Herd

Did anyone goto the basketball game this past year in the Dome? Lots of fans in the stands, but the game lacked in meaning and emotion, big time. Sorry, but an ooc football game will be strangely similar. Both the teams and fans will be much more invested vs. the top teams in-conf. That's just the way it is going forward, you will see. The rivalry that was, is no longer. That has been detroyed. It will not return to the way it was. It simply will not. As much as everyone longs for this game, it won't have champioship or playoff meaning, and will be largely disappointing to those with memories of past games. It will make money, so schedule if you can, but start lowering your expectations. Ask Iowa if Iowa St is the biggest game of the year. It is a diversion for in-state fans. That is ndsu nd going forward. For ndsu, games vs sdsu when we are battling for a playoff spot will have more meaning. You have been not so great lately in the GW, grasping for meaningful games like any transitional. You will understand in time.

Yeah, the ncaa has shown that they could care less about Indian nicknames . . . really? That's your story? When they go around the table at the ncaa board of directors to vote on your DI membership, hopefully they will have a short memory, or be scared off by the fear of congress and the media, but I wouldn't count on it.

As a transitional ncaa member, there will be plenty of sleepless nights. You don't think the ncaa is in a leverage position in this matter? They can't be thrilled that und is not honoring its legal agreement . . . we will see.

Your attorney signed an agreement with the NCAA to retire the nickname. I don't see why the ncaa would care at all about the legislative action taken and state politics, it simply cements und's position and clarifies the situation for the ncaa. Now the ncaa simply needs to lay out the consequences associated with violating your agreement and not retiring the nickname. Hopefully for the und, the ncaa will not up the anti on the consequences . . . nothing would shock me at this point. Will the ncaa tred lightly or set an example?

So will the sioux be riding the bus through western ND to help endear themselves to the ND commoners, or just doing a fly over to Sac, Portland, Greeley and Flagstaff. If they do bus trips out west, they could deliever meals to shut-ins or provide shoes and medical care and anti-cass county propaganda to the homeless citizens, establishing that UND/GF link to western ND and saving on travel costs. I think your strategy is genius.

Let's be honest, the Big Sky is a great fit for UND, other than travel. I don't think it's a problem for UND as much as the travel costs for some conference members. To again be honest, the conference acted impulsively when they thought Montana might be leaving, and they thought they were getting two teams from the central time zone, not one.. Reality will set in later, with UND actually in the league in 2012. I just look at the SUU example (where they were alone in the league) and have to wonder if the Big Sky is a destination conference for UND, simply based on travel and cost. No, I am not jealous . . . I am glad personally to be playing in the central time zone and Valley football so I personally can travel to more games. I like the Summit and the member situation and footprint keeps improving. I travel to lots of games, and to have SD and Omaha in the league is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. It's too bad that UNO is giving up football, but that might be a good thing for NDSU recruiting. When people say that the Summit is the old NCC, I say . . . what's wrong with that . . . I like the NCC. If you remember, NDSU waited an extra year to try to move the entire NCC to division I, do you remember? The conference situations are what they are, I'm not trying be negative, just giving some honest thoughts.

Und in sky is the equivalent of suu in the summit. They are a good school and competitve and all, its just a long damn trip. Seems like a good idea for suu to be moving to the sky. You miss them in some respects, but not the travel.

I'm sure if the MVFC/Summit offer UND, the rest of the Big Sky would say . . . UND oh please don't le, you can't be s, OK that would be fine.

The Summit League's reputation is just fine . . . everywhere but in your mind. It means a lot to get a PR lecture from a member of Fighting nation . . . that's rich.

What are they going to vote for next. . . Who likes chocolate? Do they like football on monday Night? Thanks for your opinions, but pretty meaningless and more harmful than good based on previous events.

Maybe ohio state should host in columbus or missouri state springfield or Kansas in Lawrence? No, its an event that should be at a neutral site. No one would agree that the #1 team should host in the above cases, would you Agree? The #1 team in summit earns the right to play the #8 team and gets a day of between the quarters and the semis. The #1 seed does not see the #2 or #3 seed until the finals. That's usually a pretty easy ride. That is what they earn.

I attended the first two rounds in sioux falls, and the atmophere was great. Imo, not holding the tourney at a. Neutral site is bush league. You obviously don't have a product that sells if you can't give your teams am equal shot at a neutral site. The other thing that was clear is that Oakland would mop up in Sky. Clearly more athletes in the summit.

The Summit has really improved its depth and athleticism in the past 5 years. In 2010-2011, the Summit has very good depth in the #2 thru #8 teams. I've watched the entire Summit tourney, and SUU is not a bad team at #8, and actually gave Oakland a very good game for 3 quarters. Oakland is certainly the class of the league, but #2 - #8 are capable of beating each other on any given night. Centenary moving out is great for the Summit from a competitiveness and footprint standpoint, and SUU moving out is good for the Summit footprint too. (although SUU is a stronger BB member than WIU) I think the Summit can hit the 15-20 range for RPI year in and year out with continued improvement of the league.

Id say, enough already, the university is more important than a nickname. If it was a choice of ongoing ncaa sanctions or not, id drop the name and turn page. Dozens of colleges have gone through the same thing and survived, even thrived. why is a nickname more important than the positive image of the University? Will the university implode and close its Doors? If you think I'd want to maintain the bison nickname under ncaa sanctions, you are wrong. UND has a legal agreement with the ncaa, what are the legal ramifications of backing out of it? This problem is not going away.

Making a decision to keep the nickname and live under ncaa sanctions sounds like an irrational decision. Then suggesting an fbs move on top of that sounds like a recipe for failure. It would seem that you would need to clean house of your current administration too, and reduce several sports to fund and balance for fbs. There are lots of negative to this line of thinking. Its a nickname for goodness sakes. Should it be the number 1 Priority? Seems crazy, no matter how much fans want to bow down to the nickname.

