Oskie

We did tweet after the Orender situation that we had heard through the grapevine that UND was possibly getting an FBS transfer. We were waiting for actual confirmation though and are glad it came out so soon. This kid looks good. We will dig on it today and hopefully have something up later.

Yes we are. We actually are working on post right now that deals with the scouts. We will try and give our best guess about who could contribute right away, etc.

What I am sensing is that they are starting in the midwest, like usual, but have a much better chance at kids now that the transition is over-so they are covering a wider swath locally early on in the process. They can then fill in some gaps come January with skill kids from out west or down south. We should still see a couple Cali kids along with a AZ kid or two at signing day.

We did hear last year after recruiting was over that they never did offer Dunne, which is why he didn't end up playing FB anywhere. They offered Sparks instead.

Nice find, 92,96! We have been following him but never thought he would commit this soon. Good get for the Sioux!

Good catch. Now that the unscheduled date is the last week of the year it makes me wonder if UND will pull a Cal-Poly (Wisconsin) and schedule their FBS game that last week. That would give them 12 games total, 7 home games, and an FBS game. Doesn't get much better than that.

Excellent post Bin. That 2013 home schedule is right now, on paper, the best home schedule that any 4 of the Dakota teams has put together and it isn't even close. 3 of the teams are from neighboring states/playoff contenders and one is the 2010 National Champion. I am skeptical that the Montana game is still on because of the league mandated 2012-2014 games but I have read on here where Sean Johnson said they are so lets go with it. My question: I can guarantee UND wants to keep the bye week on October 26, the middle of October is a perfect time for one. Do the Sioux need to play an FBS game on Sept 21st if they already have 7 home games and the gate that will come from them? Debatable. One team we did hear about was New Mexico State. Don't know if it was for 2013 but that would be an alright team to play because they are a lower end FBS team and the Sioux shouldn't get beat up playing them. Which leads me to a new point. UND needs to start scheduling winnable FBS games (MAC or run-first teams). It is quite apparent that was Gene Taylor's model in scheduling if you look at the records of the teams they have played and it has worked (if UND could only know which ones are going to fire their coaches the year before too like Gene ) . SDSU has had a fairly tough FBS schedule as it turned out mainly due to Neb. For UND, the combined records of the 3 FBS teams they have played is 26-14 and 2 of the 3 won their bowl game. Wyoming will be a nice fit if UND can improve.

2010 in the MVFC: Southern Illinois played Quincy (NAIA) Illinois State played Central Missouri (D2) Indiana State played St Josephs (D2) That may change this year but it shows they do it too.

I understand the dislike for seeing a D2 team on the schedule, don't get me wrong. I would love to see an all FCS schedule too. The only reason I can come up with is finances. If more people show up, better teams will come. As we have all seen, the price for bringing teams into Grand Forks/Fargo has practically doubled in the last 5 years and that is a real problem. Lets hope attendance/wins are up this year so the AD can feel like he can afford to schedule better FCS teams.

Regarding the 2012 schedule, here is our take: 1. If you think it is a joke to schedule a D2 team as one of your non-conference home games then you better let Montana and Montana State know also because they have made a habit of it. 2. It is our first year of eligibility and frankly there is no guarantee how attendance is going to be. How can the AD drop 150k on an east coast doormat if he doesn't know how many people will show? 3. Our other non-conference home game is against a perennial Southland power in Central Arkansas. That is an excellent home game. 4. We have San Diego State, who has turned it around and was in a Bowl this year, as our FBS game. Once again, not some 1-11 doormat FBS team. 5. That leaves 4 Big Sky home games. All of which are going to be tough for our program at this point. (we have heard that Montana State is one of them and based on how the Great West schedule will be this year and how UND is going to UNC this year, we are also guessing that Davis and UNC will be at home--don't know about the 4th game though, could be SUU). Complete guess but we will see. 6. Honestly, do you think the coaching staff really wants Central Arkansas, 4 Big Sky teams, and another good FCS team as their home slate. Every team in the country tries to play one dog. In some cases they get two (wink wink). These are our thoughts on the schedule.