Bison06

Why weren't they talking about them before the last few years?

My point is NDSU is in a position to be under the microscope. Plenty of other fanbases have idiots, some even more so than NDSU in my experience, but who is talking about them? Nobody talks about Minnesota Twins fans, or Cleveland Browns fans. They talk about Yankees fans and Patriots fans being arrogant and insufferable, NDSU finds themselves in this same position.

A lot of guys who have never choked have never been in the position to do so. Tom Watson

Oh good, then we agree, thanks for the snarky response.

Every fanbase wants to think they are above having idiots in their ranks, but no group is immune, UND fans included. NDSU just has a lot of "newer" fans who don't know how to be humble since the last 6 years is all they know. All us old Bison fans are just as embarrassed and annoyed when we hear sioux chants at games that don't involve UND.

meh...people have their own reason for doing things, doesn't necessarily say anything to me about where the fanbases' head is at. Maybe his brother or his best buddy is a sioux fan and he wanted to make a statement, who knows.

You're arbitrarily defining what letting it go means to make UND come out as the good guy.

Exactly. It was strategic with a little bit of "stick it to the a holes that screwed us" mixed in. Right or wrong, agree or disagree. To suggest fear played a role is so far beyond absurd, it's hilarious.

Ohio State just signed a home and home with Oregon, but keeps dodging NDSU. I'm sure they're scared of NDSU.

That's bulletproof logic there. I heard NDSU called Ohio State for a game in Fargo and they wouldn't schedule it. I'm sure Urban Meyer was scared.

You can't possibly think NDSU is scared to play in Grand Forks do you? The reason NDSU didn't schedule a game to play in Grand Forks has been discussed by many for years, whether you agree with their reasoning or not, saying they are scared just makes you sound like a petulent child.

I have no doubt all of that is true. It doesn't, however, play a role in which sport is more popular, which is the discussion.

FCS football and NCAA hockey are nearly identical in their fanbases, mostly made up of alumni of the power schools and the regions immediately surrounding them. What gives FCS football the advantage in my opinion is that it just happens to be the most popular sport in the United States. Given the option between the two, the casual observer would likely choose FCS simply because it is Football, the more popular sport.

If it would have had the same impact on your season and you say that injuries happen to every team, what is the point of bringing it up and calling me out by name specifically? Every team in the nation deals with injuries, your original post seems to imply that I've somehow forgotten that UND dealt with injuries at key positions and that a team taking advantage of those injuries was the reason UND didn't have a more successful season. You don't think teams played NDSU any different without Wentz? It's just smart football. My point is, injuries can't be used as a reason a team didn't accomplish something no matter how impactful they seem. The truth is every single team is injured to a certain extent, which is why many posters have pointed to UND's lack of depth as the real reason they were unable to win those two games. UND is in the process of building that depth and will be able to weather the injury storm much better in the years to come if recruiting trends the way it has.

So if that same injury had occurred during a play you consider to be not a cheap shot it would've affected UND's season less?

Not to belabor the discussion, but the original point of looking at viewers was to show a comparison between the two sports. When you consider having 751K viewers in what you have said is the inferior timeslot, on the inferior channel, is still higher than every NCAA hockey game quoted above, your post actually speaks more to the contrary argument than yours.

UND Football 2015. The only team in the FCS to have injuries at key positions. Won't even address the dirty play issue, it's been beaten to death.

By best team in the country I meant historically(the last 4 years)I can see how you would have read it the way you did. You're right, stick isn't wentz. But that isn't what I claimed. What I'm saying is the play calling was too reliant on Carson, theories abound about why that may be. Coaches trying to show we can pass, trying to showcase an NFL arm too much etc. Without Carson, NDSU returned to a much more historical style of their offense and it has worked much better. We are a ball control, field position, grind you out team. Under Carson, we lost that identity in my opinion and put our defense in tougher positions. Would I take Carson if he were healthy for the championship. Absolutely, but only if the play calling is more in line with what we've seen them call for Stick.

Oxbow further dug his feet in with his point when asked directly, so not sure what your talking about actually.

Also, I would argue that without Wentz our offense has actually been more in line with what has made NDSU the best team in the country. The play calling was too heavily reliant on Wentz arm. Without him the offense has been much more balanced and other stars have emerged. I'm not saying they are better off without him, but in some ways the play calling has been much improved without Carson.

I watch every NDSU game and I watched this last one twice. NDSU has a way of making teams look much worse than they are by dominating the line of scrimmage and beating teams down over time. NDSU's defense is playing at an amazing level right now and would have made any team in the country look bad Friday night. Richmond was a damn good team, if you don't believe it's true, that was the only Richmond game you watched all year.

Huh? UND lost to the best team on their schedule in Fargo and got crushed by the 3rd best team on their schedule in Missoula. Portland State was a nice win.

Let's see if I can go 3 for 3. UND fans are basing this fictional line of thinking on beating one team that made the playoffs and lost in their first playoff game? Makes sense I guess. Winning games to end a season is far better than losing, so I understand why UND fans are feeling optimistic about the future. But the groupthink that has led to this false sense of feeling like UND was one of the best teams in the country at the end of the season has gone too far IMO. UND was a nice team at the end of the regular season, but realistically, UND didn't show enough against the good teams on their schedule to give anyone other than a biased observer any reason to think they would have made noise in the playoffs.

And NDSU fans are the delusional ones?