UND92,96

While I believe we probably should be a little better than we are right now, nearly all of the players who are actually playing this year are juniors and seniors, meaning not only will they not be around much longer, they weren't really recruited to be dI players. I would expect to see improvement next year when we add this year's red-shirt class, plus Chris Clausen and perhaps the Schuler kid if he doesn't red-shirt, to the mix. If we don't see some reason for optimism this time next year, I'll be surprised and a bit disappointed.

Regarding Hardee, New Mexico State has been quite successful in women's volleyball. I have a suspicion that Faison is already aware of that.

Wayne Nelson confirms that Idaho State has bought out its contract, and won't be playing in Grand Forks in 2009: link I'd like to see either Maine or Northern Colorado for the Potato Bowl. Both had Sept. 12th open as of Jan. 7 according to footballscoop.com. We have a connection already with Maine due to hockey, and Northern Colorado is always in need of money considering how poorly they draw. With the Texas Tech payday, it seems like we could afford to pay one fairly large guarantee, particularly when you figure the game should sell out.

USD is apparently having just as many scheduling problems as we are. Some time ago, they announced a tentative 2009 schedule that included six home games--McNeese State, SE Louisiana, UC-Davis, Southern Utah, dII West Texas A & M and NAIA William Penn. McNeese backed out some time ago, and West Texas A & M released their schedule a few weeks ago, and it didn't include USD. It will be interesting to see whether SE Louisiana exercises a buyout clause, too.

Hopefully this site gets updated soon to account for WWU's dropping of football. I have to think one of our open dates will match up with Central Washington. Central Connecticut St. (played in Fargo last year) appears to have several open dates, as well.

Another Kevin Fee blog.

The problem I have with McFeely's column is that the premise seems to be that there are a lot of people who fit this description: I guess I don't run in the same circles as these people, nor do many appear to be regular posters on siouxsports.com. And even if these people exist in larger numbers than what I care to believe, it doesn't particularly matter unless subscribers to this particular way of thinking also happen to constitute a majority of the members of the Board of Higher Ed.

I don't think they need to assume anything. But to the extent they have legitimate concerns about this, they could have made a phone call to Brian Faison and/or Robert Kelley to get an explanation. It doesn't sound like that happened. So we are left to wonder whether Douple was misled by someone regarding the State Board of Higher Ed's probable intentions regarding the nickname/logo, or simply didn't do his homework.

You are correct--my mistake.

This would seem to point to another 10-game schedule--this time with just four home games. Although I suppose we can hope that by "final" home game, it could be referring to a sixth?

Amazingly, seven Sioux players had four or more turnovers.

According to the Argus Leader, UND will be paying "pretty close to $60,000" to Sioux Falls for a guarantee next season.

It's difficult to imagine how Douple didn't realize that this is now a non-issue. Heck, since NDSU is governed by the exact same Board of Higher Ed. as we are, in the incredibly unlikely event that the Board decides that UND isn't going to drop the name, doesn't that mean NDSU should be guilty by association and booted from the league?

My guess--and it's strictly a guess--is that we will see a dII opponent for the fifth home game, and will also find one more dI road game to fill out an 11-game schedule. I'm too lazy to go back through this thread, but if memory serves me we now have Sioux Falls, Idaho State, Cal Poly and USD at home; and Texas Tech, Northwestern State, Stephen F. Austin, UC Davis and Southern Utah on the road.

Are you serious? I can't imagine any school in the country would agree to that.

Suite 49 doesn't actually pay UND or the state of North Dakota on a continual basis. Rather, they paid one lump sum to purchase the leasehold interest (essentially a 99-year lease), which can be mortgaged or sold similar to how a fee simple interest can be.

Here are the RPI's of all UND non-transitional dI opponents as of today: 41. Wisconsin-Green Bay (L by 25) 42. Ball State (Jan. 27) 51. Iowa State (L by 30) 85. Arkansas (L by 12) 139. Vermont (Jan. 4) 150. Lamar (W by 14) 202. UC-Riverside (L by 7) 213. Montana State (L by 7) 220. Wyoming (L by 25) 222. Northwestern (L by 2) 236. Eastern Michigan (W by 9) 239. Toledo (L by 8) 296. Northern Arizona (W by 23)

Actually, they lost in the quarterfinals in their last year in dII. That was the year they beat us by 2 in OT in the regional final in St. Paul.

I know many would like to think (and perhaps correctly) that we are simply seeing the difference between a good dII team and a good dI team, and the difference is substantial. But I can't get past the fact that SDSU did not suffer similar growing pains, and is obviously thriving right now. Roebuck was 9-3 vs. Johnston-coached SDSU teams, and SDSU has not really expanded their recruiting base. So how do we explain the now huge difference between us and SDSU? Would Roebuck would be enjoying similar success to Johnston even if the two programs had comparable talent? I'm not looking to be overly critical--just looking for theories, because SDSU's success seems to dispel the notion that a good dII program in the Dakota's can't successfully make the transition fairly quickly.

In a very interesting matchup last night, Ada-Borup, the second-ranked team in MN class A, defeated East Grand Forks, the second-ranked team in class AA. Nicole Smart had 25 points for Ada-Borup.

Is Seay sick or injured? She started and played more than 20 minutes against Seattle Pacific, but played 12 minutes against Northwestern and just 9 minutes yesterday.

USD lost by 20, at home, against Concordia-St. Paul last night.

Suite 49 has closed: link

Isn't it about time the turf was replaced, anyway? I think the typical life span is supposed to be around seven or eight years.

It's tough to be too impressed by the USD women's record given their schedule so far. I don't believe they've played a single dI opponent yet.