RD17

I do know the football committee was giving serious consideration to allowing each school to "exempt" one non-D2 game from playoff consideration. So UND could play a I-AA school and it wouldn't count at all towards the playoff selection process. From reading the article, apparently that didn't make the cut this time around but I would be willing to bet it is there next year. The part that really bothers me is that they wait until after everyone has scheduled to tell us what the selection criteria are going to be. I don't understand why this stuff can't be taken care of in November or December.

The past two seasons there have been 11 weeks to play 11 games in D2. This year the NCAA decided to add a 12th week back to the regular season to give people more flexibility in scheduling. The problem is that the NCAA waited until just recently to approve the weekend of 8/26 as the first permissable playing date. This is why you see UND looking for opponents on the 26th so late in the game. There are two major problems for UND. First, many schools already had their 11 games scheduled before the 8/26 date was approved. So there are many teams that have the date open but already have a full schedule. The other issue is that I-AA isn't allowed to start play that early so that cuts out another potential pool of opponents. I do know that several of the GLIAC schools have 8/26 open and have just 10 games. If someone from UND is reading this, I think these folks should receive a call: Northern Michigan Michigan Tech Saginaw Valley Findlay Mercyhurst

Anderson finished fifth in the voting with Pittsburg State's Germaine Race finishing fourth. I too was very surprised that Beschorner didn't win the award. I told the Sioux Falls newspaper the day before that I was 90% sure he would win it, but it obviously didn't happen. I got a chance to talk quite a bit with Beschorner at the game and he's a very nice, level headed kid. He gives his teammates credit for his success and unlike many of the USD fans out there, he doesn't blame anyone but themselves for the team not making the playoffs. He said basically that they blew their shot at the playoffs when they lost to Duluth late in the season. He's going to give arena football a shot so watch for his name when that season begins.

The AFCA team can only have one player per school. So while I'm sure UND players like Gagner, Glas, and Kuper were all up there in the voting, Anderson was probably the top vote getter from UND. The kicker selection is still a joke though. There is another kicker in D2 that only missed one FG all season (17/18 I believe).

If this is indeed the schedule for this season, I think it is disappointing to say the least. If UND is going to be scheduling home-and-home series with other Division II programs instead of paying guarantees, they have to start doing better than Mesa State. You do not see the other elite D2 programs playing road games against the same time of competition. Even though I knew Central Washington was the season opener in 2006, it is ridiculous to be playing a conference game in week one when it could have been avoided. Seems like lazy scheduling on the part of the NCC to me. I also know I have been told very recently (just can't seem to recall by whom ) that the CWU game is on a Thursday night and not Saturday so that is something to keep in mind. There is one very interesting thing to come of this: Guess which GLIAC team also has an open date on 10/21? Saginaw Valley Guess which GLIAC team had open dates in week two the past two seasons and didn't want to play anyone (including UND)? Saginaw Valley I think I'm going to write about this potential match up in one of the final columns and try to put pressure on both schools to make it happen. It would no doubt be the type of non-conference game the fans would want to see.

Actually, it wasn't an issue of SVSU not having his hardship paperwork in on time. What happened is that they failed to advise him that he couldn't be a fulltime student last spring semester because of the 10 semester rule in D2 (he was a sixth year player this year). I believe he played the first two games before the mistake was found and IMO, they were extremely fortunate that the NCAA didn't make them forfeit those two games. To top it off, when the NCAA did declare him eligible (after he'd sat out three games waiting for the ruling), he dislocated his hip in one of his first games back and was lost for the year (again). He broke his leg in the first quarter of the first game in 2004 and I bet he is now wishing he would have called it a career at that point.

I see your point about the company you keep being a reflection on the program. But I would wholeheartedly disagree that the program is regressing. Despite this season's disappointment, the Dale Lennon era of Sioux football has been incredibly successful. And with Lennon signed on for another five years, I think more great things are in the future for this program whether it be at the D2 or I-AA level.

Right now, I believe there are 148 schools that play D2 football. The number is constantly fluctuating with schools leaving for D1 and other schools joining from D3 or NAIA.

I'm guessing what you'll probably see is one guarantee game per year where UND pays someone to come to Grand Forks. Then the other one or two non-conference games will be home-and-home contracts. With the way the playoff system works now, you're better off playing 10 games than paying a Minnesota-Crookston type team to come to Grand Forks as the 11th game.

Some random thoughts of mine on the State of Sioux football: - I think the 2005 season was a big disappointment. This was a team that should have advanced farther than the second round of the playoffs, but it just didn

I'm pretty sure UND's season opener next year will be at Central Washington again. I believe the game is scheduled for the Thursday night before Labor Day (8/31?). Tough way to start with a conference game on the road against a solid team. Winona State is also a definite on the schedule as they are making the trip to Grand Forks to fulfill the home-and-home contract. So with the eight conference games and Winona State, that only leaves room for one or possibly two additional non-conference games. I don't believe there are any existing contracts at this time so I have no idea who they have in mind to schedule. I think its safe to assume that the 10th game will probably be at home for a 6/4 split and if there is an 11th game it would probably be on the road as part of a home-and-home deal with the other team making a return trip to Grand Forks in 2007.

