bincitysioux

I plan on going to the South Dakota game this season. The one bad thing about the GWFC is the geography of the league. South Dakota every other year will probably be the only away game I'll make it to. Hopefully in the next few years we'll get to go to Northern Iowa again, I'd make that trip.

I got decent seats in the upper bowl for the Saturday gopher game 7 rows up. Sold out now for Sat. FYI: If your interested in the Holiday Hat trick package for the Duluth, New Hampshire, and St. Cloud series, I was able to get lower bowl tickets in row A for this package and they are still available. Good deal.

It seems to be working well for me also on the archived stuff, and I couldn't view the sample either. I sure hope they are planning on syncing the audio with the video this year. There was no audio for basketball games last year and the radio was a good 10 seconds ahead. Was there audio on hockey webcasts last year?

The Men's schedule was released today. Sorry, Jim, Valley City is on the schedule. No more major additions, except for Montevallo who went to the Elite 8 will participate in the Thanksgiving tournament at the Betty. We and they would obviously both have to win (or both have to lose) for us to play them. I hope we get can get them. All in all, a better schedule than last year. Tough opening with Adams St., Colorado Springs, and Northern St. Then there is Iowa St. (not an exhibition this year). Still too many DAC teams on the schedule for me though. We open against 3 quality opponents, all on the road this year. We should have a pretty decent idea of what this year's team is made of in its first week of play.

Congrats Chris, good for you!

Heard it straight from Pat Sweeney. They are also planning on two basketball doubleheaders again this year, just haven't finalized which ones yet.

The FSSN will again televise two home football games this season. The Nebraska-Omaha game and the St. Cloud St. game.

UND athletics announces single-game tickets to go on sale August 9

Apparently not. League scheduling uncertain in first season

UND FOOTBALL: What a Great (West) start

There has been alot of speculation about the University of San Diego adding scholarships and possibly being interested in the GWFC. Whether there is anything to that, I have no idea. With no autobid to offer, the only likely expansion candidates would probably have to be other DII move-ups.

So I assume that this means we will be playing all GWFC members in 2008 rather than 2 of the 3 current members as was announced earlier this summer. This is a good development for UND. It guarantees an extra game against good competition in 2008 that we weren't sure we would have earlier this summer when the original plan of a "limited schedule" was discussed. More importantly it gives Coach Lennon and his players the opportunity to pursue a conference championship right off the bat. Now I just hope that the GWFC straightens out there conference schedule. I believe some teams (SDSU I believe) had to travel for 3 conference games and only had 1 home conference game. Did they fix that for this years teams?

Those are my thoughts exactly as well. I've long advocated going to a night-game format, for at the very least non-conference games. You make a good point about hunters, which definately hurts attendence in the fall. I drive 100 miles for every football game, and the 1:00 p.m. start basically shoots away the entire day. I have no problem getting home at midnight (I do it for hockey all the time, staying up late is what weekends are for). I would also think that taking in a football game would be a great way for people who live in Grand Forks and work Saturdays to wind down their day.

Here's an updated men's schedule: 11-16-07 @ Adams St. (can't confirm, just going by what Moody said that day on the radio) 11-17-07 @ University of Colorado-Colorado Springs 11-20-07 @ Northern St. 11-23-07 vs UM-Crookston 11-24-07 vs Western Oregon (can't confirm, just going by what Moody said that day on the radio) 11-27-07 vs Dickinson St. 12-04-07 @ Mary 12-11-07 vs Upper Iowa 12-15-07 vs Jamestown College 12-18-07 vs Mayville St. 01-05-08 @ Iowa St. 01-10-08 @ St. Cloud St. 01-12-08 @ Minnesota St. 01-15-08 vs Mary 01-19-08 vs South Dakota 01-26-08 vs Nebraska-Omaha 01-31-08 vs Minnesota State 02-02-08 vs Augustana 02-07-08 vs St. Cloud St. 02-14-08 @ Augustana 02-16-08 @ UM-Duluth 02-23-08 vs Nebraska-Omaha 03-01-08 vs UM-Duluth Added the second UNO game. UND and USD are the only NCC teams that still haven't released their schedules.

I think our attendance does pretty well considering football isn't the main sport at UND, we're located in a city of only ~50,000, and the school is located in such close proximity to another school that is arguably the most accomplished program in the history of DII (eh, I feel dirty after saying that ). Having said that, the attendance at last year's playoff game was pretty pitiful, and I think a school with a program and facility like UND, we should be up around at least 11,000/game every week. I think we'll get there and surpass it in the next few years. Something I find surprising is the apparent lack of advertising being done prior to this upcoming football season. We are less than 30 days away from the opener, and I haven't seen, heard, or read one commercial on TV, radio, or in the paper. I live 100 miles away, so I don't know if there are any promotions going on in GF, but I've seen alot of NDSU ads on TV and radio and even heard a couple Mary plugs on the radio, but nada for UND. More on topic, I wonder if the Canad and UND/Alerus would consider working a promotion together. Something like show your game ticket and recieve a discount off your stay at the Canad, or the reverse of that. Or show your game ticket and get a discount at one of the establishments in the Canad or at the water park. Something like that could entice people to check out the new hotel or UND football.

