fightingsioux4life

And if I was to sit down and talk with these people, what kind of response would I get? I think I can guess: -We don't have the resources to do this/that/whatever. -It isn't "feasible" to do this/that/whatever. -The student-athletes are doing good in the classroom and/or community, so it isn't a big deal. -Bubba is "one of us", so we don't think a change is warranted at this time. Anyone else who wants to add to this list, please feel free. No one is questioning that you want us to be successful. Everyone here (except the Bison trolls) wants that. But too many people like @jdub27 will just accept any explanation they get from the higher-ups at UND and conclude that nothing can be done about what is wrong. And the problem since the day we moved up to Division I is that we didn't have a plan on how to raise the money necessary to put winning teams on the court/field. That is why our coaches are underpaid, our facilities (except for HPC Phase I) are still Division II and our teams are mediocre or worse across the board. And we have been Division I for 10 freaking years now! If the only reason we moved up is NDSU moved up, then it was a big and costly mistake. The Alumni Association has posted record fundraising numbers, yet athletics doesn't seem to get one red cent of it. It seems to me that the Alumni Association has decided to focus almost exclusively on academics and research because athletics is "fine the way it is because of Men's Hockey and REA". Well, I think we are capable of being more than "Rutgers with hockey". I think we need to come up with outside-the-box ideas when it comes to fundraising and revenue streams. The "time honored" tradition of season tickets, Champions Club and 50/50 raffles is not enough at the Division I level. We aren't playing the likes of Augustana, UM-Crookston and Winona St. anymore. But all of this will require a President that cares enough about athletics to come up with a functional plan and the resolve to carry it out. And that person hasn't been selected yet. So until that happens, we are kind of twisting in the wind right now.

This is a dangerous point for UND athletics as a whole. The conditions are ripe for apathy to set in. The opposite of love is NOT hate, it's apathy. Once that sets in, it is very hard to dislodge. Chaves has his work cut out for him.

Ask him yourself: william.chaves@UND.edu And here is the UND Alumni Association and Foundation "Contact Us" page where you can submit a comment on why with historic fundraising numbers, athletics continues to operate with a bargain-basement, shoestring budget. I have a very hard time believing that our alumni don't care about athletics and aren't interested in donating to upgrade our facilities and overall budget. Good academics/research and good athletics are not mutually exclusive. In short, we are rapidly becoming Rutgers with hockey. I think we are capable of much, much more as an athletic department and as a university.

Don't start with the politics again. Please.

No kidding.

Martyr complex? All I am doing is pointing out that we have been Division I for 10 years (give or take a year) and with the exception of HPC Phase I, we have the same facilities we had as a Division II school. Just pointing that out rubs some people the wrong way.

Opps, you are correct. It is a Division III school from Wisconsin. My bad. But it is still a waste of time. We should go on the road any play Division I teams instead.

So how did NDSU get THREE Division I teams to come to Fargo? The geography doesn't help them anymore than it helps us. I would rather go on the road and play a big name Division I team for the exposure and the experience our team would get from such a trip. Whenever I post the AD's e-mail address on this forum, I get called out for being "inappropriate". And if you don't like my comments, then don't read them. I think Chaves has the potential to be a great athletic director; I liked his MBB hire a lot. But if we don't get HPC Phase II funded and some other things (FB locker room for example), it won't matter who the AD is or who the head coach of a particular program is, we will continue being stuck in the mud around here. If you think everything is "fine the way it is", that is your opinion and you are entitled to it. But I happen to think things are not fine. After 10 years as a Division I school, we still lag behind in facilities and resources. That is a problem. And it is one the next UND President will have to address, among other things on campus.

What a classic movie from the 1980's that was!

A highly regarded prospect vanishes from the UND Women's Basketball program? You don't say.

Sounds like the same old slop.

This is the attitude that is holding our entire athletic program back. Just accept mediocrity and shut up about it. Well, I will not do that. And the more of us that refuse to accept mediocrity, the better. That is what will help get the administration to stop running athletics like a high school.

Well, since the Fargo "Metro" is now on par with Minneapolis, they can do whatever they want, right? (sarcasm) Seriously though, the scheduling has to improve. Northland Community College has no business being on our schedule. And I would say that even if we were still D-II. But of course, it's all about keeping more of the gate. So we just keep doing what we do. Because it's "all about the relationships" and "all about teaching life lessons".

You don't know what you are talking about.....just sayin'.....

Why do you even care about what we think? Or our program in general?

The entire Athletic Department has been run like a high school for way too long. All that is missing is having baked goods available for purchase at the door.

I am not sure what we have with this team yet. I do think Saturday's win is something you can build off of, but we still have a long ways to go.

I am not a fan of this smaller O-Line. I just don't know if they can sustain the run enough.

For once I agree with you. This is the type of win that you can build your program on. Learning how to win a close game like this is crucial to building a perennial championship contending program.

But according to some people on Bisonville and even here, they are already an FBS program who happens to play down a level. And their QBs are better than nearly all FBS QBs. I have said this before and I will say it again: Playing one FBS money game early in the season is not the equivalent of playing a full FBS schedule week after week. They could win the Sun Belt on a regular basis, but that only gets you a mid-level Bowl game at best. And if they started playing SEC, ACC and Big 10 teams on a regular basis, they would quickly find out how different that world is from the one they are in right now.

NDSU may not "falter" as much as other programs will rise up to challenge them. SDSU should have beaten the Gophers (too many turnovers did them in) and will be a top contender this year. James Madison, same thing. If we would get our $#%& together, we could join them. That should be our focus. Eventually, you will have a formal split between the G5 and P5 conferences and then you will have more evenly matched teams in each division. But again, that is the future. Right now, I don't care what anybody else is doing, I care about what we are doing to be a better Division I school across the board (not just FB).

Shouldn't we focus on getting our program in order first? Otherwise, we may as well call it the Bison Football Trophy. This isn't freaking high school.

And that is the PG-13 version. I have seen far worse on social media and on other discussion forums.

While I agree with having a great fan experience at home games, the bolded part is a troubling mentality. Winning does matter when it comes to putting butts into seats. We should strive to both put a winning, championship-contending team on the field AND provide our fans with the best possible in-game experience. Both of them need work right now.

I can see Sam Houston covering, but not winning.