dlsiouxfan

BigmrG, my above statement was not meant in any way to implicate you. You seem to be really classy, knowledgeable fan. I do think what they are doing is crossing a line, however. Yell whatever you want at our players on Saturdays but away from the field I think it's best if fans just let the guys be.

I strongly advise moderator to pull this thread, if some GV fans are so classless as to choose to try and harass UND players in their personal lives I see no reason for us to call attention to it on this board.

Today's the day we finally get it done in UNO. GO Sioux!!!!

Nice argument, way to think things over and support your argument with facts. Your ndsu education has done you proud. I can only imagine some of your term papers.

Ball State had a 5-7 season playing in the MAC conference. A conference that for all practical purposes should be rate below both the Big Sky and Great West in football. Minnesota finished the season 6-6 by beating up on the bottom half of the Big 10 (Illinois, Indiana), schools that would be only slightly more competitive than Duke and other I-A bottom feeders. Yes, Big Sioux I've seen the Bison play numerous times this year and yes they are a good football squad. Good, not great. Walker is a solid quarterback who makes good decisions for the offense they run, but throws a terrible deep ball. As a whole their offense lacks playmakers. They have several good players (Heckendorf, Majeski, Steffes), however, none could even be considered on par with Chappel or Dressler in terms of playmaking ability. Their defense was quite impressive and definitely the strength of the team. Their d-line is solid and Humbar and Maresh are actually their two better linebackers even though Mays gets all the press. If the Sioux and the Bison played this year it would most likely be an excellent game that would come right down to the wire like most of those played in the series. It should also be noted that far more talented Bison squads (2001,2003) have played against the Sioux and came away with losses.

OK I stand corrected on the William Penn statement. I really don't follow bunnie football all that much. I stand by the rest of my statements, however. Minnesota and Ball State are terrible I-A football teams and just because they hand out bowls to every team that finishes .500 or better in I-A doesn't change that. As for naming 10 D-II's here we go Grand Valley State, UND, USD, UNO, Northwest Missouri State, Valdosta State, North Alabama, and Delta State would all have given Minnesota all they could handle. I guess that's only eight but who knows I'm probably forgetting someone. You can continue to live in the delusional world where the bison dominate the small college football world and no one else could play with them or you can join the rest of us in the real world.

SDSU most likely would have finished around 7-3 or 6-4 right in the middle of the NCC like they did for most of the seasons they still played in the NCC. After all this is the same team that lost to Wisconsin- Lacrosse and needed to come back in the fourth quarter to beat William Penn, a bad NAIA school. Furthermore, there are 15- 20 I-AA's and probably 10 D2's that would have done just as well or better against Minnesota and Ball State. It's been proven that all more scholarships for football provides is really greater depth and a scholarship advantage will never make up for poor coaching (Minnesota) or the inability to recruit good athletes to your program (Ball State).

If you really want to be accurate as to who is following whom you only need to look at how ndsu has historically followed in UND's footsteps academically. UND was a well respected school for producing top of the line professionals long before ndsu could even call itself a university. Fargo's growth has as much to do with UND's success as it does with ndsu's. People from both communities overestimate the effect the two communities have on the two universities. UND grads in Fargo and Minneapolis for that matter don't stop being alumni or fans just cause they leave Grand Forks. On to another point DI Bison shouldn't you be posting retractions for all the crap you spewed about UND's budget a while back. Guess who's in the black and who went fishing for last minute donations to balance the budget again. Until you retract your statements you have zero credibility on this message board as anything other than a troll.

Honestly, why are we even debating this. They drew 19,000 for a game that means jack and we got 5,000 for a playoff game. Goes to show how the average ND sports fan wants to spend their dollar. Watching a competitive game or watching a horrendous blowout. Seems like no- brainer. Sure we could have won a lot more championships in the next few years if we had chosen to stay DII, the real question is if anybody would have actually attendend any of them. People will come out to watch quality games against true rivals like ndsu, sdsu, Montana, Northern Iowa. They won't for some garbage Nsic team and their are a lot more of those teams in DII than their used to be.

Comparing UC Davis and Winona is laughable. Winona was actually an NCC expansion target and seriously I have my doubts if they ever would have even competed with the Morningside teams of old. Sitting in D2 would have eventually killed the football program, we would have been lucky to draw 5000 for games against the Moorhead State's and Winona's of the world. D2 is a shadow of it's former self and we're better to be leaving it.

First of all I'll start this post by saying anyone who's an opponent of the D-I move should have had to sit through that game today. Winona unfortunately is the quality of team that's becoming the norm rather than the exception of D-II and anybody who was looking forward to being in a conference with them most likely isn't a true football fan. Second of all the NCAAssholes should never ever put out any materials saying they actually care about students with the way they screwed over the UND students and other students all around D-II with their no home field advantage rules. Lastly, thumbs down to the Alerus security nazi's, after kickoff most venues allow free relocation if seats aren't sold and if I believe correctly the NCAA allows it at their events too, the fact they were ignorant to this just goes to show what kind of idiots we got working over there.

It's all in how the two sports have traditionally been marketed. For years UND hockey has been more or less marketed as "thee event to be at in GF". Since the opening of the Ralph it's been marketed much more like a social event than an athletic game so they get more attendees who may not know a lick about whats actually happening on the ice but go to be seen or talk to friends. No problem with that sort of marketing strategy, just wish they'd have been doing it for UND football all these years. For the most part under RT and with REA controlling the marketing dollars football got the shaft big time in the marketing department. It seems like Buning's working to change that but not nearly as fast he should be.

nds-who... fourth best team in the dakota's next week will prove it.

