UND-FB-FAN

Correct, see my post as per above. Kennedy was on the right track, but UND fans have been conditioned over the years to think inequality towards the minority sport of hockey is somehow the best path moving forward. Plot twist: it’s not. UND hockey is overinflated and overfunded. UND could do so much more with the 52% of ticket revenue that goes to the REA (and hockey essentially). Basically, UND made a deal with the devil to allow a hockey mogul from Vegas indirectly run their athletic department. How in the hell is that a good idea? It definitely isn’t a good idea for football or basketball. There’s also major bias at play in the community and on this forum, as the remaining UND fans are largely hockey fans. NDSU is/has pulled in the other casual football/basketball fans, unfortunately, of the region. A lot of UND fans from the 2000s have been converted.

There’s no question coaching salaries needs to improve. But, just as important, the coaches need to be held to a higher standard. Bubba has basically earned a lifetime contract for being at 0.500 football coach at UND. Those expectations of mediocrity hurt UND football and recruiting. As mentioned before, Bubba is a great guy, but I’m excited to see what Danny Freund can do when he gets the keys. It will be important that Danny (or whoever the next head coach is) has a better coaching salary pool to hire and *keep* the staff intact. That helps recruiting, as @nodak651 mentions here.

Back to 2023 recruiting. Transfer situation has been less than ideal Need to embrace NIL and get things up and running. Will need to have ongoing conversations to get this going, but it’s doable.

Alright, as I said earlier, you really shouldn’t be labeled a UND supporter. Anyways, your comments, and my hopeless replies, have now completely led astray this recruiting thread. As I said before, I’m done responding to you hopelessly. THE APOCRYPHAL TWAIN: “NEVER ARGUE WITH STUPID PEOPLE. THEY WILL DRAG YOU DOWN TO THEIR LEVEL AND BEAT YOU WITH EXPERIENCE.”

That’s the point of my statement (difficult to connect with anyone at UND...). Thanks for clarifying though.

See above post. Thanks (but no thanks) for your concern. Safe bet I should save my time and bypass asking you for contribution.

Correct, it’s the current environment, and we have to adapt. We as supporters play a major role in how active NIL will be (or not be) for UND. Since it may be difficult to connect with anyone directly at UND to get an initiative started, may have to work with business leaders directly and start a group via SS.com.

Wow, you have a nice way about you. Thank God you don’t represent nor work with UND CC or AA&F, or else my concerns would triple in magnitude.

More like, me: REA has funds that could help out football. You: LOUD NOISES The support given via summer school compared to direct support for hockey is apples to oranges, but you can think whatever you’d like to personally rationalize the inequality and senselessness propagated by the REA deal.

That’s not actually a fact (*see below), but my postings also aren’t intended to do anything major, or be instantly productive. They sure have stirred up your psyche, however. *fact noun ˈfakt Synonyms of fact 1 a: something that has actual existence space exploration is now a fact b: an actual occurrence prove the fact of damage 2 : a piece of information presented as having objective reality These are the hard facts of the case. 3 : the quality of being actual : ACTUALITY a question of fact hinges on evidence

These opinions are neat, but it’s not all about you. And your opinions above certainly do not apply to all UND athletics attendees. It’s about the the collective group of supporters, fans, alumni, and donors, and what they all think. It’s not about majority opinion, either, because when it comes to attendance, everyone’s preferences matter.

Okay hot shot, back off, you have no idea. Voicing my concerns about UND athletics leadership / philosophy AND supporting / contributing to UND football are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I am principled in that fidelity. Although, I doubt you are able to comprehend that at this point.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/college/grand-forks-centrals-erick-paye-commits-to-und-football-after-playing-the-sport-for-one-year?fbclid=IwAR0gGL5tWQP1Vm-tCSUixq4o3PjhniW-kKRlzwRpzI0jFIhEL4UHYM8_zjU_aem_ARGTcYnc2eOOtIYU9uUbdx0iGFGxt5I7F6iMS_3CVswv9ZmOrIcuyDKUXv2Rr7aHc2A “Paye also had an offer from Minnesota State-Moorhead. North Dakota State wanted Paye to come to camp Saturday. ‘There's no point in going, because I'm committed,’ Paye said.” ^If this doesn’t bring a smile, then I don’t know if you can call yourself a UND fan. Awesome stuff. Jake Schauer doing great work at GFC, by the way. Did great things at Thompson and Park River before.

