[Guess who's looking at IA Football: Jacksonville St]

Yes it will. When I asked Tonder how it would be paid for he said something like "30 yr. bonds".

This will make for some interesting political discussion in Grand Forks.

[Guess who's looking at IA Football: Jacksonville St]

I not sure your 30-50 yr. time frames are accurate. Rick Tonder sp? at UND Facilities is talking much shorter times if I hear him correctly. If the city would agree to build a practice facility at the Alerus and add seats UND would stay at the Al. If not wittin 5 yrs. Ralph #1 would be the site of a new practice facilityand within 10 yrs. the stadium addition would create a stadium with 20,000-25,000 seats. His attitude is that if you only fill it once a year for NDSU it works.

As I was looking back on flagship/land-grant universities, I learned about sea, space and sun grant colleges. No big suprise, none of the Dakota schools are sea-grant colleges(30 schools; started in 1966), but UND is a space-grant college(52 consortia; started in 1988), and SDSU is one of five sun grant colleges(started in 2003) in addition to its land-grant status. Actually, SDSU is the lead program of the five.

For more information:

Land-grant university

Sea grant colleges

Space grant colleges

Sun grant colleges

Back on topic, sort of...

While I don't view a FBS move by NDSU as realistic in the near to short term, NDSU has to be about 10x more likely than UND to make the move within the same timeframe. It always boils down to the same thing: where's the conference? You've got two realistic choices in FBS conferences: MAC and WAC. The MAC has so-so geography, but it doesn't have much competitive appeal, and UND wouldn't really fit in(the smallest MAC school has over 20,000 in enrollment). The WAC would be a geographic nightmare, though UND would be only the third smallest. I like to talk about a FBS MVC, but as unlikely as they are to take NDSU anytime soon, UND's chances are probably in the negative, so long as UND basketball is considered a tertiary sport behind hockey and football. Finally, a few posters seem to forget that that athletic facilities master plan has a 30-50 year timeframe. Some of the projects listed in it may come soon, but others are decades away, if they even happen at all. Guess where that stadium comes in at. (BTW, the rendering for the outdoor stadium in the first draft of the plan was actually copied from the new Gopher stadium. Does anyone recognize where the architects grabbed the retractable roof stadium design from?)

Just an opinion.

[Guess who's looking at IA Football: Jacksonville St]

Is FLAGSHIP univ. an official term? Are Mn., Wisc., Neb. one flagship univ. states? Would Mn. allow St. Cloud and Mankato to go D-1 FBS? There are no other FBS schools in Wisc. besides Madison , that's why I ask if that makes Wisc. a one flagship univ. state?

The only reason that U of Wyoming is FBS is because Wyoming decided to have 1 flagship university instead of 2.

Montana has 2 flagships, both located in decent sized towns or not terribly far from them and neither of them are FBS.

But I can guarantee that if UND ever goes FBS first, NDSU will quickly follow. We already average enough attendance to qualify and have the necessary number of sports sponsored (16). It would just be a matter of adding 22 more scholarships to the football program and maintaining title IX compliance.

The problem being that it would really put a strain on the state of ND/NDUS to fund 2 FBS schools.

Maybe if they closed down some of the smaller campuses.

[Guess who's looking at IA Football: Jacksonville St]

Glad to see this discussion happening at UND. If Wyoming can do D-1A FB as isolated as it is in Laramie with only 40,000 Pop. why can't UND with a metro of 100,000. A new stadium that looks like the Ivy League with a retractable roof would be a great recruiting tool. The Bison are locked into a 19,000 seat stadium so UND is in a better position to move sooner to D-1A with the ability to leave the Alerus. In order for UND to become a national univ. and recruit students nationally D-1A FB is necessary. There is no choice if we are serious about dealing with the declining # of home grown HS grads. 25-30,000 seats would be necessary I believe to qualify for 1-A. With 70 Twin City H.S. producing players there are enough to go around. The S.Dak. schools can't jump to 1A as they are in very small towns. If UND can get the jump on NDSU it may relegate the Bison to 1AA status for a long time. There should only be one 1-A fb school in N.D. just like in Neb., Wyo., Mn. & Wisc.

With the rate football announcements are going, IAA's ranks could be devastated in a few years.

Starting football and going to IA level:

UT-San Antonio

South Alabama

Discussing starting football, possibly at IA level:

Georgia State

Kennesaw State

Charlotte

North Florida

IAA to IA moves announced (2011)

Texas State

Jacksonville St

University goals to be at IA football:

Cal Poly

Sacramento State

Portland State

Public discussions by University officials on IA football/conference changes:

UMass

Illinois State

S Illinois

Missouri State

Ga Southern

Appalachian State

Liberty

James Madison

Delaware St

Current potential for IA:

Delaware

Montana

Montana St

NDSU

Youngstown St

North Dakota

Other possible:

Old Dominion (starting in IAA)

Albany (ramping up scholarships)

[Seating For Football At The Alerus]

The WDAZ story the other night said that the west side would stay in tact, perhaps some remodeling, but would not be torn down. A horseshoe on one endzone or even seating in both endzones could possibly be added.

If the city won't add a practice facility at the Alerus and also add seats to the dome, like 10,000 then UND will go back on campus and add an east stadium and close the south to make a 25,000 seat horseshoe. Old REA would go down and become indoor practice facility. The east end of the surface lot would become soccer and another ramp is slated for the west end of the surface lot connecting via the new skyway to the new Swanson ramp.

Actually I think that Canad Inns will end up buying the Alerus dome/ConCen. for $80 mill and build the practice facility and add the necessary seats for football. Their attempt at building a new Bluebomber stadium fell through so they are in the market for a domed facility to increase their revenues in GF.

[New nickname or none?]

How about some variations of pro teams like Greenwings, Greenlegs, Greensox, Greenleafs etc.

Another idea!!

The Sault St. Marie tribe in the UP of Mich. is Chippawa. SAULT is pronounced SIOUX. The Chippawa occupy N.Dak. so they are related. I ran this by the head of gaming for the SAULT St. Maries and he said "no problem , go for it". "North Dakota Sault" has a nice ring. It covers 2 dominant tribes in our region and forces them to think about burying the old hatchet and get along. It's also a good spelling bee word to put us on the map.