WeAreNorthDakota

That's a very good point but if UND does find succes in the Big Sky, a NDSU-UND game could be as nationally relevant to the FCS community as the Montana-Montana St game, which is one of the biggest games on the FCS schedule every single year. Again, the game hasn't made sense to schedule until now.

I don't think it's a fear of losing, but while UND has been in transition NDSU has had infinitely more to lose from scheduling the game. I completely understand why the game hasn't been played during our overlapping transition years. If I were Taylor I would give us a year or two to establish ourselves in the Big Sky and FCS in general and then I would start scheduling the way I outlined it above. If the game can't be agreed upon once we are finally on even ground competitively again then I have to assume its a lingering bitterness over UND not "playing up" against NDSU when they were desperate for home games. I really hope that's not the case so we can finally restart the series.

NDSU would be foolish not to charge higher prices for games against Montana, Montana St or UND. The fact that they're near sellouts for teams like St Francis is proof of that. The potential financial gain is huge. Charging $10-15 dollars more would be near the equivalent of an FBS guarantee. If we restart the series annually NDSU's OOC schedule could look like this every 2 years: 1st year: home vs UND, home vs cupcake, road vs BCS conference team 2nd year: road vs UND, home vs cupcake, home vs cupcake or major FCS In that first year you get two big time paydays and eliminate the need to schedule the lesser FBS teams like a Colorado St game that likely won't be televised and instead you get a game only an hour away that would be televised to the entire fanbase. It absolutely makes sense financially for NDSU to schedule the game annually and it obviously makes sense for UND.

Right. The fact that the IPF project would be scrapped altogether if the name is kept and we don't get into the Big Sky is what I was getting at.

If the nickname does end up staying, any money that has been raised for the IPF will go back into the athletic department budget just to keep it afloat.

They are both in favor of keeping the name ONLY if it is without NCAA sanctions. They are paid to do what is best for the University of North Dakota and right now keeping the name is absolutely not what is best for the university. They've done what they can to save the name but the failure to comply with the settlement agreement and state law not changing the mind of the NCAA leaves them with no choice but to retire the nickname. A new nickname will not be introduced and if by some miracle the Spirit Lake lawsuit is successful in removing the sanctions, Kelly and Faison will not hesitate to transition back to the Fighting Sioux.

That is a pretty impressive "interested in" list

The only option at this point is to retire the nickname and hope that Spirit Lake wins their lawsuit against the NCAA. If the lawsuit causes the NCAA to remove UND from the hostile and abusive list, we transition right back to the Fighting Sioux. Passing this vote and using the nickname despite NCAA sanctions is absolutely not an option. The damage done to the athletic program in the 3-5 years it could take to resolve the lawsuit would likely be insurmountable. Hell, the athletic department may not even be in existence by the time the lawsuit is resolved. Then we'd have a nickname and logo but no teams to cheer for. Is that what you nickname supporters want?

I've honestly never heard a Sioux fan use the term moral victory, Bison fans sure like to throw it around though. Was the TT game a victory? Absolutely not. But it did give a reason for optimism in our D1 future. I hate that Bison fans get to hang all their FBS wins over our heads because we don't have one yet. I'll never argue that they're not good wins because all of their FBS wins are better than anything we've done in the transition. The problem I have is that they think because they beat Minnesota Iowa State and Kansas they belong in the Big 10 or 12. I would love to have games like that on the schedule but if we were to beat them we wouldn't suddenly be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

That is still last year's roster. Lynch was a junior last season and will be a senior in 2012-2013.

Yeah, not too worried about the lack of big guys signed. I imagine the coaching staff has an ideal number of guys to have on scholarship at a time at every position. Because we didn't lose much and brought 4 guys in last year, I don't think there was room to bring in 3 or 4 more guys. There were much bigger holes to fill in this class and I think the coaching staff did a pretty good job of filling them.

Can we please stop making a fuss about the SD Mines game? Is it an ideal home opener? No. Could it cost us a playoff spot? Possibly. Does anyone think non-D1 games are going to be a trend after this game? HELL NO! Have any of you looked at the 2013 schedule? 7 home games all against D1 teams including one out of conference against Montana. The year after that we'll travel to San Jose St and have Robert Morris at home with one open date left. I have 100% confidence that the open date will be filled with a D1 home game. I imagine the Mines game was scheduled before the Big Sky was officially in the picture when we needed any home game we could get and efforts to replace it were not financially feasible. The point someone else made is a good one about needing 10,000 fans just to cover the buyout and cost to bring in another team. This means we would need to find an opponent that is a big enough draw to sell out the Alerus just to have a chance to break even on the game. This while the football budget for next year has likely already been finalized. The only alternative I see at this point is to find an FBS that will give us a payday big enough to cover the Mines buyout, travel costs, and still have a hundred thousand or two to pump in to the budget for the following seasons. Obviously a game like that is almost impossible to find at this point. Let's stop ripping on Faison about this game, hope it doesn't cost us a playoff spot in our first year of eligibility, and get excited for the great schedules we have to look forward to in the years to come.

Did the students get a section taken away or did they just shift the 3 sections? I think I would prefer them having one fewer section. That way, if student attendance numbers don't go up, the sections will at least look to be more full.

Balance, more than anything, is why I think we'll see a big offensive improvement. We've seen Miller and Sutton be effective even with almost no downfield passing threat. With Hanson, Hardin, McGill, and Ivery we should have a passing threat on every down that prevents teams from stacking the box. Now, I'm not saying we should starting chucking it up 45 times a game. I do believe the presence of an effective intermediate and downfield passing game will allow for some big holes for Miller and Sutton. I think we'll see a great running game and a lot fewer run-run-pass hits a receiver in the feet 3 and outs.

I very much hope its Jameer Jackson. If he can step up and be the big receiver to go along with Hardin, McGill, and Ivery, it would allow us to redshirt all four of the incoming receivers and give them a whole year of practice time with Bartels and Mollberg. If that is the case, this offense has the potential to be the best I've ever seen at UND. If Hanson can get quickly accustomed to the offense he'll be throwing to 3 good smaller receivers, 2 big targets in Nichols and Jackson, behind a line that brings back a lot of experience, and handing off to 2 quality runners that compliment each other very well. I expect points to be put up in bunches in our first year in the Big Sky.

I have absolutely no problem with NDSU fans chanting "Sioux Suck" when we are playing each other, like Tuesday night. It was only highlighted after this game because of the attention it got during and after the national championship game, where it had no place being used. In a game between the teams, however, more power to the bison fans as long as our fans have the sense to fire right back and drown it out.