UND92,96

A little quick research reveals the following: We know the difference between dII and I-AA football is 27 scholarships, so how would the equivalent of 27 scholarships be added to the women's side? I don't know which of these sports are currently funded at the dII maximum, but assuming for the sake of these computations that they all are, it would break down as follows: soccer would go from 9.9 (dII max) to 12 (dI max) tennis would go from 6 to 8 volleyball would go from 8 to 12 That adds up to an additional 8.1 scholarships. For the following sports in which there are both men's and women's programs, if the women's side increased its scholies but the men's side did not, the following additions would be made: cross country/track would go from 12.6 to 18 swimming/diving would stay the same (8.1 is the limit for both dI and dII for some odd reason) golf would go from 5.4 to 6 softball would go from 7.2 to 12 That's an additional 10.8, which is added to the 8.1 for a total of 18.9. That would leave a total of 8.1 which would still need to be accounted for. Since the addition of another women's sport would likely be cost-prohibitive, and UND has already pretty much already added every women's sport for which there is any real interest, that would probably mean the cutting of one or two men's sports. I'm not advocating it, but I'm afraid that it would be inevitable if UND were to decide to go dI. Obviously I am not getting into the issue of where all this money would come from; rather, this is simply how I would see the Title IX issue being addressed.

With Cass County making up approximately 20% of ND's population, NDSU obviously has a pretty large advantage over UND in terms of a potential fan base within short driving distance. What would be interesting, at least to me, would be whether the rest of the state--exluding Cass and GF counties--would self identify themselves as more of a UND or NDSU football fan. UND has the advantage of having a larger alumni base, and more success over the past 10-12 years. NDSU has the dI factor, plus considerable success, albeit much of it coming 15-20 years ago. Those of you who live in or are from central or western ND would be in a far better position than I to speculate on this.

It's highly questionable whether they actually NEED more seats, but the capacity is currently only 6500 according to their web site. On occasion, they do draw more than that. Their largest crowd ever was somewhere in the 7500 range. On average, since Nottingham Field opened, I think they've averaged perhaps one game per year with a crowd between 6500 and 7500.

I have a feeling that whichever team gets the number one seed in the NW Region, and therefore won't need to travel, is going to have an even bigger advantage than usual. Road wins between teams ranked in the region have been very tough to come by this year. Of the probable top eight teams in the region right now (in no particular order)--UND, SCSU, USD, UNO, Winona St., GVSU, Mich. Tech and Northwood--I believe there's a grand total of one home loss.

UNC will likely always struggle with low attendance. For football, they typically average in the 5000 range, and in basketball, it's typically well under 1000. If winning a couple of national championships in dII football, plus the novelty of going dI hasn't been enough for them to draw better than they have the past couple of years, I don't think it's ever going to happen for them.

To this point, is this the best UND defense ever, or at least the best one in the Thomas/Lennon era? The last three regular season games will likely determine how this defense stacks up all-time, but I don't think a Sioux defense has ever played better over the first seven games of a season. Even the 1999 and 2001 teams had games in which they gave up 28 points in a game by this point in the season. I know the competition level is not necessarily the same now as it was then, but any way you slice it this defense has been incredible thus far.

Talk about overdoing things, how about playing that Limp Bizkit song ("Rollin'") after every single Roland carry? It was clever the first couple of times, but when it's played even after a 5-yard loss, that's really over-the-top.

Shutouts are never easy. Not only does the defense have to play great, but you have to be somewhat fortunate in not giving up any defensive or special teams scores. That blocked punt by UMD could easily have been a td had the ball bounced a little differently. I also think it's significant that none of the three teams UND has shut out has been shut out by anybody else this season. It's tough to do much better than UND's scoring defense of just 7.71 points per game, which will rank the Sioux number 1 in the nation in that category when the new stats come out this week.

It looks like Wayne Nelson of the Herald more or less agrees with you, as he picked UND to win 35-14. I'm having a hard time seeing UMD scoring in double figures, unless it's via defensive or special teams scores. As RD17 pointed out, UMD's quarterback play has been poor, and to me that more or less seals an opposing offense's fate. I don't see any running back coming to the Alerus and having much success running the ball against this defense.

If the Sioux were to win by just 14 (or less), I'm going to be pretty concerned about the rest of the year. One thing I really like about this team so far is that with the exception of the Delta St. game, none of the home games have really been close. True, Mesa turned out to be far worse than anyone could have predicted, but still the overall home schedule has been pretty decent and the Sioux have taken care of business and haven't needed to mount any comebacks or last-second field goals for wins. If UND can play the way it's capable, I like for all three remaining home games to be Sioux wins by 20-plus points. The talent differential between UND and UMD, MSU and USD should be pretty substantial, and that talent differential should only be magnified by playing at home.

Yes, the alternative is to move to dI before a school is financially ready, which can result in only adding two football scholarships the first year. Not that any school we know has done that. As I see it, there are a couple of different ways ex-NCC schools have gone about things in their move to dI. Like NDSU or not, I give them credit for the fact that they've not gone halfway in terms of football. Sure, they're not having as much success this year as they would have liked, but at least they've added the maximum number of football scholarships they could so that they'll be able to get to 63 as early as the NCAA allows. SDSU and UNC, on the other hand, have taken baby steps in that SDSU is at just 38 scholarships, and I believe UNC is in the 40's, even with a one-year headstart on NDSU. If UND makes the move, I would certainly hope that it will devote the necessary resources to football immediately. I'm pretty confident that will be the case.

