bincitysioux

Yuck. I have tickets waiting at will-call for me as I planned to be there today but some unforeseen circumstances prevented it. Perhaps it was a blessing.

Automatic berth to a BCS bowl. They're the front-runner the day that they join.

An announcement of Utah St. to the MWC must be coming within 3 weeks doesn't it?............................................

IMO it is all about wins & losses. Back in the early 90's the Hyslop was the place to be because the men's basketball program was the top notch sport at UND, at a time when hockey and football were down. Attendance to men's basketball rivaled and even outdrew hockey during that time. Men's basketball has been rather insignificant since the mid-90's and attendance has suffered while during the same time hockey from the mid-90's on and football from 2001-2007 experience great success and both programs have recorded record attendance throughout those periods. Great facilities have helped a great deal, of course. I shutter to think what attendance at football could have dropped to the last two seasons if we were playing at Memorial. When trying to make the facility arguement, the Betty is a great example. When comparing to our DI peers in the Big Sky, the Summit, or the Great West, it is probably among the finest basketball venues that any school from one of those leagues would step into, but since moving in we've drawn diddly-squat by our standards because we've had mostly bad teams playing in there.

Actually, it's a comedy................ As far as the game itself, North Dakota has a decent chance, but it will be a battle. The stud bunny is out with injury. SDSU likes to run more than pass, in theory that should bode well for the Sioux..............................however in reality, not theory, we got torched by the run last week. Yes Hardin needs the ball, but the quadruple-reverse-triple option-halfbalk pass-flea flicker on two isn't the way to go about it. That never works. If we're in a postion to hand it off to Murray and Sutton all day, I like our chances.....................................3 yards and a cloud of dust baby.

Also should be mentioned that with the eventual formation of a Pac 12 Television Network, the western-based Fox Sports and Comcast networks will surely be looking for more programming in the future. The FSSN and NAU TV will be in great positions to "feed" larger networks, and by cooincidence, both UND and NAU have aready established relationships with Fox.

The only concern I really had about the move to the Big Sky was how their media agreements would affect what we already have in place, as I was I under the impression that in DI, it was the conferences that did the negotiating for the most part. However after doing a little digging that doesn't really appear to be the case, at least at our level. Northern Arizona basically has what we have with the FSSN..............actually it is more like what BYU has with BYU-TV. They have NAU TV which airs on Dish Network. As far as the actual distribution of BSC athletics, the following is from the Big Sky's website: Now, that sounds great, but you have to remember that about half of those games are referring to the fact that all Montana & Montana St. games (except when they play at an FBS) are aired on local television in the state of Montana. Also a local station broadcasts most of Eastern Washington home games. But beyond those locally covered games, "national" distribution this season would include 5 games on NAU TV, 5 games on Altitude, and 11 games total were either picked up by or simulcast from Altitude on regional Fox Sports and Comcast Sports channels. Men's basketball does really well for national coverage, mostly because of Northern Arizona. Similar to our arrangement with FSSN & FCS, either Fox College Sports or Fox Sports Arizona picks up all the games that are already being broadcast on NAU TV on Dish Network. This year, that is 10 NAU home games. Altitude will broadcast 8 Big Sky "games of the week" as well as the conference tournament semi-finals. Fox Sports Rocky Montain & Fox Sports Northwest will air 4 live games this season. And of course the Big Sky Championship is on ESPN. Fox College Sports will pick up all 10 of the women's home basketball games that are airing on NAU TV. The Big Sky Championship will be on Altitude. Now considering NAU's TV package, it is easy for me to see that as star2city has said on many occaisons, our own TV capabilities probably were not an insignificant factor when the BSC decided to extend North Dakota an invitation. If we continue a similar arrangement, we'll likely add 3 or 4 football games and anywhere from 10-15 M/W basketball games to the national schedule for the Big Sky. For increasing our own exposure, at a minimum per season we'll likely gain at least 1 away MBB game and 1 away WBB game on FCS via NAU TV, 1 MBB on Altitude, 1 annual away FB game from the state of Montana on local FSSN, and then hit and miss with Altitude football games and other games that could get picked up by the Fox or Comcast networks here and there. And of course ESPN will regularly being broadast from the Big Sky Men's Basketball Championship in The Betty starting in 2012. And since we're not in the same conference as NDSU, our hopefully soon-to-be annual men's & women's basketball games will always be aired on either FCS or teh state-wide microwaves . Keeping the rivalry going with USD will likely ensure TV games for basketball and football on Midco Cable at the very least. At minimum, it looks like we stand to gain a minimum of 6 game broadcasts that we don't have scheduled now. Additionally, the Big Sky's internet provider Big Sky TV airs all constests held in Big Sky venues for free. All in all, I like it.

Ironically, those are the same type of issues that are plaguing Zamberlin right now, as ISU was recently cited for APR infractions resulting in the loss of 6 scholarships and reducing practice time to 4 days per week. However, for some reason if you visit the Bengals or Bobcats boards, the overwhelming consenus is that Kramer would be a great fit to turn around the dismal Idaho State program. It would be a great thing for the Big Sky conference to have ISU become relevant again. They do have a fairly proud history as a "large-ish" state named school that won a BSC title in the early 2000's, has a I-AA national title to their credit from the 80's, and had great success on the basketball court in the 70's.

