UND92,96

I suppose this is something of an apples-to-oranges comparison, but I have a very difficult time understanding how an exhibition hockey game against Manitoba can draw 9600--even though it's televised-- while a football playoff game will probably draw 5500 or so even though it's not televised? Does this seem bizarre to anybody else? This team deserves better support than that for what will almost certainly be the last home game of the year!

Well, I don't think Winona could possibly be any worse than they were the last time UND played them, but whether they're much better is open to debate. The last legit team they played was four weeks ago in Bemidji, and they managed to gain fewer than 100 yards of total offense in that one. Winona has had some good teams in the past, but the past two years have not been close to the level of 2003 and 2004, especially offensively.

Past first round playoff games in the Al: 2001 Winona State (6700) 2003 Pitt State (7160) 2005 UMD (5223) Unfortunately, if there are as many as 6000 people there, I'll be surprised. I shudder to think how few people would be there if it was outside.

I'd say it's doubtful, because attendance is expected to be poor judging by past first round games, and the fact that Winona State isn't going to make casual fans too excited. I don't believe last year's first round game against UMD was televised, either.

The thing is, besides perhaps a few series in the second half of the UNO game, I really don't think conservative play-calling has been a problem when Manke has played. And the reality is that ultra-conservative playcalling is unnecessary when Manke plays because he takes such good care of the ball. If UND is going to have a good chance to make some noise in the playoffs, the offense needs to be super aggressive, and I think it will be.

For the purposes of this discussion, I was only referring to the Manke-led offense.

[url="http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=16813

Without regard to statistics, I think this may be the best UND offense I've seen, although I've "only" been following UND football since the late 70's/early 80's. I definitely haven't seen a better quarterback/running back/wide receiver combo than Manke, Chappell and Dressler. I also really like the dimension Grover brings at tight end. He's one of the more athletic tight ends UND has had in awhile. Despite some injuries, the line has been solid all year. It's definitely been nice not having to always rely so much on the defense to hold down the opponent like in some past years, and to not settle for field goals so often (although Hellevang has been very good, as well).

I wonder how much Winona's improved defense over the last three games had to do with the fact that they played UMC, SW Minn. State and Wayne State (all finished with losing records)? I also wonder if they've shored up their offensive line since September? That was some of the worst pass protection I've ever seen.

For those scoring at home, how many schools from the original hit list are there remaining who haven't either agreed to change their name and/or logo, or been granted an exemption? Besides UND, I can only think of Illinois, Alcorn State and Arkansas State.

link.

Here's the article from the Omaha paper. It has a bit more speculation as to what the reasoning of the committee(s) was for having UNO leapfrog UND. Luckily for UNO, USD wasn't "next to" them in the rankings. In kind of a strange way, USD's loss to Mankato may have actually hurt UND, even though it would have resulted in a three-way tie for the conference title instead of a two-way tie.

The question is, what's the bigger jinx--UND's general inability to beat UNO, or UNO's general inability to win in the playoffs? Maybe the only negative for UNO getting a bye is that beating Winona would have been a given, and would have somewhat gotten the monkey off their back by actually winning a playoff game for what, the second time in Behrns' career? Beating UND twice in one year AND breaking the playoff jinx may be asking a lot for UNO, assuming UND takes care of business against Winona.

I really don't believe this was the work of the regional committee, because the differing rankings from last week compared to the seeds now only serves to make them look bad. Had they simply had UNO ranked ahead of UND last week, there wouldn't be anywhere near the complaining now, because few people would have expected (maybe hoped, but not expected) UND to leapfrog UNO even after beating USD. It's one thing if fans are the only ones who were blindsided by this, but it appears from interviews yesterday that even coaches Lennon and Behrns expected UND to be 2 and UNO to be 3. All signs point to the regional committee being overruled, which has happened before, and likely will happen again. What makes this even more irritating is that apparently UND either needed to go undefeated against dII competition to get a top-2 seed, or else lose to somebody worse than UNO so that head-to-head wasn't such a big problem. In either case, it's difficult to swallow that a one-point loss on the road against the co-NCC champion should have relegated UND to a 3 seed.

In light of what happened today, does anybody really think UND would have even made the playoffs had USD won yesterday? I thought so before today, but not now.

It's hard to say since the criteria change every year, but I'd say yes. I know full well how the committee CAN attempt to justify this--I believe UNO's SOS is higher, and they have the head-to-head win. But obviously the fact that they had UND ahead of UNO even before UND's win yesterday seems to completely nullify those arguments. Either last week's rankings were wrong, or else they're wrong today. There doesn't seem to be any way to reconcile the two.

Valid point. Especially if the weather in Allendale is halfway decent, USD would have a shot in a shootout. It's one thing to slow down Logan when you've seen him several times. It's much tougher when you're playing him for the first time. Of course, USD will need to beat Northwood first, and finally show that they can win a big road game. Fortunately for USD, Northwood is all run-no pass, which should play right into USD's hands.

There's this thing called the Fighting Sioux Sports Network. Perhaps you've heard of it? With that said, I hope it's not on tv.

If head-to-head was so important, it's funny how Winona State got in ahead of Bemidji State. Why weren't those rankings switched at the last minute, too?

In theory, the NCAA brass has nothing to do with selection/seeding, although it's hard to believe there wasn't some behind-the-scenes influence being wielded here. In case anybody is interested, the committee (national and regional) makeups can be found here: link. I have a hard time believing this was the work of the regional committee since they were the ones who had UND number 2 last week. Even Pat Behrns (of all people), who is on the committee, was quoted in the Omaha paper today as saying he doubted the committee would switch UND and UNO from last week's rankings.

What a travesty. I don't know what else to say...

I don't believe it has any impact on schools other than UND.

It appears most people feel the northwest seedings will be: 1. GVSU 2. UND 3. UNO 4. USD or Northwood 5. USD or Northwood 6. Winona State That would mean that, barring a huge first round upset, the Sioux will get a shot at redemption against Pat Behrns' team in two weeks in the Al. I really like UND in the rematch. Frankly, slowing down Miller/Kasperbauer shouldn't be as difficult as keeping Logan in check. And UNO's passing game is nowhere near as good as USD's.

Shepard is a nice player, although it will be interesting to see how he does next year once defenses don't have to focus nearly all their attention on Mr. Logan.