jimdahl

OK, the message board is running on the new server. The URL with the IP address is only temporary. If performance works out well, I'll move the SiouxSports.com domain name over; otherwise, I'll move the board back and go back to the drawing board.

Thanks to all the posters for making these forums a friendly and informative place to discuss UND. Thanks to the UND players, coaches, and staff for making UND athletics something that generates excitement and lifelong interest among fans. Happy Holidays!

North Dakota Leads Race for North Central Conference Cup North Dakota used strong finishes in fall NCC Championships to lead the standings for the inaugural North Central Conference Cup following the fall season. The Fighting Sioux won the football championship, finished second in soccer, third in women

Yay -- economics, now we're getting into my field Protectionism is actually a pretty liberal trait, conservative economists favor free markets, including trade. That said, Bush has proven much more protectionist (steel tariffs) than his predecessors (Clinton disappointed a lot of liberals with NAFTA). While it's inefficient for the U.S. economy as a whole to prop up industries that could be more cheaply run elsewhere, I personally think we have to look beyond the net impact and look at how dramatically we're affecting individuals' lives. We've known for 40+ years that we can't compete in steel. Having the industry disappear overnight may be good for the U.S. economy as a whole, but it's devastating to the individual people who depend on that industry. I'd like to see a "soft landing": controlled/reducing supports for those industries so it's less devastating to the people who have made their careers there, but so everyone knows that industry is dying. We either seem to try to protect an industry forever (steel) or let it collapse entirely overnight (televisions). Agriculture is a very labor-intensive industry so the U.S. is a very expensive place to practice it, yet it definitely gets special treatment. Due to the representive structure of the U.S. government, sparsely populated states have disproportionate influence, so the ag states have managed to get tremendous government support for agriculture. There are also security and other practical reasons to produce a certain amount of our food domestically. U.S. culture also still has an almost romantic respect for the farmer.

Though I agree that it's not the big event that any D-I championship would be, that's not a fair comparison. The reason it's a small event is because it's D-II football, not because it's in Florence. I can't imagine that any community would sell out a D-II championship game to locals when it featured teams from 700+ and 1300+ miles away; certainly not Grand Forks or Fargo. There were a lot more festivities set up and planned (the Coke football skills trials and tailgating, for example) that weren't used at all because of the weather and because the fans just congregated at their respective alumni events. I found that the service industry in town really celebrated the championship -- everywhere I went had signs for the event; Cajun's had UND and GVSU helmets on the bar; waitresses everywhere were wearing championship t-shirts.

Like I said, not much of a photographer, particularly for the actual game, but it gives you a taste of what it was like to go to Florence.

Just drove back from Florence. I took a few photos, but I'm not much of a photographer and prefer to spend my time being a fan rather than working to get good shots. Here's a teaser from the pre-game tailgating when the team showed up. I'll try to get a few more festivities photos from my digital camera up tomorrow night and maybe I'll write up more of a "trip report". Most of my in-game photos were taken on a film camera, so if any turned out, I'll have them later this week.

So, it just occurred to me that a 3:00 game would be played about half in the dark; the temperature could drop precipitously after dark. I don't think I've been to an outdoor football game "under the lights" since high school

Weather.com has updated their forecast to early morning rain, with sunny and mid-40s by 3pm. While that's just proof how much things can change with forecasts this far in advance, at least its moving in the right direction for now.

A not so subtle plug for those who rarely venture outside the message board, one of the features of this site is news aggregation. The SiouxSports.com football page aggregates news stories about Sioux football from a wide variety of media. Of course, I don't intend to be anywhere near a computer Saturday afternoon, so update times may suffer this weekend

The definition of which is correct tends to be "what makes it looks like polls" and "what seems consistent with known H2H results". So many of us despise Massey (the complex one, not the BCS one) because it frequently fails test #2 because of its overemphasis among scoring differential, among other things. The Massey used in BCS does not include all those whacky things, and is actually quite similar in mission and result to Bradley-Terry. Test #1 is actually not as stupid as it seems -- if you can come up with a simple formula that answers the same question as polls, then you can apply that formula objectively going forward. When it deviates from polls, then you can ask the interesting question of why? For example, polls tend to reward past success (i.e. Gopher Hockey) more than past success actually influences the current season. If you work in the other direction and continuously "correct" the formula, then you're right back at college hockey's RPI or Massey. As to which is actually correct -- depends on the schedule. When hockey used to have a few strong conferences, emphasizing Win% to 35% produced more palatable results. Once a couple significantly weaker conferences with little interlock were introduced into the mix, it became obvious that SOS needed more weight, leading to the current 25-50-25 (the same as basketball). Football just doesn't play enough interlocking games to correctly identify the top two teams with any certainty. It seems even Sioux and Bison fans can agree, bring on a DI football tournament.

