RD17

And by 2011, I have a sneaking suspicion that UND will be a very good I-AA program. I would choose the UND "springboard".

If you feel that way, then certainly you would agree that at the point in which Bohl took the NDSU job in 2003, MSU would have been a better choice for him if it would have been an option? Which job (MSU or NDSU) would you rather have in 2007?

I think the chances of Lennon leaving for Montana State are extremely slim. My reasons why I feel that way: - It's not that big of a deal to be asked to apply for a job, send in a resume, and then spend 45 minutes doing a phone interview. That's the point we are at right now. With DL's credentials, he's going to a be in the running for any job he applies for. Just because he's been named a finalist for a job he was asked to apply for doesn't mean he's a lock to take the job if offered. - Everyone knows that Dale's long-term goal is to transform UND into a D-I football program and that he has worked his tail off behind the scenes the last couple of years to help make it happen. It would be very surprising to see him leave when he's just about to get the chance to do what he's been wanting to do. - I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that Dale's oldest son is going to be a senior at GFC this fall and another son is going to be a junior. Obviously, that's a very tough time to be moving a family. Plus, with it being June already, if he did move there are only two months to find a house, get the kids in new schools, etc. before the start of school and fall practice. - From the sounds of it, MSU's roster is littered with players that wouldn't last one practice playing for DL. With it being this close to the start of the season, there is no time to start cleaning house and recruiting players that can be a fit in Lennon's system. The job would be much more attractive if they were hiring in December. - I think Dale Lennon is the best man for the job and MSU would be crazy not to offer it to him. But it sounds like Mike Van Diest is the favorite among the majority of the MSU supporters and the MSU administration is probably under tremendous pressure to go with the flow and hire him after all of the problems in the Kramer regime. It's most likely that Dale won't be offered the position anyway. - With UND now transitioning to D-I and how sound the football program is right now, MSU is a lateral move at best. All of that said, if Dale does decide to leave UND at this point, it should become apparent that the rumored internal problems in the athletic department are more than just rumors. Ultimately, I think Dale Lennon's flirtation with this job is a shrewd political move on his part designed to scare the pants off of the administration and most specifically Buning. I imagine there will be several of those football alumni with deep pockets putting a tremendous amount of pressure on Kupchella and Buning this week in regard to retaining Lennon. No doubt there will be a few "you had better straighten this out with him or we withhold $" conversations going on in the next several days.

Apparently UND will be hosting Humboldt State in the season opener (August 23rd at 7 PM). HSU went 9-1 last season but played a very weak schedule that included 6 NAIA/D3 teams. Still, they are a decent team and should provide a test to start the season.

It comes as no surprise to me to see a low class operation like UNC's fall flat on it's face in D-I. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

UND should have won the national championship in 2005. I firmly believe they had the best team in the country that year (yes, better than Grand Valley) but the Omaha loss ruined everything. I don't think it was Dale's best coaching job, but injuries and some bad luck played a role also. This year UND overachieved in my opinion. If someone would have told fans at the beginning of the year that the team would go 11-2 with two games at Omaha, at GVSU, and at UNI, I think most people would have taken it. The Sioux could easily have lost four or five games this year but it's a credit to the coaching staff and the players that they were resilient and found ways to win. I believe UND had the third best team in the country which isn't bad considering some of the talent that was lost from 2005.

The average is about 24, but I believe the median is higher than that which explains why the last scholarship reduction vote failed. The NCAA did a study a while back where they grouped the teams in stratifications of three scholarships (i.e. 33-36, 30-33, 27-30 etc.). There were more teams in the 33-36 category than any other.

In January at the NCAA convention there will be a vote on a measure that would require any further D2 football scholarship reduction to have a 2/3 majority. If that measure passes (and I have been told that it probably will), it will be a long time before we see scholarship reduction talk again in D2.

