ShilohSioux

Is there any way to confirm the St. Cloud rumor? Ironic that a game with non-scholarship Drake would count for post-season but a game against a solid Div. II program with 30-something scholarships does not. Other than the post-season qualification issue, the St. Cloud game makes sense for all involved. Good crowd (SCSU will bring some fans), the Huskies are playing well lately so it's likely to be a competitive game, low payout on our part, the Huskies can bus here, coverage in the MSP media, etc...... If played on the open Sept. 1 date, this might be the first contest with the new mascot/nickname.

Yep. If the SCS rumor is true, 2012 will look like this: @ San Diego State (FBS) Central Arkansas (FCS) St. Cloud State (Div. II) plus 8 from these (four home, four away), including likely both Montana schools (one home, one away) -- all FCS: Montana Montana State Eastern Washington Idaho State Weber State Northern Colorado Southern Utah Northern Arizona Sacramento State UC Davis Cal Poly Portland State Would be better if we could keep the USD game instead of St. Cloud but still a pretty attractive schedule.

Yes, but students voted to tax themselves to save the program: http://andrewtmiller.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/st-cloud-students-vote-to-pay-up-save-football Also, the Northern Sun requires football so St. Cloud might have been booted from the league if they dropped the sport. Weber State and Northern Arizona have also recently flirted with the idea of dropping football but in Weber's case the alum stepped up and saved the program, and in both cases you'll note they play at least one "body-bag" game a year to help balance the budget.

Maybe it did and maybe it didn't. Montana only beat three lower level BCS teams by a combined 8 points, and lost to Weber and Poly. No guarantee they would have won against a FCS team.

Actually, the Griz's losses to Weber State and Cal Poly plus two or three point wins over three lower-level BSC teams had as much to do with it but I get your point....it can be a deal breaker if you're on the bubble. Still, seems like many FCS teams play one FBS team and one Division II team each year. Let's look at Montana and MSU, who we seem most aligned. MSU played Ft. Lewis this year, and Dixie State, Chadron State, Adams State, St. Mary's, Central Washington and Humboldt State this past decade(some more than once) while playing Colorado, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Washington State, Wyoming and Colorado State. One for show, and one for dough. UM has played Western State, Central Washington, Ft. Lewis, Western Washington, etc...as well as Iowa, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, and now Tennessee next year. Neither Montana schools seems hesitant about playing a D-II school.

Why is it ok for an FCS team like us to play "up" against an FBS team but not ok for a Div. II team to play "up" against an FCS team like us? Would this be a replacement for one of the NAIA or Div. II move-ups, or would this be a 12th game for us next year? I would especially be supportive if this replaces Montana Western. In 2012, that would fill our schedule -- San Diego State, Central Arkansas, St. Cloud plus eight Big Sky games.

Looks like the following BSC schools sponsor softball: Sacramento State, Portland State, Idaho State, Weber State, UNC, Southern Utah and UND, for a total new league of 7. Could also pick up Utah Valley for just this sport to make it an even 8. Wonder if Sac State will prefer to go the UC Davis/Cal Poly route and keep their other sports out West....maybe joining Big West for non-football...rather than venturing to Grand Forks, Greeley, Pocatello and Ogden? Things look much leaner when it comes to baseball -- Sacramento State, UNC, SUU and UND. Utah Valley also fields a team. Club sport everywhere else. Also, NDSU's is not much better (ok, just a little), even with a conference affiliation. Four three-game softball homestands against IUPUI, Oakland, SDSU and Centenary. 33 road games before they play at home, and 42 of their 54 games on the road. http://www.gobison.c...707&SPSID=12130 While future Sioux schedules will no doubt be better, I think our Feb-April climate will work against all of us Dakota schools in our new leagues.

The Big Sky does not sponsor softball (or baseball). Will the addition of UND and SUU give them enough teams to sponsor those two sports? Right now, teams like Sac State play ball-and-glove sports in other leagues.

But they also lost by 20 to Black Hills and Sioux Falls, and probably are a middle-of-the-pack team in the DAC. Just when I thought we were playing better (Wisconsin - Green Bay).

Does the Big Sky have a message board or forum?

Of course, a lot can change in a few years, but if the current financial model is still in place I don't perceive either Montana school moving up, nor the California schools. It takes an enormous amount of resources to add scholarships, additional sports, pay for more travel, etc.... and these schools don't have them. Furthermore, the two Montana schools have probably about tapped out on the number of potential fans, donors, etc.... In California, there's just not the interest there in these schools, with UC Davis the possible exception. Texas is a whole nother story. There's lots of enthusiasm, money and fan support at Texas State and UTSA with the potential for it to grow even more. I think the one person was right on -- UTSA will likely dominate the new WAC in a few short years and may be scooped up by Conference USA then. Another factor is the WAC itself. It is completely unattractive right now to anyone wanting to move up. Might not be the case in 2017, but right now it has leprosy. I see the all-sport membership in the BSC remaining stable for many years, with the possibility we could pick up Idaho, or even Utah State.

If we're going to resume the series -- in at least some form -- it would make sense to play the Bison in Grand Forks on years neither of the Montana schools will venture here. I can't see what difference it would make to SU as long as they got to host half the games.

