star2city

According to you, the Fighting Sioux name was embarrassing and unacceptable, so you are used to those feelings associated with UND athletics. At least a team named Fighting Sioux didn't have to endure this schedule.

The bottom line decision is financial. Fewer people showed up for Northwestern St than for Northeastern St. The attendance for Lamar was worse than either of those two. Bringing in a no-name FCS schools with few scholarships would cost us $125 k each (at least). Bringing in the regional NAIAs may have cost as little as $25 k and add's W's. Save the alms to the St Francis of Assisi's, the Wagners, and the St Teresa's of the FCS until we need those wins to qualify for the playoffs. If this is such an embarrassment, that should prompt the football boosters to take out their checkbook. That said, a massive state-wide advertising campaign and season ticket drive needs to happen in the summer of '12 for the inaugural Big Sky season with a true FCS schedule.

You can go to Sioux Boosters on Friday and complain. Oh wait. http://www.fightingsioux.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=13500&ATCLID=205055195

People show up for the Potato Bowl anyway. They also show up for opening day (night.) Having three different events (opening game, PB, Homecoming) + South Dakota makes for four reasonably attended home games. A Thursday night game doesn't work for the Potato Bowl anyway.

Won't disagree - but people will still attend the Potato Bowl and especially Homecoming - regardless of who they play. The other three better be wins - or heads will certainly roll this time.

Sioux Falls and Minot St are one year ahead of Black Hills and SD Mines in the D2 transition.

Ironically, attendance might actually improve from this past year: Drake - home opener on Thursday night Potato Bowl - Black Hills State - fans attend anyway Homecoming - Montana Wester - ditto Cal Poly - depends on season South Dakota - should have a good crowd Sioux Falls - likely a poor crowd

Could Bresciani actually be exploring the idea of moving to the Big Sky? Chapman's new house could be pillaged and burned by angry bison fans, if that happens. Bresciani tarred and feathered. But hear me out: Every week, huge new deals are being announced in western North Dakota. Just in the last few weeks: a billion $ deal with Occidental, a $250 mill gas plan, a $250 mill oil pipeline, a billion deal with Hess, billion from Williams. More huge deals are on the way. Money is pouring into western North Dakota like never before - much of it directly into ND landowners and land agents based in ND. University presidents understand the political necessity of finding and pleasing the money trail. Even some NDSU alumni in the west will be pulling in major $'s - ones that can donate $'s to athletics. Do they want to see NDSU play Youngstown and Illinois State or Montana and NAU near their winter home in Phoenix? The Big Sky might also be the only long-term way into FBS. NDSU in the Summit and MFVC may have painted itself into a corner. I'd prefer to see the conference alignment stay the same - but Bresiciani is smart enough to understand the dollars and where they could be flowing.

NDSU had their largest BB crowd ever. The Fargodome had their 2nd largest BB crowd ever (MayPort in state Class B championship was actually larger). The game was the third largest BB crowd in ND history (13,000 at the Ralph for UND vs Kansas was larger.) This record NDSU attendance in spite of (a) relatively non-competitive UND team, (b) UND having several non .500 seasons, © poor weather, (d) game immediately preceded by an NDSU playoff game that focused interest elsewhere. Actual butts in the seats trumps individual stories of why certain fans don't really care anymore. Thirty years ago, people wanted to watch sports rivalries: now they want to attend an event and be entertained. Strictly from a business standpoint, the game is a slam dunk.

First off, I agree that this team needs a lot of polish that comes from experience - including that the guards need to be less selfish and pass instead of shoot (the number of assists is atrocious). But isn't selfishness all about coaching? Guards should get pulled for continually taking selfish shots. While "all these players are solid" at a character level - most of the sophomore redshirt class hasn't exactly been impressing the DI world with their potential. Wilmer is a notable exception - but as you stated he needs work. This team needs extensive revamping before it can dream of being competitive in any autobid conference. There are more pieces available now than there was last year - but there are still major steps to take for real progress. I still maintain there will need to be a reevaluation of scholarships - to free up more scholarships to bulk up the forward positions.

