FargoBison

The Montana State President said so himself and I am pretty sure that Montana feels the same. I don't think the Montana president really wants to go to the WAC so he would like to make the Big Sky as attractive as possible to his fanbase. As for the home and home Montana wants to play 7 home games and will only travel if a team agrees to a 2 for 1 and NDSU has no interest in those type of contracts. NDSU has always had alot of support and even had a majority of votes last time the issue of expansion was voted on, I think the Big Sky wants to add at least one school and bringing in NDSU makes a lot of sense. If they add NDSU now they could always add UND or SDSU later.

The Montana State President would support adding one Dakota school and so would Comish Fulerton, both have said so. The Montana schools are frustrated with the way the conference has expanded and grown away from schools like themselves and adding NDSU would appease them. I think NDSU being added alone could definately happen but with the Big Sky it is usually almost impossible to predict just what will happen.

Aff? K-State was a fluke NDSU just played two very tough games in Bozeman and had to travel to K-State right away. I watched the game and the team was tired and probably played their worst game of the year. As for Wisconsin we beat them and that is all that matters, I guess we will find out this year if that was a fluke or not. I do think MplsBison is right on with the Northern Iowa comparison since coach Mac took over a bad UNI program beat Iowa State his first year which started to turn a few heads and then things just took off. Miles said he does a lot things similar to UNI and I could easily see NDSU becoming a UNI like program.

NDSU is no UC Davis? What are you smoking? They beat us by 7 points last year and the year before we beat them by 18, and we were ranked higher them ever since we went IAA. As for Stanford and Minnesota there isn't that big of gap between the two and considering what the Gophers lost I doubt they will be a top 40 team next year. Right now I say the Gophers beat the Bison 34-17 and the Panthers beat the Sioux 28-10.

UC Davis 20 Stanford 17 The crowd was about 35-50% Davis fans and Davis only had about 45 scholarships. NDSU's players wanted this game and this will be their bowl game. I am not saying NDSU is going to beat the Gophers but I do think the game might be closer then many expect. If NDSU was playoff eligable either of the last two seasons we would have been right on the bubble, NDSU has a very solid team with an outstanding defense. The Gophers could destroy NDSU but I disagree completely that NDSU doesn't belong on the same field as Minnesota. NDSU has just as much right playing the Gophers as any MAC, WAC, or Sun Belt team does.

Jax St is not a good example even though they do play scholarship football in the Ohio Valley Conference, they got in the playoffs because of the auto-bid and were flattend by Western Kentucky 45-7 in the first round. Jax St is not a good measuring stick for DII powers vs IAA powers, now Montana St is a bit better because they are at least in a power conference but they weren't exactly a power that year and got in only because of the auto-bid. FIU vs Valdosta and NDSU vs Montana are both good examples but unlike Montana UNI will have their starting QB returning this season and I would have to say UNI is just as tough to beat at home as Montana is. Can UND beat UNI? Yes, any given saturday of course but UNI is a very good team and has a legit shot at going all the way this year. Right now I am thinking 34-10 UNI but anything can happen.

IS THIS TRUE???(look at post #52) Is UND going to play IAA Northern Iowa this season? The UNI fans seem to think so and I know they were looking into playing a DII team. UNI will be peseason top 5 next year and this game would also be a good measuring stick to see where UND needs to be if they move up. Good luck.

Thats great but I just don't see how you can call one school the academic jewel because both are great schools and both have their strong points. I am not trying to say one is any better then the other just that the two are pretty much equal.

Take a look at research dollars, NDSU is one of the top research universities in the region and I think US news underates NDSU because I don't think there really is that big of difference between the two. Here are some rankings and the link. Rankings start on page 77 of this PDF document. 2003 statistics are used. Chapman's goal is to be in the top 100. NSF Rankings Notables 1. Johns Hopkins $1.24 billion 4. U of Wisconsin 721 million 13. U of Minnesota 508 million 18. UC Davis 482 million 100. Virginia Commonwealth 126 million 122. NDSU 91.8 million 123. Montana State 91.5 million (first Big Sky school) 163. U of North Dakota 41.8 million 194. SDSU 27.6 million

You want to know what is driving Big Sky expansion and is a major reason why UND might get in here it is. Big Sky commissioner Doug Fullerton said

The only canidates are NDSU, SDSU, and UND. UNO is too far away to be considered, the Big Sky wouldn't touch SUU with a 10 foot pole, and the Cali schools are happy in their bus league. A 16 team league is way to big and unstable anyway.

I agree when I read that I thought it was a weird thing to say but this was a very memorable win in NDSU history, especially for a coach like Miles to have. I don't really know why Bohl is seen as a bad coach here, the guy is solid and has done a great job at coaching NDSU over the past few years. He's turned NDSU into one of the best defensive teams in IAA football and has lead NDSU on to some impressive victories. Bohl has worked with some of best minds that football has ever had and from what I have seen I don't know how you could say isn't knowledgable about the game.

