EWURanger

Yeah, I noticed.

Are you talking about this one? www.bigskyfans.com/eagles If so, not sure what you mean. I like the format and we have quite a few active posters.

Maybe not. What's the main concerns about your team? Mainly the defense?

My guess on this one is something like a 38-24 game. I don't think we traditionally really play that well in domes, and your offense should be able to score on our defense. Still trying to figure our team out, we've played 3 really good opponents so far and 2 really bad ones. Hoping this weekend will give us a somewhat better idea of where we are at this point in the season.

The Big Sky schedule will be far more challenging than the Great West, IMO, Just more teams playing at a higher level as opposed to a couple decent teams in the Great West. UND will improve over time, but it's apparent that you've got some work to do to compete with the upper echelon of the Big Sky.

Sucks to see kids go down like this. Hope he is ok.

I concur!

Worst call ever on the offensive PI. What a joke.

Any links to video of this game?

No worries, it was kinda funny to see it change colors when it started snowing. Hope that doesn't happen again. . Otherwise, we like it quite a bit. Thanks for the responses, good info. Sounds like UND has the tools to be competitive in the Big Sky and at the FCS level. I really think you will enjoy watching Big Sky football. Probably a little more finesse style than your traditional mid-west or east coast smash-mouth type football, which can be good and bad. Like I said, I am really excited to see the new teams compete in the Big Sky in 2012. I'm also wondering what the deal is going to be with basketball scheduling. What was suggested above does make some sense. They need to try and regionalize things as much as possible to try to cut down on travel costs. Also interesting that we're now going to have 11 teams competing for 6 spots in the conference tournament for the one auto-bid.

It's fairly common to see Division II opponents on Big Sky schedules. Eastern plays an all Division I schedule in 2011, but this isn't the norm. Usually it's one FBS, one non-conference FCS, and one Division II. This is the format we played this year (Nevada, Southern Utah, Central Washington), and it worked out pretty well. The problem is, the farther west you go, the fewer options there are as far as scheduling FCS goes. Portland State's schedule is pathetic (what were they thinking???) but I don't know the story behind it. That is a very unusual schedule for a Big Sky team, so they might have had someone back out and couldn't get a replacement game with a Division I opponent. Scheduling is difficult, especially at the FCS level. You want to get the right balance of winnable non-conf games that count towards the playoffs, and the annual $ game that most of us have to play. Most FBS games that provide a significant pay-out are not winnable, so if you're scheduling more than one of those in a year you are basically scheduling yourself out of the playoffs. Add a Division II non-counter in there, and you basically have to win all or all but one conference game to make the playoffs at 7-4 or 8-3. This happened to Weber State this year and in 2008 Eastern played two Big XII schools and just missed out on the playoffs because of it. There are a lot of complaints about the 2011 schedule for EWU, but at the end of the day, we opted to go with an all Division I schedule rather than bring in a Division II. Also, when you consider that one of our "home" games has traditionally be played in Seattle anyway (just playing UW at Husky Stadium instead of PSU or CWU at Qwest) then the schedule's not too bad. Not great, but playing all Division I's sets us up best for another run at the title. Not massively excited about playing @ USD, but we will just have to punish them for backing out of the Big Sky. My understanding is that in 2012, each school will still only play 8 conference games, so don't be surprised if you see conference members scheduling one another for non-conf games.

Hello all, Just wanted to drop by and say that I'm looking forward to seeing UND in the Big Sky in 2012 along with SUU and Cal Poly and Davis for football. I think, under this new format, the Big Sky will rival the CAA in football. It's not far off now. I think most Big Sky fans have a fairly positive outlook on the conference expansion. Adding the two California schools increases exposure there and can only be good for recruiting for the conference as a whole. Southern Utah has been improving it's athletics programs and fits well within the geographical footprint of the historical conference. And while I think many are concerned with UND's geography, most acknowledge that this will be a good addition. Not only because UND Is a flagship university, but because you also seem to have a good tradition in athletics. IMO, the fact that UND is somewhat isolated in the conference isn't a major problem in itself, although I will admit that USD giving the BSC the snub does present some problems as far as travel partners go. Under the 11 member all-sports format for the 2012 season, does UND have a travel partner, or is this something that is still being worked through? How do you all see the 13 member conference football conference working out? Thoughts on who the 14th member for football might be? An all-sports member seems to make sense, IMO, putting the Big Sky at 12/14. On the flip side, I think there's some out there that are worried UND is going to jump ship if the MVFC tries to expand again - any merit in this? I personally don't see this happening, as the Big Sky > Summit and generally on par with the MVFC - and probably better the last decade or so. Also, how do UND folks feel about the direction their football program is going in? I was able to watch the Montana-UND game this season and it seemed to be competitive at times, although it seems like it was a bit of a down year for you guys. Are you already at the full compliment of scholarships, or still in transition in that regard? Are there plans in the works in regards to the football program in terms of facilities, etc. Sorry for all the questions, but I'm trying to learn about all of our future conference mates, and no better way to get answers than to go to the source. Thanks in advance Also, I am one of the mods over at www.bigskyfans.com/eagles - feel free to drop by anytime.