rabidrabbit

Tom Daschle graduated from SDSU in 1969. Al Neuharth and Tom Brokaw are USD graduates.

As an outside observer, that has lived in the mid-Atlantic region, I think that lacross makes more sense for UND than does baseball. Allows UND to get a spring and fall sports use out of the Al. Like hockey, it's a small pool of schools in lacross. Both men & womens sport. UND could, in Star2city's post become the upper midwest lacross beacon. And based on the Washington Post article, appears to be need for more schools. Unfortunately, baseball is a summer sport in ND, not the spring sport it is down south.

The ideal size for a football conference is 9. 8 conference games, 4 home, 4 away, 3 OOC's. Especially out west, where there is limited amount of teams. 5 in the Great West, 9 in the Big Sky and 12 in the Southland (7 + UCA play football). Therefore, there is great interest in picking up 4 Schollie (63) teams. Whether these teams come from California, MN, KS, SD, ND, WA doesn't matter. If these schools are western/midwestern/great plains the GWFC will take them in until up to 9. Now the all-sports conference, that's a completely different story.

The important thing is to make a decision, and then stick with it for the next 10 years (or more). Stay D-II, hold the NCC together, and enjoy being a top program in a weakened division. Go D-IAA, renew your play against NDSU, SDSU, and maybe even UNC fairly quickly. Expect to spend a couple of years as an everything but football independent. Adjust, and get back to being the competitor you've always been, but now at a higher level. Despite many of the dire words from just south fans, generally, you'd be welcomed again.

Thanks for posting. A much more supportive report for moving to I-AA than expected. Here's one potential rival school supporter that would enjoy getting back into competition with you again. Good luck in deciding.

The one virtually sure bet, should UND move to D-1, is that the GWFC would like UND to join. Whether UND feels it's beneath them to join a fledgling, no auto bid conference is their choice. But out west, there are three choices in I-AA, Big Sky (max scheduled out), GWFC (Scrambling for more members), or the 12 school Southland (where 3 non-football schools are considering adding football again). Not much space except in one conference. And it even would have 2 bus trip games against long time rivals. This part to me, appears to be the weakest reason to not go D-I. Conference not there for the rest of the sports, yes, but no football conference that's available.

Bodes well for transition.....DI or DII, looks like a nice selection. Good Luck Sioux!

Unfortunately, the ONLY option to the NCAA is NAIA, which provides even less opportunities. There is a reason that monopolies get broken up.

As an outside observer, it appears that they (Kuppy & Bunella) are delaying picking a BB coach until a decision on D-1 is made. From any coach's perspective, I'd want to know if dealing with a D-2 or D-1 situation prior to accepting a job. Well, a week before the Big Sky meeting. We'll know what's up from the Big Sky shortly. Then watch the domino's fall.

Mid-con membership by BOTH of the SU's is very beneficial to UND to declare now, go through your last 2 NCC years, and be in a position to join in toward the end of transition years. Seriously, both conference commissioners are telling you..."declare, get into transition, and when you're play-off compatible, we'll be happy to have you. As unstable as the Mid-con is, there is very likely to be a home for you there. And already being a football member, (GWFC) could be faster.

Oh and the latest D2 school to be accepted into a D1 conference (just on Monday)... the University of South Carolina- Upstate. So they now join Kennesaw State, Central Arkansas, Florida Gulf Coast, North Florida, and Presbyterian as D2 schools that have recently found a conference before entering the provisional process. A-Sun conference has added 4 schools from D-2 in last two years. None of these are well-known schools, and no power. Fl. Gulf Coast had trouble finding ANY conference, and they ended up in A-Sun because they were actively looking for additional schools. Level playing field as virtually growing A-Sun together. UND could approach mid-con now, and make the case to join as a affiliate member now with full membership after transition, very equivalent footing as Utah Valley St., IMHO. GWFC would welcome UND very quickly.

Grow to 12 with Utah Valley St as SUU travel partner, add in UND also. Grow GWFC to 6, and possibly convince Western Ill (mid-con member) to join GWFC in '08/'10. BTW, I still think that this would leave potential expansion room for other current NCC members to move up in future.

SIOUX - Answer to conference question right there!!!! Mid-con/GWFC.

