partly due to having a HOF QB. Mercer, Stanley, Wanzek and Toivenen are very good and they block well. Fastest receiver we ever had at UND was Norm McGee. Great guy but these kids catch the ball better and can block. If you can't block with this offense you are not going to play much. We should be better next year at TE and WR.

You make a good point but the counterpoint is how many others will travel to these schools vs how many alumni and fans will attend games in Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana etc. I think you get a few hundred either way, just a different group. We have made a splash in the Big Sky this year and let's not end the marriage so soon. The University needs to improve marketing for athletics and for the University. It will require an investment. We should be looking at charter flight packages for trips to our Big Sky destinations with alumni and fan gatherings at each destination. Give the fans a chance to interact with the coaches and the kids and develop relationships for the team and staff to meet fans. Bus trips and charter flights need to be priced to cover costs rather than for UND to make money on the trip. When you know kids and coaches you are more likely to follow the team. It will take time and money but it can pay off. I convinced Rob Bollinger to start a golf outing in our community 20 years ago. We started with 56 players. Now it is sold out every year and alumni and fans get to speak with our coaches and alumni staff. We build the relationships that result in donations. It raises about $15,000 per year but the value is reconnecting with Alumni. One of the local businessmen who never went to UND is now a huge fan and has hosted a UND fundraiser. And donates generously to UND athletics. We need to start thinking outside the box. I see more opportunities in the Big Sky. It also can increase our national footprint better than the MVC and Summit. We should coordinate these trips with our recruiters from our high school relations dept ( don't know what they call it now). We have people working on making up the budget deficit which by the way is an annual challenge not something new.

I don't think they are. His notes on the Richmond web site tell people to Fly to Fargo and party with them and their 30,000 fans Friday night and they won't have to pay for food and drinks the whole weekend. He also claims they have to fly to Fargo and drive to GF. He claims our recruits have to fly to Fargo then drive to GF. (I'm sure that has happened, but not often). He claims we will have only 6500 at game. I will bet we get 10,000 or more. Anyway he is an example of someone who was never good enough to play and thinks the success of a FB team has something to do with him. I guess when your life revolves around booze, bullying and a FB team your are stupid enough to do what he does. Bison fans who know him make fun of him. They can't stand him either.

Bring some warm clothes and join the per-game tailgating. Forecast is 36 and partly sunny.

I said "we" aren't the brightest..... Doesn't mean anyone in particular and I included myself. I have been watching for 46 years and I am not saying it has never fired up the fans. I'm saying I would rather see a clean hard check that rocks an opponent but leaves our guys on the ice. You may be right, but for every time we think a fight does something positive I bet we can find 4 or 5 where it hurt us. We tend to forget stupid penalties that hurt us and remember a fight that fired us up. For the fight to fire us up we also need to win the fight. Right now, one of the keys is staying out of the penalty box. We didn't need a fight to dominate a very good SCSU team. I think our PK needs to get back to what it was earlier this year and Cam needs to get refocused before we take a chance on losing a player for a game and a half. We aren't deep enough defensively to lose Ausmus.

Don't know where you got that idea but if our team and coaches believe that we will get our ass kicked. Look what happened to Weber and Cal Poly. From here on in it is every play for 60 min. No mistakes. We can win but I would bet it won't be a blowout. We need to establish the run. Studsrud needs to avoid his first half struggles and play the entire game like he did the 4th quarter last game and second half of most of our games. We need to shut down their run and we need pressure on their QB. Special teams can't fail to cover punts and KO's. Great time to return a punt or KO to give us an edge. Should be great game. Full house will make a difference.

More than anything we need time and patience. The solution will come from within not from fans. Terrible play the last month plus but if they remain close as a team, keep working to get better we will be ok. Can't explain the weekend debacle against Michigan State but we saw the potential the week before. I do agree Cam is struggling. He needs a break.

That would only put him in box and give other team power play. If that is what we "need" we are in deep trouble and not very smart. Getting ejected doesn't ever help team. Clean hard checks can do same thing for majority of fans and keeps him on the ice. If other team scores on power play everyone will scream for him to be benched for being stupid. Gotta play smart. We aren't the brightest fans but we are smarter than that. Building will erupt with fast play, hustle and clean hard checks that leave all our guys on the ice. We have had enough dumb penalties to last the season.

That's why we should stay in the Big Sky.

