UND92,96

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.

For those who believe that history tends to repeat itself, I offer this regarding USD--although they've had good records the past three years, their BEST road wins have been over teams that ended the season with 6-5 records (Augie last year and Mankato in 2004). To put it mildly, they've had their struggles on the road against good teams (and occasionally, against some not-so-good teams). UND is 27-1 at home since late in the 2002 season, and although there have been a couple of less-than-impressive offensive performances at home this year, none have been with Manke playing. If the Sioux play smart, e.g. kick away from Logan to the extent possible and the db's not cheat up to stop the run only to get beaten deep, I am pretty confident UND wins this one. USD's pass defense tends to get exposed badly on the road (Mankato this year; Duluth last year), and the Manke-to-Dressler combo is better than anything they've seen.

UND wins 86-78 in ot over a very good Texas A & M-Commerce team. I honestly expected the Sioux to lose this one without Langen, but Maffin came up huge for the second game in a row.

Although the Manke injury this year has been very unfortunate, if it had to happen, the timing turned out to be as good as it could have been. He's played in five games, and four of those have been on the road. Obviously, considering how difficult it is to win on the road, he's the guy you need in there moreso on the road than at home.