bincitysioux

Sounds like both Kingery and Nichols have had good practices thus far through spring. It would really be nice to see someone emerge from the tight-end position and be a threat in the passing game. I know it is like "two hand touch" in scrimmages, so the sack numbers are inflated, but if the QB is constantly under that much pressure, good things aren't gonna happen for any QB. For those who saw the scrimmage, how far off the the line did the cornerbacks play????

Here's the final conference RPI....................... I highlighted leagues that we played schools from. 1 Big East 0.5796 0.5769 1 16 2 Big Ten 0.5748 0.5725 2 11 3 Big 12 0.5725 0.5628 3 12 4 Mountain West 0.5601 0.5573 4 9 5 Atlantic Coast 0.5554 0.5505 6 12 6 Southeastern 0.5530 0.5533 5 12 7 Pacific-10 0.5443 0.5474 7 10 8 Conference USA 0.5366 0.5304 8 12 9 Atlantic 10 0.5256 0.5285 9 14 10 Colonial Athletic 0.5240 0.5218 10 12 11 Horizon League 0.51375134 11 0.10 12 Missouri Valley 0.5118 0.5120 12 10 13 Western Athletic 0.5107 0.5045 14 9 14 West Coast 0.5012 0.5084 13 8 15 Ivy League 0.4990 0.4924 16 8 16 Metro Atlantic Athletic 0.4909 0.4928 15 10 17 Atlantic Sun 0.4734 0.4746 19 11 18 Northeast 0.4726 0.4757 18 12 19 Southern 0.4699 0.4723 20 12 20 Mid-American 0.4689 0.4764 17 12 21 Summit 0.4687 0.4694 23 10 22 Big South 0.4666 0.4706 22 10 23 Sun Belt 0.4657 0.4712 21 12 24 Big Sky 0.4650 0.4652 24 9 25 Patriot League 0.4631 0.4611 27 8 26 Big West 0.4627 0.4640 25 9 27 Ohio Valley 0.4617 0.4581 28 10 28 America East 0.4596 0.4620 26 9 29 Southland 0.4526 0.4516 29 12 30 Mid-Eastern 0.4305 0.4387 30 11 31 Southwestern Athletic 0.4089 0.4189 32 10 32 Independents 0.3986 0.4261 31 13 As far as team RPI, North Dakota finished at 271, which is 69 spots higher than the prior season, so that is definately a nice improvement. Not that it means anything, but our RPI was better than 4 current Big Sky teams.

IMO, if next season's starting QB is not on the spring roster..........................then we have a major problem. Until then, let's give the players in practice the chance to prove themselves at every position before we forfeit the 2011 season.................

That's a real blow................... Moody is a gifted coach, that did alot for this program. As far as I'm concerned, this is like losing Bubba........................

I agree with all that as well. As far as Jack Michaels doing play-by-play for UND................I think this is a huge coup....... I'm sure alot already know, but I'm sure some don't as well.............for those who have not heard him, Michaels is probably the most talented play-by-play voice between Minneapolis and Spokane..........Dan Hammer was fun, because he was a known regional name, and was basically a Sioux homer while on the air, but he was/is nowhere even remotely close to in the same category as Jack Michaels when comes to play-by-play and describing what is happening on a football field. I'm not a fan of Ed Schultz, the man, but I've always said there has been no better football announcer in our region (UND or NDSU) than he was. I've long thought that Michaels was a close second to Ed. We are definately in for a treat when we tune the radio in for Sioux football in the future. Jack is very professional. He's hosted a 3 hour sports show out of Bismarck for the last 5 or 6 years. In that time he's covered all bases including Twins, Vikings, T-Wolves, UND, NDSU, UMary, Redhawks, Fargo North, Bismarck Century, Beulah, and Carrington. As a former NDSU athlete, I'm sure his allegiance will always lie with NDSU, but as I said, the guy is gifted and a total professional and just seems to love covering sports and working in radio. As far as Bisonville imploding because "one of their own" has gone to the "dark side"....................I find it comical. They forget that Ed Schultz called both NDSU and UND games. They're oblivous to the fact that Scott Miller, whom they've all but canonized, spent several years calling Sioux games. They loathe Dan Hammer simply because he called Sioux games despite the fact that he spent 90% of his time in radio and tv in the Fargo market wooing NDSU. It's absurd. Radio, even more than TV, is a very volatile and fluid industry. We were lucky to have talented guys like Scott Miller, Ed Schultz, Dan Hammer, and now Jack Michaels. Let's enjoy it. It is rare to have a Tim Hennessey as long as we've had. Hopefully Jack Michaels sticks around for awhile. We'd be lucky.