I have been told that Randy Hedberg was a serious candidate for the Emporia State job (just got filled yesterday), so obviously he is looking to get out. I don't think that moving to the NSIC is in and of itself the major problem for those guys. They have won with scholarship numbers around that level in the past... SCSU was only at 24 when they made the playoffs in 2004 and Duluth only had 25 last year. They would be going into a conference where they would instantly be the top programs and could expect to make regular playoff appearances. But I think the problem those coaches see is with recruiting. There will suddenly be 4 I-AA programs to recruit against and it's going to be very difficult to maintain their overall talent levels unless they can find a recruiting pipeline to another area of the country. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The problem with playing U-Mary is that they don't "count" towards the strength of schedule for making the playoffs since they are still transitioning to D-II. If UND plays another I-AA team (and they'd be foolish not to), playing U-Mary would make it two non D-II games on the schedule which would really hurt the playoff chances. It's been well documented that Jeff Tesch over at Bemidji State doesn't want to schedule teams like UND. But if they can somehow be convinced to play this year, BSU is the perfect opponent from a strength of schedule standpoint. They should have a good team and being in a weaker conference will insure that their record is good. I say UND should take a guarantee from a I-AA school to play a game on the road and then turn around and use that money to entice BSU to come to the Alerus Center this year.

I-AA schools can't be a bowl counter for a I-A team until the second provisional year (UND in 2009). As I understand it, the other stipulation for being a bowl counter for a I-A school is to average 60 scholarships over a 2-year period. Hence the reasoning for having 57 scholarships in 2008... once UND ups that number to 63 in 2009, they'll have averaged 60 over that 2-year period.

If there ever was a year for Dale Lennon to depart from his philosophy of essentially only recruiting 4-year players, this is it. A couple of reasons why: 1) This is going to be the toughest recruiting year out of the next several. Since UND red-shirts all of its freshmen, this next class won't have any opportunity to participate in the national playoffs. Plus, UND will need to be recruiting D-I caliber players in this next class, but trying to do so with partial scholarships. It would be foolish to give partial money to kids this year that you're not certain are D-I players. In other words, since there will be a huge boost in scholarship money in 2008, this freshman class should focus on quality rather than quantity. 2) UND needs a top-notch quarterback and 4 or 5 athletes on defense to be right there competing for a national title in the final year of D-II. Even if you have to give some transfer type players full rides, why not make one last run at the championship? I would imagine that with 19 seniors graduating there are 10-12 scholarships available for next year. Give six impact transfers full rides and then split up the rest over a dozen freshmen with a promise of a full scholarship the following year if they do well. Remember, there will be an additional 21 scholarships to recruit with next year.

I could see Dale Lennon taking a different coaching job at some point... but not at a joke of a program like Sacramento State.

The poll is much more reliant on committee input than just pure numbers like it was in the past. They've added more criteria this year that gives them the ability to move teams around as they see fit. The interesting thing is that I-AA games essentially don't count anymore when it comes to picking teams for the postseason. It wouldn't have mattered if UND had won or lost the UNI game... they still would be ranked 2nd in the region right now.

Incorrect. The only time earned access comes into play is if a conference doesn't have a team in the top six. So, for example, if BSU was the only NSIC ranked in the top ten right now, they would bump out the #6 team and get in the playoffs instead. But since Winona is ranked ahead of them and in the top 6, Bemidji can't bump anyone else out of a spot. Also, earned access has nothing to do with who wins a conference. Remember, UNO won the NCC outright 2 years ago and didn't get in the playoffs.

No, that isn't correct. Winona will get into the playoffs instead of Bemidji if both teams win this weekend. BSU having won the conference means nothing as far as the playoffs go.

No. UND is locked into one of the top four seeds... obviously they will stay at #2 with a win and a loss will put them at either 3 or 4 (depending on how UNO does this weekend).

I don't believe in sugar coating it with "a win is a win" or whatever. That was a truly pathetic performance against a team that should have been beaten by a minimum of 17 points. This UND team has talent but also has some significant deficiencies... the same issues that seem to creep up year after year lately.

Wow, didn't Lennon just say the other day that everyone emerged from fall camp healthy? For them to be moving Kusler back to guard must mean that at least two guys are hurt.

