Bison06

But I’m not a current player or a parent of a current player so how would I remember it?

My point is I didn’t realize I was discussing the significance of an historic football season in the annals of history with some folks who aren’t actually fans of FCS football. If we took a poll of this forum and people who got introduced to UND football 50+ years ago and have been lifelong fans as a result of those early experiences, my bet would be many people would remember the late 60’s and early 70’s seasons. Yet we have a “fan” who thinks this season won’t be remembered by anyone other than “the players and their parents”

Having fans like you is the reason why people say UND is a hockey school. Constantly downplaying football and in its significance at the FCS level. Sure it isn’t Ohio state vs Alabama, but if you’re a fan it means something to you and you’ll remember.People care, you might not, but people care. 50 years isn’t that long, 1971 season isn’t that long ago, I’m sure many on this board remember games from the 60s-70s.

Straw man

It’s funny sometimes on message boards you get stuck arguing a point vehemently that is so meaningless and doesn’t even matter to me or to I’m sure any of you, I mean who the hell cares, but it’s entertainment and I like to talk sports. If anyone is a fan of the late, great Mitch Hedburg, these discussions always remind me of his “that tree is far away” joke. Go to 5 minutes or listen to the whole thing if you need a laugh.

We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one it appears.

As usual you conflate two arguments to make your point seem relevant. I never said people are complaining about past champions, simply that there is a clear conversation that gets had every time certain years get brought up. Every NFL fan on the planet knows the 1987 season had replacement players and that season is completely different than others and that didn’t have nearly the impact that this years FCS season has as only a few games were effected. We have teams completely opting out of the season, we have significant impact players who would have been on the squads normally(fall season) not playing this spring. This season’s champion will on paper be a championship like any other, but FCS fans will always look at this championship differently, especially if a very unexpected team ends up winning the title.

You’ve made my point for me. Every time one of those seasons gets mentioned, they provide a caveat of “lockout shortened year”, that is by definition an asterisk.

You’d be a wealthy man.

Absolutely it does. It’s only lessened by the fact that everybody expected Alabama to win anyway. What if Alabama had the same covid trouble as some of the big ten teams? Ohio State played half a season and then have your best two d lineman out because of covid testing protocols. If Alabama played half a season and some of their best players were out for a playoff game, people would without a doubt have put an asterisk next to an Ohio State or a Notre Dame title. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sportingnews.com/us/amp/ncaa-football/news/ohio-state-covid-list-alabama/1lmo5oskb36ce1qx8ie66s9uvv

This is a ridiculous standard. The NCAA would never put an asterisk on their own championship. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one. The NCAA never even officially put an asterisk on the 1918 season. Check out the records for that year.

Who is claiming to be “so important”?

Hmmm, I suppose you could argue that I’m stupid, but I’m neither fat nor lazy.

I’m not sure I even follow the point here. Whether NDSU did or did not add a wrinkle for this game? What does it mean if they did? I don’t understand why this even matters. As if adding some sort of special game plan means that the coaches took the game seriously? That’s absurd.

I mean, of course they changed it, they change it every game to suit the team they’re playing. Clearly the offensive staff for NDSU saw a weak point and successfully exploited it. This week they’ll do the same thing, but that weak point might be different than it was this week. For the record, I’ve always held firm, even through 03-15 when the schools weren’t playing that UND is NDSUs biggest rival. I’ll I’ve said is I doubt the players see it that way since they’ve never played in the game or when they have UND wasn’t as competitive as they historically have been.

dramatically changed the offense? I believe that is referred to as gameplanning, it happens every week.

It’s hard to say what’s working and what isn’t when you are so successful with the running attack that you don’t even go to the passing game hardly at all. I have no illusions about Zeb being all of a sudden a stud, but with each passing week these guys get more practice together, more game experience etc. It seems to be coming together a bit. As far as a playoff run, who knows. I haven’t seen a single team that looks head and shoulders above the rest. This years playoffs will be a get in and see how it all plays out. Could be interesting. If the NDSU team that played on Saturday keeps showing up, I’d say that have as good as of a chance as anyone to make a run at the title.

I am. The problem with that is those losing teams in a normal season would still have to play the games. Illinois state shutting it down early has a ripple effect on everyone in the league. Advantages and disadvantages. I suppose reasonable people can disagree on this one, but I don’t see any way that FCS history just doesn’t look at the 2020 season as an asterisk or whatever you’d like to call it. This season is different than any that came before it and any(hopefully) that will come after. The simple fact that a team is a playing less games is enough for me to say this season somehow means less. And I’ll say the same thing if NDSU wins the title.

You could be right, but to my eye, they seemed to turn a corner in their understanding of how to run this offense. Every team comes together at different times and it looked like to me Saturday could be a turning point. Also, I’ve been watching these teams all play each other for a long time, I don’t see any reason why Luepke wouldn’t be effective against the upcoming schedule. Might be hard to repeat this weekends performance, but he isn’t some sort of gimmick that only works against UND’s defense.

I agree. SDSU is a toss up almost every year for ndsu regardless of records.

Obviously I’m biased, but I see it the opposite for NDSU, they finally woke up last week and I see them continuing that moving forward. They seemed to find a rhythm that wasn’t there previously and I think they are gonna be dangerous moving forward. I see them rattling off some wins 3-0 or 2-1 the next few weeks is what I expect.

Who said they played hard?

Maybe it comes down to what peoples definition of an asterisk is I suppose. A “not normal” season for me is an asterisk. It doesnt fully delegitimize the championship for the winner, but I do believe history will see the 2020 champion as slightly lesser than given the circumstances.

People here love to disagree with me simply because I have Bison in my handle. If you stop for a minute and look at what is happening right now around the country, teams opting out, a lot of teams choosing not to play at all, many seniors opting out of the season, random bye weeks as a result of teams opting out you’ll see that this isn’t a normal season and won’t be seen as such. And, by the way, we aren’t at the end yet. Playoff games could easily get cancelled due to covid. Is it because UND is having a good season or why are UND fans so opposed to the idea that this simply isn’t a normal season?

It could be argued, but I would counter it with, as long as the playoffs actually happen, somebody has to be named champion. Regardless of the quality of play throughout the season, a champion will be named. If there were some threshold of quality to be reached then I’d agree with you.