Hansel

Historically the Big Sky had Nevado, Idaho, Boise, Utah State etc but has replaced them with Portland St, Sac St, UNC, EWU, SUU, and UND. With the current/future makeup of the conferences the Summit will be as good/slightly better than the BSC in the major sports

when was the last time the Big Sky had two bids?

UND has a current RPI of 322 (out of 345 teams) and had a final RPI of 339 last year. Sac State is 1-8 (RPI 342), UND's other DI win was over E. Mich (0-8, RPI 340), while they may improve- It is safe to say that UND would be one of the worst teams in the league. In 2009 Port St beat Mont St in front of 1500 fans in the Big Sky final when the host Weber lost in the semis. If the reg season champ does not make the final the conference tourney is a bust. If UND were to make the Conference tourney play in round as a 3-6 seed and win- how many fans would be able to make it to a conference tourney in Bozeman/Sacramento/Flagstaff/Ogden etc with only 3-5 days notice?

Currently the Summit is 24th in RPI, and the Big Sky is 26th, In Sagarin the Summit is 17th with the Big Sky 23rd. The conferences have had pretty similar ratings over the last few years, however the Summit is ditching it worst two teams and adding USD, while the Big Sky is adding what will be two of its worst teams. The "new Summit" (minus Cent, SUU, +USD) would currently be ranked 16th in RPI, the "new Big Sky" (+ SUU, UND) would currently be ranked 27th in RPI. Playing the conference tourney in Sioux Falls every year is also nice.

Pretty sure Purdue is the Land Grant of Indiana, and U. Florida is the Land Grant of Florida. Just because a school has "state" after its name doesn't mean it is the State's land grant university (ex FSU, Idaho State, Missouri St etc )

Their mascot/logo has a sweet mustache

and UND doesn't crack the top 5 in the Dakotas according to Massey

WIU is a football school, why would they leave the MVFC for the OVC (which has not had a playoff win in a long time)

USD's schedule might look similar. With Fullerton grabbing every remaining schollie FCS school in the west for the Big Sky, it will be interesting to see what Big Sky teams do for non-conf schedules. If the Big Sky stays at 8 league games- it wouldn't be surprising to see BSC teams play each other as a non-conf game in years in which they are not scheduled to play.

I'll take APP,SFA, Delaware, SeMO, Wofford, Bill and Mary and UNH. I generally do not make predictions on NDSU games..... but since I live in Bozeman I do predict that I will be drinking on Saturday

Doesn't UNH play at BC?

FCS attendance yesterday UNI - 5990 WIU - 4556 Ga Southern - 10214 NDSU - 12202 http://www.bisonville.com/forum/showpost.php?p=435497&postcount=51

That is false- the point system was changed before NDSU's first season as a DI school

Then I am sure he will drop the every year requirement with now that UND has 8 BSC games a year and it will be game on

Faison is the one who wants the game bad, beggars can't be choosers

with the expansion to 20- no worthy teams were left out this year. Montana's best win was Sac St, SUU was 6-5 (4-3 against scholly FCS), Cal Poly only had 6 DI wins. None of the last teams had great years themselves (presumably Robert Morris, Coastal Car, NDSU, SC State) - that being said- I will take the playoff game ;

If UND would agree to an every other year deal- the game would happen in 2012.

Slightly off topic- but why was that thread locked immediately after your post?

500 tickets were bought to give away to NDSU students

Up until this year Indiana State has been a doormat and the Big Sky has Idaho State and Northern Colorado- who have both been bad for some time

One of Poly's win was a 6 pt W over DII Humboldt State, so they only have 6 DI wins. 6DI wins = no playoffs also while ODU is 8-3 this is only their second year of football, so their schedule was a mixed bag.

I estimate 12-15k at the game, could be more if not for that darn Harry Potter

The Montana announcers are homers (I heard them too), I just don't think they can fathom that the griz could actually miss the playoffs NDSU screwed the pooch today but may squeek in

Montana is 7-4 with a DII win and did not play an FBS. Their best win was at home against Sac St... if they get in it is all about the money as a 6-4 record against FCS competition isn't that great. This year is proof that the expansion to 20 teams was a bad idea as the committee will be scraping the barrel for the last couple of teams.