FargoBison

"I grew up in a town of about 150 people. Does that mean that a town of 300 people is a metropolitan city since it is almost three times as big?"Dakotaboy I don't really hate GF but you can't really compare the city to Fargo. The FM metro area has three 4 year colleges and two 2 year colleges, GF metro has one 4 year and one tech college. Fargo metro has the regional shopping center and a mall, GF has a mall. Fargo has 2 major hospitals and GF has one. Fargo has way more hotels and restaraunts compared to GF. Fargo is know nationwide as having one of the lowest unemployment rates and stable economies in the country and the city is also known better throughtout the nation and region as well. Are you starting to understand the trend here, GF is a decent city but Fargo is the regional center and is a major city in this part of the country. Fargo is a more of a metro area while GF is still just a city. And 160,000 compared to 70,000 is a big difference in city size. It's like $150 isn't much greater than $350 dollars but $70k is much less than 160K. When I see Fargo I see cities like Omaha, Sioux falls, Des Moines, and Billings. And when I look at GF I see cities like Rapid City, Bismark, and St. Cloud. Fargo is in a different grouping of mid level cities, a group that is filled more with major regional cities.

Well Miles and his staff go scout these players and try to find players that match their style of play, it's not like these recruits woke up one day and said I think I will go to NDSU. So if these players fail, it should be his head. And I have stated that K dog is nothing special and may not even be a starter by the time he's eligable. I said if he wouldn't have to sit it would be a no brainer but he has to sit and NDSU needs to put the scholarship to use on a player that can play right away. There is already 8 freshman under scholarship for next season so NDSU will need players that can play right away. So with at least 11 scholarships in use for next year the Bison would be better suited adding a JUCO or two, then getting a transfer that can't play for a year. You can go ahead and give Koenig a copy of my post, I don't think he would come here anyway. If he wanted to come here I'm sure Miles would try to get him here but it wouldn't be as easy decision that it would be for UND. And there would be no garuantee that he would see alot of playing time for his junior year.

I have only seen Moreland play once and that was against south in the state semi's and I was impressed, it's hard to say how good any of these guys are and are going to be but the have tons of potential. Koenig did go to UW GB athletes don't go there for the tradition or the prestige. NDSU doesn't need D1 flops they need players that will allow them to be solid in the furture that is why Koenig would recieve not much playing time at NDSU. I did go to South High so maybe I do have a little biased opinion but I did get to see plenty of Koenig and he wasn't all that he was hyped up to be. And SomeBison UW GB isn't doing so hot this year so a soph. with potential should be getting some serious minutes, wouldn't you think?

Those recruits are the future and there are going to see some serious playing time, you are right Koenig WAS a great recruit out of high school but now he is a D1 flop. If he's struggling against teams UW GB plays then he will struggle here since NDSU plays alot of the same types of teams. And yes I believe those recruits will turn the program around, right now NDSU is a D2 team playing with 7 players under scholarship. And as a D2 team these guys are playing pretty good they haven't lost a game they should have won. The three non D1 teams they lost are Northern St, SDSU, and Mankato this team is actually pretty good considering the amount of depth they have. Right now I would take all of NDSU five redshirts over Koenig along with the three recruits from this year. Koenig was overated and would have been better off playing D2 ball or DIA football. And UND92 Miles will probably have to go JUCO to fill the hole that Erbes and Kelchan are going to leave behind.

If he went to NDSU he would have to sit out, and he wouldn't see any playing time anyway. So a D2 school like UND or Augie may be a good place for him to go and get some minutes. He could be a solid D2 player and should have went to a D2 school to begin with. He should have never turned down scholarship offers at some DIA schools for football.

Sioux goo when I'm doing attendance guesstimates I'm predicting 5-6000 for game against Manhattan, SDSU, Wisc Gb(if we play them) and the home opener. So when I say an average of 4000 I mean with all games averaged togather, not 4000 a night. I think NDSU will get about 2500 for UMKC and Denver, 1100 fans did show up to watch NDSU battle Dakota Weslyen, I think they can at least double that for a D1 game.

