UND92,96

I'm torn on this issue. On the one hand, I do think that a typical Sioux football team of the past 10-12 years would be quite competitive with most any I-AA team, and in particular against one who is in the process of transitioning from dII to I-AA. However, I don't generally think that it makes much sense to risk a loss to a team with a decided scholarship advantage, when that loss is still going to hurt your playoff chances considerably. I also think NDSU wants/needs this game more than does UND due to lack of any playoff possibility for the next 5 years, and the need to create some excitement that will bring fans out to the games. I don't think anyone in the proposed new football conference will create the same level of fan interest as does UND for the foreseeable future. A non-conference game against Montana? Possibly, but that's not a guarantee, just as it's not a guarantee that Montana would even agree to come to Fargo every two years. While UND would likely miss the guaranteed sell-out, they would still likely draw a crowd of about 10,000 for any early-season non-conference game against a decent dII opponent. 3,500 tickets is not insubstantial, but it's not going to make or break the finances of the athletic department, either. However, I'm all for continuing the basketball series. I see absolutely no reason to think that UND wouldn't more than hold its own in that series, especially on the mens side.

I don't necessarily disagree with you, Sicatoka, but my qualm is with the fact that UND is a little too willing to travel to schools like Minot St., UMary, UMC, etc. I wouldn't complain if the Sioux had home-and-home agreements with Kearney, Kentucky Wesleyan, Metro St., etc. and that resulted in a disproportionately high number of road games in a given season. I just have a philosophical disagreement with playing on the road against NAIA or fringe dII programs more often than perhaps once per year, at most. I am assuming that some of these games are an effort to "give something back" by playing in other ND or area cities. However, unless these road games will likely draw crowds numbering in the thousands rather than hundreds (which rarely seems to happen), then they aren't worth it, in my opinion. If the reasons for these road games are simply due to the refusal of Minot St., etc. to agree to play on the road unless UND reciprocates, then drop them from the schedule altogether and find some other NAIA or dIII school to bring in periodically to fill out the schedule. By way of comparison, a quick perusal of other NCC teams' schedules reveals only one other road game by an NCC team at an NAIA opponent, that being by UNO. UND is playing two in one year. I just don't see the point of this.

Not that it's a huge deal, but I wonder if maybe Johnson has reconsidered playing at Minot St.? I recently checked out their athletic website, and while the press release regarding Brandt is still there, the Johnson release, which I believe came after the Brandt one, is no longer there. Also, I saw Johnson (or someone who looked exactly like him) jogging in Grand Forks earlier this week which leads me to think maybe he is still attending UND. I also notice that UND is playing AT Minot St. again this year. I really wish Glas would quit scheduling road games with DAC-10 opponents. The Sioux typically play worse against really bad teams on the road (i.e. Minot St. and UMC) than against a good NCC team, and those types of losses are really embarrassing. Knowing Brandt, this will be the one game where he catches fire and goes off for 30-plus points. If you're going to play on the road during the non-conference season, at least play against a good division II team or even a division I team. Speaking of scheduling, this year's non-conference schedule includes just five home games and six road games! What's up with that?

It's interesting to contrast the d2football.com pre-season top-25 poll, in which there are 6 midwest region teams ranked and none of them are UND, and Jeff's midwest region power poll, which has UND 4th. Obviously the difference is that the region poll is just one person's opinion as opposed to the overall poll which is voted on by numerous people, but you wouldn't necessarily expect that much of a difference in how teams are ranked. Nevertheless, I think Jeff did a good job. One small correction or clarification I would make to Jeff's UND preview is that the Sioux don't really have to replace the whole defensive line. True, the three starters are gone, but Momerak, Smith, Newhouse and to a lesser extent Muro have played a lot of football over the past few years and are proven players. There may be some question about Muro's health, and whether he and Duchscher can hold down the nose guard position despite being relatively undersized, but overall I would expect the d-line to be good.

UNO linebacker Randy Stella, a former high school all-american and Cornhusker player, has been ruled ineligible: link

Yes, hockey uses a rather large percentage of the budget, but it also produces a rather large percentage of the revenue (250,000 plus tickets sold per year plus huge concession sales). It could just as easily be said that UND's hockey program makes a move to division I overall less attractive at this time for UND than for some other schools because right now UND has the best of both worlds in terms of revenue--a huge money-maker at the division I level and football and basketball attendance that is better than many division I schools, but without the division I expenses.

SDSU has mens tennis and wrestling, and UND does not.

I'll keep the off-topic short. Grambling is a HBC, they don't participate in the IAA playoffs, and Tony Moss (the only national poll anybody thinks is accurate in IAA) doesn't list Grambling in the top 25.

To the extent anyone cares to read any more about Grambling, they were ranked 8th in the final I-AA poll last year, for whatever that's worth. Getting back to Rislov, he threw for 408 yards last year at Illinois, and for 265 at Ohio State so he has proven himself against good competition.