Paye committed. Good news, has the tools, just raw.

You’re right, let’s just keep it at that [not]. I’m sure summer school for football players will attract a bunch of recruits and transfer targets. The FACTS are UND has missed on too many recruiting targets, they have not beat NDSU since 2003, and the REA has excess funds that they pointlessly recycle into their facility for the benefit of, and solely of, UND hockey. But, again, for the 1000th time in the past few days, funding is only a piece of the puzzle. Need better marketing and prioritization. Does UND *actually* want to win a FCS title or not?? If so, then up the game across the board, including holding the coaches to a higher standard, terminate if not getting it done, and hire elsewhere. Most importantly, as this thread alludes to, is to improve recruiting.

I think GF has several such businesses, and I know our fan/alumni base has enough leaders to spearhead this thing. Although keeping coaches and university out of it would be nice, that’s impossible considering how intimately everything is connected at UND. At a minimum, the coaching staff will need to be privy to the deals available. If this recruiting season has demonstrating anything, though, it’s that UND needs to up its recruiting game, and NIL deals are naturally the next direction to turn to. Where are we with setting this up? I - amongst others - have potential $ to provide to this. Get dollars *legally* into the potential recruits and transfer targets’ hands so we can get some big name commits.

Oh I’m well aware, I contributed to that. I was responding to someone else @Sioux>Bison stating you can’t get anything done on a forum. So, again, don’t @ me.

The current philosophy (same one that lives rent free in your head) of UND, propagated by the administration and the deals made with folks such as those in Vegas, is what limits football and basketball as much as the underlying funding. The efforts towards marketing and improving football and basketball have been subpar during the DI era from the get-go.

Yeah, that’s an unfair characterization and you know it (or maybe you don’t) Game was on 1/17/2012, on a Tuesday, and still brought in 7000+. Not played on a Friday or Saturday night and bars/suites weren’t open that night. So, if you don’t think a fully operated and staffed REA for basketball opponents like NDSU, SDSU, Minnesota, etc. would sell out, then you’re missing the point. Plus, again, if the basketball team were to be playing there full time, they would have better players, better setup for basketball, etc. again, this is not the subject of this thread, so don’t want to go down this path too hard, but just wanted to point out some gaps in your response

Agreed I’m sure the REA has all kinds of funds that could be adapted to NIL for football student-athletes, but we know those funds are locked up tight just for ice skaters. Shame, shame, shame … anyways, UND football needs support given the contemporary dynamics of recruiting. Need more funds for NIL, need donors/alumni to step up and get NIL deals funded for the coaching staff to move UND football forward.

I would propose you can accomplish both, as I stated. Hurt ndsu and sdsu, help garner und support.

Thought experiment… if UND hockey played in the Betty (adapted of course), and UND basketball played in the Ralph, what would the sell-out dynamics be? Would be very interesting, but given the suites and bars, and other amenities, it is fair to think could still sell out the Ralph whether it’s hockey, basketball or anything else. of course, also to consider, if UND basketball was recruiting athletes to play in the Ralph and train in those facilities, UND’s caliber of basketball recruits would be on a whole different level; they wouldn’t be bottom feeders in the Summit, that’s for sure. overall, the culture of Grand Forks and UND with hockey makes this hard to fathom, but it’s just to get some folks thinking outside of the box But again, this just goes to show it all comes down to which program you want to support the most, and what is the philosophy. Do you want one program head and shoulders above the rest, or several really good programs equating to a good overall department? No one wants to degrade hockey, just elevate the others, and perhaps reallocating 10-20% from hockey would do little to no harm to an already overinflated hockey program the way it is

Ouch. No NIL deals to sway any potential transfer I see …

Correct, which is why you folks need to stop choosing favorites on here. The great leader of the deaf on here @The Sicatoka has stated he does not think UND football would gain much by winning an FCS title … would be just like the rest, he states … unreal the potential set backs to ndsu and sdsu as well as the wake up call to the dormant und football fans of the region would make it beyond worth it

Major bias at play here, which you conveniently tried to skip over. From a cost and quality standpoint, the REA is a far superior venue - and thus easier to sell out - when compared to all other venues UND competes in (Alerus Center, Betty. Etc).