Sioux94

That's exactly what I was thinking, it's nice sitting back with the work done on our end with a 9-2 record and just watching. Although things going our way so far sure has made it feel a lot better watching today. Last year seems like every game went the opposite of what we we needed it to the last week.

That was 8 weeks or so ago. You'd think how a team is playing coming down the stretch should factor into it just a little bit. However we were rolling our last 3 games last year and it didn't matter but who knows.

Or at least UNI plays them really tough and it's a very close game, that would make it harder in my eyes for them to jump SDSU over us. If they already felt SDSU was more deserving they should have had them ahead of us already, a win against a below .500 team shouldn't jump them over us IMO especially when we have a common opponent that we beat and they lost against. However I am still worried about it like everybody else.

Does anybody know how much it costs for the football team to make a trip? Let's say a trip to Cal Poly.....what are the costs of something like that. I have no idea how much a charter is....maybe 75k 10k for hotel, 10k for food, 5k for busing and other misc. would be 100k total. Not sure if that is anywhere in the ball park or not. However i was thinking about the NAIA since I grew up in Dickinson and watched the Blue Hawks. First round of the playoffs where usually a bus trip, but as you go further had to be a flight. I can't imagine most NAIA schools getting more than 4k attendance. How was the NAIA able to pick up the costs of that? I remember one year DSU went out to play Central Washington, pretty sure it was them anyway......and John Kitna was their QB. Dickinson lost of course. Who knows maybe they did a 20 hour bus ride though and I just don't remember because I probably wasn't caring about that type of thing then. It's too bad that it has to come down to money in that first round. I can see needing a minimum amount, and if you meet the minimum amount you get to host....that wouldn't be too bad. Highest bidder will may be our advantage a few times in the future if we aren't going up against some of the big name schools. But if we are playing a smaller school sometime and we are seeded 20th and they are 10th, we should really have to go play there and not get the home game just because we can bid more. To me it seems like the loser of the Sam Houston game should drop out of the top 8 guaranteed, this is their chance to prove they belong in the top 8 and if they lose they are out. This would move us up, and unless SDSU blows out UNI 45-10 or something I don't think a win against a below .500 team should make you jump somebody else. Especially when you have a common opponent and we beat them and they lost.

Next year there will be some really high expectations. We only graduate 5-6 guys that start or play a lot, and don't graduate somebody like Ratelle or Reyes, Studs or Santiago types....all of the big names are back next year and the younger guys a year more experience. Coe and Labatt are really good players though, but you are going to lose some good players every year. Losing Coe will probably hurt us the most since that is where we are thin, although those younger guys should be groomed by next year......hopefully. Never know what could happen with injuries etc. next year though, so the time is now to make a run!

It's actually not right that somebody should even be able to use the name Red Pepper on here and not be from Grand Forks or have went to UND. Other than that, I'm done arguing on this one. We've got one, maybe two weeks off though.....guess we need something to talk about and he is providing our inspiration.

And Montana who is currently 8th in the Big Sky beating your beloved UNI at UNI?

What about Poly who is tied for 4th in the Big Sky (with 4 other teams) beating SDSU at SDSU?

Never thought in my lifetime I'd be at a football game in which the goal posts would come down after the game, but I was there for that one. Definitely remorable!!

If this happens we might as well get a big condom if we keep getting screwed like that.

I don't think I see 11-0 next year, but that certainly would be awesome. We play at Utah next year, that will obviously be a tough one. Actually if we went 9-2 again next year that would be a pretty solid record with next years schedule. Will still want to win them all though.

Especially given how poor we were last year when teams could just chuck the ball up in the air and our guys many times wouldn't even be able to make a realistic play at the ball. Gotta give a lot of credit to the coaches for coaching them up, and the players for putting in the work.

And if they didn't play UND that year they would have run through the 'vaunted' MVFC with only 2 losses, and an FBS loss and would have likely been ranked around number 10 and made the playoffs. Kind of makes the point. It certainly wasn't the best team they ever had but they were able to roll through the MVFC and only lose twice. If all of the other teams were so tough shouldn't they have lost some more games in conference?

And for those that want to bash transfers, if we didn't have him this year we wouldn't be where we are. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. In Bubba's transition we needed to take a chance on a few transfers to fill gaps and this is one that was huge for us. I would guess transfers will be a lot less going forward now that Bubba has been able to start to build depth through good recruiting. Some people, or maybe it was mostly Bison folks coming on here not sure, talking badly about how many transfers we had the past couple of years just don't get it. To me it was only logical to fill short term gaps with transfers so we could get to where we wanted to sooner rather than later.

I actually was going to add that the one year Illinois State played them in the championship so I was going to give them that. But I got a work call and had to just hit send lol. UNI is often considered one of your toughest game every year, and probably considered one of the traditional conference power houses am I right? Roughly 35 years at the FCS level they have one Championship game appearance, with a loss. That said UNI has a very good program, but they are not mini LSU like some NDSU people like to think just because they usually give you a tough game. Heck UND beat them at their house in the early 2000's when we were DII. The previous couple of years the MVFC I think most could say was the best conference, this year just doesn't bare that out that the conference is head and shoulders above the rest.

Yep it was 100% designed that way, there is no way Brady just decided to do that on spur of the moment.

That simply cannot be true. Don'tcha know no kid would ever choose UND over NDSU to play football.

Exactly, take NDSU out of that conference and what have they done? Nobody other than NDSU in that conference has won a National Championship in the past 15 years. They all lose to NDSU you every year during the regular season, but one team in the conference knocks them off once a year. Well every team gets a crack at NDSU every single year, so yes most likely a MVFC team is going to be the one to beat them eventually as they know their style and play them every year. But just the fact that the other teams play NDSU and lose, the other teams in the conference are somehow all better. MVFC is a very good conference no doubt, I just don't believe they are head and shoulders above the rest like they think they are, and facts don't lie.....Big Sky has a better record of them head to head this year.

Yes it was a dart, and good thing too otherwise it could have maybe gotten picked off if he lobbed it. He bought time on that play too, he gets a 10 out of 10 for execution on that one for sure! And that fake was one of the better fakes I've ever seen, maybe if he wouldn't have faked out the cameraman they could have submitted it for a top 10 plays of the week or something.

We would have to question the sanity of our coaching staff if they told him to keep kicking it short to Weber.

I'd take that, might be a little rust after two weeks off.

Totally agree with you there, kinda helps make my point actually. I hope the team gets the support they deserve too should we get to host a playoff game.

Just curious, do you think your negative comments on here about attendance are actually helping anything? Do you think there are people on this site that didn't go to the game, who read your post and said to themselves......"ahhh damn Oxbow is right, I should have been at the game I guess I'm going to start going now". That's awesome that you were at the game and the hockey game and are a great supporter, we need more people like you but if you somehow think you are heroic by complaining on here about it, you're not. We would all like more people at the game, but constantly whining about it on a blog doesn't change anything.

I'd much prefer he continue to field punts even when Seibel comes back. Was nice to a senior that doesn't get much playing time, be so pivotal on Senior Day.

Awesome seeing how much Bubba loves UND and how much it meant for him to be the coach here to bring us our first Big Sky Championship (co champs). He has left No Doubt that he was the right choice!