jimdahl

Of course NDSU is UND's biggest overall rival (and vice versa), I've never seen anyone claim otherwise However, on the topic of interesting quotes about divisional classification in today's Herald: Brand: Maybe NCAA should restructure football Which has such juicy quotes (familiar sounding to readers of this board) from NCAA President Brand as: I've always been among those who believe that in the long run, UND will be in the same division as similar rival NDSU again. It's been speculated here that it could come from the NCAA modifying the divisional system; that could be better for UND than a complete reclassification that UND's leaders fear might not be financially tenable and which would primarily benefit only a couple big sports (though the latter certainly seems more likely than the former).

Since it's moderately apropos, someone may have snuck this into one of the D-I threads that I'm astutely avoiding, but it bears mention here: UND decides not to bid on D-II football title game Apparently they couldn't find the time to bid: Conspiracy theorists take note:

Hmmm... the biggest I have of the logo seems to be 300x329.

I'm certainly not a football rules expert, and couldn't hunt down a rule named "leaping", so was wondering if it was the "no hurdling" rule: rule 9, article 2, section i, in the NCAA football rules? Regardless, nothing I've heard said the call was anything other than legit, it's just rare enough that most of us don't understand it.

Making our posts congratulating the Sioux on a great season and for hanging in with PSU would have been kind of silly before the game was played. No one in this thread except you is bagging on the Sioux, quite the opposite, we're congratulating them for doing so much better than most expected. Given the offensive struggles all season and coming in as a 5 seed (who wouldn't have even made the playoffs last season), they won 3 games to make it to the semifinals (including the program's first 2 road playoff wins ever), and in their loss matched the offense of an undefeated PSU, which some had hyped as the greatest in football history; it's another season for the Sioux to be very proud of. You're not going to change our pride in the Sioux team's accomplishments this season and over the last 4 years. You've already made your ungracious boast about how your team is better this year; just go enjoy PSU's success and well-earned trip to Florence and let us celebrate the Sioux's accomplishments.

Yeah, I think the "a few calls makes it go the other way" statement was not meant to be a complaint about the reffing, rather a happy observation that the Sioux team was playing at about the same level as PSU, so that fewer miscues or capitalizing on a few more missed opportunities could have made it go the other way. I agree with the principle of the ungracious boast that the better team won, in that after watching the game I would expect PSU to win that matchup >6 of 10 times. However, we're congratulating the UND team because no one really expected them to be playing this deep into the playoffs and certainly no one thought they would be as competitive as they were with PSU. Congrats to the Sioux on a great season! Congrats also to the senior class. They brought us the first ever Sioux championship, and went on to be a runner up and a semifinalist in subsequent years. It's great to see UND football at this level and to have games to watch in December! Thanks!

It's weird that only being down by 11 with 10 mins left makes us feel out of the game...

How did we get a hold on a FG attempt?

Exactly -- the annoying thing is that PSU's offense hasn't been better than UND's at marching down the field. The big difference has been that when PSU starts putting together a drive, it ends in a TD; whereas UND has twice been held to a FG in the red zone. Don't misunderstand me -- by converting where we can't, PSU deserves to be ahead; it's just frustrating because I though UND would be ahead now if the game developed this way. I know it didn't result in a score, but I still can't quit looking at that -1 TO margin for UND, because I was really hoping that would be +2 or 3 by now, for the Sioux to win.

Another 3 and out for Pitt St. I hope UND and Pitt St are starting to realize that Pitt St. is beatable. We seem to be moving the ball equally well, just keep executing on the little things.

Yep, Sioux D held again, forcing another punt. I'm quite happy with 10-14 at this point. Pitt St is getting yds as we knew they would, but the Sioux D has been bending not breaking. The Sioux D has been containing the pass pretty well, so when they can force the pass its been going well. The Sioux O has been doing a fine job of getting some time of possession and moving the ball. To my surprise, the Sioux O seemed to have had more big plays in the 1st half than Pitt St. O, but we didn't win the crucial TO/special teams battle. Play the same game but have some of the little things go UND's way in the 2nd half and it's possible to win.

After that big 3rd down conversion to Caleb Johnson, UND and Pitt St seem about even on big offensive plays. UND needs to start winning the battle of special teams/TOs to have a prayer. Philpot is out, Majors is in.

Sioux recover from a 3rd and 19 with a long ball to Caleb Johnson. Sioux on Pitt St.'s 32, 1st down. The previous play had been a big break for the Sioux, after a sack in which Belmore lost the ball but Sioux recovered. Sioux have had great balance in being able to both run and pass this drive, grind out some 1st downs, burn some clock. Just what the doctor ordered.

My bigger concern has been can the UND O burn some time? Scoring off favorable field position, D, special teams is nice and probably crucial to a Sioux win today, but the inconsistent Sioux O has to put together some sustained drives to make Pitt's D work a bit and give UND's D some rest.