Your right time will tell, and your right the first D1 game will have the Valpo factor. And if Tennesse is really coming to fargo to play the NDSU women that willl be a sell out there, Manhattan will draw a solid crowd, SDSU will draw a solid crowd, and hopefully a team like Wisc GB is coming since a Koenig homecoming would also draw a big crowd. I think for the other D1 games your looking at 2000-3000 at best. So I think the attendance would be around 4k maybe even a little more. Both teams are supposedly eligable for the NIT next year so there is something to shoot for, and if the mens team is winning games then I think attendance could really shoot up.

NDSU always drew about 1-2 thousand for the teams they are playing now while they were in D2. So why do you expect a sudden change? These aren't the teams people want see, people want to see NDSU vs D1 teams. Next year will be a much better year attendance wise, I can think of 4 games that are already going to bring in solid crowds(5000+). And when I said great D1 basketball I meant next year. So yes attendance will be about 1500 for this season but next year I think NDSU will average between 4-5 thousand. And UNO is the crappiest arena in the area, hands down.

SiouxMeNow- Like I said the BSA is a pit and an eyesore to the rest of NDSU's great facilities, but the place does have a nice college atmosphere. Who cares about the yellow hue of the lights when you get to see some great D1 basketball . I can't blame the bison faithful for not wanting to go watch NDSU battle UMC or whatever weak NAIA or D2 team thats on the schedule. And I told you the dome is worse then the BSA, 4,000 fans mean zero atmosphere. Yeah I'll get to watch the game and look at the nice big screen replay boards but I want a real college atmosphere, not a flat crowd in a big dome. Enough with the NDSU talk though, UND needs to move the Bball games off the hockey rink and into the Betty were Glas and Roebuck can give their teams a real college atmosphere to play in and not a D2 version of a Clippers vs Wizards preseason NBA game.

Sioux me Now- This is a message board whats with the spelling and grammar lesson. It's what you say not how you say it. Now back to some more related news, the Sioux Falls Argus printed an article a few day ago about scholarship cuts and some of the changes that could result from them.Link I think that scholarships are going to get cut eventually, and then the question will be if the D2 elites(UND, GVSU, Pitt, NMSU, and TAMUK schools like that) would stay in D2 or flee to D1 and IAA. Would a cut of 4 or 6 be enough to push UND out of D2? And then if a large mass of D2 schools go D1 will the NCAA even let them into an already full D1? Highly unlikely. So the NCAA will either have to go through some kind of reclassifaction or will they just make these teams suffer with lower scholarships in D2? I don't think the IAA schools would ever go for Thomas's plan regarding merging D2 and IAA for football. The only way I could see that happening is if the D2 schools were forced to have 63 scholarships, no reductions(which would make it hard to conform to title 9). If the scholarships would have to be cut IAA would lose it's upper half conferences to D1A and the BCS presidents don't want to water down D1A anymore so that plan just will never work. What D2 needs to do is create a D2A(40-25) and D2AA(24-0) either that or the NCAA is going to have add another division and fill it with D2 bottom feeders and NAIA. schools.

UNO- I think in the next 5 years NDSU will decide if they are going to renovate the BSA or just build a new arena, there is also a lot of construction projects going on at NDSU so maybe they want to finish those first. As long as they don't play in the dome I'm happy. The BSA isn't the worst arena in the area but it's a long way from the best. It still provides a nice atmosphere for college ball, something UND fans can't say about the ralph(it's a nice place but it's the truth). The BSA may be a hole but if you can get 4-7.5k in the there the place is pretty loud and has a great atmosphere, put the same size crowd in the Ralph and you get an atmosphere thats about as electric as an old folks home after thanksgiving dinner. The last game I went to at Ralph was an NDSU vs UND mens game and the crowd seemed about as lively as the crowd gets in the BSA for NDSU vs Presntation College. The UND vs Kansas game though was a completely different story, probably one of the better basketball games I have been to. The atmosphere was great and was probably at the level of were big time colleges hoops is at. So in my opinion UND should play every game in the Betty unless the game sells out before hand. Unless you can get 7-12k in the Ralph for hoops the place just isn't suited for college basketball. College hoops isn't about the comfy leather seats or the fancy corporate suites, it's all about pep bands and student sections all in a cozy and loud environment. UNDguy I know you are glad to not have to sit in an arena like the BSA but for college basketball give me the BSA over the Ralph anyday(better sight lines and better atmosphere).

