bincitysioux

Just trying to piece some dates together here, for the ones we haven't figured out yet. We know the dates for the games in the wiki. Per the Walrus, we have consecutive open dates on Oct. 4 and 11. UW La Crosse's only open date that matches up with us is Sept. 13. Slulionsfan says our game with SLU is Sept. 27th. St. Cloud has games scheduled on Oct 4th and 11th, and Sept 13. NSIC teams seem to playing non-conference games in week one or two, so Sept. 6th appears a likely date. Exluding the two October open dates, the only other time the UND-USD game could occur is Nov. 22, which would keep it the last game of the year like it has been for the last several years, which I hope they do. So the dates should work out like this: Aug. 28 Texas A&M-Kingsville Sept. 6 St. Cloud St. Sept. 13 UW-La Crosse Sept. 18 @ Idaho St. Sept. 27 @ Southeastern Louisiana Oct. 4 OPEN Oct. 11 OPEN Oct. 18 Western Washington Oct. 25 @ UC Davis Nov. 1 @ Southern Illinois Nov. 8 Southern Utah Nov. 15 OPEN Nov. 22 @ South Dakota I'd really like to see that Oct. 4 date filled with a home game. A month in the middle of the season is too long for me to go without having a game to go to in GF . FYI: Cal Poly has open dates on Oct. 4 and 11 . USD will likely take one of those dates.

Interesting, I would have thought Schlickmann would have been one of the stronger candidates.

I would not be against it. Could help build the rivalry up a bit too. South Dakota twice in the same year is way more appealing than Winona St. twice was.

So you have heard of them, then, right? I'm just saying that playing a DI non-scholarship program sounds way better to me than a DIII (also non-scholarship) Wisconsin-Whitewater for example, or a NSIC team with 7 scholarships.

Would we have gotten the game with Davis though? And who knows whether or not Cal Poly would have even had discussions with UND had we not joined the GWFC. Had we not joined the conference it is not a given that we could have scheduled both of the Cali schools anyways, perhaps neither for that matter. One is better than none. Apparently, joining the league this year at the least prompted the GWFC to force each Cali school to play one of the Dakota schools. Without that mandate, the Cali schools could have just as easily scheduled a lesser GNAC school for their "non-counter" game. The "good" of joining the League this year is that our student-athletes can receive weekly and yearly conference honors, and we can compete for the conference title, apparently by virtue of some formula that will substitute a team with a comparable GPI on the UxD's schedule for the GWFC teams we don't play.

I actually think that Valparaiso was a nice get for NDSU for their first DI schedule. Sure they are non-scholarship, and probably not as good as many DII or even some NAIA teams, but they play in FCS subdivision, and have name-recognition. It is common place for entrenched programs to play one gimmie-game a year. In a couple years, once we become established, I would much rather play a yearly non-schollie team from the Pioneer League like Drake, Butler, or Valpo than a Humboldt St. or some other lesser DII team.

I think 95% of those that post on here know how difficult scheduling would be this year, and will continue to be for the next several years. I like the schedule that we know of so far. The only "uninteresting" game really is Texas A&M-Kingsville, and that really isn't so bad either. The other DII's on the schedule are familiar foes at least from what was the strongest conference in the division. And yes, the road schedule is good. I just think that in a year like this, with no chance for post-season play for the foreseeable future, it is important to get as many games as possible especially in an odd year like this that allows a rare 12th regular season game, and I know how hard it can be to make that happen. If we have to bring in another low-tier DII, or even a DIII or NAIA, to get that done, I think it should be considered. This year, at least, the more games the better.

Only 10 games again, huh? That would be 3 consecutive years with a 10 game schedule. I would have hoped with a 12 game FCS season that we could have gotten at least 11 games this year.

This thread from the USD board indicates that the UND-USD game will be in Vermillion. I can't find any confirmation anywhere, but I'd say that it is quite possible. If that schedule is accurate, I really really like ours so far. USD apparently has 2 NAIA's, 2 DII's, and UND for their home schedule.

I don't know the answer, but I am of the opinion that if NDSU is paying for/buying air-time to get their games on TV and radio (which is what they're doing), and if they are breaking even or even just coming close to covering their costs, then that is good business. Televised sporting events are great infomercials. It is essentially the same thing that UND has been doing for years with the FSSN. UND pays for satellite time and hires WDAZ to produce the games. UND decides which games are televised, not WDAZ, although DAZ still owns the broadcast television rights if they ever wanted to put a game on the network, which is something they haven't done as often since the FSSN.

In the name of optimism, I'm going to predict that UND will beat UMD next weekend in the final game. They played well enough for the first 36 minutes at home on Saturday to give me some hope. Then we'll get throttled again by either Augustana or USD in the NCC tourney.

