southpaw

So does the Big Sky conference, where a majority of UNDs sports play...

I heard Dean Blais occasionally watches football on TV. Lets hire him!

I get the importance of having seven home games but its like everyone is glossing over who those home games are against. SDSU, Montana, MSU and EWU are all top teams. Montana may be overrated a bit but its still going to be a tough game. I fully expect wins in the two home games vs Sac St and UNC but if we go 1-3 vs these tough teams I will be ok with it. The team doesn't seem to be quite there. They seem like the 4th or 5th best Big Sky team so I expect them to be close but probably lose to teams ranked in the top ten of FCS.

I was surprised yesterday's game was not streamed in HD. That could fall on the shoulders of America One, Midco or the Big Sky Conference if they didn't purchase an HD package with America One. As for the camera work, we do high school games that look better than that. The camera guys bailed on their shots way too quickly. It looked like every camera was caught adjusting which means the director or technical director was struggling. Running a 6+ camera setup is tough but they never seemed to get comfortable as the game went on. That indicates it was probably the first or second game for someone in an upper role.

I just get tired of people having such short memories about how "great" things used to be. I live in Colorado but I do live broadcasts for sporting events, including an FBS school. I don't defend Midco because I have a blind love for them or even any sort of affiliation. I know some of the people on the crew, but they are all freelancers who aren't tied to Midco other than during the broadcasts themselves. I defend Midco because I know more than nearly everybody on this board about TV coverage for college sports. I don't have to live in North Dakota to understand that Midco isn't forcing TV companies to put it on a separate tier. That's just idiotic to believe Midco would force itself into a place where there are fewer viewers. Midco is going to charge what it believes is a fair market price for its channels. Feel free to believe that is why prices are jumping $25 but why isn't that happening at every single cable company in MN/ND/SD? Why are there some markets that don't jack the bill for their customers but there are others that do? If you think it's because of some higher power that Midco holds, you're wrong. UND gets $200,000 per year from Midcontinent to broadcast more games to more people than FSSN. UND also doesn't have to deal with the hassle of running its own productions which takes several full time staff members to do so. UND's exposure in the region (that's more than just North Dakota) has increased in football. UND football is expected to have more games on FCS this year than the last two years of FSSN combined. Both Midco channels and the webcast quality have been upgraded to HD, which means better viewing for a significant number of people in the region and throughout the U.S. That would not have happened in the foreseeable future had FSSN still been in operation. They couldn't afford a $25,000 graphics system that could run a penalty clock. They sure as heck aren't going to upgrade to full HD at close to $400,000 for a renovated truck. I watched the first part of the UND football game online, watched the second quarter on my phone and then caught the second half on FCS. There are very few FCS schools who can offer up the same thing. The deal with CBSSN for hockey sucks for UND. I'm not too happy about it myself but I understand it wasn't UND's decision so I'm not angry at them. It also has nothing to do with Midco. FSSN would have the same restrictions that Midco will. There are 8 teams in the conference, UND is just one of them. Every other team in the conference is getting more exposure. I doubt UND is happy to be giving up their deal with FCS but it is what it is. They'll figure out a way to get the exposure back up. You may believe UND is moving in the wrong direction but you're wrong. I understand you're frustrated that the channels are not affordable in every town in the state. Cable companies can easily add channels to their basic lineup. They just don't want to do it without trying to cover the costs associated with buying that channel themselves. However, the popularity of UND sports means those cable companies try and take advantage of their customers to earn more money. The only way it should be $25 a month is if you're going from the lowest basic tier to the highest HD tier. In which case, the cable company is screwing over the customers who want to watch Midco in HD. A regional HD channel should be on the lowest tier of HD, just like a regional SD channel should be on the lowest (or at least second lowest) tier.

That's not Midco's fault. Unless you're one of the few places that receive the HD FCS channels then there's no way you could have watched the game in HD. The game won't be in HD unless you're watching on the web, on a Midco HD channel or on one of the HD FCS channels.

On that 4th and 1 run, three SDSU linemen were able to trap six UND players from getting to the hole. Their line is pretty dang good and it will be interesting to see if they can play well when they face NDSU's defense.

