bincitysioux

45 North Daktoa 77 Nebraska Final

34 North Dakota 59 Nebraska ~6:00

Mitch Wilmer & Spencer Goodman both out for the year.........................

28 North Dakota 52 Nebraska ~10:00 2nd half

26 North Dakota 42 Nebraska ~14:00 2nd half

20 North Dakota 36 Nebraska Half

15 North Dakota 26 Nebraska 7:18 1st half

9 North Dakota 15 Nebraska 15:34 1st half

Would it be more equitable to adopt a MAC-style divisional schedule minus the championship game? One 7 team division and one 6 team division with 5 divisional games and 3 cross-divisional games. The members of the 7 team divison would skip one team in that division each year as the MAC East does. Big Sky 7 Eastern Washington Portland St. Sacramento St. Northern Arizona Cal Poly UC Davis Southern Utah Big Sky 6 Idaho St. Montana Montana St. Weber St. North Dakota Northern Colorado Just throwing another idea out there...........................

The 4 team permanent rival model isn't receiving a very warm welcome over at EGRIZ..............

North Dakota Game Notes

Weber St. was the only Big Sky team this past season that did not play a sub-DI team.................they played two FBS opponents.

My guess is, mostly due to the limited amount of revenue that can be generated from a home game, that one DII game on the schedule each season will be quite common.

Softball and baseball are just not ever going to be viable sports at the DI level in this region. Softball is needed for Title IX reasons, and with an actual conference on the horizon will be in better shape...................but I can't even imagine what a huge financial drag baseball is becoming since the move to DI. I know the Alerus option for softball has been discussed by the administration in the past.............perhaps it is just not feasible, but one would think some sort of configuration could be used. As far as Sac St. moving sports to the Big West.................I doubt the Big Sky will give them that option. Will be interesting to see how the Big Sky conference softball is formed. The current 5 members that sponsor it play in the 12 member Pacific Coast Softball Conference, a softball only conference, and 3 of those 5 members only recently joined. Sac St. would certainly be opposed to Big Sky softball, as there are 6 California schools in the PCSC. I wonder if there are talks between the Big Sky and the PCSC about merging?

Faison said at the Big Sky announcement that the conference would start sponsoring softball. I have no idea why there is not at least a home series with USD......................

Overall Record: 5-8 (0-0 Great West) Last Action: 73-64 win over South Dakota Mines RPI: 325 North Dakota Website North Dakota Audio---FREE Overall Record: 10-2 (0-0 Big 12) Last Action: 79-39 win over Grambling RPI: 100 Nebraska Website Nebraska Video---$12.95 Nebraska Message Board

It is pretty slow there usually, but you can access each Big Sky schools own forum from there..................

I do like the idea that the regular season champ hosts the basketball tournament.........................just a nice reward for solid play throughout the season. However, given the vast geography of the league, a central location would have its merits as well. I don't know for sure, but it would seem that the Big Sky would be one of the few NCAA conferences that does not have a set location for its basketball tournament? Using the "neutral site hosted by a close proximity school" plan, either Salt Lake City or Denver would make great centralized locations for the tourney, as travel would be relatively easy to either locale. Salt Lake would be the obvious choice given the fact that it is close to Weber, which is the biggest drawing school in the conference.

Those numbers I listed came off of a map that was sent to me from the Alumni foundation a few years ago................... Closest thing I can find on the web is on page 19 of the UND Vision One portfolio. That lists UND "constituents" around the country. I can't seem to find anything like Hansel's map that lists alumni by county, but I thought that our friend Hammersmith had showed us one at one time, or maybe I'm just smokin' something............... On an unrelated note, I see on that same page on the alumni map, which is from 2007, that the Fighting Sioux Club had a goal of reaching $2 million by 2012-13. They went over $2 million last year, so fundraising appears to be going quite well.

Schuler was named GWC player of the week..................

Back in 2006-07, it was 4,030....................I'd assume it is probably about the same now.