If you can truely contain yourself until 2009 I will be quite impressed, their will be bumps along the way and I doubt you will be able to IGNORE them alll. You've already slightly ripped NDSU's D1 decision since making this post. So since you can't wait until 2009 to rip NDSU, I will not wait and Ignore knocks against NDSU, I will respond. Also I don't make posts against party line, I just respond to knocks against my school.(sioux fans do it all the time over at Bisonville).

CoteauRinkRat- I never said you did care, but SiouxMeNow did say "sounds familar"(refering to NDSU) so he obvisouly cared about NDSU and their fans and the move to D1. So I reponded and basically said give NDSU 4 years and if some teams are still struggling rip away. I also said "give it a break", I was actually telling them to stop with the NDSU and D1 nonsense and move on to talk about the two great wins their team had that night(I even complimented UND on their nice win agianst Mankato). My intentions at this board is not to highjack threads into a NDSU/UND battle, if NDSU is brought up I will respond though. So if you guys don't care and don't start any threads about NDSU and D1 then I will have nothing to defend and respond to. I am here to discuss D2, the NCC, and UND because those things are still interesting to me since I have followed them my entire life, I am not here to talk smack and turn threads into NDSU/UND battles.

cougar-Their womens teams is playing really well(better then just Ok) and I think they will have no problem with D1, the football team was decent but wasn't anything to amazing. But that has been the definition of SDSU football for forever. The Jacks mens team is their premeir program and should be doing better, NDSU has yet to lose to a team they were supposed to beat and the jacks continualy lose to bad teams. But These teams are young and this will be the worst season for either team. Sioux Me Now- I never said NDSU was right, all I said was give it some time before you start second guessing them on moving to D1. And I know IAA has a little image problem, but it still gets way more media attention then D2. And is also regarded as a better brand of football by thoses who know. Who cares about womens basketball? I do and so do many other sports fans, as odd as it may seem I think the NDSU women have a bigger die hard fan base then the men do. Womens b-ball is a big deal in Fargo, Brookings, Stors Conn. just like hockey is big in Grand Forks, Minneapolis, and Boston. And you can say the same for wrestling. And you could ask 20 people who won the last D1 hockey title and you'd get the same result. NDSU may not be able to compete for titles in a alot of sports but I am sure they will be competive in alot of sports across the board. With lots of success in womens b-ball, wrestling, softball, and football. Every sport has not been sacrifieced for football as you seem to think.

UNO and Sioux Me, give it break. What do you expect these people to admit their university made the wrong choice a year into the process. I know SDSU has been losing to some weak teams and in their defense they don't have much depth. I believe they are also redshirting a few quality players. Give NDSU and SDSU some time to establish themselves in D1 before second guessing them, that is all Jack and Bison fans ask. If in 4 years the jacks team is still losing to Morningside go ahead and second guess them all you want, but I'm sure they would be second guessing themselves for going D1 anyway. And by the way nice wins your teams had last night, maybe you should focus some more time and energy talking about that instead of the futures and attitudes of two teams fans that have no bearing on your collective universities.

Weisgarber a non factor? He is a factor everytime he steps out onto the ice, after he went down the team went flat and had a 5 game losing streak. I would say that he is the best player in the east and I can't say much about the west since the only team I've ever gotten to see is Bismark High. But I can say that the west doesn't play anywhere near a challanging schedule as eastren teams do, especially compared to south. So maybe that would inflat the stats a little bit. And yes I know Bismarck did beat south the first game but south was without Mclean and his replacement looked like a deer in the headlights out there. The final seven games should be interesting for south since only two are at home and three of the five on the road are against Central, Grafton, and Crookston. The team is playing better now then they have all year and should be the team to beat at edc and state.