I took a look at the predictions thread prior to this game. 29 people submitted legitimate predictions. Only 13 people predicted UND to win. The scores of the predictions averaged out to: SDSU 33 UND 28 Final score: 35 - 28. I would say the results were pretty close to the predictions. Yet most people are whining, complaining and calling for Mussman's head. For the people who picked UND to win it was: SDSU 27 UND 34 For the people who picked SDSU: SDSU 37 UND 22

Really? He threw numerous times off his back foot while falling. If he didn't have stud receivers who could go up and get a ball a lot of those would have ended up as interceptions. He played better than Bartels but he wasn't off the charts amazing. He got lucky a number of times.

How many schools have their own in-house production companies to do all of their live sports? How many instead have contacts with regional or conference broadcast entities that do the games? There's a reason there aren't a whole lot of the first one and a dozen of the other. Pick three home games this year and that's all ANYONE wouild have been able to watch if the FSSN was still in operation. What three do you pick? How much whining would be doing if it didn't happen to be one you wanted to watch? NDSU has an agreement with the local NBC affiliates. UND has an agreement with Midco. Guess which one reaches more households?

I agreed with Mussmans handling of the QBs and I don't mind if it continues. Give Mollberg the start and don't think about pulling him til second half. If offense hasn't done much, try Bartels for rest of game.

It's a shame on that "hit out of bounds." First contact was made before his foot stepped out. The follow through, which was completely legal, carried a yard or two. Bad call.

Anyone going to give the coaches credit for the good defensive play this half? Lots of pressure, two stops and SDSUs only score so far was when they started inside the five. Or is it all negative?

No drops by the receivers... They gotta help out the QBs a ton today.

It would be dumb of Midco to request to be put on a special tier. Despite what some may think, Midco's goal is to be in as many homes as possible. That means trying to be on the basic cable channels. The local cable companies are the ones assigning them to a tier. Midco has no control over that and most likely isn't a fan of it. Midco gets its money regardless if its on a tier or not, they just get more money if its not because then they have more subscribers.

ESPN charges $5.05 per customer to the cable company. Midco sports net would be crazy to charge even half of that. It's not Midco's fault certain cable companies are pricing out their customers.

I enjoy the optimism people are showing here, but I think the team is a year or two away from being really competitive. Hope I'm wrong SDSU 42 UND 31 I see them going 0-3 in these three big games, but would be happy with 1-2 followed by a win in Pocatello to get them to 3-2. They're going to have to win 4 of their last five games to get to 7 wins though.

You keep using the term maximum exposure. Half of the home football games is not maximum exposure. You lose 27,000 POTENTIAL viewers with the current deal. In the past, you lose EVERY viewer when the game isn't even on TV. Exposure has increased with this deal.

There are an estimated 109,000 people living in Fargo. Based on cable subscriber numbers from other cities about 20-25% of a population are cable customers. So that's about 27,000 CableOne subscribers in Fargo. Which is more important? Having three football home games on TV but making sure those 27,000 people can view it? Or having $5 million and all of the football home games, 3 more volleyball games, the same number of men's and women's basketball games and women's hockey games on TV and those 27,000 people have to travel five miles to watch the game?

When UND signed the contract, CableOne and Midco had an agreement in place. That's not the case anymore. When UND signed the contract with Midco, they were increasing the number of games broadcast and the promise of going to HD within three years (they did it after year one). When UND signed the contract they were getting both money and exposure. Blame CableOne and Midco for not renewing their contract, but this is far from UND's fault.

Midco is trying to get into Fargo once the contract with CableOne is up. If Midco gives CableOne their channel, they essentially give away any incentive to switch over to Midco once that move is made. You don't see manufacturers just giving their products to companies to sell so why do you expect something different from TV? CableOne has to buy the channel before they can pass it on to their customers, just like every other business.

This is going to be so nice. Can't wait for the recruiting impact.

Anybody coming to the Idaho State game from GF? We are hoping a kind person would pick us up a grinder kit. We offer many Colorado microbrews in exchange for delivery costs!

Go ask Northern Colorado.

How is it possible for the teams to prove that losses 10 years ago don't affect the teams now? If the teams win, does that mean the "curse" is suddenly over? If a team loses, is it because of the 2003 football team losing in the national championship game? It's not that you aren't toeing the company line... it's that none of what you said actually made sense.