JackJD

Based on the UND and the SDSU official athletics websites, I have listed below the sports each team sponsors. SDSU sponsors more sports than UND. Am I missing something about the statement "What they don't have is another sport to manage?" I read that as something the poster thinks is correct and that provides some sort of benefit to SDSU. UND Sports -- Eight men's sports are listed: Basketball; Cross Country; Football; Golf; Hockey; Tennis; Track & Field - Indoors; and Track & Field, Outdoor. Nine women's sports: Basketball; Cross Country; Golf; Soccer; Softball; Tennis; Track & Field - Indoor; Track & Field - Outdoor; Volleyball. SDSU Sports -- Eight men's sports but if Track & Field indoor and outdoor were counted separately as does UND, then the total is nine men's sports: Baseball; Basketball; Cross Country; Football; Golf; Swimming and Diving; Track & Field (indoor and outdoor) ; Wrestling. Nine women's sports but if Trand & Field indioor and outdoor were counted separately as does UND, then the total is 10 women's sports: Basietball; Cross Country; Equestrian; Golf; Soccer; Softball; Swimming and Diving; Track and Field (indoor and outdoor); Volleyball. SDSU also sponsors a rodeo team for men and women although the rodeo team is not considrered a part of the athletic department. JackJD

Make sure you're wearing blue, know the school fight song, and are buying some SDSU gear which will be sold at the gathering, if you're planning on ducking into the SDSU room or we'll spot you drinking the complimentary beer. I wonder how strong the USD crowd will be since the Yotes Men are in the play-in game which may have depressed their full-tourney pass sales (I don't know that for a fact). I've attended all but one SLT since it has been held in Sioux Falls. The 2024 Tourney has great potential. Many have commented on the league parity, particularly on the Men's side. I've watched most of the teams and the quality spread from top to bottom is not as large as it has been in some years. I'll show up for the Friday play in games and stay in Sioux Falls (I live 90 minutes outside of Sioux Falls) for the entire tourney, irrespective of how the SDSU teams perform. I'm even looking forward to the USD v ORU play-in game -- should be entertaining and will be of great interest to Jacks fans because the winner plays the Jacks on Saturday. Good luck and safe travels!

USD, not SDSU, led the effort to get approval for multi-year contracts when the Coyotes wanted a longer commitment to offer to Bob Nielsen, current USD football coach. Personally, I think it was a good move and benefitted the schools and their coaches.

SDSU Athletics official site, gojacks.com, lists the game as a sellout. There are some tickets available on the SeatGeek reseller site...link: https://seatgeek.com/south-dakota-state-jackrabbits-football-tickets/ncaa-football/2023-09-30-2-pm/5953727 The Weather Channel at about 1:45 pm today (Friday) predicts 79 degrees at the 2:00 pm kickoff with the temp rising to 85 between 4 and 5 PM...mostly sunny skies for the afternoon; win ESE at 10-20 mph (which isn't a big problem because the stadium is oriented north to south and the stands will slow down some of that wind). Great day to enjoy a cold "Ears Up" or two (the official Jackrabbit beer...lots of other popular brands available too) during the game. Remember, to keep the beer lines moving at an acceptable speed, credit or debit card required to buy beer and you must have ID checked and obtain a wrist-band before buying beer (wrist-band stations easy to find). It should be a very competitive football game before 19,340+ fans in great weather. Travel safely to Brookings and back and enjoy the game.

I see one suggestion was drive to Watertown or Sioux Falls....I'm from Watertown and there are some games where we decide to avoid the post-game crowd and drive to Watertown (40 minutes) and hit BWW where there are usually other Jacks fans. In Brookings, I prefer Cubbys before and after games and any other time. Lots of TVs with all the games; good food; good beer selection; good service. Fans from everywhere and all ages are welcome, even the occasional Bison. Often there is a wait to get inside after a big game. Tailgating is allowed five hours before the game. There are designated tailgating areas although tailgating seems to have spread to any area you can park your vehicle. Here's a link to an article in the Brookings Register newspaper from 2022 ... it appears to be accurate for this season too. See the graphic on the left which shows the designated tailgating areas for visiting fans. Of course, that's not mandatory and is actually a great spot with lots of parking. The only "problem" is its a three-block walk to the stadium. If you want to walk around before the game, walk through the "Backyard" which is the tailgate area immediately north of the indoor track/practice facility which is immediately north of the stadium and the newly-named Steigelmeir Family Student Athlete Center (which abuts the north end of the stadium. If you're friendly, you'll probably drink free. https://brookingsregister.com/article/changes-made-to-sdsu-football-gameday-experience#:~:text=Tailgating and tickets Due to the demand of,hard-surface lot for %24650 for the entire season.

