RD17

At this point, everything hinges on what the Mountain West does. It's been widely speculated that they're interested in poaching some of the WAC schools, namely Boise State, Hawaii, Fresno State, and Nevada. If the MWC takes two or more of those schools it will lead to a dominoe effect and most likely the remaining football schools in the Sun Belt will have to merge with the WAC leftovers to remain viable in I-A. If all this happens (it's better than a 50/50 chance IMO) the schools you mentioned will be first in line for the Mid-Con.

This is complete garbage. When Kupchella came out with a position against going Division I and Roger Thomas hinted over a year ago that the rivalry might end, THEY WEREN'T BLUFFING. Anytime either of these issues were brought up by representatives from UND, Bison supporters and The Forum were quick to point the finger and cry "they're trying to hold us back". Roger Thomas has said in the last couple of weeks that they want to wait and see how the whole playoff situation plays out with NDSU's scheduling of Division I schools this year. If a 10-1 Winona teams gets in the playoffs and 9-2 NDSU gets left out, what do you think the chances are that the Sioux will be coming to Fargo next year?

For whatever reason, the D2Football.com poll always seems to have NCC teams rated too low. Brandon Misener, the guy that runs the site, is a fair guy who also happens to be a closet UND fan . The problem is that people that vote in the poll from around the country don't seem to like the NCC. There really isn't too much Brandon can do about it. I agree that D2Football does have a MIAA slant to it. Like I said, I believe the people running the site are fair, it's just that at this level of football, it's not really possible to see all of the teams play and get a feel for how good or bad teams from different areas of the country might be. There's going to be a natural bias built in when you only see teams from one league or area play. If I'm a Big 10 fan, I can tune into dozens of games from other conferences around the country to see how they compare.

Good points about getting the TEs involved. It's been so long since they've been used in the passing game, that I forget to even pay attention to routes they're running, etc. I still think the offense is too predictable based on the personnel on the field. With Roland in there you know it's going to be something between the tackles, with Strouth it's going to be an outside run, a draw, or a swing pass. Case in point- the two point conversion play after UND cut the lead to 28-26. We run the first play (a pass) with 3 WRs and don't convert, but St. Cloud gets called for a penalty so the ball is moved to the 1 1/2 yard line for a second try. UND takes out the WRs and puts in Wisthoff and a couple of more TEs. Obviously we're going to a power formation to try to punch it in on the ground, and even more obvious, St. Cloud's going to be ready for it. I guarantee you that if we run a play action pass, there wouldn't be anyone within 8 yards of the TE in the back of the end zone.

I agree that the playcalling needs to improve, but I disagree about the QB situation. I do not think Bowenkamp is playing very well right now. He's indecisive in the pocket, not real accurate, and he's just not seeing open receivers when they are there. I know he has the ability to play much better- he has been terrific at times in the past. It might really help him to be on the sidelines watching things develop during the game without having the pressure of having to deliver the ball.

Klosterman was also the holder when he was QB. I think the coaches pick whoever they think is best for the job. I don't think I've ever seen a holder get hurt during a FG attempt, but strange things can happen on the field I guess (UND had both punters hurt at one time last year). There are two very good reasons I can see for having your starting QB be the holder. First of all, they're warmed up and into the game and they're used to handling the ball alot. You don't need to worry about sending a backup out there that is cold and might mishandle the snap. Secondly, the defense has to respect the fake when the starting QB is in there. That alone can cut down on teams sending guys flying over the top like you see so much now in the college game.

That was an incredible turnaround. The UND defensive line was absolutely manhandled in the first half. I thought the offense could score some points in the second half if Bowenkamp could ever locate an open receiver, but the way St. Cloud manhandled our defensive line in the first half, I thought they'd be able to run the ball well enough to hold us off. Bubba Schweigert did a masterful job of making adjustments that thoroughly confused St. Cloud in the second half. UND's OLBs started coming on the blitz then peeling off and covering the backs in the flats and there were a couple of times on third down where we only rushed three and dropped eight into coverage and Heckendorf had nowhere to throw the ball. It's pretty obvious that Wilson should be the starting QB the rest of the year. I realize it's easier to come off the bench and play when you're down and have nothing to lose, but Wilson sees the field and finds the open guy and Bowenkamp just isn't doing that right now. At some point this team has got to show up in the first quarter. This has been going on for a season and a half now and needs to end if the Sioux are going to contend for the league title. I think a big part of it is offensive play calling. St. Cloud runs a reverse pass on there first play and is aggressive throwing the ball down the field, we run an inside trap and a WR screen and punt. UND needs to take more chances on offense early in the game and establish some momentum.

