Bison06

Strength and conditioning has changed a lot in the last 20 years. Changed from mass gains to explosiveness. Strength has a ton of value on the football field, but not nearly as valuable as power. I have no doubt that UND’s S and C team is training your athletes in a way that is up to speed with that change in philosophy.

I agree UND has bigger problems, but given USD’s status as a historical rival and a program that given their circumstances(transitioned at the same time as UND, brand new coaching staff and other similarities) UND fans likely see USD as a measuring stick of sorts. I know I looked at SDSU in a similar way when we transitioned up together.

D2? They couldn’t make the North Dakota 9 man playoffs.

Mississippi valley and Robert Morris each have as many FCS playoff wins as UND, so I’d give you guys a 50/50 shot in those games.

Hahaha

Agreed, but some of that is opportunity to look good too. NDSU’s schedule hasn’t been conducive to give any impressive performances yet.

I can’t help but wonder if you’d see it through a different lense if USD being an elite team this year didn’t in the smallest way give your loss to them a little positive spin. I do the same with my team’s losses, you end up cheering for the team that beat you a bit because it makes your loss look better. eg, would’ve been bummed if JMU didn’t win it all last year as it would have made our loss lllk worse

Of course that happens, but there is a massive chasm between letting off the gas and giving up a touchdown or two and what happened yesterday. USD couldn’t move the ball at all and their defense was exposed. They gave up 27 unanswered points and had roughly 35 yards of total offense for a quarter and a half, that’s more than letting off the gas a bit if you ask me. Maybe I’m wrong, good news is it’ll all play itself out.

I realize you’d like to make your loss to USD be to the eventual MVFC champion so it makes UND’s embarrassing loss look better, but elite teams don’t give up 28 unanswered points.

Did you watch the game? USD was completely shut down for 25 minutes, they got one first down and gave up 28 unanswered points. They were dominated, for almost two full quarters. You call that whatever you want, I call that finding a weakness and exploiting it aka a blueprint.

Whatever WIU did for the last quarter and a half against USD may just have shown a blueprint to beating USD. USD’s offense screeched to a halt and they gave up nearly 450 yards passing. Lucky to get out of there with a win.

We all may need to pump the breaks on the USD train...call it letting off the gas by USD if you like, but 21 unanaswered by WIU and 3 straight drives without a first down here from USD would have me concerned if I was a USD fan heading into Valley play.

UND has a women's hockey program? Weird I can't find it anywhere on the UND sports site.

Again agree to disagree. Attendance falling, i.e. an individual fan pulling their financial support, clearly has an effect on the Athletic Department's decision making in my mind and can bring about real change. Losing the "casual fan" is a problem for any athletic team, college or pro.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I feel the only true power the average fan has is to allocate their finances elsewhere to show the powers that be they are dissatisfied. You're right that the threat of pulling significant funding would also send a clear message, but your average fan doesn't have that leverage the way a large donor would.

My posts on this topic are not specifically about UND's current situation. If you read back, just speaking generally in response to another poster talking about "real fans" will continue to attend even if the team isn't fairing well.

Or there is the novel idea of actually reading the my posts and responding to them based on their content.

You're assuming that only one person is acting as I'm suggesting. If UND were to see a drop in season tickets by a significant amount, you honestly don't think the AD would call a meeting and maybe even call some of those former season ticket holders to ask why they didn't renew?

If NDSU takes a step back and consistently starts missing the playoffs, I would fully expect the fan base to "speak up" and show their dissatisfaction by not attending games and removing their financial support. The NDSU decision makers would then have to decide to keep the status quo and accept their new financial reality or make the necessary changes. Either way, the fans being "fair weather" in my opinion is a good thing. Don't send a message that what the team is currently doing is ok with you if it isn't ok with you.

So when attendance drops the front office doesn't take that as a sign that their fan base is unhappy and make changes?

I find it hilarious how critical you all are of bisonville about dissenting opinions. Pot meet kettle. You all are just so welcoming. If I changed my name to anything that didn't have Bison in it, nothing about my comment was either inflammatory nor referenced me being a Bison fan. You just feel like being an a-hole I guess.

How so? Improve the product and I'm back. Clearly, my thought process isn't unique. Why do you think attendance is higher during winning seasons than losing seasons? People pull their support in general when a team is losing and increase their support when a team is winning. as an example, my friends and I already have plans to go to a timbwrwolves game this year because of all the excitement with the offseason moves. Never would have considered that in the past 10 years.

Absolutely, jumping ship on UND this early would be a mistake. It is fair, however, to have it shift lower on your priority list though if it was already going to be a hassle to get there as the above poster is doing. It loses its luster a bit after a loss like that for a fan who has to drive quite a ways to make the game.

I've always thought of it the opposite way. When a team isn't performing in a way that pleases you, the only way to truly create change is to not support them financially. It makes a bit more sense at the pro level than at the college level, but I think it still holds mostly true. I'm a huge Minnesota professional sports fan, but I haven't been to a twins or timberwolves game in years because I don't want to send the message that the way they are playing or making personnel decisions is worthy of my dollar. Put a competitive product on the field and I'll spend some money to come to your stadium. Free market economics at its best. By supporting a team that is underperforming, you are in a way allowing it to continue. As I said, makes a bit more sense at the pro level.