Sounds like it is all but a formality that Dominique Hawkins will be moving to safety this season...................is that a good thing? He's really been the only bright spot in the defensive backfield the last three seasons.....................Seems to me that quality safeties are easier to come by than quality cornerbacks............

It's my understanding that the GF Herald has heard that the Sioux have started spring practice.................... wall to wall coverage is forthcoming....... They've already supposedly had 4-5 stories this week.................yeah right.

This thread could prove useful to someone like me who has never been to an event at the Excel....................... Let's try to get it back on topic............. That goes for Bison and North Dakota fans..............

Family of 4 will be there...............

Valid points............... But USD has also travelled to Montana St. twice and to Lamar and gotten no home game in return, which IMO is not much different than us travelling to SFA, SE Louisiana, and Idaho St. and not getting a return. The only one game FCS home game that they've bought has been Drake, while we've "bought" Lamar and Stony Brook.............. Where they have done better is getting their return games faster.............They got Northern Colorado and SE Louisiana to return within a year and did a 2 for 1 with UNI to get them in during transition. UND just got their first return trip in 2010 from Northwestern St., but are scheduled to also get from Central Arkansas and SDSU in the future unless they "Idaho St." us............... As far as the FBS games, we all know why we haven't been able to schedule Minnesota..............Personally I'd call Wisco and Texas Tech a wash especially considering that we weren't even a bowl counter when Tech played us. Agree that K-State and Air Force are better than Idaho twice...................... Don't get me wrong, I agree that the schedule has been sucking and that the 2011 home slate is pitiful. But I can see why it is so difficult and am reluctant to label the administration as lazy. And I'm certainly not going to bang my head on the wall when there is one DII game on the home schedule once we start Big Sky play, when that is the norm rather than the exception in FCS. IMO the A.D. and football staff is trying a new direction with the 2011 schedule with 3 home non-DI's. In '08 and '09, we only had 10 game schedules and everyone was pissed about that too, but Mussman stated multiple times that they decided it would be better to play one less game than to fill it out with sub par opponents. Well obviously with 2011 they are going for quantity over quality, and felt the opportunity to have 6 home games may offset the crappy teams somewhat..........

Has South Dakota really done all that much better? By the end of the 2011 season, USD will have hosted 9 non-DI teams and even TRAVELLED to another non-DI school since moving to DI in 2008. By the end of 2011, North Dakota will have hosted 10 non-DI teams since the transition started................. Both schools have 3 non-DI teams on their schedule for the upcoming season.

Have you even been reading this thread?

Does anybody know if UND "skipped over" USD in order play mines? I don't handle scheduling for the school, so I wouldn't know. Is it possible USD could have declined to play UND in 2012? Probably not.............UND of course is in a position to pick and choose to play whomever they want at their own terms........... Obviously UND has an axe to grind agains USD, otherwise we certainly would have allowed them to play us...........

9/1 is likely the SD Mines game...................

You sure? As I indicated here, since moving to DI, the non-DI games have been better attended than the DI games....................

Something entirely different....................indoor football field with a track around it that will be used by the entire athletic department for practice.....

They're like any school in transition..................they need games..........

I would guess because those schools are in the same boat as us..............looking for games, and are flexible with the dates they are available. As far as the NSIC teams you mentioned, I believe they only get one non-conference game per year these days, so they are extremely limited as to available dates.

It would be a real blow to the athletic department to lose Sean Johnson...................he is the one behind the deal with Fox College Sports, getting more football, basketball, women's hockey, and even volleyball televised, and getting Sioux basketball on the radio in Fargo. Hope he stays for a long time................

Lamar is the only other non-conference DI............. Again, it goes back to the fact that there is not enough money to pay for alot of high quality nonconference opponents...............the money isn't there and the numbers just don't work. I recently paid $1,300 for a TV. The one I really wanted was priced at $4,000. But I only had $1,300 to spend, so that was the one I got. Look for UND's non-conference schedule going forward to be something along the lines of: Year A: FBS away game, FCS home game, DII home game Year B: FBS away game, FCS away game (return trip for prior season), DII home game Year C: FBS away game, FCS home game, DII home game Year D: FBS away game, FCS away game (return trip for prior season), DII home game And so on..................... Until the Alerus is consistently sold out, UND is going to have to be one of those teams that does home-and-home scheduling with other FCS programs in order to get FCS programs to come here. That's how we got Northwestern ST, Central Akansas, SDSU, and Montana to agree to come here................. If you don't want to continue to see schools like SD Mines on future schedules, then you better go buy your tickets for Black Hills St, Montana Western, and Sioux Falls............because ironically, the only way those type of games are going to go away is by packing the house for them....................