Wasn't referring to five years down the road, but now, next week/this summer. Just last year, Central Arkansas was accepted into the Southland Conference as a DII over two other full DI schools (Centenary and UTPA) when the Southland went to 12 members. A DII school can get into a lower ranking DI conference - it has happened many times previously. S2C - good points! Why is UND like UCA and unlike Centenary or UTPA is another way of phrasing this question. UND is like UCA in that it's a top D-2 school, with full range of sports, especially both football and basketball. Cent/UTPA aren't. Enrollment is 10K plus, mainly not commuters. I've not sized out UCA stadium/arena, but suspect UND is larger than UCA. Cent/UTPA are tiny backwater schools that are struggling, and probably shouldn't be D-I, especially Cent. Why is situation different from UCA? Generally isn't. Either conference (Big Sky or Mid-Con) you are outside their footprint. Big Sky reasons for accepting UND in near future. Join two strong programs as third in same general area as those two. However, SUU also fits that description, and already within BSC footprint. Schollies on the rise there. Reasons to accept UND into Mid-Con - Get to 12 schools. Helps solidify GWFC/Mid-con combo (A desired outcome of commish). Again, acceptance is premised on SDSU/NDSU also here. At this time, I see no viable alternative for UND to be invited to ANY DI conference other than in conjunction with NDSU, and likely also SDSU. Otherwise, Grand Forks is too remote from other schools, such as MT, UNI, UNC to attract them. But bundled in with the SU's...... Future growth/acceptance is better in the mid-con/GWFC than in Big Sky IMHO. BTW, '89's info at SDSUFans.com does shown him living in KC/Shawnee KS. We'd love to see u in D-1, but understand if wish to keep D-2/NCC alive too.

Not really. 1) One school will have a scholarship advantage and be at home. 2) It'll only be one game. This is the start of "transition" should you choose to pursue it. For the first couple of years, most of your tough D-1 games will be on the road. Your home games will be other transitionals, D-2's (or lower), and your conference games. See Central Ark. schedule, or SDSU's, and even UC-Davis. The tough games are RARELY on your home turf, AT THE BEGINNING. UND would do better than most D-2 to D-1 transitionals. You are likely to need to look to the non-schollies for wins, because the GWFC, the Big Sky, and the Gateway contain generally top 50 programs in the D1AA so road wins would be very difficult. But then again, it's tough to get road wins in the NCC, especially the top half of the league. Have fun, play loose, and enjoy the experience. Recommend UNI-dome as a road trip.

Bringing two schools to the BSC would give them 11 which isn't impossible to schedule for but 10 is easier to work with. Combine that with the fact that the Mid-Con looks to be very interested in both the SU's and add to that the previously mentioned flight issues (i.e. not having to travel to Minneapolis then Fargo) makes it a different landscape. Personally I don't think the BSC is going to do anything in the way of making any offer to any schools and NDSU and SDSU will land in the Mid-Con. This leaves the GWFC still intact and also leaves an option albeit not a real rosy one for UND. If that were to happen UND would liely get into the GWFC but the rest of the sports would have no home and they would toil in the landscape of the Independants just as the two SU's have had to do for the last three years. UND fans - The greatest flexibility for a D-1 conference for move up NCC members is the mid-con/GWFC combo. Why? Mid-con has been through many changes over the years. There are still a couple of very weak schools in that conference, so 3, or 5, or 7 years down the road, expansion room exists. GWFC is consolidating and needs a couple of more tough as nails football programs to join a strong core of football schools. There is a strong possibility that when SDSU, NDSU, UC-Davis become eligible for the play-offs, that there could be 2 GWFC teams (out of the current 5) in the 1-AA play-offs. With the 2 SU's anchoring the mid-con, move-ups from the NCC would be more favorably evaluated. Generally speaking, it's closer from the eastern Dakotas to get to Chicago/Detroit than to get into Idaho. In actuality, Big Sky is good for a three school package, but once there, the conference is filled until a school moves up their football program. So no potential beyond that change. Mid-con/GWFC has expansion capacities that Big Sky doesn't.

