nosidel

Well, I guess they count as a ranked team. But, I'd probably have just not responded if all I had was that we had beaten a team that was ranked in the top twenty-five for all of two weeks during the middle of the season.

Wow, you beat what was ultimately a 6-5 team on the road four years ago. Quite an accomplishment. Do you consider that your best FCS win, or would it be the time you beat a 5-6 Montana team?

You know, given this rant, you might think that I had actually said that UND wasn't improving, or that they wouldn't be better next year. The problem is that I never said that. I did say that UND has a long way to go, that they hadn't proven anything yet, and that most people would agree with me. I don't see how you can say that that's not reasonable. In fact, in light of an up-and-down 5-7 2014 season, it seems far more reasonable that your assertion that Bubba is a top-notch coach, and that UND will have a winning season next year. Those things may be true, but there just isn't enough evidence that they are true...yet.

So, that's what you've got, a two win improvement, and an "everybody knows" argument? OK, that's pretty weak, but whatever makes you feel better.

Well, if you see "visible" improvement in a 5-7 season with, maybe, one significant win...well more power to you. Most people would say that, despite the great Bubba's presence, UND hasn't proven a thing on the field yet.

I guess I shouldn't have expected you to get it. It's about self-delusion...seeing something other than reality. Sometimes hope does that to us.

You know, sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel you think you see is really a freight train bearing down on you.

OK, if you say so. You certainly are in a better position to know than I am. Still, you have had more losing seasons in the last 5 years than NDSU has had in the last 50. So, as I said, you still have a long way to go. Edit - I should also remind you that last year, in a 5-7 season, you beat a terrible Robert Morris team by all of 3 points at home, and you got blown out by a team that won just a single game in the MVFC.

I'd say that you're counting a few un-hatched chickens. The reality is that you've had losing seasons three out of the last four years (or is it 4 out of 5?). You've got a long way to go before you even see the hump.

C'mon, you misspoke, no need for threats. Besides, what I said was pretty mild compared to "tarded up by tards". BTW - I suggest you look up the meaning of the idiom: "mince words."

Again, don't throw stones, you live in a glass house.

Are you really saying that NDSU's 2012 comeback win over SIU (4-7 in 2011) helped the Bison (14-1 and National Champs in 2011) establish a presence in the MVFC? Well, you know what they say about people who live in glass houses.

It's very likely that this year's football game will follow that same script.

Of course, some Bison fans wanted this game and will be excited about the game. I have never contended otherwise. What I have said is that there are a significant number of Bison fans who did not want this game and have mixed feelings about the game itself. They certainly want NDSU to win, but they always want that no matter who NDSU might play. Likewise, they certainly will attend the game, but they would also have attended whatever other game might have been on the schedule. And I do still contend that any increase in interest in this game, or at least most of it, will be due to the proximity of a large number of UND fans to the Fargo area, and not to any great surge in interest in NDSU football on the part of Bison fans. As I've Said before, NDSU didn't need this game to create interest in their football program. That interest was there, and would still be there, with or without UND on the schedule. You're free to disagree.

I have no idea whether I represent the majority, or not. And I don't think that you really do either. I do know that those Bison fans I talk to are very divided on whether this game should have been scheduled in the first place and whether it should be continued.

UND fans are the ones dizzying themselves trying to convince bison fans that they really are excited about this game.

In that (unlikely) case it will just be one of several games thats keeps that team out of the playoffs.

Honestly, why is it so important that this game be such a huge game? The season will go on before and after this game is played. Sure, there will be increased interest in the game, particularly by UND fans. Nevertheless -- barring an upset by UND -- by playoff time this "huge" game won't have made any real difference to either team.

or 3) Lower the budget of hockey, and/or cut some programs, and then allocate the money saved to a combination of basketball and football. IMO, basketball offers the best potential bang for the buck.

My point was that Darrel's post was silly. Something obviously changed in the Big Sky between NDSU's being turned down for membership and UND's receiving a bid. SUU's acceptance into the Big Sky at the same time as UND after being turned down at around the same time as NDSU pretty strongly demonstrates that. In any case, NDSU would not switch conferences with UND, and is certainly not jealous of the Big Sky.

Here's the problem: there are really only two NCAA sports that matter in terms of fan popularity and national media exposure -- basketball and football. All of the schools that you mentioned have one of those two sports as their primary sport. The exposure that an Alabama gets from its football team, or a Duke gets from its basketball team, so greatly out weighs the exposure UND gets from its hockey team that your comparing UND to those schools is absurd. The hard reality for UND as a hockey school is that a couple of sweet sixteen runs in the NCAA men's basketball tournament -- which is, I think, attainable for either NDSU or UND -- would return more media exposure and national interest than a hockey program ever can.

How many times did SUU fail to get into the Big Sky? Remind me, when did they (SUU) ultimately get their bid?

This is utter nonsense. The NCC was a perfectly viable DII conference when UND announced it was leaving. It was UND's leaving that caused the NCC to collapse not the other way around.

Who said NDSU hates being called the Aggies? UND's 100 year history of farming jeers and taunts reflect badly on UND, not on NDSU. You call NDSU what you want. You're the ones who look bad.

I am quite aware of the history of the school. What I said is the I've never heard anyone call them that...present tense. You can call NDSU the Aggies all you want. No one's going to get excited about it. Now, if UND proposed changing their name to Aggies that would be a bit different.