bincitysioux

I don't think the kicking game is going to be an issue. At altitude I think Taubenheim will be putting it in the endzone all day like he did in Pocatello. Weather looks like it is going to be pretty decent. UNC is 11th in the conference in kick returns. Kick coverage was really bad against Weber, but they have one of the best return units in the conference. Totally different scenario this week IMO. I expect a competitive game, especially with the questions surrounding Studsrud's status, but still a game i think we will win by 10 points or more. Although we are fairly evenly matched in several areas, the Bears' pass defense looks really vulnerable. Either Studsrud or Bartels can have a big day against them. It seems like their passing game can be explosive at times. However even though our secondary gets criticized often, we are actually #4 in the league in pass defense, #1 in pass defense efficiency, and #1 in the nation in interceptions. I'm also encouraged by how our D-Line may match up against their O-Line in passing situations. A lot of potential sacks there. North Dakota 30 Northern Colorado 20

Isnt' that actually what they do in Greeley? To make being there more tolerable?

Good thing we are not in the Summit League or we would not have any DI non conference games in the Sioux Center.

Let's just win these last two games and get a seed!

I prefer the night games as well and would think most younger people would also. Many people work on Saturdays too, so the early starts prevent those people from attending too. The 1:00 start time blows the entire day for anyone that plans on attending, especially if they are driving in from any distance. I will say though that the 1:00 should be a small advantage when playing some Big Sky schools, especially the ones from the pacific time zone.

UND's football stats page has the following: 2003: N/A on the website anymore it appears. I should have a hard copy somewhere in my office that I can check though 2006: 8,827 2007: 9,887 2014: 7,486 (Wiki is off by one here)

That is a strange topic, and several years ago I even communicated with Alerus officials to figure it out. When it opened, capacity was listed as 13,500. In 2003 I believe, they revised the listed capacity to 12,283. In a handful of discussions I've had with Alerus staff and UND staff, the answer that I finally got was that 12,283 is the number of seats that UND controls. This number does not include potential standing room only tix that could become available, or the number of tickets that are allotted to suite holders.

Hmmm.... I admit that I am the one that did that work in the wiki starting several years ago and just keep adding to it after each season. Which are the discrepencies you found. I'll take a look and fix them. As far as sell outs, 2001 against NDSU, and 2009 against USD are the only official sell outs that I came across.

There are attendance numbers for football going back to 1999 in the Wiki. The all time attendance record was set in 2008, and none of USD, SDSU, NDSU, or UNI visited the Alerus. 2001 was the second best season for attendance, obviously that was the national championship year. We hosted NDSU and SDSU. NDSU was a sell out, SDSU was the lowest attended regular season game of the year. 2007 was the third best attended season in Alerus history. None of USD, SDSU, NDSU, or UNI were in Grand Forks that year. Now most everyone who is here regularly knows I am a big proponent of the Big Sky so I admit I am bias that way. My point is that history shows that it is no guarantee that the former NCC schools being regulars on the schedule would be a boon to attendance. The final game with NDSU in 2003 did not even sell out, and that was another year where we landed in the national championship game. To be blunt, I don't think the potential fans that are in Grand Forks that we are trying to attract are very knowledgeable about college football or probably college athletics in general. For example in 2013, the game against Robert Morris outdrew the game against Montana who was ranked #7 at the time. So no, I don't think "familiar" opponents are going to make a difference. Might as well just table that idea and embrace the Big Sky!

If the NoBowls bracket held true, I'm not quite sure why they wouldn't send San Diego to Cal Poly...........

I agree things are much improved, and they aren't going to change over night. Attendance through 4 games this year is 18% higher than where it was through 4 games last year. That is a wonderful improvement. Attendance was an all time low since moving into the Alerus in 2014, Bubba's first season. Saw an 11% increase in his second year, and another healthy bump so far this year. Things are trending in the right direction. Having said all that though, I fully expect the NAU game to be the lowest attended game of the year, unless we make the playoffs, which that would then be the likely worst attended game of the year. If you look at the last 3 seasons, the final two games have averaged around 30% less in attendance than the first three. The big drop in turnout for Weber St., a clash between unbeaten teams, doesn't give me any hope that the trend of dwindling turnout for late season games is going to change this year.

CollegeSportsMadness bracket also has UND vs SDSU with the winner going to Fargo.

nobowls.com bracket

It has been around 8 years or so since we could seriously talk about North Dakota's position in a playoff bracket before the season ended, so I figured this topic was worthy of its own thread.

Then we need to win out and have EWU stumble, because IF we both finish 8-0, the Sagarin rating will be the tie breaker, giving EWU the autobid. Of course if we finish 8-0 we will obviously be in. l think we are pretty good where we are sitting now, but I'd say one more win guarantees us a spot. Finish strong in these last two games and I still think we have a shot at getting a seed.

Western Illinois over SDSU was the only Top 25 upset this week, so not expecting much movement in the polls..............

Front page of the STATS website............. FCS Top 25: UND still first in Big Sky

Sagarin Ratings 10/30/16 NDSU EWU UNI Jacksonville St. SDSU Youngstown St James Madison Chattanooga Central Arkansas Sam Houston Montana Richmond Citadal Samford Illinois St Charleston Southern Western Illinois Villanova Lehigh Coastal Carolina Northern Arizona Cal Poly Wofford North Dakota Liberty South Dakota New Hampshire North Carolina A&T Princeton Colgate Southern Illinois Harvard Penn Albany Tennessee-Martin Southern Utah Grambling Indiana St Eastern Illinois Stony Brook San Diego Furman Weber St

Sorry if I missed this earlier in the thread, but what the heck was that delay of game penalty we took in the second half? The refs explanation was something g like "disruptive hand signals". That was a new one to me.

UNC wins, improves to 5-3 (3-2).

UNC up 56-49 in OT

Bears and Viks heading to OT

I bet if it weren't for Rudolph, we'd probably be in first place right now........ Oh, wait.......

Tied at 42 in the UNC/PSU game. 10 minutes left

SUU thumps ISU by 25. Northern Colorado leads Portland St 42-35 in the 4th...... EWU wins comfortably over the Griz