UND92,96

Here is a Forum article on the Big Sky meeting from yesterday. Is it a surprise that a 12-team, 2-division Big Sky didn't even warrant much discussion?

Maybe I'm missing something here, but even IF UND were to officially drop the Fighting Sioux name and logo, why would the logos have to be removed from either the Ralph or Betty? My understanding is that the Ralph wasn't going to host any more regionals anyway due to the movement to keep those tournaments from on-campus arenas. As for basketball, any regionals could easily be held at the Alerus, if necessary. Unless I'm misreading the NCAA edict, they're saying that the list of supposedly offensive schools can't host an NCAA post-season event so long as they persist in using the name(s), and they can't wear uniforms containing said names/logos. I don't think they can or would require the logos to be removed or covered unless perhaps that particular arena was going to be hosting the post-season event. The following is a quote from the NCAA press release announcing the denial of UND's appeal:

Here they are:

South probably has the best team, but it looks like they may have to make a return trip to Bismarck in the semi's if Central wins out and gets the number one seed from the East. Beating Bismarck twice in one year on their home field will not be any easy task. My prediction right now is a Central-Bismarck state title game. Central over Minot, and Bismarck over South in the semi's as both teams get revenge for early-season losses.

This was a good day for UND's strength of schedule index as well, with West Chester, Winona State and Central Washington all winning to go 4-2. I will be shocked if UND is not ranked number one in the first northwest regional poll this week, regardless of what Grand Valley State does tonight. Grand Valley is apparently struggling as they're up just 14-10 at the half at home vs. winless Wayne State. EDIT: GVSU ended up winning 36-22, and they had to score the last 14 points of the game to do it. Let's see--no wins over ranked opponents, and back-to-back close wins over unranked teams. How can anybody still be voting them number one?

Pitt State lost in OT.

I'd be surprised if we see him again this year, but hopefully it wasn't as serious as it looked.

Congrats to GFC for a very hard-earned win last night over the top-ranked team in the state, Fargo South. I can probably count on one hand the number of time Central has beaten South in football in the past 25 years, so this win is especially gratifying. Hopefully Central can run the table in the final three EDC games and get home field for the quarterfinals and semi's if they make it that far. AAA football is wide open this year as there are no unbeatens left, so this is probably as good of a chance as any for a GF team to break the long state title drought.

New roster has been posted.

I could buy this scenario a lot more easily had this been a case of NDSU recruiting her hard only to ultimately lose her to UND. In that situation, calling her and wishing her the best and giving her the "if you decide to change your mind, our offer still stands" line would probably have been fine. However, the Herald article on her verbal commitment, which presumably contained information directly from Jossy, said this: Why not include NDSU in that group if they had shown her any serious interest? The article strongly implies that any attention NDSU had given her had either been tepid at best, or had occurred some time ago, at least in Jossy's opinion. Under these circumstances, why would an NDSU coach have bothered to call her AFTER her verbal commitment when they apparently hadn't been recruiting her much if at all during the several months BEFORE her verbal commitment became public knowledge? I know bisonguy is not dumb by any means, but I just can't buy that his scenario is a logical explanation under these particular circumstances.

It appears that a lot of tickets have been sold so far. I just went on ticketmaster to see where the best seats available are, and they are currently in section 201, which is one of the four corner sections--which are also the four smallest sections in the Alerus. I would think a crowd in the 12,000 to 13,000 vicinity is a very real possibility.

I agree that speed isn't everything for a back, see Shannon Burnell as exhibit A, but it's a very rare occurrence for a dI program to offer a scholarship to a smallish running back who doesn't have true sprinter's speed. Even Phillip Moore, one of the fastest running backs ND has ever produced, only attracted dI attention as a defensive back. You're evidently pretty tuned into the South program. Which schools do you see recruiting him (and Richard)?

I have to think this story will come out before too long in either the Herald or Forum. I suspect Ruley will simply offer up a "no comment" rather than having the audacity to plead ignorance regarding Jossy's commitment to UND. I don't believe for a minute that either Roebuck or Ruley isn't aware of a ND kid verballing to the other program within a few days of it happening. And this verbal happened a few months ago, even though it only recently found its way into the papers. Heck, all Amy had to do was ask Jossy's brother Chad about her situation before calling her. He's on the track team at NDSU.

I can confirm that Amy Ruley did indeed contact Jossy Bergan and offered her a scholarship within the past few days.

Yes, it's a very big line. But they're pretty inexperienced and predictably immobile as you'd expect from linemen so large. I listened to some of the SCSU-Mankato game, and it sounded like the huge SCSU tackle, Scott Peters (6'10" and about 300), had a lot of trouble pass blocking a speedy defensive end for the Mavericks. I would expect that they'll have some problems with the crowd noise, not to mention some of UND's faster pass rushers, i.e. ZBJ.

What I like about this year's team is that the margin for error seems to be much greater. By that, I mean that last year, you kind of knew it would be challenge for the offense to score more than 20 against good teams, which obviously meant that the Sioux defense had a lot of pressure on it to limit the opposing offense to less than 20. This year, it looks like the UND offense/special teams can score 30-plus against nearly anybody if they play the way they have so far. And of course, it's going to be a very tall order for anybody to put those kinds of points up against the Sioux defense. If UND doesn't go too conservative offensively, they should be able to win this one without it going down to the last second like the past few games against the Huskies have.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that a 9-2 NSIC team would be in the top 10. You'll probably have UND, USD, SCSU, UNO, Grand Valley, Saginaw Valley, Northwood, Michigan Tech, and if they were to run the table, Central Washington. That leaves either one or two slots open, depending on what Central Washington does the rest of the way, and I don't see a fifth NCC team or GLIAC team with probably four losses ranked ahead of a 2-loss NSIC team. Maybe I'm wrong, but even Bemidji State last year with an 8-3 record and a soft non-conference schedule finished just outside the top 10 at number 11.

I didn't want to start a new thread for this, but there's potentially going to be a real injustice when the playoff selections are announced this year. With Bemidji State losing to Concordia-St. Paul yesterday, the last chance for an NSIC team to go undefeated went out the window. That likely means that the winner of the Winona-Concordia game at the end of the regular season will get into the playoffs via "earned access," i.e. so long as a conference has a team ranked in the top 10 in the region, they get a playoff bid. So either a Concordia team that lost by 21 at Duluth, and managed just a 3-point home win over Augie gets in, or a Winona State team that lost to one of the worst teams in the MIAA, and got absolutely blown out on their home field by the Sioux gets in. I realize that in the past few seasons Winona deserved to get in so "earned access" never came into play, but this season, I don't think there's any way that an NSIC team belongs in the playoffs. I just hope UND isn't sitting with two losses or the prospect of getting passed over in favor of Winona State is a very real possibility.

Yes, I'd have to say USD is legit. The questions I still have about them are whether they can really stop or even slow down the pass against a decent passing team (gave up 350-plus vs. Mines), whether they can win on the road against a legit opponent (they haven't really played one yet), and what would happen to them if Logan went down with an injury. Their biggest test prior to UND will be playing at SCSU, and the Huskies will be looking for revenge after getting blown out in Vermillion last year. USD reminds me a little bit of Pitt State last year in terms of having a very high-scoring offense. To beat them, you need to have a great defense, and an offense that is better than adequate because you know they'll probably score more than 20 against anybody.