nd1sufan

Yes, you would have your rival back. After all of the comments on this site about the manufactured rivalry between NDSU and SDSU, I don't think you will be able to convince too many people about how your rivalry with Montana will be any better. There is a continued multiple decade association with NDSU and SDSU and both schools claimed (believable or not) that each other was now their biggest rival. I don't imagine you will get much talk from U of Mont that UND is their biggest rival. It would be a one sided rivalry. I'm not saying NDSU replaced UND with SDSU, UND will always be NDSU's biggest rival, and I'm not saying the Summit/MVFC is better or worse than the BSC, I actually think both are fairly equal competitively, I'm just saying UND would have their biggest rival and 2 other opponents they have recent history with in the Summit/MVFC that they won't have in the BSC. Not to mention they would resume an old rivalry with UNI in football. and they are rather easy to hate with thier current group of coaches and players. I hope this isn't taken as smack, it certainly is not meant to be, just my honest opinion.

Agreed that quality quartback play is lacking at UND and NDSU. Don't know enough about UND's QB's returning to know if they are the answer, but I'm pretty sure Mohler and Jensen are not the answer at NDSU. UND's back are good enough and receivers are better than anything NDSU has playing this year. Who do the Sioux have coming back at QB other than Goska or Hendrickson?

NDSU is a year away from being a good team. Their guard play is not good. Next year with Lindberg coming in from Superior, WI and Hale. a transfer point guard from Minneapolis (Via Texas State), they will be much better even without Tveidt. I say it won't be more than a ten point game.

Don't think I was gloating, I'm just glad the Bison won and live to play another week or more. It will be interesting when UND makes the playoffs for the first time and declines the invitation because the opposing team doesn't have the full allotment of scholarships. I'm pretty sure NDSU didn't tell the NCAA who they were going to play.

I would prefer the Big Sky version. I think the top seeds should only have to win two games to get to the NCAA tournament. It just may take longer for an expansion team to make it to the conference tournament if only half of the teams make it.

It all depends on which NDSU team shows up. If the one from the Green Bay game shows up, it will be a toss up, if the one that beat UC Santa Barbara or the one that was within 50-44 midway through the 2nd half at the U of Minn shows up it could be a 20 point blow out. NDSU actually has a preety young team. Tveidt and Coleman are the only seniors and Coleman has not played much at all in his career. Carlson is the only other player on their rsoter with much experience. The atmosphere could get to NDSU as much as UND, not to mention their will be much more pressure on the Bison, which I don't think they handle very well.

Any idea of how the Big Sky will handle their conference tournament? Will all 11 teams make it? Or just the top 8? Or some conferences in some sports only allow the top 4 in the tournament to avoid a lower division team representing them in the National Tournament.

Perhaps you may not want to make those types of comments after a season when your 3 wins were against a bad D2 team, a team without a D1 win in over a year and a team in its first year of football. I'm sure better years are on the horizon for UND football, but now is not the time to gloat over your football program.

But we have been told that UND owns the State of ND outside of Cass County and it is nothing for someone to travel 4 to 6 hours for a football game, so UND actually has most of the 640,000 population base to draw from compared to the 200,000 in the Fargo Metro area. Now explain the the attendance differences.

I think 12K is pretty good. NDSU doubles the average playoff attendance of UND, which is THE FLAGSHIP university in North Dakota, has twice as many fans(or more) than NDSU, has a monopoly on fans all over the state and region, and has pretty much rendered NDSU irrelevant outside Cass County. By the way, I think athletically NDSU will be fine, but academically, I'm a little worried about being on the same field as a team from the Ivy League of the West. I just don't know if NDSU is a peer institution.

Who is saying there will be 6000 at the game today. If the game were in the Alerus, it would be sold out.

Actually, UND would charge more for one game(the NDSU game) than they currently do for season tickets ($40).

Well I guess its not Waldorf College, but the Bison are up 39-37 at Oregon at the half.

No, since we have been told that NDSU has NO chance of successfully recruiting against UND, I just think of it as a coup anytime NDSU can get a kid in any sport that UND offered and think it needs to be pointed out since it is such a great feat. Kids de-commit all of the time and I was sure after the annoucement heard round the world of UND to the BSC, the Lindberg kid was gone. In fact, taking a kid away from UND mens basketball is equivalent of taking one away from Duke or Kentucky.

The "product" isn't going to magically improve because UND is in the Big Sky. Believe it or not, there are bad teams in the Big Sky with poor attendance.

Maybe 1,000 or 2,000, but the vast majority come from less than an hour radius.

I agree Weber State would be fun to watch in Mens basketball, but the Cal Poly's and Cal Davis's have been coming in on a regular basis in the Great West, and it hasn't exactly been an attendance boost.

Wow, took longer for the "Imperial Cass County" remark than I thought. My point is if you are expecting people to drive 4 to 6 hours to fill up a stadium for football or basketball games its not a good situation. Also, most serious sports fans in this state already have loyalties to one school or the other, and I don't think which conference either is in will change those loyalties.

Another kid that apparently hasn't heard the UND to the Big Sky announcement. He signed with NDSU yesterday.

I would really rather stay in the Summit/MVFC combo. With all of the movement in D1 conferences these days, there is bound to be an opening or two in the Missouri Valley fro all sports in the next 3 to 7 years. I would rather wait and take a chance on getting in the Missouri Valley than go to the Big Sky. I know Sioux fans are talking about how great it will be in the Big Sky, but really outside of the Montana schools, who will you be excited see to come to the Alerus or Betty to watch them play football or basketball? I would like to hear from Sioux fans which schools in the Big Sky have them so excited.

I don't care if the Montanas leave or not, kind of want to hear the excuses when the Alerus is half full with a wonderful Big Sky schedule. Cal Davis, SUU and Cal Poly draw 6,000 now, not sure why that will change with a 3-8 team in the BIg Sky. You will possibly have one draw a year, and that will be the Montana school that comes in every year. No one else in that conference will excite the average fan.

Apparently the kid from Kansas that just verballed to NDSU hadn't heard UND is in the Big Sky now and is King of the FCS. You can think all you want that recruits in the traditional core recruiting areas for both NDSU and UND(ND, Minn, Wisc, Nebraska, Texas etc.) thing playing N. Ariz, E. Wash, Sac State, UC Davis, Idaho State, Portland St et al. is so much better than playing Illinois State, Youngstown State, UNI, SIU, et al. I don't buy it. I guess time will tell. I'm not buying the statewide support thing either, but there are more people in Cass and Clay counties than in the whole western half of North Dakota.

Which travel partner will be better, SCSU in the Summit with NDSU or U of Mary in the Big Sky with UND after the Big Sky again expands in a panic when U of Montana and Montana State announce they are leaving for an FBS conference?

I guess somebody better tell Bohl he better head east, it doesn't look like he has a chance to get anyone west of Illinois