UNDGOPHER

Nowhere in my post did I state any particular event...I said 9/10 times actually. So congrats on picking the 10th event, but let's reexamine your choice. Yes the winner was better, far better, she is one of the best in the NCAA. In order to score in the Summit you had to jump 3.48m, that would have been in a 4 way tie for 12th at the Big Sky meet (based on bar progression). That also would land you 16th on the Big Sky performance list...congrats on being the last person into the conference meet. There are studs in every conference in certain events and with Derek Miles as your pole vault coach at USD there will always be good vaulters there. But again event by event the depth belongs to the Big Sky and usually so does the top mark. You will not win this argument, as I am not arguing UND is better than NDSU, cause that is ludicrous, but the SLUMmit league is BAD! One of the worst in Division 1, especially on the men's side where it is down to 6 teams next year. You had better win that league every year with nearly full funding, a new facility and one of the best staffs in the Midwest. UND is getting better and is starting to win head to head battles in certain areas on a regular basis...in time the programs may balance out but it could be NDSU winning the summit and UND being 4th in the Big Sky. Probably not going to happen without the new facility and some increases in support at UND from administration.

I am from the planet earth, where implements are the same at different meets and where distances and times are standardized so you can compare across different meets etc. Look at the Big Sky list vs the Summit League List, here I will help Big Sky http://www.tfrrs.org/lists/1081.html vs Summit League http://www.tfrrs.org/lists/1100.html. Pick an event, any event, look at the top 3 times or distances and 9 times out of 10 the Big Sky is more challenging. The Big Sky also requires you to qualify to the conference meet, and many of the marks that NDSU achieved during the year would not have met those qualifiers...learn about the difference between conferences before you make arbitrary disrespectful statements. Thanks! NDSU is good, far better than UND, but they could not compete with NAU, Sac State, MSU Men, or Portland State women. Sorry Dan!

I feel like the staff needs to be given a little bit of time to change the roster to their recruits and change the programs culture. If you look at most of the individual points, they were scored by freshman or people who have massively improved under the new leadership. I would also point out if you look at the freshman at UND vs the freshman at NDSU they are fairly evenly matched in quality, maybe not depth, but that would be expected when one program has been D1 for longer, with the same staff, a competition facility and the history of NDSU. Also contrary to BisonDan's opinion the Slummit League is beyond weak when it comes to track (and soon may not even sponsor men's track). Many of the marks that scored in the Slummit would not have made finals and some would not even have made the Big Sky meet. It is a different world for UND compared to the other Dakota schools...but last and 2nd to last still seems fairly weak.