SooToo

Everyone lookng for a quarterback change apparently will get their wish. Sioux Football Insider is reporting Landry's out for the year with an ACL injury. Could be a looong season.

Wow. Wasted 5 minutes of my life reading this tripe while trying to get to some valid arguments about -- what was it again? Oh yes., Mussman's future. Is there any reason these posts haven't been deleted and the poster banned, just to save us the agony? Trolling. Adding absoutely nothing. A perfect example of the brand of moron that makes the Big Sky look so good to so many here.

Per the pre-game entry in Sioux Football Insider, UND was expecting to host "15 or 20" potential recruits for the game. <Cringe>

Well thanks for tidying up the place, in a smacky, smart-assed kind of way. Right in character with most of your recent "contributions." But I always enjoy the guessing game around UND's homecoming announcement. With no real knowledge beyond your own, here's my uneducated guess: a $300 million campus-wide campaign including moneys alluded to earlier for the business school and just enough from a single donor -- maybe Sanford, which seems anxious to ingratiate itself to the entire RRV -- to put the campaign for the new indoor training facility over the top.

Amen. I believe the large majority of UND alums sees the situation as you do and has lost interest in continuing this endless debate.

Couldn't resist the temptation for some comparison ... UND vs NDSU: -- Approximately 100% more ticket revenue -- 30% more contributions -- 50% more sports camp revenue -- 10% less direct institutional support -- 25% larger total revenues -- 500% larger "ending balance" vs SDSU? More than double the contributions and 60% greater revenues.

Excellent, spot-on summary of this mess. NDSU and Fargo boosters would like noting better than to paper this over, exploit any local benefits and move on like nothing ever happened. Who knows, they may get their wish.

Blogger Fritz Jarrett (related to Red?) posted that both UND and NDSU have offered OL Connor McGovern from Fargo's Shanley High School. It sounds as though he is among the top if not THE top North Dakota prospect for next year.

Excellent summary of a sad situation.

Yah, well I wouldn't start feeling so high and mighty. Everyone knows (at least on some message boards) the only reason NDSU suffers in this audit report is because of the vast UND conspiracy out there to smear NDSU. The problem is that no matter where you look in this state -- law, government, medicine, education -- there seems to be some damned UND grad in charge of things, twisting the "truth" to make NDSU look bad. Robert Peterson, North Dakota State Auditor BS, University of North Dakota, 1974.

.... about 10 million bucks. End of story. Honestly, when will SU supporters give up the comical gyrations attempting to explain "what Sanford has proposed for NDSU" and "the new direction they are going to take." This isn't about some grand alliance Sanford Health is proposing; this is about money to rebuild the BSA. Nothing more. Gene Taylor has been begging potential corporate donors -- someone, anyone -- to provide the bucks for this project and he stumbled on a winner when Denny Sanford, the credit card millionaire, came to town and gobbled up Meritcare. Good for Gene, and good for NDSU. It takes cash to get facilities projects completed, and this avenue is a ton better than Plan A, which was to soak taxpayers for half the cost of a basketball palace. The SU-Sanford dealings are common knowledge. Innovis neither could nor would plunk down a $10 million donation. Taylor, to his credit, informed Innovis the AC would end the relationship no later than 2014. And Innovis decided it didn't want to play the patsy -- and continue to pay the price -- until Sanford/SU pulled the rug. Want to know the details of the "new direction?" Check whatever arrangement Sanford has with USD and you probably have your answer. <Yawn.>

Looking forward to whatever develops with potential transfers. Traditionally, that hasn't been a very productive avenue but Mussman, in the Herald story after the spring game, sounded as positive as I've heard him when he talked about having scholarships available for transfers that "land on our doorstep." A guy like Ty Kildow(sp?), the '09 prospect who passed on a UND scholly to walk on at Nebraska, sure would be a nice summertime addition.

Agreed, although I'm a little concerned with the (lack of) size a FB. It was nice to see Daggett, a big target at 6'4", show up a bit but neither the passing nor the receiving looked very promising today. Overall, I left asking myself "was Bamba's attitude really all that bad?"

Thanks to Dr. Hanson for adding to the entertainment value of this debacle. They should be lighting the torches and rummaging for pitchforks about now over at Bisonville.