There was an article in the Star Tribune this summer I believe where someone hinted that the UMC campus might eventually be closed. If they are seriously considering an eventual closure of the campus, it sure didn't make a lot of sense to build a brand new student center within the last year.

There was this article in the USA Today a couple of weeks ago that talked about the incredible amount of inaccuracies in these reports. The other thing to remember is that there is no accounting standardization and a great deal of gray area. So what what school may be reporting as revenue, another isn't, etc.

I know I have looked at this subject in the book that former UND SID Lee Bohnet did on the history of Sioux Athletics. It was published about 10-12 years ago I think. I remember an article in there specifically saying that Behrns officially resigned but it also made it clear that he was basically forced out.

I've run through all the playoff scenarios for the column this week and I've come to the conclusion that UND is a lock for the playoffs win or lose on Saturday. In fact, I can't see UND falling any further than the 4 seed with a loss. I think the 2 seed is the likely result with a win over USD.

Jim- The QWI is the same thing as last year's SSI. I have no idea why they changed the name. All the point values remain unchanged from last year. From what I have been told, next year they are switching to a true RPI instead of the QWI and SOS, which as you noted, should be a huge improvement. All sports in Division II are going to be using RPI starting next year and its probably the fairest way to do it.

You may be interested in this site.

St. Cloud really reminds me of a typical Roger Thomas coached UND team of the 90's. Huge offensive line, a terrific running back, and a big, physical defense. And just like those UND teams of the 90's, the problem the Huskies will run into is when they can't get the running game going because the passing attack isn't designed to function on its own. I thought the major difference between the two teams was speed. UND has the quicker linebackers and secondary and the Sioux also have the big play threats at receiver that SCSU seems to lack. The thing that most impressed me about SCSU was the DLine play. Cosgrove is an animal and those two defensive tackles are really tough as well. Henderson at middle LB isn't the quickest guy I've seen, but he mucks it up in there and has a nose for the football. I did not think the QB Kaczor looked good at all, but that tends to happen a lot to opposing QBs with how effective the Sioux zone blitz is. He seemed to be locking in on receivers with his eyes and just making poor decisions in general. I also think the Husky offensive line needs to play much better than it did against the Sioux, but I realize they are young. All in all, SCSU is a very solid team but not at the caliber of UND this year IMO. I think the score probably could have been a bit closer to be more reflective of the game, but I also feel that UND is generally 15 points better than SCSU this year.

Georgia Southern was in the TAAC for its other sports when it started football. Football was the only sport that was independent which is much easier than the other way around.

I understand that WWU will be without Andy Olson (an All-American caliber reciever) and their starting running back. This certainly does not bode well for them facing the UND defense. WWU's quarterback is a big kid with a strong arm, but he doesn't move very well and is basically a sitting duck against pressure. I also believe that their style of offense plays right into UND's strengths on defense. I will be surprised if UND doesn't win this game big.

Mary was never interested in the NCC. The basic reason Mary moved to the NSIC and DII is to gain exposure into Minnesota and a broader area for recruiting students. A move to the NSIC was a lateral one in the sense that no increase in scholarship money is necessary and the overall budget increases will be minimal. Maybe Mary will be interested in the NCC in the future, but they're not now. Even if they remain out of the NCC, teams like CWU and WWU aren't going to continue to come here year after year without some return games. UND is going to CWU this year and my understanding is that the contract with WWU includes a return trip by UND next year anyway. The other thing is that once the NSIC gets back to 10 teams next year, the NCC is going to be forced to play the Washington schools to fill out their schedules. With the expanded playoffs there are only 11 weeks to the regular season so it will be next to impossible for NCC teams to find 10 or 11 games when all of the other conferences are in league play by mid-September. I don't believe the NCC would be doing this if it weren't comfortable that an 8th all sports member will be added soon. If there are an even number of schools "up here", than each school only needs to make one trip to Washington per year.

I would imagine that there will be some sort of agreement between the NCC and the Washington schools that they will at least continue working towards an increase in scholarships over time. As far as the 30 minimum being enforced, SCSU is below 30 right now!

This is a good move for NCC, IMO. If I remember correctly, WWU was at 21 scholarships last year and CWU had around 15, but both schools benefit from their isolated location in the sense that they pick up a lot of good players (especially transfers) without needing to offer much scholarship money. I think it will be tough for either school to compete for league titles consistently with the limited funds and all of the travel, but they should be very solid, competitive teams year after year. The other big advantage I see to this (from UND's perspective) is the potential to start recruiting the Pacific Northwest. Now all we need is for RT to get Winona to sign on the dotted line and we're all set.