Total agreement! You are the one Dakota school who could develop a nice thing with Drake. Home/home OOC games against UND would also help to fill schedule while maintaining cost control, that's a good plan! Right now usd might have a little advantage on und, but that matchup will be pretty even over the long haul.

Yote . . . if you were thinking in the best interest of making the playoffs, you'd try to bring in a guarantee game vs. someone a little more winnable than UND. Financially a home/home with UND might make the most sense. Keep in mind, if you make it through the schedule, including the Valley meat grinder with 6 wins and a loss to UND, that won't look like a very wise decision though will it. Playing the in Valley has shown me that the best formula with the 3 OOC games is . . . 1 FBS, 1 FCS winnable game, 1 other FCS. If you go 2 FCS winnable games, your playoff chances go up significantly. Play a DII and forget it most years, the margin for error is too small. If I was the AD in Vermillion, I'd be trying to work out a 2 for 1 with someone like Drake. Easy travel (check) winnable FCS (check) smaller guarantee with 2-1 (check) IMO, perfect situation for USD. The 2-1 would be a small usd concession, and Drake would probably bite. Of course, if you played Drake and UND, that would be good for your 2 OOC FCS games.

For an eligible DI FCS team its all about trying to make the playoffs. Ask Montana about their 2010 scheduling . . . they ended up 7-4, just like NDSU, but NDSU went to the playoffs instead of Montana. Why? One of Montana's wins was against a DII. If you play a DII, your margin for error in earning 7 DI wins is razor thin. If you can avoid playing down, avoid it. Better off trying to bring in a MEAC, Northeast Conf, Pioneer, etc, etc, than playing a DII. Ya, NDSU or UND could play SCSU, but it wouldn't make any playoff sense. You might be able to pay a smaller guarantee, but why even do it if it could cost you a playoff opportunity. And FBS vs. FCS, they count for both. (For FBS, 1 FCS game/year counts) Montana's been the exception to playing FBS teams, but are finnally stepping back up again next year. They would be wise to schedule some possibly winnable FBS games though.

Ya, the competition would be fun and make everyone better. But hopefully you are not in the save divsion as all 3 of the top teams if they split into divisions, but you'd certainly want to be in with MT and MSU. On a side note, MSU has a great stadium, but it will be awesome when the bowl is complete. I envy their outdoor football stadium situation. Bozeman is a great town.

UND better make sure they don't end up in a divisional setup with MT, MT St, and EWU. That would be a large playoff hurdle.

For football at the fcs level, championship games are not an option. So divisions make less sense unless you have an autobid into the playoffs for the winner in each division, which is an unlikely guarantee from the ncaa. That's why having more than 9 or 10 teams makes it hard to select a conf champ. That said, a 13-14 team big sky will likely always get 2 or more bids, so a division winner will most likely get in.

I think the Big Sky is a good conference, no arguement from me on that. I think it was a good move by und and they will have a great future. The big sky is a solid conference home period. The only questionable thing for und is tavel budget and core sports in the sky w/o bb, sb, swimming, but that is workable. The summit would have been a better fit with core sports, and und will need to evaluate its current list of sports. If the fans aren't concerned about it, then all is good. For ndsu, the summit/Valley is a better option than the big sky. Ndsu is primarily recruiting MN, WI, IL, NE, ND/SD for football. With SUU/Cent out and SD in the Summit, things are improving and tighting up. I have no issues with the big sky, but it would be a step backwards (now) for ndsu to make a change. Moving to the Big Sky would be like starting the transition all over again. It doesn't hurt that SD and SDSU are with us too. It's a good move by und, and ndsu is in a good position. The only negative is for the fans in the state of ND who will not see regular games between these school in football, and the baskettball games will feel more exhitibions by out of conference.

What people need to understand . . . ndsu was interested in the Big Sky yes, but that was before the Summit/Valley combination became available. When ndsu saw the big sky as their best conference option, they were comparing it to the Summit only. Would ndsu rather be in the big sky than the Summit only, yes. Would ndsu rather be in the big sky than the summit/valley, No. ndsu would make the some decison usd did. usd is the only school that had both options handed to them. And we all know what decision usd made.

On crack, I don't think so . . . . I think the count is 7 (or 8) NCAA DI tournament bids in first 3 years of DI competition by ndsu team sports (just team sports), with numerious other appearances in the non-team sports like track and wresting. The only team sports that have not made ncaa appearances are baseball and wbb. That is a heck of a start to DI and I think that's what Wyo is referring to. No, he not on crack when you look at this success. ndsu and its fans clearly embrace DI, and not just in one sport. Wyo is just pointing out where the bar has been set.

The premise by Star City (50 posts ago) was . . . NDSU will be forced to join a western conference due to all the oil money and support in western ND, or that NDSU would be crazy not to try to join the Big Sky because of the western ND money and support which they will miss out on. NDSU is probably trying to explore a move west right now as we speak, they'd be crazy not to. Secret meeting are being held as NDSU begs UND officials for their support in a move westward. If NDSU can't get into the big sky, they will go Dac10 to lock into a ND and western conference. Is that close Star City? I made up the Dac10 thing and the secret meetings. My premise . . . western ND oil will have no impact on NDSU conference affiliation, but will help support the entire NDSBHE budgets and bring growth to the state. NDSU will continue to connect itself to the entire state of ND through its programs and Ag extension efforts. Star City has way too much time on his hands and would be better served to speculate on the next move the Big East or Pac 12. My premise . . . und will stay in the sky, and ndsu will stay in the Summit/Valley, but the odds are much greater that und would move east to save 1.5 million in travel and join the other 3 dakota U's before ndsu would ever consider a move west.