Herd

Winning champinships requires a unique level of mental toughness, and an attitude of sacrifice, and not being entitled. Yes, the two programs are not apples to apples.

Front-Runners . . . I'm sure they are probably Kentucky, err Wisconsin basketball fans too. I have a brother in law that I saw over easter that is a Cleveland, Miami, Cleveland, San Antonio fan in the NBA, a Seattle, New England fan in FB, and was a huge Kentucky basketball fan (go figure) prior to Saturday night.

Bison fans don't hate hockey, but they understand that starting hockey would equate to not funding our other sports appropriately at the DI level. I'd rather see BB funded at a higher level and coaches paid in the 300-500 range to keep them from moving too quickly. Also, NDSU needs to keep its sports offerings lean to be able to pay stipends for all sports, which will be the required recipe to compete in DI. Lots of sports, most with no stipends, and not paying coaches is the recipe to being an also ran in DI. If your other sports are underfunded with poor coaching salaries, it makes you wonder if the DII model with DI hockey, like Duluth and SC is the better model. Say what you want, but that's the opinion of most bison fans. Hockey does not benefit the university's overall athletic department. BB and watching the football landscape for the future are the key considerations.

Other than the fact that GV is DII, have no intention of moving, and would require 5 years to transition . . . Ya perfect. GV owns und, so that would be another reason for und to stay out of the SL/MVFC.

You think that usd, sdsu or ndsu are going to voluntarily join the bsc to travel the west and play Conf tournaments in Boise, Sacto or Billings . . . Or play football in a lesser Conf in different time zones with more travel expense and more difficulty recruiting? The bsc is a distant 2nd to current conferences, it's not close. The bsc is stable yes, as well as isolated.

Yep, the same one. It Didn't look that bad when it was the only option.

Hey, if you think that Flickertail sports will ever be more than an afterthought in the bsc, then by all means enjoy the ride (flight) in the pacific time zone.

If the Summit needs teams, und has a big barganing chip and the Summit can leverage you into the MVFC. If the Summit wants you, the mvfc will happen. Only an idiot would join the summit without a mvfc spot also, as you'd then have no leverage. Und admin is likely just as clueless about how much leverage they actually have as the people on this board.

No, you don't leave bsc until you have both in hand. It's not that hard. The Summit wants you, figure it out. You make a commitment to the Summit behind the scenes, but you don't leave the bsc until you have both in hand. Have you ever been in a negotiation?

If und told the Summit, we'd like to join, but we need a mvfc invite too before we'd come . . . Then it would happen w/I two years. Und would have to make commitment to the Summit, then the summit would leverage the mvfc to make it happen. Pretry simple.

Geography and Options. There are options for travel and rivalries connections in the central part of the country. Ya, the Big Sky is stable, why do you think that is? Nowhere to go for any of them based on geography and football classification. What are you going to do, join up to the MWC (very hard), or join down the WAC (yuk)? Nowhere to go. UND is the geography exception.

If any of those MVFC teams go FBS, they will join an existing conference. I won't include IN State and MO State, but the rest of those schools would be competitive in FBS, in much better shape than Idaho will ever be. Idaho could be competitive if they could get into the MWC and build from there, but not in the Sunbelt long term. And the Big Sky would never kick out Idaho, they worked to hard to bring them in. Idaho is in the Big Sky on their terms.

Doubt it. They could drop football and still have a seat at the table. Thy aren't playing Big Sky football today, and still have been welcomed. There is already 13, what's the difference.

Idaho may stay FBS and struggle, or they may go FCS and struggle financially. Sure pick your poison Idaho. Neither do anything to make the Big Sky FBS.

Winning conference titles as an FBS member might bring more prestige than winning national titles as an FCS member, but conference titles are not on the table for Idaho. They'd be happy just to win a few games. I'll take being good in the FCS over Idaho's situation any day. Would any FCS team switch places with where Idaho's at for support as an FBS member? No

I haven't discussed NDSU, but I see that everything goes back to NDSU for you, huh? Almost makes you want to crawl back to the Summit so you can have a little control of NDSU's success, doesn't it. But that would require admitting a Big (Sky) mistake, so I'm pretty sure that's not happening. If NDSU joins and existing FBS conference, like the rules require, it will be to compete for a conference title. It won't be to do whatever it is that Idaho calls competing, and whatever you are suggesting the Big Sky do.

Is there a sports version of Obamacare that will subsidize Idaho and an FBS Big Sky? Are you kidding me? Who's going to give a crap about Idaho's 2019 contracts, they will either get dropped, or Idaho will remain an FBS independent . . . whatever. Minor detail, not of consequence. So you are betting the house that Idaho's contract will require the NCAA to legally allow any conference that Idaho joins to magically be declared FBS? Nope, not in a million years. If Idaho wants to honor any standing game contract as a FBS school, it can always remain an FBS independent until the contracts expire . . . before moving FCS. How you think this will somehow make the Big Sky FBS is crazy talk.

College of Home Ec? Is that UND's new nickname? I guess that IS better than your current one.

Dennis Dodd is usually a credible source. Contrast that with the author of this thread.

So, will Idaho going FCS help the Big Sky go FBS? Umm, I don't think so. Dodd aparently does not agree with the Big Sky grand plan. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... ty-is-real

Hanging out in the big sky and avoiding area rivals keeps und on the verge of not being relevant in FB and BB compared to area rivals. IMO, that's a major mistake, especially with the national attention that the Summit will get in their new building. Talk all you want about FB in the 90's, but scholarship reductions were a big help then. At some point und will need to crawl back to Summit. You are current playing outside your recruiting footprint, and that hurts, especially in FB. For the Bison, und in the big sky and the rivalry on ice has been liberating, and a blessing. In FB, not having to deal with the ugliness of that rival has kept NDSU focused on the bigger picture.

It might be a step down and tough move to go FCS for Idaho, but it's certainly going to be an uphill battle for Idaho in the Sunbelt. They play a couple of high majors each year just to pay some bills, and get totally destroyed. On top of that, Idaho is far from even competing for a Sunbelt title. If relevancy for Idaho is 0-3 wins with two - million dollar games, that's a pretty worthless existence. Compare that to Georgia Southern's existence, and Idaho should just throw a white flag. The moment that Idaho was given the thumbs down by the MWC (their geographic home for FBS football), they should have moved to the FCS Big Sky. There is no doubt about that.

I'm waiting for the legislature to say that the funds were misused, and that a violation occurred related to how these funds were specified. I'm not going to hang my hat on a Rob Port article. What do you thinks Portly's intentions were in writing this article? No way he writes that article if UND were involved, and everyone here knows that. He's the head of propaganda train for everything und, and is without credibility from what I've seen him pen, and not pen.

The bottom line for me is . . . would the Portly One have written this article if Minot, Dickenson and UND had all used these funds for this athletic purpose, and ndsu had not? That answer is a resounding NO, he would have seen no need to write that one. The intentions of this article is to smear NDSU, and for no other purpose. Nice picture on the article Mr. Portly. I'm looking forward to your article on the recent arrest of a track athlete at UND, and who's head should roll on that travesty.

For starters, the MWC has a good basketball profile, and a deal with ESPN to televise games. Second, SDSU was a sweet 16 team last year. Their football being FBS has zero to do with it. The Sunbelt and MAC are FBS too, and their BB sucks in comparison.