RD17

You can believe whatever you want about the quality of the non-scholarship I-AA teams. The fact of the matter is that all except the Ivy and Patriot schools would still be playing in D3 if the NCAA would allow it. IMO, Valparaiso plays in a conference just a notch below the MIAC in quality. It's funny how so many NDSU folks saw the "watering down" of D2 with schools like UMC as a top reason for going I-AA, and now the Bison are scheduling non-scholarship teams and NAIA schools. Do you not see the irony there? Montana offered NDSU another game in Missoula this year but the Bison turn it down in favor of games with Valpo and Montana Tech. Why?

In 2001, Central Washington had a 4-7 record. Their 2002 schedule included the defending D2 champ, a D2 semifinalist, and 2 I-AA opponents (including the eventual Big Sky champ). If I would have boldly proclaimed 2 years ago at this time that Central Washington would not only go undefeated, but also beat each of those four opponents by at least 10 points, I would have been told I was crazy. CWU finished the 2002 regular season 11-0. In 2002, North Alabama had a 4-7 record. Their 2003 schedule included a game against a I-AA opponent, a road game against 3 time defending GSC champ Valdosta St., not to mention the fact that UNA plays in one of the top 2 or 3 conferences in D2. If I would have said last year at this time that UNA would be playing in the D2 semifinals with a 13-0 record, again, I would have been told I was crazy. My point- it's foolish to proclaim that a group of teams would go undefeated if only they played a different schedule. You have no idea what teams might suddenly fall flat on their face (see NDSU 2002) or come out of nowhere to be a dominant like my above two examples. I can say this with certainty, however: NDSU now plays in a division where 1/3 of all the schools give out less scholarships for football than Minnesota-Crookston. Bison fans will be treated to home games with two such schools and the Montana equivalent of Valley City State. Have fun!

What the Patriot League does with grants-in-aid is the same as what the NE 10 does in D2 and what D3 schools do. It's still non-scholarship football. Some of the NE 10 schools give out alot of money with grants-in-aid like Colgate goes, but no one is going to accuse that conference of being a powerhouse.

Patriot League

Really? Were you aware that one third of all the schools that play I-AA football don't offer scholarships?

This is true and one of the chief reasons why Title IX is such a financial burden on many schools. Take a school like MSU- Moorhead. Last I checked 63% of their students were female. It's very difficult to have a football program and devote much money to other men's sports when the law requires you to invest such a high percentage of your scholarship dollars into women's sports.

It's been laid out time and again on this message board how playing games outside of D2 hurts a team when it comes to the postseason. Not that we should expect you to understand. Football and postseason are two words that don't go together at SDSU.

Grant has certainly turned out to be a solid player for Northern, but I don't think you can fault UND or NDSU for not going after him. He missed most of his senior year with a suspension, in fact Berthold entered tournament play with a losing record and advanced all the way to the state championship game because he returned to the team. The combination of him not playing a full senior season and the obvious questions about the character of a kid that gets suspended probably caused alot of schools to cool on him. Northern did well with a roster full of ND kids a few years ago but people tend to forget that UND's most successful stretch in men's basketball (the early 90s) was with teams full of local players (Guldseth, Vonesh, Gardner, Robertson, Jacobson) with some key transfers or jucos like Burkett and Bo Powell mixed in. Now granted, that was a tremendous run of local talent, but combined with what Northern St. did, that's two D2 teams in the last 10 or 12 years that featured local players and were the best in the area.

I don't really think the level of play or the talent pool in ND has changed that much over the past few years. I think the biggest issue facing UND when it comes to recruiting in-state players is the fact that D1 schools don't overlook the kids they might have 15 or 20 years ago. With all of the AAU play and regional and national camps, kids from the small states like ND get noticed and recruited by D1 programs if they can play. Just think of the difference it would have made in UND's program to have had Jeff Boschee, Tyler Koenig, Kenny Younger or Nick Jacobson play for the Sioux. I think you can win at the D2 level with local players being the backbone of your team if you know who to recruit and have some patience in developing them. Northern State made the Elite 8 about 5 years ago with Scott Hanson from Tolna, Jeremy Vliem from Hettinger and one of the Pankratz boys from Minot Ryan as three of their key players. All three of them were basically overlooked by UND and NDSU.

The thing you have to remember is that next year there will only be 11 weeks to the regular season because of the expanded playoff field. I think 10 games is fine because you have a week off to take care of the minor injuries and work on things in practice going into two road NCC games. Although it would be nice from a fan and revenue standpoint to play one more game, I don't think playing a cupcake in week 4 does the team any good. Apparently UMC isn't getting tired of the beatings from NCC schools. I heard the other day that they're playing St. Cloud, Augustana and UNO this year.

I think it makes alot of sense to get into a formal scheduling relationship with the two Washington schools. Considering the fact that both schools have only been in D2 for 5 or 6 years, they have pretty solid programs. The biggest problem NCC schools are going to have the next few years is finding games from late September through the end of the regular season. By working with those two schools in an official arrangement, they can be incorporated into everyone's schedule during the conference season and in effect, give each NCC school 8 "locked in" games.

Dale Lennon is in his early 40s and has only been a head coach for 7 years. He already has 3 former assistants that are college head coaches and two more (Mussman and Tibesar) who are destined to run their own teams in the future. That is pretty impressive.

