UND92,96

It's interesting to contrast the football ticket situation, where the majority of attendees are not season ticket holders, and the hockey ticket situation. I'm not sure if anyone else has commented on this, but single game tickets for the hockey series against Minnesota and St. Cloud are also $27.50. But since practically everyone in REA is a season ticket holder or student, I doubt we'll be hearing much, if any complaining about it. Gopher fans probably won't bat an eye at paying $27.50 since they normally pay $28.00 for a single game ticket, anyway. At SCSU, it's $20.00 for their home series against the Sioux, and obviously watching a game at the National Hockey Center is not anywhere near as comfortable as at REA so an extra $7 shouldn't be a big deal to them, either.

I don't begrudge anyone who has a problem with the ticket price, but just so there's no confusion, it must be pointed out that season ticket holders are paying roughly $13.33 per game, UND students get in with a student ID, and children under 18 and senior citizens 60 and over get in for $10.50. So probably more than half of the crowd, even if it's a sell-out, will be paying less than half of the face value of the ticket. I can't help but wonder how many more season tickets may have been sold had there been this much attention regarding the ticket prices about a month ago and more fans would have realized the relative bargain of a season ticket...

I'm not sure going I-AA will make scheduling home non-conference opponents much, if any easier. I'd say it would be relatively easy to schedule road games against some established I-AA programs, but whether those teams would return the favor is a relative unknown. As an example, look at UNC's schedule this year: link Some good opponents on the road, to be sure, but a home schedule that is worse than what the Bears would have had had they remained in the NCC. It will be interesting to see how many of the established I-AA programs UNC is playing on the road this year will reciprocate next season.

Even Herald editor Mike Jacobs weighs in on the football schedule controversy: link Must be a slow news day. But as I posted in another thread, watch out for Newberry. That 1-10 record was under a different coaching staff and without the dozen or so dI transfers they've brought in.

It would appear that this team is far more talented than one would expect from a team coming off a 1-10 season, including a couple of wide receivers good enough to have originally committed to Miami and Clemson: link One thing to watch for is whether the Sioux can remain disciplined in light of the propensity of Newberry to commit penalties. Newberry is averaging a pretty astounding 150 yards in penalties per game so far.

I meant to include Saginaw Valley, also. Thanks for the addition.

I would agree with your list. Although not necessarily top programs over an extended period of time, I'd also be interested in seeing any of the following on UND's non-conference schedule: Central Arkansas, Southern Arkansas, Central Missouri, Slippery Rock, Nebraska-Kearney, Chadron St., Tuskegee or Winona St. I am glad that Central Wash. is also apparently back on the schedule next season, as well.

I'd say this was roughly the equivalent of losing to Bemidji St. I don't know whether the talent level simply isn't as good as many of us thought, whether it just isn't being utilized properly, or whether there is some other problem. But there is absolutely no excuse for losing to a mediocre-at-best RMAC program like this. Other than Kearney and perhaps Chadron, that conference has traditionally been terrible, and judging by Mesa's first game of the year, they are not a playoff contender by any means. I still have a lot of faith in Dale Lennon, but I am extremely disappointed that the problems of last year evidently haven't been corrected.

Apparently. But 2 out of 11 Fargo Forum prognosticators are picking "David." link

This column was in today's Grand Junction (CO) newspaper: link

The new womens basketball roster has been posted on the UND athletics web page: link It looks like maybe Chelsea Hausauer reconsidered leaving the program as she's still listed on the roster. It's going to be a very young team but not unlike the mens team, there are a lot of talented newcomers. If a few of the new players can add some outside shooting, the Sioux could surprise some people.

I wonder what the odds really are that the SD legislature may ultimately put the kibosh on SDSU's proposed move? From a purely selfish perspective, it would be great for the NCC to remain at eight schools AND not have to find another new member...

Any word on whether Franklin is expected to be ready to go by the start of the season? Needless to say, his defense would certainly be a welcome addition. I already know what to expect from Austin, but I'm anxious to see what Nobles and Parks can do.

The new poll is out. UND is 19th, NDSU is 20th. link

Agreed. Plus, season tickets are just $80.00, which comes out to $13.33 per seat for a six-game home schedule. A pretty good buy IMO.

To the best of my knowledge, there was nothing in the local media regarding the guarantee. But I may have just missed it.

This is an excerpt from the UMC press release regarding Saturday's game: The Golden Eagles hurt themselves in a game that started out in their favor. Key penalties and turnovers turned out to be drive stoppers in a game that was closer than the 59-0 score would indicate. "Closer than the final score would indicate?" I really hope their SID was trying to be funny...

I've heard the same thing. I think UMD has built a pretty good program and they will be a nice addition to the NCC. But it will be interesting to see how they do when they're playing UND and UNO every year instead of just USD and Mankato. Up until now, the only really difficult regular season game they have in any given season has been against Winona. It's a whole other situation when you can be beaten on any given Saturday.

There have been a couple of other interesting I-AA vs. dII games in the last two years involving UND opponents. New Haven, who lost to UND 42-10 in 2001, beat Villavova that same year, who finished 8-3 and ranked 18th in the final I-AA poll. Also, Central Washington won last year at Montana State. Montana State went on to have a pretty good year, beating Montana, winning a share of the Big Sky title and making the playoffs. While I don't generally put much stock into score differential, it's also somewhat interesting to note that Central Washington's margin of victory over Montana State last year was almost identical to Washington State's (a ranked I-A team).

I wonder if maybe yesterday's NDSU game may have been the best thing that could have happened for those who really want the Sioux-Bison series to continue? Had NDSU gone to Missoula and laid an egg, it would have supported the theory that there's no way a 36-scholarship team can beat a 63-scholarship team, at least unless the I-AA program is really a mess. I think the odds are a lot better now than one week ago that we will see UND and NDSU play in 2004.

Thanks, tuk. I haven't read "wit" like that since the days of the infamous JBB. Something tells me the Sioux will actually show up on October 18. Who knows, we may even pull the "upset" of the century and win. Again.

A few thoughts from today's game: -Lueck could be a very exciting player. He certainly displayed some speed on his punt returns. The receiving corps in general appears to be very solid and deep, and Caleb Johnson didn't even play due to an injury (which isn't serious according to the radio guys). -the corners will need to play far better against a good passing team like St. Cloud. There were a few occasions where the receivers were pretty open, even though it rarely resulted in a completion of any significance. -the run defense should be very good again. Not that UMC is any kind of barometer, but I think the personnel is there. -I was surprised that several starting offensive linemen played virtually the entire game. It would seem that this would have been a perfect opportunity to let some of the freshman get some time, even if they're probably at least a year away from being meaningful contributors. -Lee Groeschl was a pretty impressive athlete, playing both wide receiver and returning some punts just a few weeks removed from being exclusively a quarterback. In addition to Groeschl, other freshman who had some good moments were Hoffschneider, Ullsperger, Babington-Johnson, Brennan, Greenwood, Strouth, Wolff, Schmitz and Ryan Manke. Hoffschneider actually started. -a decent crowd considering the opponent. But I really hope this is the last time we see UMC. Ever.

I very much doubt Montana will want to play another dII team, unless maybe it is Crookston. While I'm sure you're understandably sensitive to any attempt to minimize NDSU's win today, were you honestly impressed with Montana? Again, I only saw the second half, but Montana could do nothing right as far as I could see.

I've only seen the second half, but Montana looks god-awful to me. If that's really one of the best teams in I-AA, then we can't possibly get into I-AA fast enough.

According to Pat Sweeney on the sports last night, WDAY/WDAZ are televising it.