RD17

I think if NDSU was already a full-fledged DI member it would have a very good chance of getting into the Big Sky. Going directly from D2 however, I think the chances of getting in are very, very small. There are several factors: 1) The BSC historically sends only 1 conference member to the NCAA BB tournament. More members, the more ways that money gets split. 2) Idaho. If the Vandals are forced back to I-AA in a year or two, the BSC would obviously love to have them back. Adding more members (especially ones that are provisional DI) would make attracting Idaho back to the league difficult. 3) EWU, NAU, WSU, CSUS, PSU. I just don't see how these schools could see an advantage in adding two schools as far east as the Dakotas. What do I think will happen? The BSC will say something like this: "Make the move up and join the MCC or go independent for a couple of years. We'll help you as much as we can with scheduling. After the new regulations start in a couple of years and we know where we stand membership wise, we'll sit down and talk again."

tony, I'm not so sure a DI NCC would ever have worked. Even if the 4 Dakota schools would have voted for it, I don't think there would have been many other takers. UNC may have been along for the ride in the short term, but they've never been too enamored with the NCC and were only in it because of a lack of alternatives. Augie, St. Cloud, and Mankato are definite no votes and the legislature in Nebraska won't allow UNO to go DI. So, assuming the 5 schools I noted were willing to make the leap, where would you find the other schools to fill out a conference? Southern Utah? Maybe for football only, but there's no way they'd go to full membership in a conference without an automatic NCAA bid and kill their successful basketball program. I guess I just don't understand the idea of trying to move the entire NCC to DI. Isn't the point for moving up to increase exposure? How is this possible when you're playing a high percentage of your games against the same schools as you were in D2? Can anyone safely assume that just because NDSU is I-AA they'll draw more than 6K for a football game against UNC if the Bison football program is struggling?

It's great news to hear that Dykema has UND on his list. I saw him play both football and basketball last year in the state tournaments and the kid is a tremendous athlete. There was some talk by the TV guys at the BB tournament that some major DI schools like Nebraska were taking a look at him for football.

I think the biggest problem with Siembida is that he has horrible puck handling skills. It seems like he has no confidence going after the puck and he doesn't know when to play it and when to stay in the net. He gets caught doing everything halfway and consequently, gets out of position. I think he's better overall than Brandt, but I agree that a good goalie coach might be able to make him at least respectable in the net.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Drew Thomas. I'm sure there will be some I-A schools interested in him, but maybe his dad will figure out a way to keep him around. I'm wondering if Jay Gibson at West Fargo has anyone to send north this year. WF had a couple of big RB/LB type players that were very good, but I know at least one of them was a junior. Does anyone know what position the younger Manke will be playing? I see he's listed as a QB on the roster, but with Groeschel in the same class maybe he'll get moved to DB like his brother.

I get a kick out of this. NDSU and SDSU are moving on to Division I, but they're still so deeply concerned with what's going on at UND. The name's not changing, Chusby. You follow the typical leftist strategy of namecalling and cries of racism when people don't agree with your indefensible views. From your previous post: And just because a few Native Americans protest against the name at UND, they should speak for all Lakota? Apparently you feel that you and your liberal friends need to step in and decide which Native American viewpoint is correct when they have already overwhelmingly (81%) told us how they feel? That's about as arrogant and intellectually dishonest as a person can get. Then there's our friend bisonguy. You know, the NDSU fan first, supporter of North Dakota sports second. The following is his response on a Big Sky conference message board when another poster brought up the idea of UND in the Big Sky: It's an epidemic among many Bison fans. Even when/if they move to Division I, they'll still never be able to separate themselves from their hatred and envy of UND.

Chusby- In my opinion, the loss to UMC is the worst I can remember as a Sioux fan. Without Allen, UND is essentially the same team that almost made the postseason last year. I understand upsets happen in college basketball, but this loss was ridiculous. There is no acceptable excuse for a team as talented and experienced as UND to lose to a winless team like UMC.

Here's the question I have. What are the JUCO rules regarding a kid's eligibility if he's signed a contract and/or played in the pros? If JUCOs and the NCAA have similar rules I can see how Glas might have assumed Allen was eligible to play and not given his background a closer look.

bisonguy, I'm glad to see you're picking up on the finer points of Canadian ice soccer (or whatever you NDSU guys want to call it ) You're wisely choosing to support what always will be the most successful Division I sport in the state. It is rather ironic that this Myron Allen situation arises shortly after Kupchella's "scandals only happen in DI" statement. Maybe he'll just say "the heck with it, we're already immersed in scandal, we might as well go DI."

Gee, bisonguy, how many NCC all-academic football players came from NDSU this year (or last)? It's nice to see you show up and start posting again at the first sign of trouble. Oh, I forgot, you're a NDSU fan first, and a fan of North Dakota sports second. Right.... This situation has nothing to do with grades. It just goes to show what happens when a program starts relying on JUCO players. The NDSU basketball program under the leadership of Tom Billeter perfected the practice in the mid 90s.

