NDSU grad

No way is SDSU better than Northwestern St. They will contend for the Southland conference title this year, and I'm afraid that will probably be a loss for us. Southern Utah has apparently improved quite a bit the last year or two, since they gave UNC a good game. I think our top five opponents (in no particular order) will be UC-Davis, UNC, Cal-Poly, Northwestern St., and Weber St. Also, I think UND put together a very good schedule this year.

I wasn't trying to mislead anyone by saying that I thought Valpo was a middle of the pack I-AA team. I was just offerring my opinion and didn't use any of the ratings services you guys quoted. It doen't surprise me Montana Tech is rated close to Crookston, as I figured they would be comparable to a lower tier NSIC team. Legend, I don't know how many times I have to say this. I cannot speak for the NDSU administration or other Bison fans. I personally am very happy with the schedule. This year filling out a schedule is extremely difficult, and I will be disappointed if the schedule doesn't get better in 05. But we should have SDSU, UNC, and UC-Davis at home, which is already a fantastic home slate.

Valpo is non-scholly, but they are a very good non-scholly. They're usually in contention for the Pioneer League championship and I think they are generally considered to be around the middle of the pack as far as I-AA teams go. I think what helps with Valpo is they have decent name recognition because of their basketball success. I can't speak for other Bison fans, but I honestly wasn't expecting any I-AA games at home so overall I'm happy with the schedule. Also, if the Valpo game works out that will be five home games.

It would be pretty silly for me to come on here and defend Montana Tech. But to tell you the truth, after looking at UNC's schedule last year I was afraid our home schedule would be filled with Montana Tech's. Also, it's not uncommon for I-AA teams to play DII and NAIA teams. I believe Montana State is playing two RMAC teams and Idaho State is playing Carroll (same conference as Montana Tech). So overall, I am extremely happy with the schedule as a whole and I think Gene Taylor did yeoman's work getting this schedule together.

It's ok, you can laugh. Hey, at least we're not playing them on the road.

PCM, I agree, but I do think Kupchella is going to have to make research more of a priority, and from the sounds of your post he may be doing that. I also think its ridiculous that Sicatoka thinks being a land grant school makes it a magnet for federal funding. The main granting agencies of the federal government are NIH, NSF, and DOE. I see no innate advantage to being a land grant school in garnering those organization's research dollars.

Sic, then how do you explain this. There's alot of liberal arts schools (both private and public) on that list. With state budgets for higher education being reduced all across the country, universities are becoming more and more dependant on these research funds. UND should be raking in NIH money with the medical school. And you conveniently left this out of your "definition" of the Morrill Act: ...without excluding other scientific and classical studies... The Morrill Act

Overuse of the ellipsis?

Would you guys be able to offer a free ride to Koenig?

I can't believe I'm responding to this, but I think the wrestling, men's and women's bball, men/women's track, and softball teams are or will be doing quite well also.

At least half (conservative estimate) of DII teams would beat St. Mary's soundly. But hey, every conference needs a whipping boy.

If memory serves me correctly, Ross Pankratz was offered to walk on at UND, redshirt his freshman year, and then earn a scholarship. I'm pretty sure Billeter didn't recruit him at all. But Northern offered at least a partial scholarship and his senior year they played in the elite eight. Northern recruited ND very well in the mid-90's, starting with Matt Clooten from Beulah, then the Vliem's, then Ross and Dustin and Scott Hanson. Even now Adam Grant from Berthold starts for them and I know Craig Nelson went there but I am not sure of his playing time.

I actually think Bison1234 is right on this one. They "signed" Kole Zimmerman's younger brother, and Kole himself (or someone pretending to be Kole, but don't know why anybody would do that) posted on Bisonville that he was walking on.

No. But I do think ND will be well represented. Presuming 5 ND kids will be an average class, and with a limit of 90 for I-AA rosters, that's about 28% ND kids. I really don't think our recruiting base will change, and that's backed up with this year's recruits. Hopefully, we'll just be getting better players from those same areas.

I just think some people took it to meant that ND kids weren't "good" enough to play at that level, just adding to the inferiority complex of the state.

Caufield and Trenbreath are probably better than Belquist at WR, but it's hard to compare. I would guess that NDSU recruited Yilek, since he definitely sounds like a stud. The main thing I was disappointed about in SU's class was the lack of O-linemen. It didn't really seem like an emphasis for Bohl this year, though, so maybe it was by design.

Airmail, that's funny stuff. Speaking of ND monuments, far and away my favorite is the pyramid of tin cans wrapped in chicken wire in Casselton. It's awesome in its simplistic beauty.

I think in this day and age getting any money from the state for projects such as these will be next to impossible. If I'm not mistaken, I don't think NDSU got much if any state money to build the new Business Administration building. Our last fundraising project exceeded projections, hopefully alumni will feel as generous this time around. 15M should get SU a pretty nice arena.

See, when you're more explicit I don't make presumptions that you weren't inferring in the first place. Your assessment is fair enough, and NDSU's travel costs are definitely going to rise. Obviously our AD is banking on revenue streams rising as well, but we'll have to see. As a wise man once told me, the only thing more dangerous than venturing into the unknown is maintaining the status quo.

I think it said a school with a small alumni base, little community support and a mediocre tradition is having trouble meeting revenue predictions. There's dozens of DII schools within a reasonably close distance to New Haven (so your geographically isolated theory is bunk). It sounds like they are having the same troubles Morningside had. How come you haven't compared NDSU to them yet? That would be a better comparison since everyone on this board will be more familiar with Morningside.

Have any of you heard anything new about Belquist? I believe (I could very well be wrong) that he is generally considered the best player in Class A. If Heckendorf does indeed commit and the rumors about Jark from Aberdeen coming to SU are also true, that would give us at least two WR's in this class. I know at one time he was also considering playing hoops somewhere, so maybe he has decided to take that option.

But don't you think that one directly affects the other?