The defense was terrific today. The Sioux were all over DeGraff on almost every play. Dahlen and Babington-Johnson were really flying off the corner on some of those blitzes. The main thing that the defense still needs to improve on is causing turnovers. There were a couple of chances at INTs and they couldn't quite hang onto the ball. Hopefully the Sioux will start making those plays against some of the tough teams coming up. I thought the long run by Roland broke Augie's back. UND pretty much ran all over them after that play. Bowenkamp just doesn't seem to be seeing the whole field right now. To his credit though, at least he didn't turn the ball over and put the defense in a tough spot. The offense wasn't clicking, but I think the penalties have as much to do with the problems than anything else. It's a lot tougher to throw ball down the field when the defense knows you have to. I guess the bottom line is it wasn't pretty, but it was win. That was the kind of game the Sioux would have lost last year.

This pretty much sums up my feelings on the game, as well. Augie has 4 new starters on the O-line and they lost the 2 guys that were real tough on the D-line. I also think UND does a better job against the spread offenses than in the past. 3 or 4 years ago Augie was about the only spread team the Sioux faced and now it seems like you see one every other week. We've got some real quick guys at OLB that can drop into coverage or blitz and Bubba was really changing things up against Newberry and causing some problems for them.

Scott pretty much nailed it. I have never been to St. Thomas' campus, but from talking to a couple of friends that went there, raising money won't be an issue for facilities improvements or increased budgets. Going from zero to 190 scholarships seems like a tall order, but you've got to remember that many of those D3 schools are already financing a good portion of their athletes' educations- they just can't call them athletic scholarships.

$16.50...The extra 11 bucks for the NDSU game is for the added value of watching Sioux football players carrying around a big fake nickel.

I think the addition of St. Thomas would be the best fit. Granted, they would probably go through a couple of rough years if they went directly from D3 to the NCC, but in the long run they are the best equipped financially and in the best location to be a success in the league. St. Thomas is also a 2nd tier doctoral university (US News and World Report) so they'd be a very good fit academically, also.

Thanks for filling me in. I have edited my post and changed the words "very few" to "one".

I have to disagree with your point of view on letting teams play up a division in football. The biggest problem that would is arise is with the misguided attempt at social engineering that is Title IX. If a school moves just its football team from DII to I-AA and adds 28 scholarships, the same number would have to be added to women's sports. If the women's sports program is still D2, then a school most likely wouldn't be able to add enough scholarships to the women and still stay within the D2 limits. The school is then left with the choice of a) add more women's sports, or b) start cutting men's sports. We all know which one of those two scenarios is most likely to happen.

I find it comical that the one SDSU fan on the internet seeks to villify anyone who raises a legitimate qualm with how poorly the SDSU leadership has handled this whole Division I situation. Our good friend SDSUFan was all over the Argus Leader on the D2Football board because the paper had the audacity to point out the obvious flaws in Oien and Miller's "leadership" on the issue. Someone at SDSU needs to answer this: Carr and associates issue their report and insist that having membership in a Division I conference is a must before any move is made. Why would SDSU (or NDSU for that matter) ignore them? Seems that Carr's word is taken as gospel when it supports their point of view, but ignored when it doesn't?

My impressions- The good: - I was really impressed with the play of Hoffschneider. Newberry ran alot of trips away from him early in the game to try to isolate him against one of those stud receivers and he didn't give an inch. They also tried to get him on a pump and go fade pattern into the end zone in the second half and he stayed right up under the receiver's pads and broke the play up. - Digger Anderson was outstanding. He's really coming into his own as a great ILB. - The defense was very sound fundamentally for the first 3+ quarters until they got deep into the bench. They didn't seem bothered by the no huddle and there weren't any missed assignments or big plays against them. - The pass protection was very good and UND's backs do a nice job of picking off blitzing LBs. - It was nice to see the Sioux get back to more base formations on offense. I thought they often times tried to get too "cute" with all of the spread stuff last year and it led to some predictability and alot of mistakes. The not so good: - The running game still needs some work. Newberry was determined to stop the between the tackles stuff, so why not change it up a little? I really wish UND would get back to running some of those zone stretch plays we used to run so well. - Why is Bowenkamp running one of those QB sweeps with a 28-3 lead? It's been a good play in the past for us and has its place in the offense, but why risk getting Bowenkamp hurt running it in that situation? - There were too many penalties again, but the ones hurt the worst were when the WRs got called for holding way downfield on two of those long running plays. That needs to be addressed. All in all, I thought UND played fairly well. The running game has to get alot better if they're going to challenge for the NCC title, but it was nice to see the team play solid early in the game and not make the critical mistakes that cost them in the past.