Idaho St. also announced that they will dismiss their head coach John Zamberlin, formerly of ex-NCC foe Central Washington, after their season finale this weekend. Rumor is that he will be replaced by Mike Kramer, who made a name for himself with successful runs at Eastern Washington and Montana St. Dale Lennon was in the running to replace Kramer at Montana St. a few years ago.

So this weekend we play our first game against one of the Big Sky rejects and future star of the upcoming mini-series, "From the Ashes--The Return of the NCC". Director/Producer/Writer Tom Douple hopes to secure St. Cloud St. and UN-Omaha for an upcoming sequel..........................................

Could you guys please enlighten those of us (me) that aren't sure who the Dutch farmer would be?

W/L record of Sioux football coaches through first three seasons: Chris Mussman: 15-16 (one game left in season 3) Dale Lennon: 31-6 Roger Thomas: 15-17 Pat Behrns: 19-11 Gene Murphy: 15-7 (2 seasons) Jerry Olson: 12-13-1 Marv Helling: 10-12-2 Frank Zazula: 10-12-2 Red Jarrett: 12-10 C.A. West: 24-3-1 Paul Davis: 10-11-2 Sure am glad we didn't cut loose Roger Thomas or Jerry Olson after just three seasons..............................

Well, I think we have a glaring concern at the QB postion going into next season. We can speculate about a JC player coming in to help next season, but when is the last time a JUCO qb transferred in and started for UND, or any other program for that matter? Is Goska in the doghouse or something? I saw nothing from Hendrickson yesterday that made me think: "Let's stick with this guy". He's a great athlete with a nice arm, but made some questionable throws, inaccurate, and seems to refuse to set his feet when he throws. Goska is no more accurate, doens't have as strong an arm, but has alot more experience and probably makes better decisions. I don't know much about the other So. QB Nichols, but what would have been lost by giving him a few snaps in either of the last two games or next week? He played at a lower level in high school than Goska or Hendrickson, but he is a big kid and had far more impressive high school numbers than either as a passer. Whether Landry would have gotten hurt or not, everybody knew this would be his last year here...........................it seems that their was a lapse in grooming his successor for the 2011 season, which is surprising to me considering the fact that since Mussman became the OC, our offenses have often been geared around a QB that is pretty effective as a passer. And basically this entire decade, there has always seemed to be a capable backup on the roster: Bowenkamp, Belmore, Manke, Landry, etc...........at some point in their careers, all 4 of those guys were thrust onto the field unexpectedly and managed to perform well for the most part. As far as Demler or Comes are concerned, when is the last time a freshman started at QB for UND? Serious question, I don't know the answer.

Mitchell looked good, so did Troy Huff. Seems like we didn't rebound all that great against a NAIA. Nice to see them handle an NAIA team the way North Dakota should be expected to.

Yeah....................... But you were dead-set against the Mid-Con/Summit as well because it is a crap league that is a step below the NCC........................... Just having fun with ya WYO.................................. But there is a big difference between the WAC and the MAC: The WAC is dying a slow and painful death.......................the MAC is actually probably stable for the most part.

Before answering your question, I'll ask you one: Outside of SDSU, UNI, and Oral Roberts, who do Bison fans get excited to see come to the Fargodome or Bison Sports arena? Now on to your question, and this comes from my own personal interests: For football I'll personally look forward to especially playing Montana, Montana St., Idaho St., Weber St., Cal Poly, and UC Davis. The first three have all won DI national championships, and the latter three are all large, well known, competetive schools, and UC Davis and Cal Poly have some of the highest academic standards. And then there is Northern Colorado, a storied DII program, which despite struggling since moving up, we have a pretty spirited history and familiarity with. For basketball, I'm giddy about Weber St. and Montana, and look forward to MSU, ISU, NAU, and PSU as well. Had the Big Sky never came calling, I would have been ecstatic to accept the impending Summit invite, even though it would have screwed the football program. Now, our football program is in an ideal situation. And I must say that looking at NDSU's basketball schedule this season, it appears that highlight of your non-conference schedule (other than North Dakota) appears to be UC Davis. In all likelyhood, our future basketball nonconference schedules will include some combination of South Dakota, NDSU, South Dakota St., or Northern Iowa. That's in addition to Weber and the Montana schools.......................................... I like the Big Sky..........................so much more than the alternative (Summit).

Montana is staying, just announced: UM staying in Big Sky Conference

Star2city: Please make your points without the name-calling.

I'd also have to agree. They may revisit the issue down the road, but as of now, I don't really see that their administration would find a Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana based WAC all that appealing. Could be alot different if Nevada and Boise were still included, or if Montana St. seemed gung ho for an FBS move, but it seems they are comfortable with where they are at. Minus the new addition of non-football Denver, Idaho has really become a geographic outlier in the WAC.

Everyone loves a winner........................... Win, and they will come.

As far as the original question of this thread, I would like to continue playing the Yotes, in all sports. People like to downplay the "rivalry", but since the transition, we've had some excellent games with them in football and basketball. The OT football game in Vermillion, the WBB game in Vermillion when Roebuck pulled the players off the floor at the end, and the MBB team knocking them out of the post-season in successive years after they whooped us in the regular season. They're easily #3 on the rival list after Minnesota and NDSU, and I'd guess they'd still love to play us.

We can relate................ I expect it to be a pretty entertaining game.

Just having some fun with you! I'd say it has worked out well for all the schools. And just think, now it will be that much easier for you to travel to see North Dakota play!

Hey WYO, just in good fun, remember this? :

NDSU voted in favor of South Dakota joining Missouri Valley