Dressler is a tremendous football player and I think he'll definitely be a big play guy for UND. To me, he looks like a quicker version of Brandon Strouth and Dressler seems to have that rare instinctive ability to make people miss in the open field. He could be very dangerous as a return man and catching passes.

It will be interesting to see what Bubba decides to do with UMD's defense. UMD runs a 4-3 and they've had some pretty solid defensive linemen the past few years. I would suspect that since the current defensive coordinator is staying on, they'll probably stick to a 4-3 next year, but maybe Bubba will want them to switch to his system in the future.

Trying to look at this situation with the glass half full here... There is no doubt losing Bubba will hurt. But, with potential replacements like Tibesar, UND can maintain its defensive system and not lose much continuity, especially with all of the experienced players that are returning. The other plus that I see is that Dale Lennon was the original architect of this defense. He knows how he wants the defense run and who is capable of coordinating it. On the other hand, if Mussman were to leave, UND probably has to go outside of the program for a new OC. UND also needs to rebuild the offensive line next year, and Mussman does an excellent job of coaching them. With all of the new faces that will have to contribute next year, it will be a big plus to have the same offensive system in place.

I don't agree with the decision not to play NDSU in basketball. Playing a D1 school isn't going to hurt the playoff possibilities like it would in football. I don't think it is necessary to play NDSU twice in one season, but why not sign a two year contract with one men's game in Fargo and one in GF and vice versa with the women. From reading the quotes in the paper, it sounds like sour grapes from Glas and Roebuck are the only reason for not playing and I don't like it. Playing DAC 10 and NSIC schools in the non-conference games are not going to put 6000+ fans in the REA.

Ben Olson and Digger Anderson have been named 1st team All-Americans by D2football.com. Travis Lueck also received honorable mention as a return man. Congrats to all three of them. D2football.com All-America Team

I've stated before that a computer formula would be a better way of picking the teams for the D2 playoffs, but after looking at it more closely I'm not so sure. The problem in D2 is that so many conferences play 9 or even 10 conference games so there just aren't enough non-conference matchups to get an idea of the relative strength among the teams. I-AA probably has a better overall selection process, but they award automatic bids to teams from traditionally weak conferences and send 10-1 teams on the road in the opening round while 8-3 teams get to play at home.

The plays might be similar, but if you're trying to get an understanding of the philosophy behind running them, they're totally different. This is what I should have said in my previous post: The main reason an offensive coordinator likes the tunnel screen is because it makes it very risky for the defense to run a zone blitz. You're forcing the defense to play a base defense and rush four, or if they're going to blitz, play all out man or man-free coverage. This makes the QB's read much easier because it forces the defense to tip their hand by matching up if they're going to blitz.

bisonguy, You're scenario is exactly how it will work. I looked at the final regional polls from this year and the only one where the top 6 would have been different is the south. Here's the final south region poll: 1. North Alabama (11-0) 2. Valdosta State (10-1) 3. Carson-Newman (10-1) 4. Southern Arkansas (9-2) 5. Catawba (9-2) 6. Albany State (Georgia) (9-2) 7. Tusculum (9-2) 8. Fayetteville State (8-3) 9. Delta State (9-2) 10. Winston-Salem State (7-3) The top 4 would remain unchanged, but Catawba would have been bumped out of the playoffs. Albany State is the highest ranked team from the SIAC and Fayetteville State is the highest ranked CIAA team. If something like this happens next year, people are going to be angry.

Just to clear something up, I think people are confused about the term 'bubble screen'. The bubble screen is where a slot receiver runs a pattern toward the sideline with the outside receiver(s) blocking the corner. The throw is made with the receiver moving away from the QB. Like someone else stated earlier, the intent of the bubble screen is to force the defense to move a player out of the box and cover the slot receiver. Many college and pro teams will automatically check off to the bubble screen if a receiver is uncovered. The bubble used to be a staple of the UND offense, but it was used very rarely this year. The play UND ran alot this year is referred to as the jailbreak or tunnel screen. The tunnel screen is run alot differently than the bubble and has a different philosophy behind it. With the tunnel, the outside receiver catches the pass coming back towards the QB. The slot blocks the corner and linemen release downfield to block LBs and safeties. The main reason you run the tunnel screen is to keep the defense from blitzing. If a team blitzes a couple of LBs and you have the tunnel screen called, you've got the defense severely outnumbered.

bisonguy, Starting next year, if a conference has a school ranked in the top 10 in the final regional poll, that conference gets an automatic bid to the playoffs. That's why it makes a huge difference with the GNAC not being considered a conference. A school from that league will have to finish in the top 6 to get in and not be able to 'steal' a spot in the playoffs. If the new format would have been used this year, the West Virginia conference would have been the only one not represented. The midwest region would not have been effected this year, as all three conferences had a team in the top 6. The matchups would have been NDSU at Pitt St., with the winner taking on UND, and CMSU at Emporia St., the winner going to Winona.

There is an interesting post on the D2football.com board today from the chair of the Division II football committee. He stated that the GNAC, which is now part of UND's region, is not classified as a conference by D2 standards, meaning that those schools will be classified as independents and not eligible for an automatic playoff bid. This leaves the new region with 3 at-large playoff bids, and virtually guarantees that more than one NCC school will go to the playoffs each year.

Well gee, don't you think John Bowenkamp has an excellent chance at retaining the job?