UND92,96

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.

You're entitled to your opinion as to what UND fans are happy about or not, but the real test will be what happens if the Big Sky says no to expansion this far east. If they do expand into the Dakota's, it's at least potentially great for both UND and NDSU. If they say no, NDSU is stuck in dI independent purgatory for potentially many years, NDSU fans and alums will be or at least should be very worried about what will happen in terms of conference affiliation, and UND will be faced with deciding which is the lesser of two evils--being a dI independent in all sports but football, or staying in dII in spite of the fact that football scholarship limits may be identical to NAIA. As I see it, either both schools will be happy or neither will.

Does anybody know what the inside story was with the Pennick recruitment? According to the Forum article, NDSU had shown only passing interest in him prior to this summer, whereas I know UND had been recruiting him for awhile. Was it just a desire to play dI, or was there some other reason?

I understand. I think the game on Saturday will go a long way towards determining how the season will play out. If the offense can put some things together and the Sioux can win by 2 or 3 scores, I like the chances of finishing 9-1. If UND struggles to win or even loses on Saturday, then 8-2 or 7-3 is about all we can expect. What is interesting to me this year is that Lennon seems so much more reluctant to make a quarterback change than he was last year. Last year, regardless of whether Bowenkamp or Wilson was in, Lennon didn't seem to hesitate to pull the trigger and give the other guy a shot if the offense was struggling. Presumably, he felt that there wasn't a huge difference between the two quarterbacks. I realize that Manke has next to no experience, but by at least some accounts from people who see practice on a daily basis, there's very little difference between Belmore and Manke. So I have to wonder if it's simply a case of not wanting to hurt Belmore's confidence by sitting him down, or whether there's more of a difference between Belmore and Manke than what I've been led to believe? I tend to think it's the former. Lennon has really gone out of his way to deflect criticism from Belmore on radio and tv interviews, but he did say on the coaches' show last night that he had a heart-to-heart talk with Belmore this week about needing him to elevate his play.

Bob- I see in your column that you picked UND to finish 8-2. Can I assume you think UNO will be the second loss? Under normal circumstances, I couldn't really disagree with that since the Sioux have struggled to win in Omaha, but UNO seems to be really under-achieving this year. If they lose in St. Cloud as expected, and are then all but out of the playoff picture, I think the wind may be out of their sails by the time the UND-UNO game is played. If ever there was a year to play UNO in Omaha, this would appear to be it.

Great information. Thanks for the update. She would be one of the highest profile recruits UND has had, along with Jenny Crouse and Jaime Pudenz. Hopefully the opportunity to play in front of family and friends on a regular basis will win out over the opportunity to play in the Big 12.

1440 AM in GF, Wednesday evenings at 6:30. Dale Lennon is generally on first for about a half hour, followed by Hakstol. It also includes the basketball coaches once the season starts. Hennessy and Swygman host.

Minnesota averaged just under 1400 per game last year. I would assume that's close to the highest, if it's not actually the highest average attendance ever. There's no question that women's hockey has a ways to go before it gets to the level where it could possibly be self-sufficient, but it will probably gain in popularity in those parts of the country where men's hockey is very popular.