Hansel

It would take a win over an FBS or an FCS playoff team before I would consider UND to have arrived. Over its last 11 games, UND has 1 win over a DI school that offers athletic aid, and that school was playing its first year of football in 20 years. When UND starts consistently winning big games, then Bohl would have reason to be concerned.

I would take a win over 3-9 Minnesota rather than a close loss to what will probably by ~8-6 type Fresno team. But then, I am not into moral victories

There is a big difference between a close win and a close loss.

That's big news... hopefully Faison signs Muss to a long-term extension

Cal Poly finished that season 4-7. UND's last big win was when they were DII

Georgia Southern was booked this year but backed out, and Montana and Montana State are coming to the dome soon. Taylor was thinking about scheduling an NAIA school, but Faison has been snatching up all the local NAIA teams with mutliple year deals

Just like the non-natives did not cling to the Sioux nickname?

Star will explain shortly how this incident carried out by a Williston man is somehow Joe Chapman's fault, and how UND joining the Big Sky will nullify problems in Western North Dakota.

If the meetings were "open", the NCAA would probably not participate.

12 teams for football (two 6 team divisions, 8 game conference schedule) and 10 teams for other sports (round robin/double round robin schedules) is a much easier scheduling model for the Big Sky than 13/11 with one team in Grand Forks, I wouldn't want to give the Big Sky an excuse to make their life easier. Hopefully the idiots who got UND into this mess (Carlson et al) had a contingency plan in case it blew up in their face (like what is happening now), but I am guessing they didn't.

Somehow this is Douple's fault

The MBB wins over Wisconsin and Marquette, and the WBB win over Minnesota were all in 06.

They are probably hoping (some) fans don't know SDSM&T is NAIA transitioning to DII. Playing SDSM&T (or Montana Tech by NDSU recently) sounds a lot better to the average (non-message board) fan than playing Mayville or VCSU.

They do it is as well, but not to the same extent as the Big Sky, (and won't play any sub DI in 2011). Also, the 9 current BSC teams have played 49 games against scholly FCS teams over the last 5 years. 44 of those games have been against current GWFC teams (4 of which the BSC is absorbing, and USD who will have many fewer OOC oppurtunities as a MVFC member). Unless BSC teams start playing each other as non-conf games, BSC non-conf schedules will be mostly FBS and sub-DI.

most Big Sky Schools play up or down in OOC due to the lack of regional FCS schools. All BSC teams other than Portland State and Weber played "down" last year, however those two schools played two FBS games. With the BSC gobbling up all the potential FCS OOC opponents in its region, I would expect to that trend continue. CAA and SoCon schools often play all DI schedules, because they are surrounded by DI teams. In addition, no MVFC team is scheduled to play "down" next year.

SLC would be the best option, probably within 500 miles of most Big Sky teams, a direct flight for the rest (except UND - who could fly through Fargo).

SOS, if you look at the teams with 300+ RPI there are a lot of Great West, SWAC, and MEAC schools. Those conferences have by far the worst RPIs, so even if you are winning games in those leagues, you are not going to help yourself out much.

Weird they are going after "nonpublic" insitutions as well- that will never fly. I just skimmed it but it looks like booze might be ok in areas not accessible to minors (ex 21+ tailgating lots, sectioned off bars etc?)

In DI basketball whenever someone is giving any scholarship money it counts as a full scholarship against the team. So unless UND is being cheap, he is probably getting all or nothing.

I beleive Montana State made it as an at-large with a 7-4 record a few years back with a DII loss. They did beat Colorado that year though.

NDSU won their NCAA regional in 2009 and finished in the final top 25 and also made the NCAA tourney last year. NDSU does play softball games in the FargoDome- so they could probably do it at the Alerus unless the roof is too low.

here is a pretty nice one for NDSU http://www.ndsualumnicenter.com/alumniassociation/maps/national/webmap.htm

Centenary is essentially a DIII team this year (their last year in the league) and is huge anchor on the ratings, just by dropping them the Summit moves ahead of the Big Sky in women's RPI

One could make a case for the either MVFC/Summit or Big Sky being a better option (and with Faison's scheduling prowess- being a FB independent was not an option). However some fans seem to think that the Big Sky is a multiple bid league in all sports with sold out arenas- which is is simply not the case. Big Sky is much better WBB conference The "New Summit" has would be the 19th rated conference.... with the "new Big Sky" being ranked 20th. I couldn't find the actual RPI values posted for VB but the individual rankings for the schools are as follows- you might be able to give a slight edge to the Big Sky... but not by much. NDSU 85 IPFW 114 SDSU 178 Oakland 182 ORU 210 USD 219 IUPUI 261 UMKC 277 WIU 306 UNC 81 UND 92 PSU 126 Idaho St 158 Sac St 193 SUU 198 Montana 203 NAU 217 EWU 251 MSU 275 Weber 290

Answer- Never, just found a nice site http://www.bbstate.com/conferences/BIGSKY Summit Conf NCAA history All time record: 8-26 (.235) last at large 1991- N. Illinois last win 2005- Oakland Big Sky NCAA history All time record: 11-45 (.196) last at large- Never last win 2006- Montana