Really? I'm not sure how your math works there, buddy, but if you prefer staring down at the tops of helmets and don't get altitude sickness in the Fargodome rafters good for you. I've been to many games/events at both places (less so at the Fargdome the last six years) and they're both very good facilities for football. The Fargodome has nothing on the Alerus except for end zone seating, and the Alerus has better lighting and concourse areas. And then there's beer! Always get a kick out of SU fans who rag on the Alerus as a Quonset or "tin can" -- even though half of them probably have never seen a game there. Hopeless homers.

It was interesting to watch Binns on the sideline last year; almost always standing alone, seldom talking with other players. Obviously, "bonding" didn't go too well. Weren't there about 16 announced scholarship signees in 2009? (Or maybe that was before the Florida DB's signed.) Are we nearing a 25% attrition rate for that class already?

On this I would agree; Putting aside the nice coverage maps produced previously by Hammersmith, it's been apparent on several occasions that in areas of both ND and MN, KFGO's night-time reception is poorer than WDAY's. As Bin said, maybe we'll end up with more sports broadcast on a Fargo radio station with a greater reach. On the down side, KFGO's (and KFYR's) rating are head and shoulders above DAY's. You can bet RFM will give over some of its day-time programming hours to fawning over Gene Taylor and the AC coaches for a statewide audience. I read in today's Forum that, after bailing out of the broadcast contract with UND on two-hour's notice, Joel Heitkamp thought KFGO's relationship with UND ended "very positive." Given that display of honesty, I think I'll look elsewhere for news coverage of the NDSU audits or the looming arrests of Bison football players.

"A little discouraged?" Come on. Giving your long-time broadcast partner two hours notice that you're bailing on your 3-year contract just one year after you happily signed it is utterly classless. Undoubtedly, part of the NDSU agenda was to hurt UND's broadcast options in Fargo-Moorhead but I would hope Joel Heitkamp is embarassed by how this went down. He ought to be a little nervous, too; obviously a contract with Jim Ingstad isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Agreed. It's amazing how little understanding there is over there regarding the governance relationship between higher ed institutions in ND and the SBoHE.

Let's follow the news on audit reports for a coupla months and we'll get back to you.

Hey! I'm with you on this one. Unique, lots of maketing angles. Go Fish!

Google "BisonSports.Net" and enjoy a sampling.

...and you'll either pay a $100,000 guarantee for a one-game contract with a team from nowhere (while generating perhaps 5,000 additional paid customers) or you'll spend nearly as much in travel fulfilling your half of a home and home. Honestly, is this a difficult concept to grasp?

I guess you've got that right. But, hey, if you're satisfied with Taylor's current 25% success rate (20% when a sixth home game fails to materialize for '10) then good for you. And kudos to Gene for his ability to hook a few live ones in Fargo. Buy outs, programs folding or schools othewise refusing a return game (don't think Montana State was ever on your schedule) have had nothing to do with failure to schedule a sixth home game for NDSU. It's damn tough to find quality opponents for a single road game, and when you do, the pay out for a subpar team squashes your home payday. With the skyrocketing cost of travel, its ridiculous that the Dakota schools do not play each other on a regular basis, especially now that everyone's back in the same division. If you're anxious to continue trying to bring in subpar teams for a big pay-out then good luck to you. But don't try to sell this as a move that makes the most money for NDSU. He may be crazy, but Lakes Bison has it right; the goal from the beginning was to try to establish the AC as THE football school in North Dakota. Avoiding, delaying and, if necessary, limiting games with UND is part of Taylor's strategy. Little or nothing to do with economics. Oh, and PM me when NDSU is a big draw in the Big Ten.

Again, when does NDSU get six home games? Just once in the last five years, and then with Central Conneticut and Austin Peay. Don't think that argument holds much water. I've never checked the math, but I've also never understood the argument that NDSU would be better off with six home games (again, assuming you could get them) than regular home-and-home v UND. Assuming you get an OOC opponent that can draw 18,000 and assuming the average ticket (factoring in students) is what, $10, that grosses 180,000. You pay out $100,000 to the visitors and net $80,000. Playing home and home, you get the entire gross -- and a guaranteed great crowd -- and when you travel you pay for busfare. Doesn't seem like rocket science.