NDSU grad

I'm asking this because I really don't know (I was in grade school at the time). What was the attendance like at Dacotah Field in the 80's for Bison-Sioux games when the Sioux were awful?

I have no idea what that sentence is supposed to mean. When I say (or write) DI and the context is football I mean IA, if i'm referring to I-AA then that is what I'll type. And I stand by what I said, I think Rob Hunt (and a few other Bison) could start for a few DI teams. Heck, I'd put the whole team up against SUNY-Buffalo.

Let me just add from a sane Bison fan there is absolutely no way Hunt would start over Eslinger, although there may be a few DI teams Hunt could start for.

For every UMKC there is a IUPUI. They've been a DI member since 1998 and already have one trip to the Big Dance and another appearance in the Mid-Con championship game. Geography is not a predictor of success or failure in this move.

From all reports the official vote is a formality, since there was zero opposition to it while in committee.

I totally agree with you about MAAC and Pioneer League teams still being DIII if they could. But I just don't know how anyone could argue that DI-AA is not more competitive than DII. About the watering down of DII, I could care less about who comes in to DII. What bothers me is when schools join DII, then whine about scholarships until the limit gets lowered. The SAC only allows 25 or so, but yet they do fine, and I've never heard fans, players, or coaches whine about inequity because of the reduced scholarships. It would be nice if the rest of DII took notice. It seems that in I-AA, the conferences that allow no scholarships accept the fact and don't try to lobby to get limits lowered. And as a side, personally my biggest problem with DII is regionalization and the SSI playoff criteria, not the influx of new programs

The only problem with that is that in DII there is a huge difference between being a playoff team and being one of the top 16 teams in the country. I would have easily put NDSU in the top ten last year, and given that there may have been a dozen DII teams that could have beat Montana on any given day. But Montana was far from being the premier team in I-AA last year. There is no (and I mean no) DII team that could have touched Delaware last year. I will stand very strongly by that statement too.

Yes, and 95% of those schools (including Valparaiso) would wax UM-Crookston and MSU-Moorhead. Call it conjecture if you wish, but there is no doubt in my mind, and I would put a considerable amount of money on the outcome. I will have a lot of fun watching NDSU play UC-Davis, Cal-Poly, Northern Colorado, and the two Southland teams. By the way, I also think Montana Tech would beat UM-Crookston and MSU-Moorhead and also we only play non-scholly at home.

I know absolutely nothing about building construction, but why can't they just bond the remaining 500,000?

I was wrong, I think. I got to wondering about the Patriot and this is what I found. Patriot League rules If you go to page 36 toward the top it says football players cannot receive aid above need-based aid. But then it says (at least how I understand it) that if a football player does receive aid above need, it has to be reported bi-annually. So I apologize for that error, but since we're way off topic nobody probably cares that much anyway.

It's my understanding that in addition to grant-in-aids the Patriot League does give out bona fide athletic scholarships for football, though not anywhere near the max. I believe national runner up Colgate gave out about 15 last year.

I count 30 out of 119. I got the NEC, MAAC, Ivy, and the Pioneer that don't offer scholarships. Who am I missing?

Seriously, is there anything UM-Crookston is good at?

Look at this headline from today's forum. I guess this puts the debate to rest.

I really can't say who will pan out and who won't, but I would have to think Woodside is probably a can't miss with all the accolades he's received. But I agree with 92,96, this class would be excellent if NDSU were still a DII school, but I don't know how it stacks up as a DI class. Still, I think it's something we can build on for the future.

Wow, I didn't know that about SCSU. Along with nursing, teaching may be the noblest of professions. Not good when it comes to raising donations though.

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.