I've had four season tickets since 2010 and until the recent two or three years, it was a pretty safe bet you'd be able to buy a ticket on game day. That's not true today. I'm probably not a good source for commenting on people offering tickets for sale on game day because I'm in a parking lot on the west side of the stadium just a short walk into the gate, sitting on a chair, drinking a beer. But from that vantage point, I have not seen a ticket offered. It seems reasonable to assume someone is offering to sell tickets they cannot use but I can't guess the risk of a drive to Brookings only to find no tickets available. I don't know the exact procedure that is followed in the conference, but I think I understand the process generally. The home team has to make available to the visiting team a certain number of tickets (400 or so?). About five days to a week before gameday, the visiting team returns any unsold tickets and the home team then offers them for sale. I assume you've checked with your athletic office for tickets...if not, I'd do that first. The game will definitely be a sellout and with the attention the Jacks are getting from new fans etc., any Jacks fans with tickets they can't use will likely connect with other Jacks fans they know. Hope you can make it. Gamedays in Brookings are a lot of fun and the more the merrier.

LOL. If we can keep the attendance figures up, the discussion will be started about expansion (upper deck on east side...when the stadium was constructed (completed for the 2016 season), footings and related were put in the ground for relatively little additional cost and, in the long run if the decision is made to expand, that kind of preliminary work should result in considerable cost savings and speed of construction. The east concourse area will be considerably expanded to be similar to the west concourse.)

It appears the UND at SDSU game is sold out. I haven't heard or read an official statement on that but if one tries to purchase tickets from the official GoJacks.com site, the "none available" message pops up. The official stadium capacity is 19,340. I imagine all of the tickets allocated to UND have been purchased. We've had two games at the Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium this season: Opener against D2 Western Oregon was 16,258; and second home game was against Montana State, 19,332. Last weekend SDSU was considered the "home" team but we played Drake at Target Field before a crowd of 18,174. Looks like the home games against UND, UNI and NDSU are sold out (or extremely close to being sold out). The Jacks end their home games with Missouri State. Looking forward to a good fight in Brookings against the Hawks.

I don't know how often Heins was on the field but I think the games SDSU has had with NDSU of late have some element of a chess match. And, each team will have at least some unconventional play ready for the game (perhaps SDSU is more likely to spring a surprise on the Bison). Each time Heins was in, a defender was dedicated to lining up against him. I think they had to assume that he may take off running. Heins improved steadily through the season (recall Kraft went out early in the first game at Iowa and missed much of the season) and by the end of the season, he was a strong threat. We're expecting big things from Heins in 2023.

I've missed just one Summit League Tourney in Sioux Falls. When there, I attend every game although I may not stay for the entire game and I admit playing on my cell phone during some games. I've been to a Final Four (will go again) and while the Summit Tourney is certainly not a Final Four, it has that tourney atmosphere and overall is good, entertaining basketball. Suggestions: Pretty good beer selection...walk around the concourse to see which beer stands are selling craft beers etc. and check them all out because there are different beers to choose from at the various stands (there are good breweries in the Sioux Falls area and some will be selling their wares. One of my favorites is Fernson Brewing Co of Sioux Falls. Fernson produces the official SDSU "Ears Up" Beer which is a big seller at the Dana J Dykhouse Stadium and in Frost Arena.) Food variety in the Sanford Premier Center has been good in past years...you can find the usual sports-venue dogs and pizza but there are other selections not found in other stadiums. Everyone seems to be friendly, rivalries are recognized but the fans also seem to keep in mind it's just entertainment. In the early SLTs in Sioux Falls, part of the entertainment was watching a few of the coaches...there were some characters! Oakland U's coach Greg Kampe...he added to the show. I'm not sure if any of the current coaches are characters but perhaps someone will emerge.