Pretty much everyone knew this even before the game. Outside the guard position, UND doesn't have athleticism. Would venture to quess that the Bison football loss totally deflated the spirit of the game. For Bison fans, it was probably more like a funeral. If the Bison would have won, the game atmosphere would have been party-time. That aside, there was a nice little slam on Chapman in today's Forum: Schnepf: Not quite a perfect day

Imagine UND's sole athletic facility being the Dakotadome, East Grand Forks being to home to a real Minnesota State with 25,000 students (and NW Minnesota loving that school instead of UND), 600 miles round- trip to Fargo, and most of the rest of ND accessible only through nasty canyon roads with two lanes: that's Idaho's situation with facilities, Washington, Boise, and southern Idaho. Without some sugar daddies, Idaho's FBS adventure is non-sustainable.

:lol: Jackrabbit fans have always been delusional as far as Summit basketball. Actually agree that the Summit appears to be much improved (only doormats are WIU and UMKC after Centenary and SUU leave). Whether that strength lasts is another question. IUPUI, WIU, and UMKC hardly draw flies. To even begin comparison with the MVC, attendance has to come into play. Is there even a Summit school that has drawn more than 6,000? Yeah - tonight: UND vs NDSU. Oakland vs Michigan St with all the Spartan fans.

All three of those should be in a Big Sky/WAC, but all three are very very stubborn.

SWAC invites Tennessee State This link speculates that the OVC will go after Western Illinois to compensate for the loss of Tennessee State, giving it three schools in Illinois (EIU, WIU, and SIUE). OVC may also lose Jacksonville St to FBS - if anyone will take them. The OVC almost certainly goes after North Alabama. The SWAC probably also adds Tuskegee from DII - and then goes to a championship game. MEAC may do the same, and then have a HBC championship game between the SWAC and MEAC - taking the MEAC out of the FCS playoffs.

Omaha. Travel partner by plane. The DI moratorium on move-ups will be over later in the year, but any DII school would need a conference invite to move up. Unless NDSU is reconsidering, which I highly doubt.

Ironically, with the WAC likely down to just six schools (including UTSA, TXSt and Denver), if UND had not received or accepted a Big Sky offer, the WAC probably would have to consider talking with UND for both's mutual survival (as discussed here UND needs to be talking with the WAC). As stated in that thread, FBS would have been premature for UND, but UND football had to have a conference. If the WAC and Big Sky merge, it's all immaterial.

That's probably the WAC's best option. Another option is to become a higher level basketball league (and let Idaho and SJSU leave) in the Southwest. Adding Oral Roberts, UALR, A&M Corpus Christi and maybe Tex-Arlington (or even Houston Baptist in a pinch) would give a decent basketball league. On the WAC board, there is some chatter about adding the strongest FBS possiblities in the CAA and SoCon teams as a separate eastern division (like Delaware, James Madison, Appy St, Charlotte, Ga State, Ga Southern) and then cut Idaho and SJSU loose. Under new NCAA rules, such a move would be possible. That would actually make a stronger conference than the Sunbelt. All three are real stretches. The WAC/Big Sky merger could yet happen.

Hawaii to Big West and Hawaii football to Mountain West is official Utah State fans have supposedly inside information that they too will be joining the Mountain West. UTEP may be going too, giving the MWC 12 football teams and a conference championship game. La Tech then goes to CUSA, filling UTEP's slot. The WAC would be down to: San Jose St Idaho N Mexico St Denver UTSA Texas St

Do you have a link on the Big West not considering Bakersfield? The only reports that I have seen surfacing about Big West expansion are Hawaii / UC San Diego and CSU-Bakersfield, but not San Jose State: Long Beach 49er: Big West expansion talks Granted, SJSU would have reasons to want it's consideration to be confidential. All the UC schools are rather arrogant about academics (UC Riverside isn't exactly stellar), while Bakersfield is especially looked down as as being lower level of the Cal State system. Almost all the schools turn up their nose as Bakersfield as a city, too: although Bakersfield has a huge amount of money (and oil) in their area. Bakersfield would probably draw better than any school, except Pacific - but then Stockton isn't that much different than Bakersfield. The UC schools probably all want UC-San Diego - which is a research powerhouse.