I really do have to question as to the newsworthiness of a single student dropping out of school for whatever reason. I'm sure every student on campus has at least a few beefs with the UND administration and some of those may have been enough in the past to get a few students to choose to leave. You'll find such things at every campus, but I'd say the Dakota Student dedicating a news article to it is a waste of time. Losing a single student such as this is no more newsworthy than if I were to quit school next to week due to UND traffic departments insistence on ticketing my vehicle when I park illegally. Sure the guy took up his cause even when it wasn't the popular one, but when you decide to quit when you don't get your way the school paper shouldn't memorialize your exit with a front page article.

I feel long- term the UND football program should be Division I-A. The program if given the appropriate funding and commitment from the administration could be just as good as programs like Boise State and Utah both who have recently been to or considered for BCS bowl games. Unlike Kent State and Ball State, UND and ndsu are the focal institutions in the state and receive the bulk of attention as far as athletics are concerned. Secondly, if UND every wishes to garner the attention it desires nationally the football team must become the premier sports team on campus. Football is the national pasttime and more national recognition and dollars will come to this university from having a Division I football team than will ever come from hockey or any other sport. Finally, time has proven that both Division II football and Division I-AA football are money losers as even the top I-AA's such as Delaware and Georgia Southern usually lose money on football. Division I-A is the most lucrative business plan and the best plan for putting UND on a national stage.

First off congrats to NDSU you play a great game against Minnesota and I was not at all surprised going into the game that you could beat Minnesota. Hell, after watching them play Wisconsin the previous week I actually felt the Bison should have been favored to win this game. I do take issue, UND Fan, with your statement that they would handle UND this year. If the two teams played it most likely would be a very good game and come down to the last few minutes like most of their matchups. Please remember it was this UND team that beat Northern Iowa on their own homefield who then played Iowa State within one point and Iowa State would more than likely kick the living crap out of Minnesota. This football squad is just a talented and would have performed similarly against Minnesota as the Bison did yesterday.

Honestly, rhetoric like this is getting tiresome. If UND wants to reach their highest levels in terms of national recognition or alumni support the football team needs to be playing at the highest level possible in terms of competition. Holding football back just so our swimming and diving teams and women's basketball teams can win titles beating up on Podunk U. leaves dollars on the table and for the most part provides UND with little or no exposure on the national sports scene. Football is our best opportunity to increase national exposure for UND and it's wonderful that our administration is finally realizing it. It's our national sport and no matter how many hockey championships our teams win they'll never match the national exposure reaching a D-I bowl game would produce. I know that's I-A but I'm talking long- term and moving our athletic program is just the first step. Ndsu made a good decision four years ago and we're making a good decision now.

Hey if the bison don't want to schedule us so be it. Our coaches will just schedule other top I-AA's and I-A's and tell every recruit they're too chickenshit to play us and outrecruit them just like we did the last years in DII. It really will look like they're ducking UND, which would be about 95% accurate if they choose not to schedule us. Hopefull, your administrators have more sense than some of your fans do (which it appears they do).

Well at least UND's program has no where to go but up during the D-I transition. Basically all sdsu has to hang there hat on is taking their only athletic program that had any success and running it completely into the toilet. Don't hold your breath waiting for Sioux fans to shower you guys with praise.

Come on now, it's time to stop dancing with the fat chick because the real hottie turned you down the first time.

It's a well know fact that sdsu has been the fat chick in regards to the whole ndsu-sdsu conference buddy scenario. What at all is attractive about the sdsu athletic department? Football sucks.... men's basketball sucks.... unless you're hoping to find a top equestrian league then partnering with sdsu is sort of like fastening an anchor to your leg and swimming the 100 meter butterfly. UND is going to 57 scholarships there first year of I-AA football so get ready because right now you wouldn't come within three touchdowns of us and we're at 36. Have fun with your single win football season.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't ndsu's athletic budget balanced last year by a last minute anonymous donor donating funds to exactly balance the budget (some one has a link somewhere..... don't have time to look up). It was never disclosed how big it was which means for all practical purposes ndsu's athletic department is running a deficit as well but was just lucky enough to have a large one- time cash flow balance the books. Counting on donations such as this every year isn't very advisable and basically just delays the inevitable if you don't fix the underlying problems related to the deficit. But yes continue throwing stones from your glass houses.

While I've often been critical of the guy I must say one area that I'm quite pleased with is the increased emphasis he's put on marketing the football team. The past few years we've had tremendous teams, but you hardly ever heard radio ads promoting the games or saw a single billboard anywhere. (Contrast that with the bison billboards we're subjected to just about everywhere in this state) Under RT, we surrendered the sports marketing duties to the REA and football and other sports got the shaft big time as tons of promotional dollars went into advertising for hockey (no objections) and REA events such as the World Juniors, Agassi-Sampras tennis match, etc. (strong objection).

Yeah I imagine it's hard for ndsu to keep enough tickets printed when they're selling them 5 for a $1 at the local Stop & Go (i.e.- Valparaiso in you D-I opener)

By the way what tier is sdsu. Care to enlighten us. Fifth? Is there a sixtht tier?