mksioux

I agree an annual OOC series with USD makes a lot of sense (maybe not as much sense as an annual game with NDSU, but obviously they will not agree to it). If UND set up an annual game with USD, it would leave only one FCS game per year for Faison to have to worry about. Between SDSU, NDSU, UNI, and Drake, one would think it would be pretty easy to pick up that last game.

It's a term of art for ease of reference. I actually don't think St. Cloud will be a cupcake, especially if UND doesn't get significantly better soon. But the point is that, come 2012, if we are going to schedule a team with less than 63 scholarships, I'd much rather it be an FCS team so a win actually means something. If we can't get one of those at a price Faison considers affordable, then don't have a reduced scholarship game. And another thing that really bugs me about scheduling St. Cloud (if the rumor is true) is how early it was scheduled. I can see if if we were absolutely desperate for a home game and St. Cloud was the only option available, but we are far from desperation for 2012 scheduling. Another thing that makes no sense is why UND would schedule multiple games with St. Cloud. That is just mind-boggling to me. St. Cloud State on the schedule, if it is scheduled at all, should be a last resort, no-other-options type of game.

It would be very disappointing to see St. Cloud State on the schedule. I think most people realized how hard it was to schedule in the GWFC, with only two conference home games guaranteed. But scheduling was supposed to get better with the Big Sky. With eight conference games and UND being in a different conference than the rest of the regional FCS schools, non-conference scheduling should not be that difficult. If we can't get an FCS "cupcake" to come to Grand Forks at an affordable price, then we shouldn't schedule one. I'd rather roll with a really tough non-conference schedule than to schedule a game that does nothing to advance UND's playoff chances, which I thought was the whole point.

St. Cloud State football gets absolutely no media coverage in the Twin Cities. (other than a couple stories when they were considering dropping the program)

Josh Murray was UND's leading runner as a sophomore in 2008, but was academically ineligible in 2009. Murray was back in 2010 and assumed the lead RB role. He will be a senior next year and I assume he will be the lead RB barring injury or other issues. Sutton had injury issues in 2010 I believe. He only had 68 attempts in 2010 and averaged 4.2 yards per carry. Murray averaged 5.5 yards per carry. Sutton should challenge Murray next year, but should get plenty of reps regardless. Jake Miller had the redshirt pulled off him in 2010. He only got 35 attempts, but averaged 5.6 yards per carry as a true freshman. I'm sure he will challenge for reps in 2011 as well. UND should be pretty well set at RB next year. WIth Bamba off the team, UND's best deep threat in 2010 was redshirt freshman Greg Hardin. Hardin looks very promising and could more than make up for Bamba, but unfortunately after Landry went down, there was no QB to get him the ball.

If W. Illinois left the Summit/MVFC, I'm sure the Summit would love to replace them with UND. But I bet the MVFC would prefer to simply go back to 9 members and reinstitute a round-robin schedule.

USD's 2008 home schedule was a disaster with UND being the only decent game on it. Their 2009 and 2010 home schedules were a little better than UND's, with UNI being the big coup. They nave not released their 2011 schedule, but it appears the only OOC FCS for sure on the schedule will be Lamar. However, there is a rumour on the Coyote Board that they have signed a home and home with Eastern Illinois, but nothing official. Like UND did with Montana and UNC, it looks like USD also is giving away a couple free games when they travel to Western Illinois and Illinois State in 2011, apparently as the front part of a home and home agreement signed before USD was invited to the MVFC. USD has been much better with their FBS scheduling. Minnesota/Central Florida is better than Idaho/N.Illinois and for next season, Wisconsin/Air Force is way better than Idaho/Freno State. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Air Force are definitely FBS games that it seems UND should be playing rather than USD.

UND football needs all the fans it can get. Whether they are casual, hard core, or fairweather, with the current state of this program, they are all desparately needed.

Extremely tough to find three television games on this schedule. Cal Poly and South Dakota are a given. They usually televise the Homecoming game, but it would probably do more harm than good to televise a game against Montana Western. There's no chance Black Hills State game ends up being televised. Sioux Falls has a chance to actually win the game, so I don't think you want that one on TV again. I don't ever recall a Thursday night game being televised, but I personally hope they choose Drake as the third game.

Actually, I don't really like the Northern Colorado game either. I don't like UND being on the receiving end of a guarantee game from an FCS school. Or if the game was originally scheduled as a home and home before UND was admitted into the Big Sky, then UNC is getting a free game out of UND (like Montana did this year).

I'm on record preferring the MVFC for many reasons I won't reiterate. Once again, the Iowa-Iowa State and Florida-Florida State examples are distinguishable as they are FBS schools with 12-game schedules and they also have no need for a "money game." They have plenty of room on their schedules to schedule an in-state OOC rival. NDSU has only two non-conference FCS games. UND in the BIg Sky will also have two, and maybe only one if the Big Sky moves to a 9-game schedule. So if you prefer the BIg Sky, thats fine, but do so knowing it probably means an annual rivalry game between UND and NDSU won't happen and games against the South Dakots schools will be rare. If you're okay with that, then the Big Sky is a great choice.