SJSU actually has had a large number of NFL players - it's program has never been able to get over-the-hump win-wise. If it could be in a league with San Diego State and Fresno St (as it used to be in the WAC and PCAA), it would draw better. Sacramento's UFL team actually did rather well attracting fans - if Sac State was FBS Sacramento would take the team seriously. San Antonio would never support a UTSA team at the FCS level - so FBS was always the goal there. Sac St should have followed the same pattern - that's the only way they can get corporate sponsorship and season-ticket buy-in. For many schools, the FBS model is better even with the higher financial outlay because the guarantees are higher and more than one body bag game can be scheduled. Sac State also has the ability to raise student fees without a vote. There is no reason why Sacramento - a city starving for football - wouldn't support Sac State at the FBS level as well as Fresno supports Fresno St. Except for football diehards, Sac fans won't waste their time watching FCS. As far as the Big Sky and SUU, it was rather clear based on Fullerton's comments about that he expected no teams to leave - which Montana asked him to retract to provide their President some cover - that Montana never intended to move to the WAC. Montana just used the WAC threat as a power play to get schools invited that it always wanted in - UND and USD - and gave in on SUU - which was wanted by NAU and Weber. Adding UND / SUU / and USD was just a convenient political compromise. When Montana adds two more sports that it needs to qualify as an FBS school - that will be the sign that an FBS move is imminent.

FIU and FAU had worse attendance and didn't even have FBS stadiums when they moved to FBS. The problem for Sac St and Portland St is that FCS is viewed as irrelevant minor league stuff in those cities - if they moved to FBS the press and citizens will take them more seriously. There isn't an FCS team in a pro city that draws well (Ga State is in it's first year - so it doesn't count - moreover it wants to move to FBS eventually.) For Sac and Portland to be taken seriously by potential fans, they have to be FBS. Montana and UND don't face that issue. Beyond that, the NCAA never even enforces the attendance rule - NMSU and Idaho should have been forced out long ago. The Big West may not have room for San Jose St - if they take in Hawaii / UC San Diego / Cal St- Bakersfield. A Big West announcement is supposedly forthcoming - they met yesterday to discuss it.

Not to get political here, but I believe Wyo is rather liberal - as in he would be inclined to vote for Minnesota's esteemed comic Franken. As far as civic-minded, when a state continually counts more votes from precincts than people who actually voted there - in election after election, many observers believe Minnesota is approaching banana-republic status. Twenty years ago, I would have agreed with your civic-minded statement about Minnesota.

In many respects, I believe Big Sky Presidents - especially at Montana and UC Davis, but also Sac St and Portland St and even Montana State - know that they are in a position of power. All of them know that the WAC will eventually need them, but none of them want to be in a league dominated by Texas. By saying "no", the Big Sky could eventually force the WAC into a reverse merger (after Hawaii and probably Utah St / La Tech are gone) - whereby the new WAC maintains FBS status, but also sponsors an FCS division. That way, all the Big Sky schools would have the ability to move to FBS on their own timetable - and at the same time not losing regional rivals in other sports when they make that decision. For example: WAC/Big Sky FBS Division San Jose St Sac St Portland St Idaho Montana NMex St UTSA Tx St WAC/Big Sky FCS Division Montana St N Dakota N Colorado N Arizona Weber St S Utah Idaho St E Wash Cal Poly UCDavis at any time - the FCS schools would have the automatic invitation to move up if they so chose (somewhat like the Big East model). In basketball, the divisions could be more regional with Denver and Seattle added, but Cal Poly and UCDavis staying in the Big West. The major drawback of this setup is the lack of autobids: but with that many teams, at-large bids are possible (especially if NMex St, Seattle, Portland St, Weber St, and even Montana are together.)

A school's individual RPI determines the seed, not the conference RPI. Granted, a conference's higher RPI helps a school attain a higher RPI.