Thanks. It seems to me that it would be wise for UND to band together with all or many of the other independent and transtional schools and put together some sort of system to allow the schools to compete for a conference (I use that term loosely) championship, and for the student-athletes to receive weekley and yearly honors from. What would the reason be for not doing it? That is, essentially what the Great West Football Conference is. It would be pretty simple I'd think. All it would require is one person to keep track of stats and send out a weekly press release. I believe that there are actually more independents now than when the xDSU's moved up. CSU-Bakersfield Longwood Chicago St. New Jersey Institute of Technology Savannah State Texas-PanAm Utah Valley St. North Dakota South Dakota Seattle SIU-Edwardsville Houston Baptist North Carolina Central UND, USD, Seattle, and SIU-Edwardsville already have a scheduling agreement. I would think that New Jersey Tech, Texas-PanAm, and Utah Valley would be willing to join in the fun, since they had the UBC arrangements with NDSU, SDSU, and IPFW, so the UxD's and SIU would make good geographical replacements for games on their schedules.

UM-Crookston is playing their non-conference game on Sept. 6, so there is a precedent. I would have no problem playing CWU next year.

I didn't know that the NCAA only had control of the Men's NIT and not the women's. Are you sure that non-eligible teams would not be invited? I seem to recall that being one of NDSU's big goals in Miles' last two years.

They can qualify for the NIT during the transition, the SDSU women's team did last year. The NIT is actually owned and operated by the NCAA. Obviously, with the state of the Men's program, it is not a realistic goal, but getting an NIT bid for either the men's or women's program will surely become the ultimate goal until the transition is over. Question for our NDSU friends, did the far-flung scheduling alliance that the xDSU's participated in, the United Basketball Conference, keep leauge stats, records, standings, etc.?

Thanks Hammer, I never saw the actual print article, just the blog entry. I wonder who the other opponents are that weren't listed on the blog.

The addition of WWU is fine by me. If the St Cloud game still comes through, that would mean two of the three DII's on the home schedule played in the toughest conference in DII last year. At any rate, it is not looking like the schedule, specifically the home portion, will be much of a down-grade from years past, which is often the case for a school in its first year of transition. On a related note, Cal-Poly announced today that they will be playing at Wisconsin this season, which will be their 2nd FBS game of the year (they open against San Diego State). I figured that would for sure put an end to the possibility of them playing us this season, despite McFeely's blog post saying it could still happen. According to the Cal Poly blog, it is still a possibility. However, that blog doesn't mention South Dakota, so perhaps the blogger mixed up the UxD's. At any rate, without either UxD, Poly currently has 9 games confirmed with only 4 at home, so they may have room for both Dakota schools on the schedule.

Roebuck was very complimentary of USD in the post-game. His basic point was that it doesn't matter that UND has two dominating post players, that may pose a mismatch inside to a team like USD, because USD's posts, although small, play good fundamental defense.

The ladies lost 76-65 to USD tonight.

I thought you were Denver's A.D.?

UND FOOTBALL: Salukis, Sioux to meet in '08

Ian McGurran and Seth Wisthoff are on the North Dakota roster for the Badlands Bowl. One-time Sioux commit Mitch Haugeberg is also on the roster.

Well, thank you Dale! The best thing about this addition is that it gives us a high-quality game late in the season when most teams are into their conference schedules. Another good thing about it is that it is the second Gateway team in three years to schedule us. Establishing relationships with Gateway teams is a good thing.

Damn you Hansel, interjecting with your "facts" again. I guess my point is, it takes 5 hours to get from GF to MSP, which alot of people do for hockey. It takes 4 hours to get from GF to St. Cloud, which has always been a popular place for UND football & hockey fans. It is a hair over a 5 hour drive from GF to Vermillion, Interstate the whole way. It is a nice place to travel to, and a nice place to watch an autumn football game in.

Of course it is not forced, these two teams have been playing each other in various sports regularily since 1903. They played for a travelling trophy for 43 years. The reason the rivalry is not as big as it could be, is because there have been few meaningful games between the two schools. As far as I know, USD has only put together a handful of brief time-periods when they were factors on the national football landscape (i.e. the, 50's and the 80's). Well, UND football was pretty crappy at those times. Really only in 2005 and 2006 were UND and USD really nationally competetive at the same time. Again in basketball, I know USD won a national championship in the early 60's, and have been quite good over the last 12-15 years. UND basketball really thrived from the late 60's to the mid 90's. As far as I'm concerned, the stars just haven't aligned correctly for the two schools to play meaningful games at a time when they both are nationally competetive all that often. I hope and think that will change here during the transition. These two schools need to market their histories together through this transition. Certainly, next year it will be the most meaningful game on each teams schedules, and probably for the next several years. I give the xDSU's credit for the way they conjured up their rivalry. The NDSU-SDSU football game, which nobody gave a crap about for 102 years really, for the time, has become something special to the fans of those schools, because the administrations of each school commited to marketing it, because there were so few meaningful games, and (probably the biggest reason) SDSU has actually been competetive with NDSU. The administrations of the UxD's really do need to work together alot over the next few years. Teams are dropping like flies off the UND football schedule, and if CoyoteFan is right USD is more talks with NAIA schools than they should. They need to market this rivalry. Play for a travelling trophy of some sort, or bring back the Sitting Bull. I don't wanna hear any crap about geography either, it takes a whopping 1.5 hours longer to get from GF to Verm than it does from Fargo to Brookings, all a straight shot on I-29. This thing will develop naturally if both schools just win. But it wouldn't hurt to market it a little when some of USD's home games next year look to be Culver-Stockton and Dakota Weslyan, and some of ours are going to be TAMUK and St. Cloud.