JohnboyND7

Plenty of people outside Fargo care. You ever been to the cities the weekend the Bison and the Gophers play in football? All those stores have a ton of crap near the entrance so that they can make some money off of visiting teams fans. I would assume they do that any week they anticipate a lot of fans from an opposing team coming to a game, isn't your final 5 going on in......oh! the Cities! Sioux stuff sells better probably for a variety of reasons. UND fans tend to be fixated on owning as much Sioux stuff as possible. Jerseys, alternate jerseys, etc. Most NDSU people I know, like to have a few different NDSU shirts. UND is popular within the hockey community, so you will see a lot of that around especially if you are somewhere that has hockey there. Honestly, I am not going to care a whole lot as to which team sells more merchandise. As long as the Bison are doing well in sports I'm pretty content.

Well that didn't go too well for them. SDSU really playing Baylor tough. I dig it. Only down 3 with like 12:00 to go.

Did you get dropped on your head as a baby?

Don't say that. Auburn/Alabama is everything that is wrong and right with sports. NDSU/UND while fun, and to be taken seriously, is no Auburn/Bama

Alright. The Curling Championships in North Dakota were the biggest sporting event in North Dakota history. It was WAY bigger than the world junior hockey tournement, on account of it wasn't a JV tourney. It was so big! All the best curling(one of my favorite winter olympic sports) teams from across the world were in North Dakota! It was amazing. And to think, I got to see the Peyton Manning and Tom Brady of curling IN THEIR PRIME. Too bad you could only watch Ovechkin and Crosby in the flesh when they were pretty young. Bison/Sioux game....that is small-minded to think it is a big event for the area and especially inside the state of North Dakota. World Junior Hockey and World Curling Championships should always be in North Dakota! Events of those magnitude (especially the best curling teams in the world coming here) will bring North Dakota the kind of exposure we all could appreciate, right Dave?

You are making the most pointless argument ever. Yes, more people around the world would be interested in the JV hockey tournement. We'll just put it this way....if you ask the people in the area (North Dakota, Minnesota, and maybe even South Dakota) what they'd rather have, the World Juniors or a Bison/Sioux game, most people would take the football game. Who cares what some schmuck in Canada or Sweden thinks is bigger? To the people here, and those are the people whose opinion really matters, they'd love to see a NDSU/UND game when both teams are relevant. Heck, even the people who like watching FCS football would probably love to see the game just because message boards have shown them the amount of bad blood between the fans.

And back then they weren't what they are now. If LeBron James played in some basketball tournement here when he was in high school that doesn't make it the biggest sporting event in the state's history....

By world I presume you mean Norway, Sweden, Finland, western Russia, Czech Republic, Canada, and Northern United States of America. That is hockey. Nothing wrong with being popular in a small population base. I wrestled in high school, that wasn't super popular everywhere either. The only truly worldwide sport is soccer. After that, is basketball, After that, based on population that plays it, probably American football. Considering we have more kids playing football in american high schools than registered hockey players worldwide, at the very least, it is bigger than hockey. No arguing that. Hockey is fun to watch, and I thoroughly enjoy watching my Philly Flyers and my Golden Gophers...hockey is not as big as football. An NDSU/UND football game, is the most important sporting event that North Dakota has.....when UND plays Minnesota in hockey, it is fun for hockey fans. When NDSU and UND play in football, it is fun for everyone. Deal with it. Quit pretending some stupid junior hockey tournement is more important than NDSU/UND football. Would you rather see UND beat NDSU 21-10 in football, or Team USA beat Team Canada 2-1 in hockey....if you'd rather see the second, I question you claiming you are a UND fan.

This is true, though it certainly helps it is in a nice venue compared to the dump that it is the BSA. Though I don't know more than 5-10 people who are NHL fans while I know about a lot more who care about basketball. But yes, you are 100% correct that the Force games are fairly popular around here. I was raised in Colorado Springs, Napoleon and Jamestown. I have left the city limits of Fargo. I wouldn't say it is an odd statement...hockey is big in a select few places. It is very large in Grand Forks. That is just how it goes. If it was big everywhere, you'd see the smaller towns have hockey teams like they do in Minnesota. An NDSU/UND football game would be wayyyy bigger than the ovechkin/crosby showdown.