I'm already missing football since the official end of the season at last weekend's SuperBowl. Although this thread has been quiet for several weeks, I thought I'd add a noteworthy point about SDSU's Zach Heins. Probably the best-kept secret at the title game in Frisco was Heins broke a bone in his foot the day before the game. Apparently he was cleared to dress and go to the line to block but he wasn't going to run down field for a pass. So, when SDSU had Kraft and Heins both in, NDSU had to defend against two great TE's -- I doubt anyone outside of SDSU's lockerroom knew Heins wasn't going catch a pass that day. If Heins had been capable of running down field, the Bison knew they couldn't just defend against Kraft. Moments after the game was concluded, Heins was sitting down, ankle and foot in a boot, and celebrating the national title. I'm pretty sure tight end is the position that has put more Jackrabbits on NFL rosters than any other position. [Overall, the Jacks haven't put THAT many guys in the NFL but of those who got a look from the NFL, I think tight end seems to be the spot that NFL scouts pay the most attention to the Jacks.] In ancient times, when I was a student at SDSU, I worked for the sports information director. Pro scouts contacted our office for information and I talked with several scouts about who they were looking at etc. One scout told me that SDSU tended to have tight ends who were more like pro tights ends. Stig's teams have always had good tight ends. In the recent years, Goedert, Kraft, and next year we'll hear a lot more about Heins...but you can search past SDSU rosters for lot of years and be reminded of some great SDSU tight ends. It's not always the position that gets a lot of attention.

Good question. I think SDSU fans have traveled well to the FBS games but we have not traveled as well to NDSU or UND. For games in Fargo, I think the difficulty in getting tickets is the primary reason otherwise there’d be a lot more SDSU fans in the Fargodome. I’ve been to three or four SDSU games in Fargo but was a challenge getting tickets (credit NDSU fans for so many sellouts). I gave serious consideration to driving up to Grand Forks for Saturday’s game but we had long-standing plans to visit family in Minneapolis where we’d watched the game on TV. My guess is that with a few more games between UND and SDSU interest will grow for traveling to the away games in both directions. Easy trip to Grand Forks but with essentially all games now available on TV, it’s easy to watch at home. Years ago a trip to UND almost always ended in an SDSU loss. SDSU is much more relevant now so maybe things will change. UND fans in Brookings are also pretty rare. I’d guess the explanation is probably the same.

I'm sure we can agree on many topics. For example, we should be able to agree that your refrigerator should work as intended and your beer is cold. .

I sometimes read a conference mate's fan message board for fan insight into opposing teams. I just read pages 19-22 of this thread, curious about whether there was any insight into anything the Coyotes did that contributed to the final outcome. Lots of frustration being expressed --- understandable in a losing effort. USD isn't an awful football team. I don't follow the 'Yotes closely but it sounds like they are not consistent. Translation: they can be a very dangerous opponent, particularly when they're sleeping in their own beds and walking to their own facility for a game. So it seems to me that UND's loss in Vermillion must be attributable in some degree to USD doing a fw things well. Did they? Any comments on what an opponent must do to stop the Coyotes? I was at the SIU v SDSU game. Your coaches studying film of the SIU v SDSU game will be reminded the SIU coaches are gamblers so you have to be ready for some unexpected plays (maybe lots of them). The SIU quarterback-- wearing #9 -- is short (5-9), but he's either fearless or was dropped on his head too many time as a kid. Probably fearless. He is a tough little s.o.b. He has reasonably good speed and if a play is breaking down, he'll get loose for a 5 to 8 yard gain. When #15 is lined up next to the QB, anything can happen...the ball may be hiked to 15 in the SIU wildcat version, or he may be there to block, take a handoff, or throw a pass. With 15 joining 9 in the backfield, you'll be tempted to wish you had 12 guys on the field. At times it appeared SIU's offensive ends had taken holding to a new level and not a single holding penalty was assessed (well, may have been one). I recognize every O-lineman has to know how and when to hold without getting caught. SDSU had their share of self-inflicted problems and did things (or were accused of doing something) which invited the stripes to throw yellow laundry at inopportune times. But in the end, SIU had something to do with outcome and a pretty good Jackrabbit team lost at home in overtime to a pretty good SIU team. For purely personal reasons, I'd like to see UND leave Carbondale on Saturday with a 'W" in the recordbook.

SDSU's stadium's capacity is 19,340. When it was designed and constructed, it was made in such a way (footings in the ground etc.) that a significant expansion would be relatively easy and less expensive than if the stadium was constructed for 19,340 without expansion in mind.