UND92,96

Kind of a disappointment, but UND should get two more shots at Seattle--both in Grand Forks (assuming the two meet in the tournament in March).

Wayne Nelson had a little bit about UND football scheduling in his blog today: link

I'm sure you're corrrect with regard to UND doing everything possible to find an opponent for Sept. 12. I guess what I'm curious about is whether a) there simply aren't any FCS opponents looking for another road game at this point, or b) there just aren't any FCS opponents looking for a road game for the guarantee UND is offering (and I have no idea what that amount is).

According to the link from earlier in this thread regarding schedule openings, Maine still apparently has September 12 open. Even if it means "overpaying" in terms of a guarantee, that would seem to be the best option in terms of getting a recognizable name for a Potato Bowl opponent.

Not sure why they don't know that. They do have Nicole Smart as UND signee, though.

According to ESPN, Carly is the sixth-best college prospect in Minnesota this year: link

link

I'm not big on moral victories by any means, but I am pleased that UND appeared to be far more competitive in Vermillion than last week in Grand Forks. Let's be honest--USD is considerably more talented than we are this year, and that advantage was increased when they didn't red-shirt their top recruit, while we are red-shirting all of our freshmen. I have a feeling things may even out a bit the next couple of seasons, but obviously time will tell.

In the rematch: 68 UND 55 USD final

This was in Wayne Nelson's blog yesterday:

88 Ball State 80 UND final-OT

65 UND 68 Ball State 3:05 to go.

61 UND 61 Ball State 6:30 to go.

39 UND 36 Ball State halftime

With Privatsky out, I have a feeling Jossy Bergan playing as many as 39 minutes in a game, as she did against USD, will now be the norm. She certainly had a nice game against the Coyotes.

It's about time. You have no idea how much sleep I've lost worrying about the fact that Joe has been forced to suffer the indignity of NOT having a bodyguard for so long.

According to Wayne Nelson, she's done for the year.

98 USD 77 UND Not an impressive performance by the Sioux. USD is pretty good, although I'll be very interested to watch how they fare the next few years now that getting transfers (besides an occasional juco) will likely no longer happen.

75 UND 59 USD Only 11 turnovers for UND. I didn't hear an attendance figure, but it was a pretty good crowd.

Realistically, I don't. Nor do I expect UND would consider playing seven road games in one year. But hypothetically, if such a game were to take place, something strange would have to happen. Hence, my somewhat off-the-wall proposal. Personally, I don't think there's much of a chance for this game to take place in 2009. And I'm fine with that.

I agree to a point, but now that we're a counter, I really don't like the idea of entering into one-game, road-only contracts to play FCS opponents. I can only assume our administration felt like they had no choice, but this needs to be the last time we do this IMO. I doubt we'll ever see SFA or SE Louisiana come here.

UND needs home games, so I don't think we'd be in a position to dump Sioux Falls this year. However, I would be interested to know the buy-out for the Stephen F. Austin contract. That's a one-game deal, and if it's not in the $100k-plus range, that may be an option to more or less exchange them for NDSU (not in terms of the date, but in terms of keeping the schedule at six road games). My proposal would be: UND and NDSU split the cost of the SFA buy-out, and NDSU pays UND whatever the going rate is in Fargo these days for a non-conference one-game contract. Not that either side would necessarily agree to that, but IMO UND simply can't have a schedule with seven road games.

I agree. He earned his shot, and is making the most of it. I'm very much looking forward to the UNI game in Grand Forks next year.

UND recruit Josh Schuler is having a big season, averaging 26 ppg: link According to Wayne's blog, Jones is still planning on red-shirting him next year.

IMO, judging a transitional dI program in its first year is rather pointless. Case in point, NDSU lost twice to SDSU during year one (and SDSU was not good at all), lost to a couple of dII's, and didn't have a single win vs. a non-transitional dI program. But did it really matter? No, because like UND, they were playing a bunch of players who were really not dI-caliber, and were red-shirting their entire freshman class. That's not to say that UND's current group of red-shirts is going to replicate the success of Woodwide, Winkelman and Nelson, because that's rather unlikely, but chances are they're going to be better than what we're seeing now. Of course, the question for NDSU is what's going to happen after this year. They obviously lose a lot, and it seems that most of their recruits brought in during the two or three years after the Woodside/Winkelman/Nelson group haven't really panned out very well.