Valley City St. has released their schedule, and UND is not listed on it. Mary will be a home-and-home again this year. Minnesota State's schedule is out so we now know the respective dates and locations of both of those games. Here's an updated men's schedule: 11-16-07 @ Adams St. (can't confirm, just going by what Moody said that day on the radio) 11-17-07 @ University of Colorado-Colorado Springs 11-20-07 @ Northern St. 11-23-07 vs UM-Crookston 11-24-07 vs Western Oregon (can't confirm, just going by what Moody said that day on the radio) 11-27-07 vs Dickinson St.* 12-04-07 @ Mary 12-11-07 vs Upper Iowa 12-15-07 vs Jamestown College 12-18-07 vs Mayville St.* 01-05-08 @ Iowa St. 01-10-08 @ St. Cloud St. 01-12-08 @ Minnesota St. 01-15-08 vs Mary 01-19-08 vs South Dakota* 01-31-08 vs Minnesota State 02-02-08 vs Augustana 02-07-08 vs St. Cloud St. 02-14-08 @ Augustana 02-16-08 @ UM-Duluth 02-23-08 vs Nebraska-Omaha* 03-01-08 vs UM-Duluth *Don't know the location

There is a good read written by Bob Eblen at D2football.com regarding the changing landscape of the DII football. Specifically the folding of the NCC, the expansion of the NSIC, and UNO to the MIAA.

I-AA will be viable for a long time. Schools come and schools go from all divisions, all the time. Fullerton is full of hot air, we know that. Moving the entire Big Sky to I-A is preposterous in my opinion. The only schools that I can see that would be in favor of it would be UM (only school that really has the resources, facillities, and fanbase to do it), Sac St. (only because of their President's infatuation with Fresno St., that could change if he ever left), and Montana St. (would only consider it if UM left first). You could make an argument at the current time for Portland St., but that is only because of Jerry Glanville. That talk will end in three years when he moves on. ISU would have no interest in the FBS (Idaho can't really support two I-A schools, much less 3). UNC............I don't think so. NAU with their location and facillities can't compete with ASU and UofA for the sports entertainment dollars in AZ. Same goes for Eastern Washington with regards to the Huskies and Cougars. Weber St. would have to contend with BYU and Utah. If UofM and/or MSU did make the plunge into the FBS, that would only be more incentive for the above schools to make a stronger commitment to I-AA, because that would immediatly make schools like NAU, EWU, etc. contenders in the FCS. The Big Sky would be far better off improving their standing within NCAA basketball. They are already one of the top 2 or 3 FCS conferences in the country. I-AA football is similar to college hockey..........it is a bit of niche sport, but the schools that excel at it, have a rabid regional and national following. The Big Sky gets much more attention as a powerhouse FCS conference than it would as a bottom-feeding FBS conference. Maybe Fullerton doesn't realize this, but I'm sure the University Presidents do.

UND and USD will certainly be close friends throughout the transition. But when either school pursues a conference, whichever conference it may be, or when a given conference shows interest in expansion, it will be every man for himself.

Yes I was referring to DI in Fargo

How come your name here isn't BisonBacker like it is everywhere else?

Not to knit-pick here, but in the last 8 years the Summit and Big Sky have taken turns in which conference has had the better RPI. The Big Sky has finished ahead of the Summit 4 times in 8 years, finishing as high as 14 in 2000 and 17 as recently as 2006. The Summit hasn't done any better than 21 in that time, and out of 32 conferences has rounded out the worst 5 conference RPI 3 times in the last 8 years. In the big picture, it has really been a wash as to which is the better Basketball conference. However the gap may widen with Valpo on the way out. The Summit has been known for basketball because they don't have football.

I think that is more a reflection of the state of DII football rather than our A.D.'s or Coaches scheduling philosophies Example: beating Winona (in region opponent) at home by 50 would mean more for playoff hopes than defeating the defending national champion NWMSU (out of region opponent). I'm sure we could have easily gotten an 11th game. But probably would have had to be on the road to get an attractive top 25 opponent. The alternative would have been a sixth home game against someone like Crookston or Charleston. With playoff stipulations to consider, perhaps 10 games and the extra bye week is more beneficial. I believe Mr. Buning also inherited an athletic department from RT that was running in the red and now has a balanced budget. From what I gather from posters here, most of the coaches liked RT. If I were an employee, I would probably also like to have a boss that allowed me to be a free-spender. As someone who has employees though, I know that my business probably wouldn't last long if I didn't keep a tight leash on how much money was being spent on what. Sometimes tough decisions must be made, and not everyone is going to like it.

Is it really that funny? NDSU's transition year was 2003-04. UND's is 2007-08. Your arrogance makes you forget that in July of 2003, NDSU didn't have any conference affiliations lined up. That is the equilivent point that UND is currently at in July of 2007. Considering that, I myself find it funny that you apparently hold UND to a much higher standard than you do NDSU. Actually I guess it is not all that funny, because I think most people do expect more from The University of North Dakota.

I fixed that part of your post for you. Keep consistent while making your insightful points.