UND92,96

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.

There was an article in the Herald about TRF football several weeks ago in which it said that UND and NDSU, among others, had shown interest in BlackLance.

On the Herald website, there's a headline that says: "BREAKING NEWS NCAA 'support rally' held outside GF courthouse." So far, there's no actual article. I guess the activists got exactly what they were looking for, as usual. Could this be the first time in recorded history that anybody has held a "rally" supporting something that the NCAA has done? I guess this just shows how out of touch these people are. If they were truly interested in the bigger picture, they would actually be mad at the NCAA for handing out exemptions left and right. But to be upset with the NCAA would require that the activists actually had a clue about what the NCAA has really done.

Whenever there's a chance of a camera being around, those same few dozen people will show up. I highly doubt any of them even understands exactly what the NCAA ruling was. As if it really makes any difference to these people whether UND plays at home or on the road in the playoffs?

There should be a number of potential recruits playing in the Alerus on Friday. In addition to Catlin Solum, some AAA players to watch will be Jordan Vadnais from South, a 6'4", 305 pound offensive lineman, Tyson Schatz, a Minot running back, and Dan Hendrickson, a Minot linebacker. I'm not as familiar with the 9-man, A and AA players this year.

That looks about right. In terms of pure talent, I think UND would probably rate a little higher, but given the new system and the huge turnover in players compared to last year, it's really like starting from scratch this year. It sounds like Little and Boyce are very athletic, Gutter is apparently much-improved, and the Gutter-Koenig combo should mean UND won't be pushed around inside for the next couple of years. IF everybody returns next year, UND could be pretty good as only Kruse is a senior. In terms of this year, I'd be happy with finishing at around .500 in the NCC, which would probably be good for about 4th, but that may very well be overly optimistic.

I can't disagree that it seems unlikely that a decision could be made as quickly as Friday given the complexity of the issues, but again, if it takes a week or more, even if Jahnke rules in favor of UND, it probably would be too late to be of any benefit in terms of this football season. I assume the a.g.'s office filed as quickly as they could, but in retrospect it certainly would have been nice if there was a bit more time between the hearing and the football playoff selections.

UND women are picked to win the NCC again. link.

Karla Nelson does a nice job at Moorhead. She's a UND grad, and it's good to see her do well.

The committees will likely meet Saturday night, as the selections are announced on Sunday. If there's not a ruling by Friday, it may be too late, at least for the first round. However, if UND wins on Saturday, it would be nearly assured of no worse than a number 2 seed, which means a first round bye.

BSU did beat Winona, pretty badly, but unfortunately for them, the rankings are largely based on "strength of schedule", so BSU's poor non-conference schedule is really hurting them. Winona played and beat two mediocre MIAA teams in addition to their loss to UND, and that's apparently enough to keep them ahead of Bemidji. If the rankings were based on common sense, BSU would certainly be ahead of Winona. Of course, if the rankings were based on common sense, there wouldn't be any NSIC team in the playoffs this year, but that's another issue altogether.

This game will mark the first time all year that UND's big three offensive weapons (Manke, Dressler and Chappell) will be in the starting lineup for a home game. The last time Manke played at home was against Winona State, and Chappell really wasn't playing much on offense at that point. I really expect that UND will be able move the ball very effectively.

The db's absolutely have to be disciplined. USD is probably only going to throw about 15 times, but it's clear that when they do, it will go for big yards unless the db's are very conscious of not cheating up to stop the run. On the bright side, I don't think this year's version of the USD offense is really any better than in 2004 (Beschorner's junior year, Logan's sophomore), at least in terms of talent, and aside from a couple of big Logan runs, UND did pretty well against them. I take last year's game with something of a grain of salt due to the fact that Beschorner had an unbelievable season, and UND was so shell-shocked from the meltdown against UNO that I don't believe that was the "real" Sioux defense that was shredded so badly.

I realize moving Rory to quarterback isn't going to happen, probably for a variety of reasons, but I do think a fairly strong argument could be made that the UND offense is at its best with a mobile quarterback who makes good decisions, can make plays with his feet, and is an accurate short passer. I believe Rory would fit that description, but hopefully one of the other quarterback can, as well. It certainly didn't look like Freund has much speed judging by watching him try to run down the guy after the blocked field goal, but hopefully he has quick feet and good pocket presence similar to Reed.