I was unaware of a Crosby Vs. Ovechkin game. I'm guessing most of the state really didn't know anything about it either. I know it is hard to hear this Dave, but hockey is irrelevant in North Dakota outside of Grand Forks unless it is UND hockey. An NDSU/UND football game would have about 1000x the interest that any non-UND hockey game would ever generate in North Dakota.

You forgot to mention the retractable roof.

Despite that I'm an NDSU guy....I am choosing to laugh at the "mooo-ved" comment. Tehe.

I'd be more than happy to hear your guys' opinion on USD since you played them more recently. Not so much on SDSU, SIU, or UNI....considering we have played these guys more recently.

KVLY statewide is nice. It is easy for people to watch the game. A basic channel that almost everyone has. When you say nationwide, it seems like you are saying that it is a "Notre Dame"-esque deal where literally everyone, everywhere has the channel. The channel that UND plays on is pretty obscure and doesn't even come with all the packages right? My sister lives in DC, they organize a Bison-alum party for games every week at a local bar. ESPN3, for all of its shortcomings, is still a solid option has most bars are willing to put it on for you. My dad was in Philly for a business trip, he was able to watch the NDSU/UNI game at a bar with some friends. I'd hardly say NDSU thinks in a tri-state box and that UND thinks on a national scale. Do I think it is most important to be on tv in a tri-state area? Yes. You probably disagree, but honestly, neither NDSU or UND football are these huge national brands that everyone is watching. I don't think recruits are going to stay away from NDSU because they are on KVLY/ESPN3 and I don't think they are going to avoid UND because they are on a more obscure national channel. What is important, and good for both schools, is you can be almost anywhere and be able to watch the game. Ten years ago, that probably wasn't going to happen. What does any of this have to do with NDSU and UND playing a football game?

UND has some major pass-defense issues correct? And is also vertically challenged on offense? The pass defense issues will lose you games in the Big Sky if you don't fix it. No way around it. Hell, Northern Colorado can even throw the ball. We got away without being able to throw the ball in the 2010 playoff games against Montana State and EWU and if UND has a BIG mean O-Line, you will be able to win games off of that too. But DJ McNorton was also on fire at that time. I think UND will win 5 or 6 games (excluding the Mines game). I just think it was way too easy for teams to throw against UND this season for me to have any faith UND will shut the pass down this year. Outside of Montana and Montana State though, I think UND has at least a solid chance of winning any other Big Sky game. It should be interesting to see how UND handles playing teams like Montana and Montana State. Also, it will be interesting to see how UND handles playing against a solid schedule throughout an entire season. Anyone can show up for a game (Boise State), in a solid conference, it is about showing up for a season.

In this thread it makes sense. NDSU A&AS is having some 2012 schedule issues as well.

Anything south of Nebraska is just not very likely. Some of the big metro areas can manage having a professional hockey team, but it'd be hard to start up a college team and generate the interest required down there. I would not be at all surprised though if you saw the Big Ten schools all have hockey sooner or later to build the new hockey league's brand. That would require Indiana, Northwestern, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska to get teams? That could be interesting.

I'd imagine the same way the B1G was determining their champion until last year? You know, whoever has the best conference record? The way every conference that doesn't have 2 divisions settles it.

This sounds ridiculous.

NDSU gets the first game. Last game was at the Alerus. Plus the Bison had to play Back-to-Back in Grand Forks the year before the dome opened up and the year the dome opened up if I recall because of NCC scheduling got remodelled or something like that. Though it would be pretty cool to play in the dome or TCF once. Kinda like Texas-Oklahoma playing at the Texas State Fair litterally right in the middle of the two campuses....maybe we build a stadium in Hillsboro

Greatest city in North Dakota!

Never too late to convert.

I'd imagine UND fans getting a fair number of seats throughout the general admission areas. It wouldn't be a ton, but I'd expect a fair amount of UND people in attendence.

Hopefully not for awhile. The dome is a hell of an atmosphere when its full. I'd rather have a slightly smaller venue such as the dome, than a 25-30,000 dome/stadium that has 5,000 empty seats.

I'd poop my pants in excitement. Then again, I pooped my pants this year in anticipation for the Georgia Southern showdown. The really nice thing about playing a team from far away....just opens up more seats for the Fargo Faithful The nice thing about playing a UND, UNI, or SDSU in the playoffs if you win, is not only winning, but having something that a rival fanbase doesn't get to have.