I guess if we go without divisions, there will be years we won't play one of the Montana schools in football as we'll only be able to play 8 or 9 of the other 12 football schools. This could mean some years we play a road game in Montana but none of them at home. That will hurt attendance as I imagine those two teams will be our biggest league draws. Maybe we host NDSU those years? For other sports, we will likely play only some of the schools twice (unless everyone agrees to a 20 game, double round-robin schedule, which I doubt). We need to get Idaho and Utah State for non-football so we can go to two divisions, or hope one of the non-Montana schools finds another conference so we can have a ten-team conference. A 13 and 11 team conference is awkward.

I'd favor a 20 game league schedule where everyone plays everyone else, home and away, but I don't think you'll see that. They'll want to schedule more preseason nonleague games. Big Ten, Big 12 and others only play 18 and Pac 12 says they'll only play some teams once while others twice for a total of 18 starting next year. Too bad.....that's the only way you'll get a fair regular season champion.

How about in Grand Forks after UND wins the regular season?

We can't wait much longer before we'll need to start making the 2012-13 schedules, especially for football. The way I see it, we have two choice IF (big IF) we split into divisions: East/West and North South. I'm guessing we may not split except for football.....the old Big 12, new Big 10 and Pac-12, etc.... aren't splitting for non-football sports. They're playing an unbalanced schedule but one giant league standings -- yuck! Of course, this all changes if we can pick up Idaho and/or Utah State and San Jose State for non-football at least. East UND Montana Montana State Northern Colorado Idaho State Weber State West Cal Poly UC Davis Sac State Portland State Southern Utah Northern Arizona Eastern Washington ====================== North UND Montana Montana State Eastern Washington Portland State Idaho State Weber State South Northern Arizona Southern Utah Northern Colorado Sac State UC Davis Cal Poly

This would give Weber a huge advantage. What if the Sioux won the regular season and Weber finished second, but when the two played for the NCAA tournament there were 8,000 pro-Weber fans and 250 UND fans there for the game that matters most. I say let the regular season winner host -- at least the final two rounds. As for most conferences having a neutral site, that makes sense if you're the Big Ten, SEC, Pac-10, etc... when the regular season champ can be assured an at-large bid and high seed even if they stumble at the conference tournament. When only one berth is on the line, the one who guts it out in the regular season earns the right to host IMHO. P.S. Weber has the highest attendance now because they are successful. Both the Montana schools can pack them in when they're winning.

For a one-berth conference, I say give the regular season champ the home court advantage. Otherwise, the entire season is played just for seeding in the conference tournament. They should earn something, even an "unfair advantage." Also, I'm guessing attendance will be better this way.

Yes. No luck.

I've always assumed USD is "underfunded" compared to the other Dakota schools because of a smaller enrollment. Is that the reason? And why is USD so much smaller than SDSU? Odd for the state's "flagship" university...at least on the surface. NDSU – 11,733 undergraduates UND – 10,440 undergraduates SDSU – 10,794 undergraduates USD – 7,098 undergraduates

Thanks, Hansel. Exactly what I was looking for. I am a bit surprised at the high number in Cass County compared to elsewhere. With NSDU being the land grant institution for the state, I would have thought there was a higher percentage in the west side of the state than what is showing here. With the two universities comparable in size, it would be interesting to compare NDSU and UND county-by-county. Sioux fans, do we have something similar for UND?

Not sure if this is the right topic category (might better belong in "Community") but is there a list somewhere that shows distribution of UND and NDSU alums, by county, in North Dakota, and perhaps how UND alums are based out of state? It would be nice to know how we stack up on the west side of the state compared to NDSU, and how we are grouped in future BSC locales. Also, it might lay to rest the "Fargo is mostly a NDSU town" cry some like to make.

Montana isn't going anywhere -- their internal report clearly made the case that it would be financial suicide to move to FBS under the current system. And MSU is much worse off financially. Both are staying in the BSC for a long, long time. Actually, it's much more likely that the BSC will pick up Idaho and maybe even Utah State for non-football sports in the next five years.

No question, UND would be well placed to be in the MVFC, or if all four Dakota schools somehow finagled spots into the regular MVC. But look at the Summit then look at the Big Sky below. If you take out the three Dakota schools the Summit is deplorable, and the crowds at nearly all the other venues rival those at lower-level Big Sky arenas. Missouri Valley Football Conference Illinois State * Indiana State * Missouri State * North Dakota State Northern Iowa * Southern Illinois * South Dakota South Dakota State Western Illinois Youngstown State * Members of MVC too Missouri Valley Conference Bradley Creighton Drake Evansville Illinois State Indiana State Missouri State Northern Iowa Southern Illinois Wichita State Summit League Centenary Oakland Oral Roberts IUPU Fort Wayne IUPU Indianapolis North Dakota State South Dakota South Dakota State Southern Utah UMKC Western Illinois Big Sky Conference Cal Poly * Cal Davis * Eastern Washington Idaho State Montana Montana State North Dakota Northern Arizona Northern Colorado Portland State Sacramento State Southern Utah Weber State

Perhaps you're right for ONE SPORT (men's basketball), over ONE YEAR (2010-11), but historically the BSC has it all over the Summit and there are many other sports to consider, including women's volleyball and basketball.