goyotes

Have tried to remove the second half of that game from my memory. Damn, that was painful. But on the positive side, it forced the Yotes to upgrade the coaching staff. I would love to eventually see the Sioux in the same conferences for all sports at the Yotes, but in the interim hope they can continue to play each other on a regular basis in all sports.

Just trying to help.

NDSU scheduled to play Robert Morris on Sept 1, same date the Sioux play the Hardrockers. Bison and Robert Morris both have open dates on Sept 22. Perhaps Robert Morris would be willing to move the game against the Bison to Sept 22 freeing up the Sept 1 date for the Bison and Sioux. Problem solved. Rivalry renewed.

With regards to the earlier comment regarding USD's attendance, I believe 2 factors explain the low number. (1) Have only had 2 home conference games so far and they were both over Christmas break & (2) This might be the poorest team the Yotes have put on the court in several years -

It certainly appears that teams from the south like to agree to home & home contracts with them hosting the first game and then buyout the 2nd game. The Yotes played at Lamar in 2010 & they were supposed to give us a return game this year, but instead wrote us a check for a rumored $200,000 to $250,000. I hope the Sioux had the same dollar range on the Central Arkansas buyout. The buyout money is nice, but it is difficult to find a good replacement game - I think we ended up replacing Lamar with Missouri S&T this year. Would have been nice to get them Lamar in the dome this year (especially after the egg we layed down there last year) Moral of the story - if setting up a home and home with a team from the south, try to get the first game at home & if not, push for a $250,000 plus buyout.

Yotes have 5 home games next year (4 in the MVFC - NDSU, UNI, Illinois State & Western Illinois plus out of conference home game against Colgate) and 4 road games in the MVFC plus at Northwestern, so the Yotes do have an open date and with 5 FCS home games I would sure be in favor of a 2 year home & home with UND with 2012 in Grand Forks. If it doesn't happen does kind of seem right for last game in the long standing series to be for a share of the Great West title.

I believe this was the final game of 2011 for the Sioux Falls team

Student attendance is a problem at pretty much all colleges - no matter the level of play. South Dakota tried the free tuition drawing at the end of the 3rd quarter for a couple of years and it kept a few more students in the bleachers, but resulted in a stampede to the exits as soon as the drawing was done. I think bribing students to stay at the game probably does more harm than good as it cheapens the product. In my opinion, you need to do all you can to turn the game into an event. Always more fun to attend a game when the venue is filled to capacity and the crowd is fully engaged. Putting a winning team on the field helps. Playing rivalry games helps, especially rivals with fans who travel well. You also need to incorporate other traditions that keep the students and all fans around such as "jump dance" at Wisconsin between the 3rd & 4th quarters or the "Interlude dance" at UNI basketball games.

Enough said

The Sioux should crush the Yellow Jackets. They were a bad NAIA team and are will need huge improvments to be a competitive D2 team. May be even more of a mismatch than my Yotes going against the Badgers.

Actually will be a Dakota doubleheader on BTN on Saturday with the Yotes - Badger game preceding the Bison - Gophers. If you can't decide who to cheer for in the second game, at least support the Yotes in the first game as we will need all the help we can get. The Badgers have looked impressive so far and have a history of taking care of business when playing teams they should dominate (one exception being the Cal Poly game a couple of years ago). Hopefully we escape without any major injuries and the Camp Randall pregame experience provides enough liquid sedative for the Yote fans making the trip.

The original Dome in the Dakotas is definitely showing its age, but unlike the Alerus it is owned by USD. This eliminates the need for an indoor practice and/or indoor track facility. Also, unlike the Alerus, it has some expansion capability. Current plans are to build a basketball/volleyball arena that will seat approx 6,000 and will be attached to the Dome, with athletic offices, etc in the space between the two facilities. Once the arena is complete, the Dome will be remodeled and additional seating added to bring the capacity upto 16,000. All the permanent seats were replaced this summer with new red chair back seats. New turf is also planned as part of the remodeling, but could be put in as soon as 2012. In summary, I would rather own and control the facility then have to lease it from someone else.

