JohnboyND7

Recruiting MN and WI becomes an issue when your closest road game is 800 miles away and they don't know anything about those schools.

Tell me, when you go walking around Colorado, do you see tons of Northern Colorado geer? Do you see license plate references? The Denver market is not some Big Sky-loving area. And the Fargo market has a school that wins. UNC is now 0-8 on the year. This isn't going to get the folks in Denver jacked up for them.

Star, I don't think playing Montana and Montana St. is going to get the people of Western ND to be UND fans. I don't think it is overly important to grab a few fans from that area either. They have a long drive to Grand Forks or Fargo and road games are even further. People in North Dakota that aren't big into NDSU or UND now aren't going to spontaneously become HUGE fans, that is not how it works bro. Best thing you can do, is just try to get your teams on tv or on the radio often enough so that the fans you do have can watch/hear the team play.

I said their football program is awful year-in and year-out. I find it really funny that you seem to think that you know what the Big Sky's intentions were at the time. No one in Denver watches Big Sky athletics unless they are an alumni and you know that.

They'd take NDSU. NDSU has been successful in all of their sports since the move....volleyball, softball, soccer, football (Big Sky priority), basketball. UNC's football program completely fell apart. They were a really good team and seriously, wow, they are awful year-in and year-out. Ask Montana and Montana St. who they'd rather play against. If it comes down to two teams who are both good and one brings in some more tv exposure, obviously you take the one with exposure. But when one is awful and brings some exposure and one brings good athletics, you take the athletics. At the time, the Big Sky made a good decision, in retrospect, no, they really didn't.

If the team is good, students will stay, or at least the loud ones will. Can't blame a kid for leaving when the score is 35-7 in the 3rd quarter, I certainly wouldn't leave, but I can see why some would.

I think that the Big East is going to survive. It is just going to be a bit different, ESPN says that Big East, Conference USA, and MWC are considering some weird Super-League. I thought it sounded weird, but the set-up they used as an example kinda sorta maybe could possibly have a chance of working pretty well and end a lot of shifting around. If this went through, it could stop the shift of conferences in its tracks. I seriously doubt that the MVC would take USD or SDSU before NDSU. NDSU has pretty good facilities, especially once the indoor track and basketball arena are ready to go, which conveniently enough, would probably be a little before or around the time the Summit explosion scenario would start up. In a perfect scenario, I would want SDSU to come with NDSU, we are kinda partners in crime so to speak. If the Summit is exploding and the Missouri Valley says no, then thats when NDSU would have to look to the Big Sky and I could kiss goodbye traveling to pretty much all road games. I won't rag on the Big Sky as a conference, I just don't want NDSU to be a part of that, 7-8 years ago, I'd have been singing a different tune, but I like the current set-up NDSU has as long as it doesn't blow up.

Don't your students have a hard time traveling to the Alerus? NDSU would give it's left nut to be in the Missouri Valley fulltime, Missouri Valley is hands-down better than the Big Sky. I'm sure if the Big Sky could go back in time they probably would have let NDSU in rather than accepting Northern Colorado based on both schools performances since DI. Stay in the Summit until Missouri Valley comes knocking, otherwise, stand pat.

And invite them to a game when UND plays the Bison so he can see the lack of respect given to the Fighting Sioux

If I remember right, wasn't UND having some difficulty getting the invite because of the name situation? If UND was somehow "better" than the other 3 Dakota schools, wouldn't they want to be in the same conference as the other 3 so that they could prove it? USD did what was right for them, Joining the Summit/MVFC is a solid option. The Summit will more than likely be just fine, perhaps an even better destination without a team like ORU to win all the tournements. Though I would feel a lot better about the future if NDSU snuck into the MVC in the next 5 years. I would like NDSU to do that over get involved with the Big Sky at all. I would like to be able to attend some road conference games. In the Summit/MVFC, I can drive to Brookings, Vermillion, or Cedar Rapids(I think thats where UNI is) without too many problems. UND fans will be flying a lot to games which isn't a huge deal but still, I like playing some relatively regional schools. If NDSU has no options and the Summit is falling apart, Big Sky it is! But I pray that doesn't happen. I would be very sad.

What if the MVFC schools tell the MVC that all the Summit teams could leave the MVFC which would put the MVC-football schools in a lot of trouble? Say NDSU, USD, SDSU tell the MVFC that they could possibly go to the Big Sky(I'd hate playing in the Sky, but it'd be an option) and that could get UNI, SIU, ISU-R, ISU-B, and Missouri St. into some trouble as far as football. Perhaps those members complain enough, which could get NDSU, SDSU, and USD into the MVC for all sports. Yeah, it'd hurt their RPI, at the very least temporarily, but those are 5 teams right there, who would probably like their football teams to be in stable situations. That'd put pressure on the other schools to accept the Dakota 3 and perhaps Western Ill. Am I dreaming? Maybe, I don't really know all the work and lobbying that would have to go into that, but at least I'm thinking here! That said, I think the Summit will be fine.

You are seriously suggesting that the REA people throw UND under the bus for something that they can't control?

UND 23 N Col 21 or 30....(for some reason I think UND is scoring 23 guaranteed but who knows about N Colorado)

So what color would the crease(I think thats the blue goalie area?) be if BSU added hockey...God knows they'd insist on having smurf blue ice.

http://airforce.com/contact-us/base-locator/?m=2011EASearch&pl=Google&med=CPC Notice that US bases are called AFB's, foreign ones are referred to as AB's. I do not care what wikipedia says, something tells me that the USAF page might have a better idea

Actually....I already pointed out that they are not the same thing. One is American, the other one isn't on our soil.

Don't feel dirty being from an Air Force Base, (Air Bases are the ones that aren't on US Soil bro), training currently to be an officer in the Air Force so feel free to apologize anytime you like for putting myself out there to make your life easier. Online classes are a joke, they are convenient and I don't judge people for taking them, but they aren't too difficult.

The new generation of parents have really started to make a bad name for youth sports. I got a relative that played some hockey and he really enjoyed it, but when your 11 or 12, having a 6 month season playing 40-50 games can take the fun out of any sport. His parents weren't super gung-ho and told him if it wasn't fun to even play anymore that he could quit. I'm not against having traveling teams, those are fine, some parents just seem to be too tough on their kids when it comes to that sort of thing. Hockey dads generally get a really bad rap, but other sports do it as well.

The publications I have noticed have them in the 3-5 range which feels about right. Rivals has them at 3, Summit League site has them at 5. UND could win the game, playing at home especially. I'll still take the Herd by a 10-15 point spread. To avoid any confrontation. Lets leave NDSU out of the discussion. People will get mad.

Still no excuse. People do know there is nothing wrong with going to two sporting events in one day I hope.

I don't see why the Bison have been brought into this thread....but UND has a better chance this year than last year. NDSU has a couple of freshmen though since you asked.

The last NDSU-UND game didn't sell out.

UND lost a D-Line starter correct? If so, Poly 30 UND 21

From where? Regardless of location, a track title is impressive but some places they got a bit more competition obviously.

UND did have an extra week to prepare(2 extra weeks if you consider the opponent the week before) to practice for the triple option. That can't hurt UND's chances at all.