Rislov signed with UND one year after Klosterman, and backed up Kelby after red-shirting his first season. My understanding is that Rislov didn't want to risk having to wait until his sr. year to start.

Did anybody else get a chance to watch ex-Sioux quarterback Scott Rislov play for San Jose St. on ESPN2 last night? He played quite well, passing for over 320 yards and one td against I-AA Grambling. Last year, Rislov threw for over 3,200 yards, had a 61.2 completion percentage, and 22 touchdowns. It certainly would have been nice to have had him last year, not to mention this year.

I think 8-2 is realistic, although I wouldn't be surprised with anything from 6-4 to 10-0. I don't think that there's anybody on the schedule that the Sioux can't beat if they play well, but as we saw last year, they can just as easily lose to virtually anybody. I think the offense will be fine, at least if Bowenkamp can keep the turnovers to a minimum. The line is very solid, the receiving corps is quite deep with Ahlers, Lueck, Stattelman, Johnson, Weber, Grossman and Alkins, and the backs will be okay with Miller, Beatty, Strouth, Roland and Wisthoff. Defensively, I'm confident that the front seven will be very solid, and the Sioux should have as good a pair of safeties as anybody in the league with Stratton and Gagner. The play of the corners will be key. Watch for freshman Greenwood and Hoffschneider to push Manke and Franklin for playing time. Hoffschneider's credentials speak for themselves (all-Colorado in 2001), and Greenwood can really hit.

Although SCSU was the pretty obvious choice to win the NCC based upon last year's record and the fact that a large majority of their starters return, they have a really brutal schedule. An almost unbelievable five of their first six games are on the road, including at traditionally good programs Western Washington, Pitt St. and UND. They also play at Omaha and SDSU, and have a total of seven regular season road games. If they can equal or improve upon their 2002 record of 9-2, they will have really earned it.

This column in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader is fairly critical of the SDSU brass regarding the conference issue: link

Mary's enrollment is approximately 1,800, I believe. They do have a pretty nice NAIA athletic program. Although UMary is in a fairly populous area (especially by North Dakota standards), they may very well run into the same problem as Augie--the fan support is generally not there for a private school like it would be for a public school. Although Sioux Falls is one of the largest metro areas in the NCC, Augie doesn't draw particularly well, and perhaps never will. If USD or SDSU or Northern State were located in Sioux Falls, it would likely be a whole different story. There are a lot of UND and/or NDSU fans in Bismarck, and UMary may struggle with that if they all of a sudden were to be trying to compete head-to-head instead of having their own niche as they do now. However, at least among schools not currently in division II potentially joining the NCC, I would agree that UMary is probably the most likely candidate. If very many established dII programs indicate they are not interested in a move to the NCC, it could happen.

This was in Thursday's Herald: UND football article It's certainly good news that Lueck has finally been determined to be eligible. He should be a big help. Also, it sounds like Brandon Strouth is looking very good at running back.

I don't mean to say that there's no way that another NSIC school be added to the NCC, but I do think that for it to happen, the incoming school would have to give some sort of assurance that they would make every effort to reach 36 scholarships for football. Since the NCC is pretty much in agreement in its view that football scholarships shouldn't be further cut, it would be disingenuous to add a school who didn't share this sentiment. Other possibilities would be schools from the MIAA or Great Lakes Conferences (admittedly a longshot), or the Rocky Mountain Conference (other than Kearney if they're not interested). If the choice were remaining at seven schools or adding a school like UMC, I am quite confident that the NCC would remain at seven until a more suitable member could be found.

I've never heard UMC mentioned as a potential NCC member. God help us all if they were to be added. Out of current NSIC members, Northern St., Winona St. or possibly Concordia-St. Paul may be possibilities somewhere down the line of they could at least come close to fully funding football scholarships at the dII maximum. Otherwise, I don't see the NCC adding further NSIC members anytime soon.

Do you mean unlike the major national hoopla surrounding I-AA football or Mid-Continent Conference basketball? Let's face it, unless you're talking about BCS football or major conference basketball, 90-something percent of the country knows little and cares less. But that doesn't mean that those of us who do follow division I hockey, division II or I-AA football, or division II or non-major conference college basketball are any less interested in our respective sports.

What are you talking about?

Pat Sweeney said on the 6:00 sports last night that the Sioux had 102 players in camp. If this is true, does anyone know who out of the approximately 108 players listed on the roster did not report?

I expect that NDSU's offense should be fine, although the line seems to have some depth problems. However, the defense still has a lot of question marks. Traditionally, adding several jucos, particularly to a team coming off a struggling season, has not been a recipe for success in NCC football. Perhaps Bohl can make it work, but the odds probably aren't in his favor to turn it around in one year.

The opposing teams do pick up the win, at least according to the NCC. In the NCC release, it specifically said that UND's 2002 NCC record is now officially 4-4.