Attendance was roughly the same the last few years of DII. I believe our all time attendance record was set in 2007, the last year of DII, a little over 10,000 per game. I believe UND is the only former NCC school to move up this past decade that didn't experience attendance growth. The transition itself hasn't affected attendance as much as poor play and fickle fans.................... EDIT: The attendance record was set in 2008, the first year of DI, with an average of 10,167. 2006: 8,827 2007: 9,887 2008: 10,167 2009: 8,539 2010: 8,154 2011: ? ? ? ? IMO attendance will get a moderate increase this season, because the team should be better and with all the cream puffs on the schedule the fans should be able to feast on some of the good old fashioned blowouts that they became accustomed to in DII...................

While I would love it to be in a position to pay a Stony Brook, Austin Peay, or Morgan St. to come to the Alerus every year in an effort to enhance our chances at receiving an at-large berth to the playoffs, there are also financial responsibilities to consider that the University must balance with putting the program in the best position to make the playoffs............ People like to point to NDSU not playing any DII's in recent years and assume that North Dakota should be in the same position..............but they're just not the same. I know I'm over-simplifying things but using $15 as a base ticket price, NDSU grosses around $240,000 for a home game just from the gate using last year's attendance average of about 16,000. If they paid Morgan St $150K, that still leaves them with $90,000 to pay the rest of the costs of putting on a sporting event. If North Dakota charges $15 a ticket, and 9,000 fans (give or take) show up like in the last few years, that's a gross of $135,000. Now, we paid Stony Brook $130,000 two seasons ago to come to Grand Forks, so that left UND's A.D. $5,000 with which to pay, among other things, the $20,000 bill for renting the Alerus Center for that day...................... We can argue until we're blue in the face that we should just fork over the cash to get better quality opponents because it would be an "investment" in the program. But you can't just print money either................. As long as the low level DI programs are commanding $100,000-150,000 for a one game deal, it is far more likely that UND will be forced, not choose, to continue to bring in at least one non-DI opponent each season for half of what a crappy MEAC, Big South, or NEC team would require................if we want that to change, then the Alerus needs to start filling up! Just another 3,000 fans on Saturdays would give the athletic department another $50,000 to work with. As far as USD not being on the schedule in 2012 any more, my guess is that both the Big Sky and the MVFC have set their schedules, and either one or both UND and/or USD had a league game imposed on the date the UND-USD game was originally planned, and both schools didn't have a non-conference date that would match up.....................

It is great to see so many upset about playing non-DI opponents.................that means there is passion within the fan base, and I think that is a good thing. What is not so great is to see so many complain, whine, piss & moan, and theaten to effectively boycott North Dakota football because they don't approve of the opponents.................... Let me enlighten some of you as to why North Dakota's administration is reluctant to shell out in excess of $100,000-150,000 to secure a home opponent that has the FCS label attached to it........................... Since moving to NCAA Division I FCS in 2008: Average Home Attendance vs. non-DI opponents (7 games): 10,758 Average Home Attendance vs. DI FCS opponents (8 games): 8,316 Green means go................red means stop..................... What would be the point of forking over $130,000 for Austin Peay when you can have South Dakota Mines for half that and bank on having 2,000-3,000 more buying tickets, cheering in the stands, drinking beer, and buying pizza? I've said it in the past and I'll say it again..................if Sioux football fans are going to complain about DII and NAIA teams on the home schedule, there better be more than a paltry 6,700 on hand when the #16 DI team in the nation (Cal Poly in 2009) comes to town................. IMO, attendance will be up this season..........................as ugly as it is to those of us that follow closely, scheduling 4 probable blowout wins at home for 2011 was pure genious by the administration...............

My guess would be the Summit in Sioux Falls, especially if USD, SDSU, and NDSU are participating.................... Big Sky is so vast, I think it is wise to keep it the way it is...................if not, I still think SLC would be better than Vegas considering Weber's fan following and attendance numbers.

An FCS program with no DII or NAIA opponents on the schedule seems to be the exception rather than the norm..........