UND-FB-FAN

To be the best, you have to beat the best. Let's not over-analyze this thing. UND needs to be willing to take on the entire field. Playoff hawks!

That's considered a forward "flip" pass so the refs called that play correctly.

I sure hope for this result. I am of the opinion that this will be a close game. If our crowd gets into it and helps out the defense, UND *could* run away with this one though. That is literally the "NDSU in the Fargodome" recipe for success. Don't believe me, ask our offensive players who played in last year's game vs NDSU. Here in Grand Forks, we need to replicate that kind of homefield advantage - its huge.

Small in numbers? God this is pathetic. Hopeful for an "election-like" surprise ....

Boooooo

Just a bunch of f*cking bull$%!#. That's all I have to contribute right now. Carry on. Go Hawks!

NDSU is UND's main rival. Simple as that. North Dakota's population is not required to support both schools equally. If NDSU athletics continues to expand without competition from UND athletics, NDSU athletics will continue to gain support while UND's athletic support remains stagnant.

Or we could beat NDSU in order to reach the dance ... and we would actually have a decent contingent to witness it in Sioux Falls ....

If this occurs on Saturday, UND will lose the game, potentially by a wide margin. UND needs to pressure and get to NAU's QB and UND needs to protect whoever is under center for them. This is absolutely a key to the game. Huge key.

North Dakota has only two division one schools; they are 70 miles apart and they first played each other in football in 1894. The two universities likely can succeed without being in the same conference (NDSU has proved they can, UND was still working on that; perhaps your stance is based on wanting to prove UND can do this?); however, it seems beyond logical that these two schools be in the same conference.

The powers of the Big Sky Conference have been accused of being anti-UND; obviously they approved admission back in 2010, but they sort of belittle UND at times from what others say. For years people have spent quite a bit of time complaining about how Montana and Montana State belittled UND. Furthermore, schools like Sacramento State were huge opponents of UNDs when it came to travel and distance issues. UND is still the new guy in the conference and the Big Sky Conference powers could easily disregard UND in certain scenarios as well.

Mussman and his staff made those statement when UND first joined the Big Sky Conference. Those players that he recruited from those "non-traditional" regions were largely unsuccessful here at UND. Bubba and his staff recruit a MVFC blueprint, which is essentially the traditional regions of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and even Manitoba. Bubba and his staff support a MVFC move for this reason, among several others.

Your "big picture" is actually quite small. You're bitter at NDSU and bored of the NCC model, despite the logic and practicality of it.

Your negative bias against NDSU appears to be clouding your judgement, in my opinion. The BSC may be somewhat comparable to the MVFC in terms of strength of teams, but there's no way the BSC is the superior conference. Furthermore, for UND, the MVFC and Summit is a superior fit based on both accessibility and regional fit. I dont understand this statement of yours: "It's not a huge drop off competetively, but it is definitely a down grade in competition ... "

That was versus Weber State. Of course many are confused because they didn't show up versus Weber State to see for themselves.

Complaining about officiating is the norm at every level of football in reality. But the Big Sky Conference crews have really been quite special from the games I've witnessed.

I understand what you're saying, but you can't blame the university for emphasizing the region where the school is actually located, can you? The I-29 connect between UND, NDSU, SDSU, and USD for conference games brings back the good ol' days and I'm all for it.

Wow, that's quite the stretch. Good for you to be able to come to that conclusion ... I didn't realize how many UND fans and alumni had quietly become Big Sky Conference employees or promotional agents over the past 5 years. I understand sticking up for UND's current conference, but this level of blind support is borderline illogical.

Scheduling is strange within the Big Sky Conference. Also, the BSC officiating crews are awful. Just two quick reasons that the BSC is less than ideal in my opinion. The MVFC is a superior conference for UND.

These aren't concerns. UND largely recruits midwest kids that are familiar with the MVFC and are supportive of it (hard not to be considering the quality of teams in that conference). As for sitting out a year of football, that is asinine thinking. UND is not sitting out a year of football -- EVER! Just not going to happen in ANY scenario. UND will also always remain eligible for the postseason. This isn't a reclassification process like UND went through from DII to DI; it's merely switching conferences.

This scenario would be tremendous. I sure hope it comes to fruition.

Couldn't agree more. It really is a bad setup. I just hope Faison bids high so UND at least has a shot at a home game if they don't receive a top 8 seed -- you have to give UND football a chance at least.

If we end up with less than 9,000, I will be very disappointed in our fans. In other words, I expect to be disappointed.

Not a good comparison for UND and its current conference situation. A&M certainly has done well with the move (although they haven't won the SEC in football or basketball), but it helps that the University of Texas hasn't been winning multiple conference titles in the Big 12 during that time, also. As a result, A&M gets its due recognition within the state. There would be a different perception if UT, Texas Tech, Baylor, etc. were doing great things within the Big 12, but they aren't. NDSU and SDSU have done big things in the MVFC and Summit, however. Also, UND has had limited success in the Big Sky Conference save for this year's football season (which is great, by the way). The SEC is also widely recognized as being superior to the Big 12 in football; that is not necessarily the case when comparing the Big Sky Conference to the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

The paradoxical component to everyone's gripes about the MVFC/Summit is that the very reason we are joining the league - to play local schools - is the exact reason why UND fans are bitter about the MVFC/Summit (i.e., it's easy and popular to just hate anything associated with NDSU). If UND joined the MVFC and Summit rather than the Big Sky Conference in 2010, we would all be arguing for the strength of the MVFC right alongside NDSU people. I strongly dislike NDSU athletics, but even so, I can't ignore the fact that the MVFC and Summit leagues make way more sense for UND. Heck, Grand Forks and North Dakota are anything but big sky locations. A "valley" conference is more fitting!