Not me. UNC's football program has never about class. Like NDSU, there finest moments seem to have been overshadowed by all of the individuals of questionable character surrounding the program. I was, and continue to be critical of UNC's athletic department for not being forthcoming when the problems with Cutlip's transfer became public. There is no way something as simple as whether or not a couple of 'Fs' were changed on a transcript takes 2 months to sort out. It was pretty apparent that UNC was stalling so as not to lose out on a shot at the playoffs. If UND's athletic department uses these same stalling tactics in the Allen situation, I will be just as critical.

There was an article in the Duluth newspaper around the time UMD announced it was moving to the NCC. It stated that UMD would go to 30 scholarships in 2004 to meet the NCC minimum requirements for its football programs. I tried to do a search and find the article but apparently it's buried in the archives and no longer accessable. It could very well be that the guy that wrote the story has no idea what he's talking about. That was the first I'd heard of an NCC minimum.

The one major hang up is going to be the fact that the NCC requires each school to have a minimum number of football scholarships. Unless the league is willing to make some concessions, it will be tough to find schools with the financial ability to support a move to the NCC.

I believe the 84k figure is correct. I'm not sure where Kolpack came up with 60k. Losing Lennon would be big, but just as big might be the question of what happens with the rest of the UND coaching staff if Lennon leaves. From an article I read, all of the Sac State assistants' contracts expire January 1, so Lennon would have complete control of who he hires as assistants. Also losing Schweigert and possibly Mussman to Sac State would really hurt the continuity of the UND football program. I think Terry Wanless realizes he has to get the Sac State program turned around immediately with UC Davis moving to I-AA. If Wanless doesn't get a coach that can field a team that is competitive with a full scholarship UCD, they might not get another chance to get things turned around.

I agree with Pirate- I think it's Lennon's job if he wants it. AD's don't normally drop a guy's name in the local newspaper a day or two after a firing unless they're sure they've got their replacement pegged.

I could see Dale Lennon wanting to take a shot at coaching above the D2 level at some point, but the Sac St. job would be a major risk for a young head coach. The way to move up in the coaching world is to do like Joe Glenn did- wait for an opportunity to take over a solid program at the next level. Terry Wanless is a football guy and he'll probably be successful at getting the football program going in the right direction, but the entire athletic department there is such a mess that who knows. My gut feeling is that when it's all said and done, Lennon will stay at UND. The school has had an excellent track record of retaining its coaches in the high profile sports so they must be doing something right.

The sad thing about it is, for the most part, it wouldn't be the Native Americans doing the objecting. Sure there's a few 'activists' like Russel Means, but like others have pointed out, for the most part it's the liberal, PC, communist, white crowd that does the organizing and protesting. We'd all better wake up and realize that the liberals won't quit until this country is a socialist state. There is no reasoning or compromising with these people- once they have succeeded in getting rid of every nickname they feel is offensive to someone, it will be on to attacking the rest of our freedoms. Liberals- they don't trust American citizens with guns, but they don't have a problem with letting Saddam Hussein keep his. Makes sense to me.

This is the 2003 NCC schedule from the fightingsioux.com website. I'm assuming UNC will be removed: Date Opponent Sept. 13 Open Sept. 20 at Nebraska-Omaha Sept. 27 Augustana Oct. 4 at South Dakota Oct. 11 St. Cloud State Oct. 18 at South Dakota State Oct. 25 North Dakota State Nov. 1 at MSU, Mankato Nov. 8 Open Nov. 15 Northern Colorado

This is from Frank Fee's weekly Sports Feever column on the KROX-AM website (Crookston) found here. Fee is the UMC play by play guy:

I agree the defense needs to get more sacks, and I mentioned so earlier on this board. After looking back at the season, I think the lack of sacks probably had more to do with our propensity to get behind early in every game than a problem with the players or scheme. When you're behind, teams run the ball more and it's alot harder as a defense to just pin your ears back and go after the QB. Last year, we'd get ahead early, shut down the run, then go relentlessly after the QB the rest of the game because we knew other teams had no other alternative than to pass.