Can we just agree that most NDSU fans prefer the Summit/MVFC and most North Dakota fans prefer the Big Sky and leave it at that? Arguing over which league is better because it is two spots higher in the bottom 1/3 of the RPI or arguing over which league is better because its basketball games draw 200 more people than the other seems relatively pointless. North Dakota is delighted to be a member of one of the top 3 FCS conferences in the nation that has quality rivals in a bordering state. NDSU is delighted to be a member of one of the top 3 FCS conferences in the nation that has quality rivals in a bordering state. Personally, I think that the Big Sky is a much better league overall and fits UND and its mission better than the Summit would have. I can't prove it, it is just my opinion. I'm sure that Hansel, Fargobison, and ndsubison1 feel the same way about NDSU and the Summit and MVFC, and I can't prove that they are wrong either. I also am of the opinion that if the Big Sky would have invited NDSU back in 2004 that most NDSU fans would feel that the Big Sky was the premier league in FCS and would be touting it as the best possible fit for them. Same goes for UND..............if we would have been invited to the Summit a year and a half ago when USD was, followed by an invite to the MVFC, most of us would pounding our chest about how great the Summit/MVFC is and start referring to the Big Sky as the Big Fluffy like MVFC and CAA fans do................. Funny how stuff works out.......................and I'm pretty happy with the way it all did. IN MY OPINION, the following are the reasons that I PERSONALLY THINK that the Big Sky is better for UND than the Summit: 1) Opponent Continuity---I feel it is easier to build rivalries when you have the same opponents for all sports 2) Alumni base--Other than the Twin Cities, most alumni of UND head west, often near Big Sky locales 3) Notoriety & Academics--Big Sky has larger recognizable schools often named for their state or large metro city. Distinguished research schools at UM, MSU, Davis, & Poly 4) Most desirable possible schedules---NDSU, USD, SDSU, UNI are just a short bus-ride ride away, to go along with guaranteed games against UM, MSU, Weber, UNC, ISU, Poly, & Davis 5) Stability---Big Sky still has 4 charter members going back to nearly 50 years ago. Virtually every Summit member wants to be in either the MVC or Horizon league 6) Women's sports---WBB is a very important sport at UND. Big Sky is a much better WBB conference. Volleyball is emerging at UND and alot of talent in the region........BSC is a better Volleyball conference. Softball struggles at UND, but there is much more talent to recruit in the west than in the midwest.

That may be partly true, but if the situation had been different, as in if the Summit & MVFC together and the Big Sky offered USD on the same day 20 months ago before they had already commited to the Summit, I find it difficult to believe that USD would have chosen the Big Sky. Their football team rode a bus to North Carolina for a game two years ago..................I highly doubt they were looking forward to Big Sky travel. Their near decision to join the Big Sky was based on football affiliation only, my guess is there was a huge sigh of relief when the MVFC offered at the last minute.

Let me just say that I'm happy UND is in the Big Sky, that is what I always wanted. Also the MVFC would have been great too, and it is for NDSU. I think both schools are in fine situations. Personally, and this is just me, I'm happy UND was extended the invite from the Big Sky and if we would have had the choice of the two like USD did, I would have still hoped and preferred that UND chose the Big Sky in that situation as well. Again, it is just my personal preference. I don't expect NDSU to try to get into the Big Sky, they have a great situation with where they are at...................I just want to ask a general question. One of the biggest reasons NDSU fans give for not wanting the Big Sky (again I see no reason why they'd want to leave their current situation) is that the MVFC lies within their primary recruiting areas. Well, don't most schools recruit A) the locations they play near most, and B) locations that their coaching staff has "connections"? UND didn't start recruiting CA much until we started playing their regularly. Both schools recruit AZ and neither play their regularly, although UND will in the future. Both schools recruit Texas a little more now, and neither play there often except during transitonal time-frame games against Southland schools. NDSU recruits Nebraska because their head coach has ties there. They don't play there since leaving the NCC. Just asking................seems like a silly excuse. I'm sure UND will recruit Colorado and Utah more now that we will play there often. NDSU will continue to recruit Illinois and such places. Both schools will recruit MN and WI heavily as they always have even though neither state are Big Sky or MVFC states. If one of our favorite schools gets an assistant coach with good ties to high school football in North Carolina, I'd imagine we'd recruit their even though it is not a "primary" recruiting area.

It's a bit early for me to make predictions, but on the surface I like our chances against Drake, Black Hills, Montana Western, Sioux Falls, Northern Colorado, Cal Poly, and USD. Not saying I'm overly confident in any of those matchups, but beyond the obvious first 4, I think UND has matched up quite well with Poly the last two years, and seriously doubt USD could be considered a heavy favorite in Grand Forks. Northern Colorado is Northern Colorado..................not overlooking them, just think they are the best chance for a road win.