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fightingsioux4life

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Everything posted by fightingsioux4life

  1. The situation with Bobby Stroup is an interesting one. Lennon says he is "borderline", which means he is close to coming back but might not be back for Saturday. So this begs the question: With Saturday's game being as big as it is, do you play Stroup with the chance he could hurt himself all over again and be out for the year or do you rest him and take your chances with your other linebackers? My answer is that you should rest him. As big as the Omaha game is, it isn't the last game of the year. We could lose and still be in the hunt for a good playoff seed. We have a bye next week, then we are off to Duluth for another tough conference road game. Then it's back to Grand Forks for a tilt with St. Cloud, who is down this year but always gives us a battle. Then we close the regular season at South Dakota in what looks to be a high scoring game in the Dakotadome. If you give Stroup another two weeks of rest, there's a good chance he will be back at full strength (or close to it) for the Duluth game. If you play him and he gets hurt again, you may never get him back this season. And if we don't have Stroup for the stretch drive, I think our NCAA title hopes are sunk. What does everyone else think?
  2. There really is no excuse for the Alerus Center not to be sold out for this game. The top regional ranking is on the line. Playoff positioning is on the line. The NCC Championship is probably on the line as well. I don't care if it's the hunting opener or if it's on TV..... GET YOUR BUTTS TO THE ALERUS CENTER AND CHEER AS LOUD AS YOU CAN!!! Thank you.
  3. I for one am glad that our team has a tough schedule. You get better by playing better teams. You get complacent by playing creampuffs week after week. The Lakers had better hope they don't get knocked off (by Saginaw Valley State for example) or they will take a hit in the rankings because their conference is so soft. Conference games are dangerous because conference teams know your systems and your players better than non-conference opponents. Look at what happened to Southern California vs. Stanford this past Saturday (at home, no less ). UND has a game like that on their schedule in a couple of weeks (St. Cloud State). Bottom line: A lot of things could happen between now and playoff time. I am just happy that our team is in good shape in the region and controls its own destiny.
  4. I will be there on Satuday and then back to Grand Forks Sunday for hockey vs. Manitoba. A full weekend of Sioux sports!
  5. I will be traveling to the football game in Mankato on Saturday, but will be driving back to Grand Forks early Sunday morning. I might be able to make some sort of tailgating function, if someone is willing to set it up.
  6. Alex: And the question is, "What is a one-word description of the BCS?"
  7. No problem, always happy to help!
  8. I think you had better watch it with the threats and/or implication of threats against other posters. I don't think Mr. Dahl is going to tolerate that. I certainly wouldn't. I agree with you, that we should treat people with respect if we want to get the same treatment in return. But I don't agree with making it personal like you are doing right now. Just let it go, for Pete's Sake. You can disagree with people without making threatening comments. I can get a little hot under the collar myself, but I don't resort to stuff like this. Now, can we get back to the thread topic please? GO SIOUX!!!
  9. By saying this, are you are suggesting that home field advantage for the playoffs doesn't really matter? Because a big part of home field advantage is the atmosphere the fans give the home team; ask UC-Davis if you don't believe me. Otherwise, it's a neutral site game (which is what REA is sometimes, but that is another topic). If we neutralize the student section effect, home field becomes less of an advantage. And in the playoffs, you need every advantage you can get.
  10. Moving up to D-I FBS is something that Phil Harmeson has mentioned several times and I believe he is still pushing for it behind the scenes. I am totally opposed to this for several reasons: 1) I want nothing to do with the Bull Crap Series: Anyone who thinks we will ever get in anything other than a lower-level, meaningless bowl game is kidding themselves. The cigar-smoking, whiskey-drinking power brokers that control D-I FBS football will never give our program the benefit of the doubt when it comes to bowl bids, whether or not we deserve it. Some BCS-ites think that a team going 6-6 and squeezing into a lower-level bowl game (the Rodents every year) is a great accomplishment. I don't. 2) We can win on a regular basis at the D-I FCS level: We have the facilities, the tradition, the coaching staff and the players to win at the FCS level now. Just wait until we get our scholoarships up to the FCS level and add a new practice facility to boot. We'll contend for national championships on a regular basis, just like we do now at the D-II level. That will never happen at the FBS level. I believe that one of the reasons we are moving up is because of the benefits to football. If we move up to the FBS level, a lot of those benefits will vanish. 3) Playing outside again would kill attendance: Remember what it was like in the 1990's when our program was starting to take off on a national level? Our home game attendance (minus the Bison games) would plunge along with the temperatures in October and November. We would get 2 to 3,000 for home playoff games! Moving into the Alerus Center in 2001 helped us get more season ticket holders who no longer had to worry about the cold and snow of late season games. This has helped make the atmosphere at home games something other teams don't like to deal with. The playoff games in 2001 are a great example of this. If we had been outside during that championship season, attendance would have been probably half of what it was since a good chunk of our fans won't show up if the temperature is below 40F. Moving back to Memorial Stadium (which needs a lot of work if we did it) would set back all the progress we've made in the past 6 years. Bottom line: A move to FBS football would be a disaster for our program. We would have a better chance to become the next University of Buffalo Bulls than we would the next Boise State Broncos. I also believe the reasons I laid out above apply to NDSU as well.