It was an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The way it happened is a UMC OLineman moved early and one of the UND DEs came across the line and planted him on his behind, getting the US penalty. They marked off the 5 yards against UMC, then the 15 against UND for a net of 10 yards.

They can't raise their scholarship numbers up to D1 levels until next year.

I don't think UND's region will be weak at all. Central and Western Washington both have very solid football programs that are still building up to the D2 level. I believe both CWU and WWU only have 15-20 scholarships, but they're able to compete because there isn't any competition for players out there. These two schools have only been D2 for 5 or 6 years, but they have the potential to be major factors in the playoffs in the future. Despite Grand Valley's recent success, the GLIAC has been pretty mediocre and doesn't compare to the MIAA. But remember, it only takes 1 or 2 really good teams from that league to make the playoffs pretty interesting.

Not a huge suprise, but on the KVLY sports tonight, it was announced that Drew Thomas has verbally commited to UND.

I got my first look at the replay tonight. It is unbelievably bad. The USD player was at least 2 feet inside the 3 point line. Steve Hallstrom from WDAY in Fargo said they timed from the point the ball was touched until it was released: 0.8 seconds.

Allright tony, I'll go through each of your points and give you an idea of what I do or don't agree with: I agree that, to an extent, this area now has a large number of D2 schools. I don't think that matters much as far as the market segment goes, however. MSUM doesn't have the fanbase or the media coverage NDSU does even though, theoretically, the two schools play at the same NCAA level. Every single school in the upper midwest could go D2, but UND and NDSU are still going to dominate the local media. Maybe Team Makers' and corporate sponsor's support wouldn't be negatively effected by losing, but what about the average fan whose support will be critical if a move to DI is going to be successful? The local Stop N Gos were giving away free football tickets with a gas fill at the end of the season and only 6-7K showed up to see the best two teams in the conference? You must admit that issue is a concern. Agree. Good point. I-AA now has an "unofficial" regionalized format instituted after 9-11 so NDSU won't be able to escape regionality in I-AA. I agree that the NCC gets screwed when it comes to the playoffs and home field. I don't think there will be that many football playing NAIA schools joining D2 in the near future. If you look at the makeup of the NAIA, there are only about 85-90 schools left that play football. Most of those schools are the old NAIA Division II schools that don't offer much (if any) scholarship aid. I'd venture to guess that most of those schools would go to D3 if they were to make a move. With the D2 playoffs expanding to 24 and basically granting an automatic bid to every conference in 2004, this should keep the lesser funded conferences quiet for awhile and help the stronger conferences with more playoff berths. It is also looking like the Bush administration is going to weaken the Title IX "quota" requirements early this year and that should help schools struggling financially to free up more money for men's sports. I agree, this isn't that big of a deal. I won't mock you, but I will disagree. I think there is a possibility of getting some higher profile teams on the schedule, but the chances of getting one of those teams to come to Fargo is virtually nonexistent. In one of your previous posts, you alluded to the fact that NDSU used to get substantially more fans for men's BB a few years ago. Since the Bison play essentially the same schools now is they did in the 80s, the only reason I can see for the drop in fan support is lack of success. I'm not so sure a sub .500 DI basketball team will draw that many more fans than they do now. I think the consequences of failure are very high. Being forced to move back to Division II would basically kill all the momentum NDSU's athletic program has gained in the last 40 years.

tony- Well of course I'm speculating, isn't that what these forums are all about? I simply stated what I think will happen and what my reasoning is. I do understand your point about the NCC going DI. But unless some of the other schools that definitely have no interest at this time (St. Cloud, Mankato) change their minds, how is a 4 or 5 team conference a viable one? If UND would have made the decision to go DI along with NDSU and SDSU, how would that have changed how things stand today? JBB- I don't think hockey was a factor at all in UND's decision not to pursue DI. I think it is mostly due to the fact that Kupchella isn't a huge proponent of sports and he was at SEMO when they were going through their transition to DI in the early 90s.