I posted this on the other thread, but I think it fits better over here since it is what I think will happen if this proposel is to happen. D1 would break into the BCS(85-64 scholarships) and PCS(63-0). The BCS division would most likely break off into 12 team superconferences and the Big East would break off from the basketball only teams, leaving only schools wanting to play BCS football behind. The rest of the former BCS schools would then join up with the IAA schools and play in a 16 team playoff format. The IAA non-scholarship schools may also be able to move down to play in D2. And since the Big East would break apart the basketball only teams would then probaby raid the A-10 and MVC and start a new conference, those confernces then would raid the Mid-Con and Horizen leaving openings for NDSU, SDSU, and maybe a few D2 schools. But those D2 schools would have to act fast because if you missed the boat on getting into D1 then it would likely be gone forever. And all this could occur just so the BCS presidents can say that they have a D1 playoff format for football. I'm pretty sure most DIAA schools will agree to and probably even like this plan. IAA has an image crisis and is veiwed as being D2 some people. This would also make scheduling easier between IAA and IA teams since IA teams would likely face no penalty for playing the IAA schools since they would be just D1. This makes sense for both D1 and IAA.

Kansas St and Manhatten for sure, along with some D1 mid majors. I think most of the 8 D1 teams NDSU played this year will make a return trip to Fargo. I think the games that could draw big crowds are Wisc GB and the U of MN. Wisc GB would give Koenig a chance to come back and play in front of his hometown and the U of MN has agreed to play NDSU whenever possible, so I think you will see a game against them in 2 or 3 years. No Tennesse on the schedule but still a decent line-up of D1 teams.

I think it depands on what UND wants to do regarding the division it sees itself in the future. If UND thinks they will be in D1 the next decade maybe they should look for somone that has been through the D1 transition process and has some D1 connections. Even if UND plans on being in D2 for a while it still wouldn't hurt finding a guy with D1 experience.

As long as the D2 school had all the info gathered that they needed and would be ready to make a commitment fast they could be in good shape. If this were to occur it would basically mean that NDSU would be in a D1 conference and that wouldn't be a certainty if they were still D2. Going D1 has put NDSU in a solid postition, it may have also in turn put UND in a solid postition. NDSU also cleared UND a path to go D1 by lowering transitional penalties and showing other D1 schools the quality of the elite D2 schools. I think it was the right choice for UND to stay in D2 and watch what NDSU does and basically let NDSU pave a path to follow. And NDSU did the right thing by going D1 and putting themselves in a postition were conferences would find them most attaractive, plus the waddling around in D2 had to come to stop. The athletic program needed a fresh start and change of goals. NDSU had basically done all there was to do in D2.

I think if this were to occur D1 would break into the BCS(85-64 scholarships) and PCS(63-0). The BCS division would most likely break off into 12 team superconferences and the Big East would break off from the basketball only teams, leaving only schools wanting to play BCS football behind. The rest of the former BCS schools would then join up with the IAA schools and play in a 16 team playoff format. The IAA non-scholarship schools may also be able to move down to play in D2. And since the Big East would break apart the basketball only teams would then probaby raid the A-10 and MVC and start a new conference, those confernces then would raid the Mid-Con and Horizen leaving openings for NDSU, SDSU, and maybe a few D2 schools. But those D2 schools would have to act fast because if you missed the boat on getting into D1 then it would likely be gone forever. And all this could occur just so the BCS presidents can say that they have a D1 playoff format for football. I agree this should be interesting on how all this realignment stuff will play out and to see if UND or NDSU had the correct approach on going D1.

The Sicatoka- First off UND did recieve a letter from the Big Sky regarding the schools interest but they recieved little interest in the expnasion talks among big sky presidents. That same letter went to 15 other schools. And I believe that game was supposed to be with Houston and played at Houston(this year or the next). So calling off the game doesn't mean that much, U of Montana does it all the time so they can get extra money from playing a home game instead of a road game. I'm sure the IAA school recieved at least $150-200,000 just for playing the game. And that is still a plenty of money. And the change that could affect everyone is dropping one of the A's off of IAA, basically making it eaiser for D1A schools to schedule IAA schools. The bonus money would drop even more if that happend probably to around 125k max. This change would also mean NDSU football be a D1 team and they would play in the PCS half(63 scholarships or less) of D1.