jdub27

The timing? The press conference was held February 10. The basketball teams were still in season. It was one game for football and one (maybe two) for volleyball 6+ months before their seasons started. Before you start tossing around that the timing was the "real kicker", tell me how many times in the last decade NDSU has had a completed schedules before that date in those sports? Yet somehow that weak excuse is the only thing that any FargoU fans have actually come up with to "prove" that UND did "everything in their power" to torpedo NDSU's D-1 move. I don't know what RT did or didn't tell GT beforehand but his feelings got hurt and until his last day on campus he couldn't get over it even though there wasn't a single person left on UND's side he could blame it on. Upon further review, it looks like NDSU released their football schedule sometime around March 24, so it took all of 6 weeks to find that one more game.

Spin it whatever way it makes you feel better but there is absolutely zero surprise to anyone who pays attention that GT would purposely negotiate in bad faith and make offers he had zero intention of honoring. Maybe it's something leaking out of the horse barns into the FargoU water supply the prevents anything different?

If that is true (and I have heard this same thing from other people associated with FargoU), offering things you have zero intention of honoring seems like an incredibly unprofessional and bush league way to negotiate, but that all become abundantly clear that was standard operating procedure as the goal posts continued to move. No real surprise that GT would do something like that though I suppose.

Hanging around, just out of reach. Couple dumb/questionable calls away from the ball haven't helped. Tough with the two go to scorers out.

Did you take into account Blais being mad about the size of the playing field?

Sure UND could have prevented it from ending when it did (omitting that at the time that playing FCS teams actually hurt D-II schools, win or lose, though it was changed very shortly thereafter). But do you honestly think that NDSU would have kept up the series once it no longer benefitted them because playing UND as a D-II or transition wouldn't have counted in their win total? Not a chance. He did, multiple times. Then head football coach laid out the reasons why he felt it was important to do, regardless of the terms. Apparently it was a persuasive argument.

Wasn't it all the rage before the game to claim that UND was going to get behind and then start playing chippy and dirty? Weird (and unfortunate for UND) how that played out.

Yes, but when it happens it is usually a regular season basketball game instead of lacrosse.

My original point is trying to prove something by comparing numbers that came from different nights, channels, timeslots and against competition is pointless, especially when they are 5 months apart. The reason I brought up the 751K is to show that just by switching these variables less than a week apart, the Richmond/NDSU game had 55% less viewers in a semi-final game than the previous week in a quarterfinal game.

The NDSU/Richmond game drew 751K viewers. Any more arguments on how channel, timeslot and competition actually have more of an effect than what the event itself is, making comparing completely different events pointless? Just for reference, the D3 national championship game drew 510K viewers with a similar time frame (started 1 hour earlier) but broadcasted on ESPNU.

He sure made a lot of points/opinions that weren't relative or relevant to wishing Kelley well in retirement.

From "Unsung Hero" to AFCA First Team All-American

Wayne Nelson isn't a beat writer. There wasn't enough bowl eligible teams. UND absolutely would have loved the opportunity to keep playing football. Kind of sounds like you're really reaching. Or maybe he dug through Forum Communication's archives and found some of the bowl game crap that came out of Fargo when the writers down there were beating the drum from NDSU to get invited to a bowl game during their transition.

The same argument can be made for any nickname, including UND's former one, yet there are people that can't seem to let that go.

This. Not sure how you can proclaim "respect and honor" in one breath and buy that crap in another.

I didn't mean directly at you for that part, just part of the overall message because there are those that are operating that way. I do agree with you, I'm not a huge fan of that shirt either, but it is exactly the same as some of the Fighting Sioux ones I've seen before with precisely one word changed. I actually wouldn't be surprised if it actually was the same design as some previously printed stuff. In their defense, there really isn't a whole lot to work with right now with no logo but it would be a terrible business decision to not at least have something out to sell now that a new name has been chosen.