Yep, definitely a legit penalty, and very stupid since the pass was already incomplete. This game has been textbook so far. Philpot's passes so far have been awful, easy for the Sioux to stop. Sioux are doing a fair job containing Philpot's rushing, but Pitt St. is grinding out a lot of yards on the ground. Pitt St. has been dominating the ball, but special teams are why the score doesn't show it. If it continues like this, the Sioux will definitely need to force some turnovers or continue to play a perfect special teams game to give them the extra edge. 7-7 with about 4min remaining in the 1st

Pitt St gets an break -- ball popped out of Philpot's hands as he was being tackled, but he was ruled down on the field. Replay was pretty inconclusive, so it was certainly a fine call. After UND's first penalty, Philpot runs for a 1st down past the 50.

Awesome!!! Again, Pitt St. finds themselves in a 3rd and 15 so has to go to the pass. Sioux hold up forcing another punt. 3 and out, baby! Sioux mess up on the punt, turning it over to PSU midfield The call is overruled on the field, UND ball on the 48!

Pitt St moved the ball pretty well, confirming what we all feared coming into the game -- they're going to get yards so the Sioux need to figure out how to make them work for every yard and bend but not break. The Sioux are starting to limit Philpot's rushing and have been hitting him hard. A penalty pushed the Gorillas back forcing Philpot to move to the pass and they failed to convert on a 3rd and 15. Despite giving up one big run and a grinding 1st after that, the Sioux D forced a punt on the opening drive. UND went 3 and out, so the offense isn't yet holding up their end of the field position battle.

The Forum's daily attempts to stir up Fargoans by creating "news" when there simply isn't anything new continue. Regarding this quote, we've all been saying forever that UND and NDSU would be in the same division again soon if for no other reason than that UND fans simply wouldn't tolerate being in a lower division from NDSU. Of course what NDSU does affects what fans expect UND to do, just as the reverse would be true. I'm baffled that Kupchella starting to feel that pressure is surprising to anyone??? We've all known for months that UND was studying reclassification now because the criterion cited as most important by NDSU's Carr report and UND fans here for years (securing a conference affiliation before reclassifying) is demanding timely consideration. Kupchella acknowledges that many of his "reconsider moving" catalysts have occurred, including much of the NCC reclassifying and the transition becoming less punitive, yet he still has the same concerns about increased travel, budget, and lower exposure for most sports. As a long-time on-the-record supporter of both ND schools reclassifying, looks like same old, same old to me.

Unfortunately, not that I know of. His current rankings would have UND beat GVSU by about 4 at home. But since the rankings incorporate that game, that's the whole point, they're supposed to accurately describe past results. Regardless, such a system is going to be able to make much more meanginful comparisons between teams like GVSU and UND that have at least a win and a loss; it's always going to predict great things for an undefeated team (because the past data indicates there's nothing you can do to beat them).

It depends how you want to measure SOS. A simple to understand, so well-accepted measure is something like RPI uses, a combination of opponents' win% and opponents' opponents' win%. Those are currently: UND: opp%: .6369, opp-opp%: .5623, weighted SOS: .6120 Pitt St: opp%: .5667, opp-opp%: .5230, weighted SOS: .5521 Massey (formula unknown) says: UND: 15.84 (hardest schedule in DII) Pitt St: 14.10 If you believe in the predictive power of Massey's ratings (which even Massey doesn't), they would predict a 37-22 win for Pitt St. Pretty much any stats you run will indicated that Pitt St's offense should thoroughly embarrass UND's defense; but the predictive ability of such measures is even more limited than usual in this case, since Pitt St. has never faced a D as highly rated as UND, and UND has never faced an O as highly rated as Pitt St. Guess they better play the game just to be sure. I can't get a solution comparing Pitt St. to UND using Bradley-Terry since Pitt St. is lossless.

According to the report I cited in this thread, it costs about $1m/year to run REA. As is also noted there, the increase in revenue to the athletic department from REA is about $1.6m (not counting the increase in Fighting Sioux club membership).

On the topic of the thread, here are the current top 5 ranked by Bradley-Terry: 1. Minnesota 256.8100 10-3-0 77.0429 2. Colorado College 189.8530 10-2-0 37.9707 3. Denver 148.5680 8-5-0 92.8551 4. Wisconsin 141.4880 10-4-0 56.5952 5. North Dakota 100.0000 9-5-2 60.0000 What's most interesting to me is how ridiculously lower the strength-of-schedule is for the CCHA/HE teams that appear in the top 10.

Woohoo-- GVSU's quarterback coughs it up on 3rd, GVSU's first TO of the game claim their announcers. Sioux ball on GVSU's 30. Bowenkamp back in. Sioux drive to GVSU's 11. Strouth to the 1. 6:09 remaining. TD Sioux!!!! QB runs it in. PAT good. UND 19, GVSU 15. 4:59 remaining.

Belmore picked by GVSU on the GV 30. Another punt-by-interception for the Sioux. Sigh -- late hit by UND, so GVSU gets it near the 50. 8:47 remaining.