FargoBison

If the Big Sky kicks UND out, UND athletics are no longer viable at the DI level for as long as the NCAA sanctions are in place. It is as simple as that.

I'm sure it would generate way more publicity but we have a contract in place with CSU, like I said they are a regional opponent that we will want to continue playing. All I said is that the Gophers were decent when we scheduled them, they weren't the embarrassment that Brewster later turned them into.

That game was scheduled during the 2009 NCAA basketball tournament, at the time Kansas had won back to back bowls(Orange and Insight). The 2009 season and eventual firing of their head coach happened after the game was scheduled

I think Gene would schedule Oklahoma but he isn't going to schedule two FBS opponents in the same year, you can do that in transition but not when playoffs are the focus. Plus Colorado State is a good regional opponent and there is no reason to go burning that bridge. I'm guessing if UND was playing excited CSU you would be excited, it would be a fun game for a lot of alumni. Believe it or not when NDSU scheduled MN they were a bowl team and the same goes for Kansas. Iowa has been to a few bowls as well and they are on our future schedule. Gene can't predict the future, all he can do is line up future schedules.

Well our coach already said it was a big game, he was really jacked up about playing UND in the USD postgame radio interview.

Playing in front of 7k fans at home will be a big deal, especially for a team that is in the shadow of another program on campus during the winter sports season.

I'm not ripping the Big Sky, I'm just saying what it is and that is like the Summit but more expensive. We wanted the Big Sky because it was the only option for football and in case you haven't noticed football is kind of important at NDSU.

Yes SUU is mediocre and they will always be mediocre. They are a mediocre regional school in the middle of nowhere..having to slug it out with BYU, Utah State and Utah. Their football team beat UNLV and lost to every Dakota school they played and their basketball team went to the dance once 11 years ago...la ti fricken da. The students aren't on sighting seeing trips, it is business. You fly in, go to where you need to go and get back. In between they have to do things like practice and most importantly study because they are missing a significant amount of class time. So I don't think these kids really care where they are traveling to, they care more about playing against better competition and like has been said before the Summit and Big Sky are similar in that regard. Just pick up a game with NAU? Yep just a short 6-7 hour drive to Flagstaff from Cedar City. Seriously what kind of warped reality do some of you Sioux fans live in?

UND did what they had to do, can't have a football program without a conference home. That said in hockey you fly out, play two games and fly back. Travel partners aren't exactly a huge deal, that said it wasn't like travel partners have ever been a big deal in the Big Sky since few members are close to each other.

To get to SUU you have to fly into Vegas and take a two hour bus trip just to get there. Besides that there are no schools near SUU, so you fly in there for one game and then fly out. So yes SUU is in the middle of nowhere compared to current Summit members. Everyone is ecstatic to be rid of that school, SUU was nothing but a burden on the budgets of Summit League schools and nobody was excited to watch their schools play mediocre SUU teams. I could do the same with Big Sky btw..Flagstaff, Cheney, Bozeman, Missoula, Greeley, etc. Whoever said that the Big Sky and Summit were similar leagues was right.

USD is terrible, not sure what happened to that program but wow I didn't realize they were that far behind the other Dakota schools in the Summit. I'm not sure their coach has what it takes to turn it around. SUU is the same team they always are, mediocre. I think most Summit schools will just be happy to lose that horrendous road trip to the middle of nowhere.

Saul is pretty jacked up for this game or at least he sounded pretty excited in the USD postgame interview. So I'm sure the Bison will be well prepared. As for this "Scummit" talk, not sure I'd be making fun of one of the better mid-major conferences in college basketball this year... http://realtimerpi.c...i_conf_Men.html

Either way, typically if the sport isn't football or men's basketball they will travel to smaller schools. For the vast majority football basketball are the primary sports and everything else is secondary. At few schools hockey might be a primary/revenue sport or baseball or lacrosse or wrestling or volleyball.

Yeah, Bjorklund is pretty good. He isn't as consistent as he should be but he has had some great games.

Yeah schools like Ohio State and Michigan State will travel to places like NDSU or UND for their secondary sports, not sure what point you are trying to make with that.

Yep, no surprise as to why UND struggles getting people to fill the Alerus after reading these fine posts.....UND may as well have stayed in DII.

Why don't you list all the schools that play college hockey? Why didn't you list the better FCS schools? Oh wait, that would make NDSU look good. Can't have that....

I saw one guy wearing a Sioux Suck shirt and heard four or five chants throughtout the day. Of course one popular chant has always had Sioux suck in it.....although it isn't chanted much anymore.

Wow this is preposterous....

Lakes, I thought you didn't care? Why are you posting here?

NDSU football is DI, the entire school is DI. Nobody is being mislead...they are different subdivisions not entire divisions. These kids aren't fools they know what the FCS and FBS are...they know who plays for bowls and who plays for the playoffs. You can't weasel out of the shadow unless you are in a BCS power conference...which is why Boise went to the Big East.

The reason the name was changed was because people started referring to schools as being IAA in athletics and not just football. Coaches that had to recruit for basketball and other sports didn't like that label so they changed the names to something more football related.

Outside of the Dakotas, Montanas, SoCon(GSU and App State) and CAA FCS football isn't really a huge deal...so I agree.

Wyoming beat a 6-5 NDSU team. congrats to them! I call the winner of the FCS playoffs the DI FCS champs and I call the team that wins the crystal football of corruption the BCS champs. Is that not accurate?

If NDSU wins we will be DI FCS champs...do you have an issue with that?