Four regional bowl games were played, then a college division "national champion" was declared via a poll. What I find interesting is that when you consider how often a team not considered the favorite wins the dII national title, e.g. Delta St. in 2000, UND in 2001 and GVSU in 2003, such a system would appear to not be particularly accurate. Last year, for example, more than likely North Alabama would have played Valdosta St. in a bowl game, and then would have been declared national champion, and I think we know now that they were not better than UND or GVSU.

RD17 or Jim: I noticed that this week, both USD and Bemidji St. are in the regional top-12 despite the fact that their respective SSI's are apparently in the low 7's. Are there really not more than 10 schools that have respectable SSI's right now in this region, and therefore these two teams are ranked more or less by default? Both have played two games against dIII/NAIA programs which I would think practically mathematically eliminates them from ever accumulating enough power points to have a playoff-worthy SSI.

Yes, that's probably what happened. I know for individual school records, post-season games don't count. However, for a record like this, I wouldn't think it makes sense to separate out post-season games since those wins actually make the streak even more impressive, as dakotaboy pointed out.

I noticed an apparent error in the press release for this week's football game on www.fightingsioux.com. It states that the current home winning streak, including playoffs, is 11. However, by my count, it's actually 14. It started with USD the last home game of 2002. Last year, UND defeated UMC, Newberry, Augustana, St. Cloud St., NDSU, UNO, Pitt St., Winona St. and North Alabama at home. This year, UND has beaten Delta St., Mesa St., Central Washington and Ferris St in the Alerus. That adds up 14. The all-time UND record for longest home winning streak is 15.

I suspect the real reason Ferris agreed to come to GF twice was due to the $100,000 they'll be getting (or whatever the exact combined amount they get for the two games is). With UND already apparently going to Winona next year, and possibly Central Washington, there was no way UND would have scheduled three road non-conference games in one year.

I don't think anyone is really putting SDSU down as much as refuting any claim that SDSU would have won the NCC this year had they been in the league. Admittedly, that claim was made on the d2football.com board, but I suspect that many SDSU fans share the sentiment. SDSU was rarely a bad football team when in the NCC, but generally speaking they'd play well at home and lose on the road against the better teams and finish somewhere between 5-6 and 8-3. To claim that the year AFTER they left the league would have reversed that trend would be like me saying that UND WOULD HAVE finished above SDSU in men's basketball this year. It's possible, but just opinion with no solid proof to support it.

It's kind of amusing how after their 52-0 butt-kicking at UC-Davis, many SDSU fans were convinced that they were really bad this year, and now after a pretty fortuitous win over NDSU, they think that "this would have been their year" had they still been in the NCC! I have a feeling there will be some jumping off the bandwagon again in two weeks after their game at Georgia Southern.

I personally would expect Leikas to be the third point guard--behind Caro Nobles and Josh Doyle--and to therefore play very little. Also, if Jacobson starts it would likely only be because of injuries to those ahead of him. At the wing positions, I would expect Johnson, Parks and newcomer Shawn Swan to be ahead of him, unless he's improved greatly over last season. This is a do-or-die season in my opinion. There's enough talent to win the NCC, or at least to be in contention right up to the last weekend. Had Parks and Nobles not been injured last year, I am pretty confident that UND would have won several more games than they did. I have been critical of Rich Glas in the past, and will be again if the team under-achieves this year, but he can't really be faulted for losing two key players to season-ending injuries early last year, plus the personal problems that reduced Aaron Austin from a possible all-conference player to essentially a non-factor. But now that he apparently has the horses to make a run, he needs to produce.

On the surface, one would agree with you, but it's also quite conceivable that given his position and connections, O'Keefe knows something we don't. Regarding SDSU's win over NDSU last night, who cares in the scheme of things? Does that really change the fact that they've never done anything in football, or that they're only at 38 scholies? This is hardly the first time they've upset somebody in Brookings, but the fact remains that an 8-3 season is cause for celebration at SDSU, whereas it's a down year for UND or NDSU.

A pretty big Heraldo article on the possible move to dI by UND. link

Obviously a great performance yesterday by the Sioux. What strikes me is how much better the defense is now than it was at this juncture last season. At this point in 2003, the defense has already allowed more than 21 points in four games. That's why even with an inconsistent (to this point) offense, UND may be an even more dangerous team than in 2003. The offense clearly has the ability to put points on the board, and if it can score more than 21, the Sioux should not lose again, at least in the regular season. Dressler is the one of the most exciting players I've seen at UND, even as a true freshman! I don't believe there's ever been a ND-born kid with his kind of speed and quickness. As he puts on a little weight, I'm looking forward to seeing him a little more in the backfield. Also, he showed he can take a hit as he went over the middle a couple of times and was drilled by a linebacker but popped up each time.

I don't know where you got the idea that Lennon is spending "all his time" scouting at GF Central games. There have been coaches from NDSU and many, many other schools looking at Chappell all season. Fargo South apparently does have a better team than Central judging by last night, but I can guarantee that in terms of prospects in the senior class, South has nobody that is or will be as highly recruited as Chappell. One sub-par game doesn't mean a kid isn't a player.