I think the best thing that could happen to this program is to go a couple of years without top kicker. UND has fallen into a rut the past few years of basically playing for 3 points once they reach the 35 yard-line. Not having that security blanket will force the offense to open things up more and aggressively go for 6 points every time. Now if the new kicker can't make an extra point, then we have a problem.

This is the statement I've been commenting on, and it's all about academics: And just so everyone understands my position, I could care less if the two teams play again at all. And if Gene Taylor feels that way too, fine by me, but be a man and come out and say it versus coming up with the above garbage.

When you have figured out the difference between Jacksonville State University and Jacksonville University, feel free to lecture the rest of us on the finer points of D-I. Funny, everyone says the same thing in D-II also, but poor old UND manages somehow to "skate" (obligatory hockey reference to rub in the face of a Bison fan) by. But, if for some reason UND does start recruiting JUCOs as they transition to D-I, those players will have to meet D-I academic standards- which is the whole point of this argument anyway! Gene Taylor is the one making silly assumptions, not me. Only a fool would believe that the football program that has been the benchmark for academic success in the NCC would be going through the transition with a bunch of non-qualifiers while the NDSU is doing it with 4.0 students. I also think the schedules of UNC, SDSU, NDSU, UCD, etc. would point to the fact that more than a couple of full D-I members are willing to take a chance on playing a provisional member. And you still haven't answered my question. Is NDSU able to certify that every single player on its rosters meets D-I academic requirements or is the playing field unlevel (which in turn makes all D-I accomplishments so far illegitimate)?

The MIAA is not as attractive an option for UNO as it might appear because the sports sponsorships don't line up. I believe UNO would have to add two sports to meet the MIAA's "core sports" requirements and the Mavs would have to find somewhere else to play in wrestling and a couple of women's sports. Plus, apparently there are some inequities in tuition reciprocity agreements between Nebraska and Missouri/Kansas that would put UNO at a disadvantage in the MIAA. Agree... these two will stick together and I don't think there is much momentum towards moving to D-I at either right now. I think both would accept being the "flagship" schools in a new and improved NSIC, but I think the chances of them going D-I (if the NCC falls apart) are just as good. I think UMD is much more resistant to joining the NSIC than SCSU or MSU are, but they may not have a choice in the long run. UMD's athletic director is their former football coach and I think they see the potential to build that program into a D2 power. Won't happen if they have to go back to the NSIC. The Augie people have told me point blank that any consideration of D-III or NAIA is off the table. The one outside possibility (purely speculation by me) is that they go D-I with non-scholarship football and join Drake's league. But ultimately I think they will remain D-II. Agree that USD will attempt to go D-I if it appears at all feasible. The MIAA is not an option because they feel the schools in that conference are not on par with them academically. Also, I think it is very premature at this point to totally write off the future of the NCC. I think 5 of the 6 remaining schools don't have much interest in D-I at this time and the NCC is going to make a major play to try to land 4 or 5 schools at once. If they could get a group of presidents from (for example) Winona, Northern, Concordia-St. Paul, and Bemidji in one room and convince them that the NCC still has a future in D-II, I think they could get them to join.

Oh, I guess it would be crazy to think that a school that has been offering a D-I sport for decades would have an idea of what the academic requirements of Division I are. The UND football program a) doesn't recruit JUCO's or partial qualifiers b) is dealing with institutional entrance standards that preclude them from recruiting those types of "student" athletes in the first place and c) has consistently been the leader in the NCC (by an extremely wide margin in most cases) in academic all-conference players over the last several years. You would have to be an idiot to assume that during the transition UND would be playing with a bunch of guys that couldn't qualify to play D-I. And also, if you agree with Gene Taylor's position, then you certainly must also be willing to discount all accomplishments by NDSU during the transition because the possibility obviously exists that some "D2 flunkies" on the roster made for an unlevel playing field when facing full-fledged D-I teams. So which is it?

Does Taylor have any idea how ridiculous this sounds? NDSU has three football players kicked off the team for academics and he's worried that UND athletes won't be up to par academically? With UND's new entrance standards? Thanks for posting that... I needed a good laugh before bed.