FargoBison

Just more leverage to get what he wanted and was best for his school. USD was the shrewdest school when it came to realignment, they got the best deal for their situation. No other Dakota school had two viable options.

Once they got the MVFC invite it was game, set and match. That is the only truth that matters. They used the Big Sky as a means to get what they really wanted.

Looks like you guys are going to Omaha.... It's OMAHA vs. NORTH DAKOTA for the first round of the CIT on Wednesday, March 19 at 7pm at Ralston Arena! pic.twitter.com/gTYy9j4x9J — UNO Men's Basketball (@UNO_Basketball) March 17, 2014

Three games isn't really meaningful. That said, the Summit is what it is, an average basketball conference. The Big Sky is what it is this year, not good. That said at least for UND that means the conference tournament is wide open, Weber has been struggling mightily. The opportunity is there for any team to get hot and take the autobid.

NDSU has as many non-conference top 150 wins as your entire conference has. Face it the Big Sky is horrible this year. Even the Summit's cellar dweller IUPUI had a top 150 non-conference win, heck they even beat an MVC team on the road on top of that. The Big Sky will probably bounce back next year I'm sure, it is usually a decent league with a couple of really solid teams.

I think they built it for youth sports, it is a huge basketball complex.

The Pentagon is a small arena that will host the NSIC tournament and I think the NBA-DL team plays there. It is part of some big basketball complex Sanford built. The Sioux Falls arena is the old arena which is where the Summit is at and T Denny Sanford Premier Center is the new arena still under construction. The Summit will move there next year.

Yeah I'm surprised they did that, they could have moved that over to MeTV for anyone that wanted to see it.

5,945

A section of bleachers broke during the season, parts of the BSA are hanging on by a thread. Thankfully just two games left in that dump.

The BSA's capacity is 5600. Wow NDSU WBB isn't outdrawing what was a down volleyball team.

I think they could switch dates and get a deal with another sports cable network, that said none of the other networks have the impact that ESPN does. I do agree the Summit doesn't do enough to protect its top teams. If it was up to me I'd scrap the Summit model and move to what the Horizon does.

At least NDSU gets a bye this year...more than they would have gotten in previous seasons. The way the Summit runs their tournament is definitely flawed. Top seeds should always get byes...tournament should be Thursday-Sunday. IMO the Horizon has the best setup.

I never said anything about UND's academics holding them back. What would be holding UND back in FBS would be market, facility and budget. NDSU would have similar issues. Going FBS in a bare bones manner is $5 million a year added to the athletics budget. That is a big chunk of new money to come up with every year and and to be competitive you would probably want that number to be closer to $10 million.

NDSU's research classification isn't? Both schools have their strengths. To make this academic argument in regards to the Big Sky adding one over the other is laughable.

The WAC wanting to add Montana schools gave them leverage. When NDSU and SDSU were being discussed that threat didn't really exist, so the west coast schools could block. Academically there little to no difference between NDSU and UND so I am not sure what point you are even trying to make. Academically NDSU is very similar to Montana State.

The answer to that is in my previous post.

The timing was better, the WAC was wanting to take schools and it gave the Montana schools leverage to get who they wanted. Montana State tried everything possible to get NDSU into the league....PSU and Sac would have none of it.

Congrats on having a similar academic profile to NDSU I guess. UND got into the Big Sky because the timing was right for them, it wasn't right when NDSU wanted to join. That said it ended up working out better anyway I guess for NDSU.

Those schools went FBS a long...long....long time ago. It is a different world now.

In some off chance this happened...I could see NDSU becoming involved. That said I don't see the Belt voluntarily creating a new conference resulting in money coming out of their pockets every year because of it.

NDSU football's media numbers are way more impressive than those merchandise numbers. Those numbers will translate to some real money.

I don't see the Belt going for this, I think they add Missouri State and call it good for now. I do think another western conference is needed but that is an argument Idaho and western/great plains AD's and president's will need to make to the NCAA/FBS.

Indiana State's resume is basically the same as NDSU's...that isn't a good thing if you want an at-large.

Football is by far the most watched sport in ND. I'm talking TV and butts in seats. When I put TV in there....football is lapping the field.