  11. I am a bit concerned about this weekend for the following reasons: 1. We weren't tested in our first game. Sure it was great to get the backups some quality playing time and Freund showed he can lead the offense, but the game was out of reach by the end of the first quarter. This weekend will be much, much different. 2. Rust is another concern. Lennon mentioned on Wednesday about "losing it" in practice on Wednesday and "saying some things I probably shouldn't have", which suggests that the players might have some bye week rust and might not be prepared for a long road trip like this, which is a bad sign for a team going on the road for the first time with a young defense and quarterback. 3. SUU looks like a team that is finally learning how to win games and is probably tired of losing after a 3-8 season in 2006. And they will have the home field advantage and the experience of having to deal with the heat and elevation on a regular basis. This game has a lot of potential pitfalls and forks in the road that we will have to navigate if we are going to win. Having said all of that, I think UND has a better team on paper, more and better athletes and the depth to handle the long road trip, the heat and the elevation. So much has been written about our defense being young and inexperienced that I think SUU might take them lightly. And no matter how "salty" the Thunderhawk's defense was against Montana last week, it won't be enough to shut down all of our weapons. If we don't turn the ball over and our young defense plays with energy and passion, I think we walk out of this weekend with a win. SUU will test us, but we will pass the test: PREDICTION: UND 35 SUU 24 And I wouldn't put much stock in Ryan Bakken picking us to lose, he does that all the time. If Bakken was psychic and therefore right all the time, our football program would be .500 at best every season!
  12. Ever since 2001, the goal of this program is to win the National Championship, not finish 2nd, 3rd, 4th or anything else. I believe that is the goal of the team this year as well. Having the chance to have home field (thanks Judge Janke! ) for the playoffs is always important, and it becomes more important the deeper you go in the playoffs because the teams get better and better. I like what we have this year; an offense with depth at every position, a defense with a lot of young talent that will improve with each game and special teams to complement them both. It is WAY too early to speculate on playoff matchups. Too many things can happen to all the potential playoff teams to predict who will play where in what round. A lot of people are simply giving the National Championship to the Lakers and assuming everyone else is playing for second place, but I think that every season is different and we should let the season play itself out first. Omaha and South Dakota are our biggest stumbling blocks on the schedule and we had better not overlook either of those teams. I would like nothing more than to get GVSU in the Alerus again and beat them in front of our fans, but if we don't take care of business during the season there won't be much chance of it happening. No wonder Coach Lennon tells his players to keep off of forums like this, there is WAY too much speculation! Bottom Line: Home field will be crucial, like it always is.
  13. I've done rush seating, I've done SRO and I've decided that it's more comfortable to watch it at home on TV (with the sound muted and the radio on, of course). I also am not willing to pay for scalped tickets. If I can get tickets from friends or on a ticket-exchange site, I'll go for it. But my wallet can take only so much fun, especially with gas at around $3.00/gallon.
  14. I am in the Coach's Club ($1,100/year). I get 35-yard-line seats in the lower deck for football and lower-bowl seats in the corner for hockey. I enjoy the perks of being a club member and I consider it money well spent. That being said, I do think there should be a certain number of general admission seats available for people who cannot afford to be in "The Club". There are some pretty good seats on either side of the student section in the Alerus for people not in "The Club". The Ralph is pretty much all FSC-controlled (adbeit at lower prices in the upper deck). As long as we maintain a balance between the FSC-members, the students and the general public, we'll be okay. It's tough to maintain the balance, but it's necessary for the future of our programs.
  15. I plan on going to Mankato for sure and possibly Duluth as well. This looks like a great year for our football team and I want to soak in as much as I can.
  16. I am seriously thinking of going to the Mankato series in January. It falls on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, which makes it a good weekend for travel since I have Monday off from work. I don't even bother trying to get tickets for the Sioux-Gopher road series in Mariucci, the tickets are so tough to get. Which is amazing, considering that the Gophers don't consider us a "real rival". Man, I can't WAIT for this season to get started!
  17. So much for FSN North "Putting Minnesota fans first". I hope that the Fighting Sioux Sports Network puts more football on once we move up.