I think the 5-6 record isn't a true indicator of the talent on this team. Like Jim pointed out, there were two early losses against teams that are a combined 21-1, then the 4 close losses where UND just couldn't catch a break. If Klosterman would have been healthy, we'd probably have won 7 games with a tough schedule and a very young squad- not too bad if you ask me. QB- I assume it's Bowenkamp's job to lose, and I agree with whoever said he needs to learn to make better decisions- he does have potential though. With Carney and Groeshel waiting their turn, we should be solid here. RB- Mahmoud and Beatty will be a year stronger, and if Miller can come back healthy, we should have some depth. If Miller can go, who starts? Wisthoff is a good blocker and receiver at FB. WR- Ahlers and Stattelman have good hands, but aren't incredibly fast. Caleb Johnson has got great potential- he's very quick, but I don't know if he's got the flat out speed to be a consistent deep threat. This is where Lueck and Alkins come in. If both of these guys can emerge as big play receivers, we're really sitting good here. OL- With 4 returning starters, plus the emergence of Kuper late in the year should make the line much better next year. For the most part, the pass protection was good, but we didn't run the ball very well against the good teams. That needs to improve and should with a year of experience. DL- Probably the biggest ? on the team. Brennan will be the NG, and I think he's got All-American type potential if his knee is healthy, but replacing Halverson and Dixon at the ends might be tough. I thought there was a noticeable drop off against the run this year when Momerak and Smith were in there. I've heard Chuck Erlandson looked good in practice this fall, so maybe he'll help out. If there's a place for the coaching staff to pick up a JUCO like a Glenn Matthews, this might be it. LB- Irvin, Anderson, Hermes, Dahlen, Babington- Johnson, Ullsberger- it seems like we've always got talent and depth here. The LBs are a little smaller than what we've had in the past, but we need speed and quickness to deal with all of the spread offenses. Should be a good unit next year. DB- Stratton and Gagner back at safety- very solid here. Manke had a decent year starting at one CB, but who will the other be? Hopefully either Thomas, Hoffschneider, or #11 (can't think of his name right now) can come in and do the job. We really need someone to step up and be a lock-down corner like Riendeau or Brant Grimes if we're going to get back to being a dominating defense. Special teams- Kicker and Punter(s) return and alot of good return men. The thing I wish the coaching staff would do is get alot more aggressive at trying to block punts. We've got the athletes to do it, and there's nothing like a blocked punt to swing the momentum of the game in your favor. Send the special teams coaches down to some Virginia Tech coaching clinics to pick up some punt blocking schemes. I think we will be at or near the top of the conference next year. UNC is gone. SCSU will be tough with Heckendorf back, but they've got to replace Ben Nelson at WR, and their TE who's said to have NFL potential. They'll have 14 starters back, but they do lose their entire DL. UNO loses half a dozen guys on each side of the ball. We should have a better team than the others in the conference. I'm already looking forward to a good year.

I think the whole point of the ESPN article is that Troy St. would rather get their brains beaten in I-A than win 10 games a year in I-AA. What does that tell you? You've got schools like Idaho playing home games in another school's stadium, Wyoming selling home games to the city of Nashville, and San Jose St. charging $5 to get into a carnival outside their stadium on game day and counting those people towards game attendance- all in a desparate attempt to meet the 'standards' and avoid being reclassified to I-AA. I agree with Mr. Fad that a good percentage of the non BCS schools would be better off from a competitive standpoint playing in I-AA, but the reality is this: Those schools don't want to be in I-AA!!!

As a counterpoint to Otto Fad, I'll offer up this article from ESPN.com: Friday, December 14 Small fish in the big pond fight for survival -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Wayne Drehs ESPN.com Four years ago, when Troy State athletics director Johnny Williams surveyed the landscape of his school's football program, he came to one simple conclusion: "We were in no-man's land.

About a year ago, I read through the future proposals for higher education in the state (it might of been on the board of higher ed. website). One of the ideas was to have NDSU, UND, Minot St., and Bismarck St. the four year schools, keep Wahpeton, Valley City and Dickinson as specialty schools and/or junior colleges, and eliminate the rest. Of course, a proposal like this would never fly with the lawmakers of ND. It makes too much sense to have two small, inefficient schools (VCSU and MaSU) in the same vicinity and have them serve the same basic function.

The NCC, MIAA, Gulf South, Lone Star, and GLIAC all allow the full 36 scholarships for football, although obviously not everyone within these leagues is fully funded. Other D2 conference limits: PSAC 25 RMAC 28 SAC 18 NSIC 21 I have no problem with schools that want to join Division II. What I do have a problem with is the leadership of conferences like the NSIC. When the NSIC moved to Division II in the mid 90s one of the first things they did was submit a proposal at the NCAA convention to drop the scholarship limit to 25 for football. No one forced the NSIC into Division II- they chose it voluntarily. To expect the established members to be open to downgrading their programs to level the playing field is just plain foolish. Imagine the reaction from schools like Montana and Georgia Southern if the NCC moved en masse to I-AA and then immediately tried to get the division to lower scholarships so they could be more competitive. The NCC wouldn't be looked upon too favorably. I think the only way the NSIC and NCC would combine is if all four schools in the Dakotas went to I-AA. Then, like you say, UNO would join the MIAA and St. Cloud, Mankato, and Augustana would be absorbed by the NSIC.