Last time we played them in Fargo we got our ass kicked. That gave us 4 losses and we didn't get into the playoffs. We are much better now but with all due respect if Bubba wants to play them in Fargo I disagree. Given a choice, I would rather play anyone at home, or a neutral site no matter who the opponent is. We all need to maintain a respect for them and their success but beyond that we need to move on and build our program. I sure as hell don't agree with playing them only in Fargo. Bubba and I disagree on that point also. Bubba is doing a great job and I stated when Faison asked alumni about agreeing to playing them twice in Fargo with no return games in GF, only if Bubba felt it was best for the program. Bubba, the staff and our players have brought the program to the level that we do things to increase our chance at Conference and National Championship regardless of what the Bison do. I'd like to play them every year but only with home and home series. If they aren't going to agree to that then let's play them in Frisco.

I don't understand why anyone wants to play NDSU in Fargo. Why give them the home field edge? If we are good enough, and they are good enough we play them in Frisco and the next time to think about them would be after the final whistle of the semi-final game if we can get there. Otherwise we are irrelevant to each other until that time.

Only if they win their first round game. Anything can happen in the playoffs. Doesn't matter who we play from here on in. You have to beat the best to be the best.

In 1972 Cal Poly wasn't #1. Delaware was. During the regular season, We played poorly and got beat by the AC at home. Our All American RB got hurt and didn't play in the second half. We were ranked #3 when we lost that game, our only loss of the year. Delaware refused to come west to play us in the Camelia Bowl. They won a different bowl game and retained their #1 ranking. (we didn't get screwed by the pollsters, we "screwed the pooch" against the AC). Other games worth mentioning was the 33-6 loss to Army. Army finished 9-1-1 and UND finished 9-1 that year. Red Jarrett was an All-American. (I did not see that game). Jack West tried to schedule best competition he could. 1971 AC game in Fargo. They were undefeated in 30 some straight games, ranked #1. The fatal tragic fire at SAE house was night before game which was played in the rain. We held them to something like minus 76 yds rushing and minus 11 total yds. Their only score was a pick 6. We knocked 2 QB's out of game. Their QB May was sacked 15 times. 1975 game against AC in Fargo. They were up 17-6 and Sioux ran off 28 straight points to win 34-6. Kasowski's 62!yd TD run resulted in Bison DB Krebsbach laid out with ruptured liver after devastating block by WR John Kuklenski and bloodied Bison DB Chuck Rodgers who was bulldozed by Kasowski at about the 5 yd lline.

Sorry, you are correct

Montana and Montana State would decline the offer because it is a FB only conference and travel would not be advantageous. I also believe they both would consider that a backwards step.

I didn't say NH or WI should have gotten in ahead of us. I said we weren't good enough to whine when we didn't get it. Those schools shouldn't have whined had we been selected either. We were a bubble team. NDSU has nothing to do with my opinion. I don't have an inherent hate of them. I just don't believe we need to do whatever they do. I prefer the Big Sky and I believe we have the resources to maintain our membership. I'm as likely to attend games in Arizona, Montana, Colorado and California as I am to go to Illinios, Ohio, Indiana etc. I also prefer one conference rather than two.

I haven't seen evidence that the conference or either of the Montana schools have belittled UND. What their fans say on blogs is irrelevant. NDSU has treated us disrespectfully more than the Montana schools. I haven't seen evidence of anti-UND bias. We have been a good addition and competitive in FB, MBB,WBB and VB. We are one of the new FB teams and lower budget schools aren't excited about the travel. The issue of last years play-off snub is sour grapes. Don't lose 4 games and don't lose to crappy teams. If we need the league to get us a playoff spot we aren't that good and last year we weren't good enough to whine when we didn't get in, I like the Big Sky and the schools in it. The travel costs reviewed in Sunday Forum didn't look to be such an advantage after all.

I prefer the Big Sky because as an athlete I would rather play in Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Portland and Montana. Recruiting is the key to success and as soon as we were accepted into the Big Sky our coaches commented on how that was helping recruiting. Has that changed? I also don't like the idea of joining the Big Sky and just as we start to establish our identity, we crap on them and move to the MVC. If the Bison weren't in the MVC I doubt we would be discussing a move there. I would not count on them staying FCS. Money talks and Fargo is growing fast. We need to develop our own business plan and strategy. We dicked around with the Fighting Sioux name for so long we still are losing thousands and maybe over $1million due to not launching our new brand.

No, playing them would have had negative playoff implications back then. We would have been penalized for playing regardless of the outcome. There were no good excuses not to play them in other sports.