  18. What this lawsuit will establish is that even private clubs have to obey the law. This is a breach of contract lawsuit. The NCAA isn't following their own procedures for developing and implementing a policy such as this. They are supposed to put this to a vote of the membership. They probably realized that they don't have (and never will have) the votes, so they tried to ram it through via the Executive Committee. Private clubs are not omnipotent. The NCAA, however, seems to think it is. They need a big slice of humble pie. And that is what they are going to get. The NCAA is not just any, ordinary "private club"; they are the only game in town. Either you join the NCAA or you don't have an athletic department. This isn't like private golf clubs, where if you don't like how a club is operated you can just join a different one. If you don't like the NCAA, you don't have an alternative. If the NCAA is allowed to throw their weight around like this, there is no telling what will come up next: policies governing the male-female ratio of the student body, the racial make-up of the student body, the sky's the limit with this outfit. If the NCAA is going to behave like an abusive monopoly, then I suggest some Federal legislation that would strip the NCAA of it's not-for-profit status (this is a bad joke, anyway) and also strip it of any anti-trust protections that they might currently have. I'd love to watch the United States Federal Government put the NCAA in its place. That would inject some humility into Myles Brand; I am not sure what else would.
  19. I second that! I still have nightmares from those stupid Thundersticks used by the freaking Anaheim Angels in the 2002 MLB playoffs. Besides ruining the Twin's postseason (along with Rick Reed), they made the games almost unwatchable because of those stupid Thundersticks. Our fans don't need cheap promotional gimmicks like that, anyway.
  20. WiSioux, Your effort and initiative are admirable, but it sounds like REA management is giving you the subtle brush-off. The suits know full well that our fans already own Sioux merchandise with predominant green colors. They don't have to buy all of us green shirts. All they would have to do is help promote the event, which they obviously don't have an interest in doing. Look at the Olympic Saddledome in Calgary in the playoffs with all the fans wearing the exact same jersey. I don't think the team paid for all those jerseys, but I'll bet they helped encourage and promote it. I think this is a great idea and I would participate, but it isn't going to happen if we wait for REA to pick up the ball and run with it. It would have to be a volunteer effort on the part of the fans, organized and promoted by local businesses and other organizations. Tough to pull off, but not impossible.
  21. That is true....however, we have had competitive match-ups that did not draw very well when they should have. Homecoming and Potato Bowl always draw well, but some other home games have not drawn well when they should. The fact that we have had some powerful teams over the past several years should encourage people to check it out, not stay home. Why should the program be penalized for playing too well? I go to every home game (whether we are playing Augustana or Grand Valley State) and some road games whenever I can make it. When NDSU was in it's heyday back in the 1980's, did fans choose not to attend games if they didn't involve a nationally ranked opponent or did they pack Dacotah Field for each and every home game? I think the answer was closer to the latter than the former and I think we should shoot for this level of consistency in our fan base. The move up to Division I will help with the quality of opponents and then there will be no more excuses.
  22. I second this. It is a disgrace that our home games are not better attended. An even bigger disgrace are the excuses people come up with as to why people don't come (hunting season, people are at "the lake", blah, blah, blah! ). A program as accomplished as ours deserves better support than it gets. Now that the games are indoors, the weather is no longer an excuse. If we can get rid of all the other excuses, I think we'll draw much better.
  23. If I can interrupt the bickering and get back to the topic (Alerus/Canad Complex) for just a second? Thank you. Now that I have everybody's attention, I think that the new Canad Inn and related businesses will be a big boost to the Alerus Center and the Center's bottom line. The biggest problem with the Al so far has been the convention center portion running a big deficit that cancels out the surplus earned by the arena portion. That is the biggest difference between the Al and the Fargodome; the Dome is just a big arena while the Al is an arena/convention center. The Al might now have a chance to break even or even earn a small profit on an annual basis. I really hope UND Football makes a long-term commitment to the Al, because I really think all this "new on-campus stadium" talk is tied to some future plan to go to the BCS level (or whatever it's called now) in football. That would be a big mistake. We can compete at the FCS level, but not the BCS level. In any event, I am looking forward to the season starting. Now back to our regularly scheduled bickering!
  24. Why don't we build four huge marble statues and set them up right in front of the REA main entrance? I wonder if someone would find that "hostile and abusive"?
  25. Here's my 2 cents..... Hockey: Tony Hrkac (most dominant player in program history, 116 points in 48 games in 1986-87) Football: Kelby Klosterman (lead "the drive" down the field in Florence, great run/pass threat) Basketball: Jenny Crouse (centerpiece of three NCAA title teams) Coaching: Dean Blais (rebuilt fallen dynasty, two NCAA titles, five WCHA titles in ten years) So many great options....tough to choose.
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