bincitysioux

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.

I didn't compare Denver lacrosse to those programs............you did. They have been one of the better teams in their conference which includes the likes of Ohio St. and Notre Dame. Speaking of desperation and passing off anything as fact to help an agenda, how's that UND and USD to the Gateway thing going?

I don't see how the Big Sky would be a step down for them. They would still keep their current conference affiliations in their wildly successful niche sports like skiing, lacrosse, and hockey; and they would join a more geographically friendly and one that they'd potentially be more competetive in for M & W basketball in the Big Sky. Like star2city says, they'll accept the invite when UND does. Really though, I think it is their private, christian status that is the hang-up. They'd like to be in the WCC, but they are not in a coastal state.

Anybody know what Bledsoe and Porter did to get suspended?

Now it sounds as if the FCS may go to a 20 team playoff field beginning in 2010. Proposal would add four spots to FCS playoffs in 2010 I hope that their final goal is still to get to a 24 team bracket at some point. It looks like the Big South and the NEC have autobids reserved for them. Hopefully around 2013 or so (once UND is playoff eligible), the Great West will have found another member or two and will be granted an autobid if the field does expand again around that time.

Most of us have known that scheduling will be very difficult and that there will be some pretty unappealing teams on all of the schedules with this transition. The frustrating thing about the football schedule though is that we heard way back last summer when UND joined the Great West that the schedule was nearly complete at that time. Then in November we had 10 games scheduled. Then in December we had 9 games scheduled. Then just 8 in January. Now we know McNeese is a no, and 99% chance that Cal-Poly is a no, so is it currently at 8 or maybe even just 7? Does the coaching change in St. Cloud have a bearing on that game? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the rumor of playing South Dakota twice became a reality. At one point, Lennon said that they would like to have or were going to be close to having 6 home games. The way teams are dropping off the schedule like flies, and with the possiblity of the USD game being in Vermillion, I'm thinking just 4 home games is more realistic. All of this is what I would expect for a first year transitional school, so normally I wouldn't be so frustrated, had Coach Lennon not said in July that scheduling was nearly done.

Anyone know any any info on Sadler? I can't really find much other than a few different articles he was quoted in. Just quick glance over the available info for the candidates, and I like Burke the best, follwed by Hickman and Schlickman. Does anyone else find Faison's interest in the job a bit curious? Years of experience as a DI A.D., recently promoted from his last AD position at a I-A school, and has interest in leaving sunny New Mexico for frigid North Dakota to head up a homeless and transtioning athletic deptment.

I know most of this info has already been posted througout this thread, but I just thought I'd put all the bios/articles I could find on the 7 finalists in one place. Barbara Burke--University of Wyoming (Bio at end of article) Tim Hickman--University of Missouri Tim Leonard--University of Central Florida Tom Sadler--Global Entertainment Website Brian Faison--New Mexico State Jay Hinrichs--University of Northern Colorado Paul Schlickmann--Stony Brook

SIOUX 60 AUGGIE 88 Final Score

Texas State students approve increased athletics fee for FBS football

sioux down 33 8:41 left

SIOUX DOWN BY 32 ~15:00 LEFT

HALFTIME STATS FG%: UND 48%, Auggie 63% REB: UND 13, Auggie 15 TURNOVERS: UND 15, Auggie 5 UND SCORERS: Little 10, Benter 7 AUGGIE SCORERS: McIntosh 14, Blank 11

SIOUX 30 AUGGIE 58 HALFTIME

UND will not be playing McNeese St. this season. They've announced their complete 12-game schedule, and the Sioux are not on it. Seems like the schedule is alot LESS complete than coach Lennon had led us to believe through Nov. and Dec.

This is bad. UND looked better than this against Iowa St.

SIOUX 19 AUGGIE 38 6:10 1ST HALF 13 TURNOVERS BY UND