jdub27

Drop it on this one. The last person losing any credibility in the locker room on their decision is Holm. He's made a ton of sacrifices for the team and he's lost over a full season of games to injury in his career. And comparing it to Wanzek's situation is straight garbage. They are in no way comparable. Not going to blame a kid if he wants to be healthy and play a full year to finish his career instead of half of a season, delaying his his life after football for a year. Also not going to blame him if he gives it a go against huge odds and ends his career by playing a fifth game. It will be his call. Having him back in the secondary would be pretty damn nice next year, he'll be all conference if he comes back.

Considering Skokna was coming of a major knee injury, I think you should rethink it.

Bracket is set. Bids are open. Highest bid hosts. Nothing more, nothing less. Nicholls managed to outbid us. Nothing can be done at this point. All luck of the draw on who you get matched up against. UND bid well above the minimum. The staff was confident there were only a one or two teams that would exceed UND's bid. Turned out to be wrong, but again, it's done. Nicholls will be taking a bath to hopefully what amounts to buying a home loss.

100% this. The only at large there was concern about was UNI. No clue what Nichols did or how they backed it. What's done is done. Let's go down to Louisiana, take care of business and see what happens from there...

Are you sure about that? They had 3,000 attendance for their home playoff game last year and that wasn't even Thanksgiving weekend. They only had an announced attendance of 7,000 last week against UNI and half of that being there is probably generous. Also possible they may have also been assuming a seed and not put in much more than the minimum, especially considering they would be in the hook for the difference and a minimum bid keeps you at home when you are a higher seed. UNI would be the team that we may get matched against that would have outbid us.

A bid was made and it was over the minimum. At that point, whether it is enough are not all depends strictly on what the team opposite of you bid.

So UND was 6-5 last year and #38 in the SRS and was still one of the first three out, despite having no representation in the room. UND will get a fair shake on Sunday if they take care of business on Saturday.

Not that it matters, but at this point in the season, why would a team like NDSU ever bid over the minimum (assuming their current position in the polls for the year)? As long as they bid the minimum and meet the qualifications, they are going to get their home game if they are the higher seeded team. Probably semantics and they aren't leaving money on the table but would seem to be a waste if you feel like you are guaranteed a seed. If you are on the seeded team bubble, then I could see why you might want to go above the minimum in case you match up against another unseeded team.

Bennett, Turner and McKinney all expected to play in some fashion. Gee will be out.

Not sure what is going on but he played in the season opener against Texas and then announced he was transferring. Not sure how the NCAA will handle that. I would imagine he ends up at UND.

Over the last 2 years, he's averaged 2 attempts per game and hit at a 36% clip. I think that is a decent rate for a big guy and the proper amount of shots to stretch the defense out a little bit. 7 in a game is too many though.

As stated, they aren't released until the end of the season but below is the criteria that goes into it. Some notes: -Losing road games is not as bad as losing home games, counting as -0.75 instead of -1.25. Making it through the year with no home losses would be a positive for UND along with picking up a road win in Cal Poly. -Margin of victory is factored in, however it is capped at 21. -SOS will play a part. Both Massey and Sagarin have UND's SOS ranked fairly high (#7 and #9) respectively. Probably a fair guess that SRS would show something similar.

Memphis told them to pound sand and played the kid anyway based on an injunction. What a disaster.

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He preemptively applied for, but was denied a medical redshirt for his sophomore year, as he has also been injured this year. The NCAA won't retroactively apply the 4 game rule to before it was in place but he can still use it this year. Holm has 3 games left to play this season and still return next year. My guess is he plays this week against Weber and then plans to sit out UNC. He'd then be sitting with 2 games in hand with 1 to go and have a good idea where UND sits in the playoff picture. It will be interesting to watch how they manage it because I believe he is planning to come back but there is no guarantee on how many games UND has left this season.

I'd agree, but there aren't enough inter-conference games or even games overall to have a true computer ratings system like hockey. And as previously stated, the "not having anyone in their corner" thing is overblown. This year, both the Southland and Big Sky have motivation to support UND as a quality team to help their own conference. And UND didn't have anyone in the room for them last year, yet somehow managed to be in the "First 4 out". Even the biggest UND homer wouldn't have given them that benefit of the doubt. I don't think anyone thought they were even under consideration, let along that close to getting in at 6-5 with some bad losses and an end of season melt-down.

As if there was a doubt what narrative was being pushed down in Fargo. And the questioning of Weber having a better resume than SDSU because of who they lost to while ignoring who they have beaten is just piling on. The best win for Illinois State and SDSU at this point is SIU, who is a fringe bubble team at this point in the season and will likely be in the conversation at 7-5 strictly because they are in the MVFC and I guess they beat UMass, who is a bottom 3 FBS team at best and per Massey and Sagarin, would barely crack the top 100 in FCS.

Your post was a dig at Jones with no information and unnecessary. As I stated, I have personally seen similar "program update" newsletters written by Jones. And of all people to get worked up about "information" being required to make commentary As for the rest: Set down the bottle and keep your half-truths and conspiracies about conference realignment in the proper place. The only thing plausible connection that has to this thread is your insistence that UND would never join the Summit despite being told it was already a done deal.

I didn't personally get it either as I believe it went out to program alumni, which it appears is what Sather sent out as well based on the first line, however I did see various copies over the years. It possibly only annually at best and it appears Sather is shooting for monthly, kudos to him on that. The more Sather can do to connect with the program alumni and fans, the better. Jones had been here long enough that people had their minds made up on him regardless of what he did, good bad or indifferent. He's moved on and there is a new regime in charge.

I'm pretty sure Jones used to write a similar update that went out.

Couldn't even cover the 11 or 12 point spread.

It would only matter if one of those teams also was only playing 11 games this season. Not sure on the breakdown of how many FCS schools played 11 vs. 12 this year to see who else might have been an option. I was against it before the season and still wish they could have found something for 9/21 but I don't think an extra "easy" win makes a huge difference. The bye last week is going to be huge for the home stretch, a lot of dinged up guys at thin positions that can heal up. Still convinced UND is in at 7-4 assuming the other loss would be Weber and its respectable.

I actually agree with that part or at least a conversation about it, don't think they make the cut though. However I very much disagree that UND would be one of the last one or two in at 7-4, particularly with how high MSU continues to be ranked. I don't think a win or loss to Weber should cause that big of a variance.

He also has MSU at #13 and but then made the comment that "UND needs a good win". Not sure how that doesn't qualify. Also, per the "Bison Media Zone computations" (whatever those are), UND would be threatening to get a seed if they knock off Weber and would be the last one or two in the field if they lose.