Store. It was from a licensed vendor, however I believe this shirt was more or less something that was done so they could have some merchandise with the new nickname. Price was right on it. That was definitely the logic that some people would have you believe. I mean people literally compared it to the death of a loved one among some other analogies that I'm not going to bother repeating. I never it said it was an easy transition, I personally have an unhealthy amount of the things in my house with the Brien logo (and older ones) proudly displayed. However pretending the new nickname and logo doesn't exist isn't going to change the reality of the situation.

Don't feel bad, I bought a shirt from a different vendor already. Oddly enough, the world didn't end when I put it on.

Agree with your first point. As to your second point, you can only have some many irons in the fire if you want to fix or accomplish things correctly. Not going to get into the firing the coaches part of the equation (there are other places for that) but a lot has been accomplished over the past handful of years (transition, nickname, Big Sky, IPF, NCHC, new football coach, etc, etc) and during that time, UND made it to the conference semis and conference finals their first two years of being eligible before seeing a significant drop-off the third year (last year). I am confident the proper attention is being paid to the situation at this time. My opinion is that right or wrong, the results were good enough to not warrant immediate attention over some of the other issues but that is no longer the case. You could probably look at NDSU's women's basketball program, which has fallen much further than UND's MBB team, especially considering where they once were, and ask how or why did the AD let things fall as far as they did.

Taubenheim had offseason surgery this past summer which why his power was down this year. His freshman year, 15 of his 50 kicks were touchbacks. I think it will be less of an issue once he gets his leg strength back to where it was.

I'll echo I love the attitude the football staff has about the situation and made the best of it by embracing the new name. It's almost as if they are a little relieved now that other teams can't throw around rumors about conference affiliations and sanctions, regardless of how far out there and unbelievable those rumors may have been.

I'm surprised, you'd think that they would have been glued to their TV last Saturday and noticed he wasn't playing. I guess in their defense, it has only been 2 months since he's taken a snap, easy to miss that.

So less than half 2 of the 3 years, proving that timeslot, channel and what is on other channels makes a significant difference. I'm still not sure how comparing events in different time slots, 5 months apart, makes any sort of a point? The numbers are what they are, but you're trying way to hard to prove a point that no one is arguing. The NCAA hockey tournament sells out every year in advance and is full regardless of who plays. Can the same be said about the FCS championship game? Both are second tier sports (by a huge margin). Thank you for providing information showing that neither FCS or D-1 hockey are even on the fringe of where FBS football and NCAA basketball are.

I'm as curious as everyone else but is anyone even sure that the data exists? Or was everyone put into one big list and the individual links were sent out, making sure everything stayed anonymous?

Just want to add a little context to your post. The NCAA hockey finals were broadcast Saturday night in primetime against Nascar (Fox - 4.65 million), Boxing(NBC - 2.62 million) and CSI/Criminal Mind (CBS - 4.62/3.88 million), 20/20/In An Instant (2.48/2.89 million) not to mention was on Masters weekend. NDSU's game was broadcast at 11:00 a.m on a Saturday morning/afternoon and went against Power Rangers Dino (Nick - 1.3 million), Big Easy Reno (HGTV - 1.1 million), Valerie's Home Cooking (Food - 1.0 million). On the Big 4, it went against Ohio State/UConn (CBS), UFC Road to the Octagon/Shark Shootout (Fox), EPL Soccer (NBC) and no clue what ABC showed at noon but World of X Games was at 1pm. The highest rated of those was Ohio State/UConn with something like a 0.9 share but no viewership numbers were listed. My whole point is that using TV numbers is pointless, especially when you try to compare two different timeslots, 5 months apart from each other. If NDSU would have played the Friday night game on ESPN2, I feel confident guess the rating would have been at least half of what it was. How about we look at attendance of either some of the regional hockey games or at the attendance at the majority of the FCS playoff games. There are a few places that have very good attendance and then there is the majority which are basically a laughingstock for both sports. FCS football and D-1 hockey reside in the second tier, light years behind NCAA basketball and P5 football. There is nothing wrong with that, it is just the reality of the situation.