Weather channel is calling for 48 and 60% rain I hope they're right instead (and that we land in that 40%)!

Looks like UND only got tickets for fans that are taking the charter. I find that an interesting decision -- I would've thought they would have bought a block for UND fans so there would be a group of UND fans together rather than have us interspersed with the locals.

Huh -- I would have but I just read that Roger would be on after it happened. Not much notice. I'm even checking UND's site an unusual amount this week because I keep expecting them to post football playoff ticket info. GVSU has already sold a few thousand, we're told, yet UND doesn't seem particularly anxious to sell me one.

Thanks for the update, UNA. Does anyone know how many UND people made it in 2001? I thought I had read somewhere (but can't find it now) that it was about 400. 200 or so is more in line with what I would have expected if I had just had to guess. Sounds like UND is definitely going to be the "visiting team", especially if the majority of the locals cheer for GVSU. At least the game isn't in a dome

Number 4, Grand Forks is a whole lot further away than Grand Valley State. I think GVSU is only about 700 miles from Muscle Shoals, compared to 1300 miles for Grand Forks. A lot of casual fans might think it's fun to make the 10 hour drive, but only real diehards would consider 20 hours.

Huntsville showed up as being "within 70 miles" when I searched online just now. There's another thread about traveling to Alabama forming already.

Looks like about $800/head for me to fly. If I can make it, I'll end up driving. All the hotels in Muscle Shoals other than a Best Western seem to be booked or at least not available through online aggregators (which I remember being true in 2001, also). Is it just that popular a destination, or are some of those already reserved for the football championship? I expect UND to run a fan bus or charter, but will any tickets/accommodations be available to fans coming from places other than Grand Forks?

I know I'm talking to myself (a sign of insanity, perhaps) but as has been true for both UNA and UND throughout the playoffs, the team with the big turnovers won. 2 big interceptions in the second half were critical to the Sioux.

19-9 UND. As the announcers pointed out, we're having offense troubles without Johnson, Lueck, or Ahlers. Gotta figure out some way to get some points.

Hall fumbled but we couldn't quite get it, 9 yard loss nonetheless. 3rd and long, big pressure from the Sioux. UNA converts on 3rd and long. They're moving the ball really well. Not on the back of one big play, but a really good drive. The Sioux D continues to bend. A turnover would be huge, but what I'm really hoping for is the Sioux offense to start getting something done when we get the ball back. I don't think 0 points in the 2nd half is going to win this game for the Sioux.

If he's interested, he'll certainly get the offers; he got interest last year and it should be much greater this year. Frankly, he deserves to move up; if the institution doesn't move up with him, I'll certainly wish him well at the next level. The Sioux have had great success ever since he's been coach, but this year more than ever it's been obvious how much great coaching has contributed to our success. We've been fortunate to have him as a coach, and will be lucky to have him as long as we can. He's quite young -- moving up a division would be a great career move for him if he's interested in trying to climb the ranks.

Interception Sioux! After missing a great chance at a safety, the Sioux let UNA drive 30 yards or so, looked like our D was starting to bend. UNA has figured out how to control our offense better, but our D is still doing what they need to do.

I also pointed out how EVERY week since the week before the Bison game, we've heard how the Sioux have gotten lucky so far but next week they're playing an opponent who will expose them. The Sioux have never run up the score, which misleads the casual observer who doesn't watch the games, but we've noticed since week 3 that they bring out just as much talent as needed to compete with each opponent. There was no way to know in advance if the Sioux could step up the level of play to match UNA since they're the toughest opponent yet, but win or lose, the Sioux have already shown that they could step it up to compete with UNA. I think UNA was a little shaken by the dome and the crowd in the first half, so who knows if we could've done the same thing in front of a hostile crowd in Alabama.

They got rid of the halo rule just this season.