I don't think it was stupid at all, NDSU football is the sport for Bison fans and it has been one of the most successful athletic programs this state has ever had. You guys are acting like it is in insult that I even called the two equals but really it isn't to far from the truth. Both teams play in fantastic facilities that are at the top of their respective sports, both programs have had tons of success, and both teams have tons of supporters. NDSU can't even make the playoffs and the school is 8th in attendance, attendance has actually gone up over the past two seasons. Both NDSU and UND are the state flagships schools and I don't see how it is stupid at all to think the main sport at each school are equally as popular, especially considering the have both been about equally as successful. I don't really agree with Bohl on his thinking that NDSU will become more popular because most of ND sports fan are pretty much on one side of the fence and perhaps the only thing that could push NDSU over the top is if they went IA in football but that is at least 10 to 15 years away. Maybe even longer since IAA is likely going to be renamed PCS(alternate to BCS) and the division should get some increased exposure with the name change.

I never said that it did but a lot of the old DII football powers have left DII and most of the schools that are left are pretty unattractive to play against and really nothing like NDSU. IAA is much better fit since NDSU is with most of the old powers of DII and NDSU fits in with IAA alot more then it does with DII. From the schedules to the competition IAA is much better and it is probably a much better fit for UND as well.

I am not manipulating anything, my arguement was IAA footbal vs hockey and which is bigger(somone said nobody cares about IAA football). I know UND will always have a higher total attendance number but the people attending the games are pretty much the same 10 thousand people so I wouldn't say that is great arguement as to why UND hockey is more popular then NDSU football. I am not wearing rose colored glasses the two are pretty much equals in the state and I don't see one surpassing the other.

NDSU moving up had a lot to do with the state of DII football and make-up of the division as whole. Plus NDSU had outgrown DII and it was time to move on, NDSU had been talking about DI since 1980 it was bound to happen eventually.

Well there were 349 more hockey games then football games so that should be taken into consideration and most of the football stadiums seat 12k and under so it's not like we are talking huge stadiums. Bison football is getting bigger, attendance has gone up every year which good since NDSU is playing just for pride(no playoffs unitl 08). How many fans would UND football bring in if you couldn't make the playoffs and were playing pretty much for pride? And NDSU does have the biggest football program in the state(being IAA is only making the gap bigger), NDSU averaged about 14,200 fans and UND averaged about 10,000 fans.

Every game the Gophers played last year was on tv, the games were either on ABC, ESPN, or FSN. The Gophers averaged 50,000 fans last year so I think it is safe to say Gopher football is bigger then Gopher hockey and if the Gophers ever get their new stadium then football may really start to take off at Minnesota.

IAA football=NCAA Hockey. Total Attendance IAA football- 5,436,122, average per game 8,521(2005) NCAA hockey-3,617,107, average per game 3,655(03-04) As for TV coverage IAA football had 126 games on tv networks(Fox Sports, ESPNU, CSTV, ESPN2, NBC). I have no clue how many hockey games were on tv but I doubt it would be much more if not less. I don't know which is team bigger in the state but I would say it is pretty close. I don't think I would say NDSU football is going to pass UND hockey but the two will pretty much always be equal unless NDSU goes IA then all bets are off.

Star2city here is what the Butler AD said in an interview from a CollegeHoopsNet.com People occasionally approach me at Butler and say,

The Horizon schools seem happy where they are, they like the exposure they get from being in a conference full of schools in large media markets. Butler recently said that they have no interest in the MVC because they like being in a conference with schools in big markets and the MVC doesn't have that. That could all change but that is what I have heard.

Things could change if/when the Big East implodes or if any MVC teams have any desire to play IA football. There aren't many schools that fit your criteria that the MVC could add now so who knows what would happen if they needed to replace schools. Right now and for the time being they are happy with 10 schools and I doubt they will ever find the school that would make them want to go to 12. The only possiblity is Memphis and since the MVC has not IA football that is unlikely to happen.

This is not really a reason to go DI but it is definately a perk and provides NDSU with great exposure to millions of sports fans.

Basketball has a lot of popularity and I don't even need to watch ESPN to figure that out, traveling teams and AAU ball are big all across the country. Of course hockey has it's strongholds but basketball is big even in Minnesota. I am not saying that hockey isn't as popular but I do think it is crazy to think that basketball loses it's following and is taken over by hockey in places that can make outdoor ice. Both sports are quite popular in this region and I really don't know how you could say one dominates the other.

A lot of kids make friends with kids they play sports with so really I am not suprised that most of your kids friends play hockey and not basketballl. From what I read it is obivious you love hockey and well since the two sports go on at the same time I am pretty sure your blind to most youth basketball programs and basketball in general in this great city, I'll educate you bit on it. Most kids start out playing basketball in the YMCA youth leagues and for the most part these leagues are made up of kids with varying level skills and it isn't too competitve since it is based on everybody having fun. By the time kids start hitting grades 6 and 7 traveling teams become the norm and there are hundreds of traveling tournies throughtout the region. By 8th grade kids are playing for both school teams and traveling teams(not at the same time). Traveling leagues are quite popular, at least they were when my brother was in them(he is 17) and I think there were at least 5 teams in the town that his team usually competed against. I highly doubt I was a rare exception to the rule regarding me playing basketball instead of hockey becuase in my class and in my brothers class some of the best athletes played basketball and not hockey, many kids played basketball. Maybe things are changeing maybe they are not but from what I can see Fargo is definately not a hockey town and South high is not a hockey school but as I said before I wouldn't call it a basketball school either. And Dave basketball is the most popular winter sport in pretty much ever place in America, even if they can make outdoor ice.