GWFC would be a great conference for UND to join. It's sorta dependent on the Dak SU's ending up in the mid-con tho. Based on the writing about "requests for information" from the mid-con, there may be an invitation to join the mid-con for IPFW, NDSU, & SDSU. That would bring membership to 11 in all sports but football. The mid-con commish is promoting a Mid-con/GWFC connection. If so, I do hope that UND is talking to the mid-con as well as Big Sky. There may be room there for expansion.

Yep, home schedule is pathetically bad at bunny central this year BTW. it's UC-Davis at home, again this year. Jacks are at Cal-Poly for their homecoming. Sacrifices of moving to D-1 are toughest during transition. No sugar coating on that! Now back to your regularly scheduled D-1 discussion! LOL

Yep, we'll thump u! NDSU & UND facilities are a much better comparison than to Coughlin-Alumi Stadium in Brookings. I believe that the SDSUfans.com board has info about attendence. And yes, it's not as glowing as in Fargo, but it's #2 in the GWFC, and I believe over 10k average for DI games. Just haven't had many DI games at Brookings yet. If UND moves to DI, you should have a top 25 or better attendence relative to D-1AA schools in all your sports. Your peers are DI, and I hope to be playing you again. Look forward to thumping you again

Your attendence figures are already slipping (see the NCC board for details) , and according to your own coaches, in head to head competition, NDSU is 7, UND 0 last year. It'll only get worse as D-2 becomes the domain of the DAC-10, and your peers proceed in D-1, only 1 hr down I-29. It's fun being 2-0 vs University of Alabama (Women's BB)!!

More on the Sioux possible move - Thanks 89rabbit for this!! http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandf...s/14550002.htm COLLEGE ATHLETICS: Division I can wait Even if the Sioux move to D-I, they would play in NCC at least two more years By Kevin Fee Herald Staff Writer Before UND could make a move to NCAA Division I, it would have to give the Division II North Central Conference an 18-month notice that it was departing for the big time. The earliest UND could play a full-fledged Division I schedule would be in the 2008-09 school year, unless it wants to pay penalties to the NCC. That is if the school decided it could come up with the finances and eventually find a suitable conference. UND's NCAA Classification Task Force released a draft report that showed the pros and cons of the school moving all of its athletic programs to Division I. UND is Division I only in men's and women's hockey now. . . . (read more) This is a good solution for the Sioux if they choose to move up. Gives them an additional year to find a conference home. By then, hopefully NDSU/SDSU are firmly in a conference for all-sports. And in actuality, if that is the mid-con/GWFC combo, that could be a workable place for the Sioux in the 2010-2013 timeframe, when they're first eligible for play-offs (assuming transition year would be 2008). __________________ Rabid Rabbit

All schools will have "UP" years and also "DOWN" years in the various sports. SDSU's men's BB has had some difficulty in 2005 due to matters beyond coach's matters. The Lady Jacks had a VERY solid 2nd year in D-1, and we're all hoping for a successful 3rd season there. In basketball, even more pronounced than in football, the difference in divisional play is in depth. During transition, looking to develop and recruit that depth. UND has nothing impeding their successful transition to being a D-1 more than themselves. If decide that D-1 is where UND wants to be, you will succeed as well as other D-2's have done. Perhaps, better than most. Both SDSU and NDSU are good comparisons. They, like UND would be, are doing well, and will only get better with more years in D-1.

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/sports/14550002.htm And with the other article, the time to make the plunge with plenty of time to search out a D-1 conference affilation. If choose to commit to D-1 plan now, eligible in 2013 for play-offs. Plenty of time to resolve issues of name, conference and ramp up slower. Best of luck in D-

You'll not know til you try it!!!

So does that mean that the talent level between D-2 and D1AA is not that significant? I suppose we will find out when we play Northern Iowa. UNI was the national champ runner-up last year. They will be a good measuring stick of a top DiAA program. The only downside is it's a warm-up game, so both sides will be fresh, few injuries. The main difference in a top D-2 and a D 1AA is depth, which will show later in the year. Likewise, SDSU plays UNI the week after you do in the dome. For a local game between what should be two top 15 teams in D 1AA, catch the game in Fargo Nov. 11 between Cal Poly and NDSU. It is likely to be the championship game of the GWFC. And while it's a small conference at this time, any of the top 4 teams, and maybe SUU could win the league. It has gained the attention of the 1AA crowd quickly with great strength of schedule OOC, and very even play in conference games.