I have seen similar comments about lack of student attendance on the USD board. Have also seen similar comments on both SDSU & NDSU boards. Somehow, need to make the games an event that students want to attend. Student fees already pay for the tickets, so not like it is any additional money out of pocket to attend the games. Likely, too many other entertainment options for the students.

Agreed

I don't have the first hand knowledge that many of the posters on the board have and a lot of my knowledge is based on what I have read on your message board, but it certainly appears that UND President Kelley has some credibility issues. UND had 3 years to reach agreement with the 2 tribes in ND, 3 years. Still only one of the 2 tribes addressed the issue. I am not sure if Kelley was president during this whole 3 year period, but there is absolutely no reason, even with tribal politics, this wasn't resolved. Then the whole Tom Douple/Summit speaking out against the nickname rumors. Now the Fullerton/Big Sky rumors. Hopefully, he has shown better leadership in the non-athletic departments at UND. The future of any uniiversity requires strong leadership. Likewise, poor leadership can damage an university, and not just athletics, so bad, it takes years to recover. USD's current president, James Abbott, has done a remarkable job rebuilding USD after his predecessor, Betty Turner Asher almost ruined the University. Hopefully, for UND's sake, Kelley is not another Betty Turner Asher.

Damn boys, I guess we just need to admit it - USD & UND are forever relegated to being a tier below our esteemed counterparts in Brookings and Fargo, after all they were the first to make the jump to D1. Thankfully they didn't get a patent or copyright on how to make the transition, or we would have been forced to blaze our own trail. About the only thing we haven't copied from the Jacks and Bisoni is our message boards. For some reason, we have limited most of the posts on our boards to relevant information and avoided all the rhetoric and other BS that seem to populate Bisonville and SDSUFANS (assuming they eventually get their board operational again) boards.

I think the trophy was quietly moved back to Verm after last years football game.

A good start would be to put a beatdown on Sioux Falls College this year. I am long past tired of hearing the Sioux Falls faithful bring that game up again and again. If they were to win again this year, it would be unbearable. PS Since it looks like this might be the last year we play in football for at least the near term future, lets play for the Sitting Bull trophy again.

Please

My wish list regarding continuing the USD-UND series 1) Continue playing the game annually on a home & home basis 2) If you can figure out a way to keep the Sioux name, also reinstate the Sitting Bull trophy (the trophy has a great tradition & was the topic of an article in Sports Illustrated several years ago). If done the right way, the game could serve as a way for both Universities to continue reaching out to Native American population.

Play the scheduled game in Grand Forks for the final Great West Conference championship. Play a second game in Vermillion as the first reinstatement game for the trophy - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1089193/index.htm

At this time, the Yotes only have 3 home games on the schedule for next year - Lamar, Davis & Southern Utah and 6 road games - Sioux, Poly, Illinois State, Western Illinois, Wisconsin (they are not the Gophs) and Air Force (better on the ground than in the air). They are trying to fill 2 remaining home dates - hopefully the Eastern Illinois rumor mentioned earlier comes to fruition. Has been some talk of either Sioux Falls or Augie for the remaiing home date. My guess is that the final year before starting conference play is probably the most difficult to fill a home schedule. Hard to make a home and home arrangements as not as many open dates in 2012. A good site for FCS 2011 schedules is ChampionshipSubdivision.com - http://www.championshipsubdivision.com/fcs-schedules/2011-fcs-football-schedules/.

Great news for the Sioux and Big Sky. Hopefully this weekend is the start of a good rivalry between the Sioux and Griz. Also is good news for FCS football in general. Hopefully Villanova & Ap State also decide to commit to the FCS level. Still believe some of the lower level FBS teams would be better served by moving their football to FCS. It would allow them to better compete and would improve the image of FCS as the best alternative for most non BCS teams. PS - Must have been the good experience Engstrom received during his tenure at USD that gave him the wisdom to make this decision.

Hopefully the Yotes - Sioux games will continue. What better authority to consult for questions regarding then Yotes-Sioux than Red Green and his advice is to remember "we're all in this together". And some additional advice from Red, obviously just for the Sioux "keep your stick on the ice."

The comments from the 2 Yankton P&D writers (Justin Rust and Jeremy Hoeck) that cover the Yotes on today's live chat both seem sure the Yotes are heading to the Big Sky. http://www.yankton.net/live_chat/