Do you mean 8 vs 9? I can't believe they would even consider 10 conference games.

Do you honestly think Taylor didn't know UND had a guarantee game already scheduled for that weekend before he made the call? UND's 2011 FBS games and dates are on fightingsioux.com for the world to see, so I find it very difficult to believe the NDSU athletic director needed to actually call UND's athletic director to see if that date was open. By calling Faison and making the offer, Taylor gets to tell the newspaper reporter about it and make it appear as though he's reaching out, even though he knew no game would be scheduled as a result. And furthermore, even if UND had an open date for that weeekend, what would it have mattered? Faison would still want an annual commitment before agreeing to schedule the game, and Taylor would have refused. Faison's insistance on an annual game and Taylor's insistance that it not be an annual game is the real problem preventing the rivalry from being scheduled. Until one of them changes their stance, or higher authorities intervene, the rivalry will not be renewed.

Has this been documented anywhere? I thought So Dak State was a one-time deal?

NDSU and SDSU had a clear advantage in the transition because they were first. Yes, they were playoff ineligible, but at least they had scholarship advantages over UND and USD during that time and they could sell their programs as being the only DI programs in the region. By the time UND and USD finally went DI, the scholarships were equal and NDSU and SDSU were in established conferences and were playoff eligible.

That's a valid point. Taylor has said he wants to keep a gurantee FCS game (i.e. "cupcake') on the home schedule every year for that very reason. However, that does not prevent an annual series with UND. With the two OOC FCS games in a typical 11-game schedule, NDSU could easily schedule a home cupcake game and then UND for the other one. The problem with that is it doesn't allow NDSU to go out and schedule any other quality OOC FCS schools, such as a Montana State and Montana (which are on NDSU's schedule for '13 and '14 respectively). In other words, if NDSU commits to scheduling UND every year and wants to keep an FCS cupcake on the schedule, then there is no room for any other OOC game except on years when 12 games are allowed. Taylor is under the belief that the NDSU fan base would rather see some diversity in OOC FCS scheduling rather than be locked-in to UND every year.

I agree this is not a proper role for governement. However, government gets involved in things it has no business getting involved in all the time. Given the economic impact of this game for the universities and the state, and the fact that no progress has been made on the issue since the last time it was raised, I'd argue the government has more of a stake in this dispute than in a lot of things it does. Having said that, there is no way the government will force this game. It's just politicians talking and getting their names in the paper. Personally, I think both sides are being dumb. The game should be played every year, but Faison should not have such a hard line on it. Faison should agree to set it up for every other year. Just get it started in some capacity. I truly believe that once the first game is played, people will realize how stupid it is not to play every year and sanity will prevail. As a UND fan, I'd have no problem with two non-conference games against Dakota schools (one home and one away) every year. My preference would be every year against NDSU and every other year against USD and SDSU. However, it seems more likely that USD would agree to an annual game and NDSU and SDSU would agree to every other year. Either way, two non-conference Dakota games and one FBS money game would be just fine with me. UND could bring on some other FCS non-conference opponent on years when 12 games are allowed. Quite frankly, other than the Dakota schools, I don't like the odds of bringing in name-brand non-conference FCS schools on a regular basis anyway. There really is no track history of that for any of the Dakota schools. UND's schedule will get enough variety with a 13-team Big Sky anyway.

I agree with this. I'd rather have a redshirt freshman with potential take his lumps in 2011 and learn the job for 2012 rather than a juco transfer band aid. The question is whether Mussman is choosing the juco transfer route because he is trying to save his job, or is it because Demler and Comes aren't showing any potential?

You may want to check your math. If only it were that simple. A new football stadium is going to take a major donor to spearhead the project and put up millions of real and current dollars. By all accounts, an indoor practice facility is the top priority for the athletic department and the only athletic project even discussed in the Ignite the Spirit campaign. I

Correct, it is a combination of both.

St. Cloud is a St. Johns town. St. Johns football has a much bigger following than SCSU football. With the exception of last Saturday's game in the blizzard, St. John's has had much better attendance than UND this year. The way I read it, tonight's vote will not determine whether St. Cloud drops football. Even if the the student fee increase fails, I'm sure SCSU will take care of its conference affiliation situation (i.e. lining up a Summit invitation) before it drops football. I can't imagine they would save any money by dropping football and then becoming a DII independent.

I might add that the Big Sky TV webcast was pretty good. It's not like the old days of Sioux hockey webcasts with the constant buffering. I didn't have one issue with buffering for the Montana game. And if you hook your computer up to your TV by an HDMI cable, it's only a couple grades below the quality of an Fox College Sports telecast. Not great quality for TV standards, but watchable.

I was there with a group of friends the last time the Sioux swept Wisconsin in Madison. After the Saturday game, my friends and I put a Sioux jersey on the Badger statue on the bar at State Street Brats and we took a group picture next to it. We probably should have gotten beaten up, but there were no issues.

Of course, Mussman couldn't get through the post-game interview without complaining about the officiating.

I remember one swing pass that went for about 3 yards.