Bison06

Noone who knows anything about football ever said something so stupid as "bring on bama". Casuals sure, but nobody serious. You might not be delusional enough, but you can be sure that there would be UND fans who would. All fan bases have their people who speak without really knowing what they're talking about.

Any fan base has their hardcore base and their casual fans. Casual fans are needed for all sports teams for revenue and butts in seats. Casual fans aren't as plugged into the details. Once we had won 10 championships and everyone who wanted to make the trip to Frisco had done it and in many cases multiple times, the luster wore off. The tailgate on a random September or October had lost it's cache for the "cool thing to do on a Saturday afternoon" in Fargo. We lost the casuals and even some of the hardcores who really just wanted to see quality football and knew that even though the team could potentially lose one or two games a regular season, NDSU was still making the playoffs so they would mostly check out until then. Sure, they'll check the score and maybe even watch a game or two on TV, but it was no longer an event to plan around. Like it or not, the teams NDSU will be playing now, are perceived as a higher level of competition by those casuals. People have heard of these schools, even if the people who are plugged into the actual game of football know that the MW schools aren't much of a step up from the MVFC. People have heard of UNLV, Hawaii, Air Force and they carry that brand recognition with them when they show up in the FargoDome. I also think you are underplaying how good NDSU still has been the last 6 years. 2021: 14–1 (FCS National Champions) 2022: 12–3 (FCS National Runner-Up) 2023: 11–4 (FCS Semifinals) 2024: 14–2 (FCS National Champions) 2025: 12–1 (FCS Second Round) In the minds of the casual fans, this 5 year run is still 3 trips to frisco and a loss in double overtime in a thriller that would have had them make the championship game 4/5 years. That's not a fall off by anyone's definition.

What is your evidence that fan disinterest isn’t real? I’m an NDSU fan and talk with NDSU fans all of the time, they were bored. In many cases, they were not renewing season tickets, they were not tailgating, they took a “I’ll plug back in once the playoffs start” approach to the team. It was very real.

For someone not discounting NDSU's success, you sure do a solid job of spending the rest of your post discounting their success. I travel everywhere in the US for work, it isn't just north Fargo thinking NDSU football has become a name people recognize in football circles as a high quality brand of football. I think you should buy the bored fans "schtick", its very real.

I agree with what you are saying, but you could even put 95% of of G2(as you appropriately name it) schools in this category also. Boston College,California (Cal),Duke,Georgia Tech,Louisville,Miami (FL),NC State,North Carolina (UNC),Pittsburgh,SMU,Stanford,Syracuse,Virginia,Virginia Tech,Wake Forest,Illinois,Iowa,Maryland,Minnesota,Nebraska,Northwestern,Purdue,Rutgers,UCLA,USC,Wisconsin,Arizona,Arizona State,Baylor,BYU,Cincinnati,Colorado,Houston,Iowa State,Kansas,Kansas State,Oklahoma State,TCU,Texas Tech,UCF,Utah,West Virginia,Arkansas,Auburn,Florida,Kentucky,Mississippi State,Missouri,Oklahoma,South Carolina,Tennessee,Texas A&M,Vanderbilt. Quick google of schools that have yet to make the CFP. Many of which have no reasonable reason to think they ever will. Playing football can't just be about winning the national title, otherwise 90% of the teams wouldn't field a team.

I literally said, "you don't go from FCS to P4 overnight", you quoted and bolded it. You're hatred for NDSU has blinded you to the brand recognition that NDSU has gained nationally in the last decade. Any objective viewer realizes NDSU is viewed favorably by people nationally who know football. Through my work, I'm in touch with a lot of former DI football players throughout the country, NDSU is known.

Sure

I think even without NDSU that is still true

I agree with you that the MVFC is better than the MAC

I’m sure there are many uneducated football fans who think it’s a massive step up. I’m not one of them, so I can’t speak for them. Also, MVFC in my mind is head and shoulders above every other conference in the FCS. Not indicative of the quality of play at the FCS level at large. As an example, LIU is an FCS school and if UND had kept the pedal down, that game could’ve been 80-0. Not a shot at UND, who I have a ton of respect for, but LIU is not a school that takes football seriously. There are many of them in the FCS and it got to the point where at times it was embarrassing for a school that takes football seriously to be associated with schools like that. USD against CCSU is another example. I know there are some relatively bad teams in the G6. Some of them are in the mountain west even, but they still are fully funded with scholarships and carry the DI-FBS designation, which means they will be for the most part a step up from the vast majority of FCS games. Outside of the traditional powerhouse programs. NDSU will no doubt have some growing pains and some humbling moments in this transition, some of our fans could use some humbling. But FBS is where NDSU belongs, I wish we had made the move a decade ago.

Financially, I agree. But you don’t go from FCS to P4 overnight. I have to assume many G6 teams who see football as primary, would love to be a part of the P4 long term, but that isn’t an easy transition. I see NDSU as a regional powerhouse who has gained some national recognition for their sustained success. Unless something drastic changes with population in the upper Midwest, NDSU should always be playing at the “second level” of college football. When NDSU moved to FCS, I don’t think the split between, at the time, G5 and P5 was as big as it is today. It was seen more as one I-A divisions, though there was still the haves and the have nots. Nowadays, FCS has transitioned into a true 3rd tier in my mind. G6 is now what the FCS From the late 90’s/early 2000’s was. We’ll see what the future holds, but FCS has seen most of its historically great teams leave and to me, no longer fit the identity NDSU has for itself. I think the Dakotas and Montana teams fit a similar mold, though NDSU seemed to separate itself from that crew in terms of support for football in the last 15-20 years.

Does that linebacker play offense too? That was an ass whooping, one player wasn’t making a difference, especially not at that position.

Ego and environment got the best of him on that decision. I agree, should’ve taken the 3 there. Hard to know how the rest of the game plays out with that change, but I don’t think the outcome changes much if they do that. I turned to my son in Q1 and replayed a zone run to the left where our Oline pushed back their entire Dline 7 yards and said this game is already over. If NDSU gets that kind of push in Q1, by the second half the Dline will be exhausted and break. That’s exactly what happened.

I don’t agree. The top of FCS is mostly the same as most G6 teams but the top of FCS is my mind is about 4-5 teams these days. Also, I’m sure I’ll regret asking, but what about the game in Fargo was a “train wreck”. First game mistakes were there with some uncharacteristic penalties, but I’ve watched a lot of NDSU football in my day, and that looked on par with most of it. The crowd hasn’t been that rowdy in a decade and JSU didn’t handle it well.

For what its worth, I hope that the Montana and Dakota schools make the move also eventually. UND, USD, SDSU, Montana and Montana St all play really good football and would all compete well with the vast majority of G6 and lower P4 teams.