nosidel

No, I never said Bison fans would not want to go to the game. Of course they'll want to see the game ... they want to see the game no matter who NDSU plays. I'm just saying that the expectation that this game will be some gigantic event that NDSU people will pay anything to get into is just wrong. It truly will be just another game in the context of the whole season. As I said, the spike in demand for ticket prices (if there is one) will be primarily because of the proximity of a large number UND fans to the Fargo area. That's what makes this game different. Not NDSU's enthusiasm for playing UND.

Well that's nice. But what in the world does that have to do with demand for tickets on the part of Bison fans?

What, you can't handle the truth?

Excitement for Bison football is always palpable by fall. This year will be no different.

No, very few tickets will actually change hands in the secondary market, and those that do will mostly go to UND fans and fence-sitters who aren't really fans of either team. Bison fans aren't beyond taking advantage of delusional UND fans. But most that have tickets will keeps theirs. So, there will actually end up being very few UND fans at the game, and very few tickets sold at an inflated price.

I'm saying that NDSU fans have much more to be excited about than playing UND. This game just ain't a big deal compared to what Bison fans have experienced over the last few years and have come to expect. That's just the way it is...playing UND is a bore.

I think you're wrong. This game is going to be a major disappointment for UND fans expecting things to be like they were a dozen years ago. Things really have changed.

Nonsense.

It's just nonsense to say that demand among Bison fans will be appreciably higher for this game. For Christ's sake 20,000 bison fans routinely show in Frisco 1,000 miles from Fargo. 30,000 (estimated) followed them to Minneapolis to see them play the Gophers. All non-student single game tickets sell out basically as quickly as the ticket office can take the orders. Do you really think that those people need a game against UND to get them excited about Bison football?

It's not unusual to see listings on StubHub for $200+. If you can find any at all.

Demand for tickets among Bison fans could hardly be higher than it already is. The spike in demand that will occur for this game, particularly in the secondary market, will be almost entirely due to UND fans, and fence-sitters.

I'm blind? Other than student tickets, and students can be fickle regarding attendance at football games, there would be essentially no tickets available for Bison games with, or without, UND on the schedule.

You think that demand might spike up a bit simply because UND fans are looking for tickets? Demand for NDSU tickets among Bison fans could hardly be any higher than it has been for the last few years. All the single-game tickets sell out in 2 hours without UND on the schedule. It won't be Bison fans driving up ticket prices for this game.

There are no statistics that can be directly compared between teams on different levels. Truthfully, this sort of direct comparison is difficult even between conferences. For instance, directly comparing Wyoming to Ohio State or Alabama, in this manner, would also make little sense. And, I'm quite certain that even you would object to UND's stats being directly compared to MSU-Mankato's, or any other DII school.

How UND actually matches up with Wyoming is yet to be seen. But these numbers are just apples and oranges. Wyoming compiled those stats playing a FBS schedule, which, of course, makes a direct comparison to UND's stats against FCS opponents meaningless.

OK, but it's not irrelevant to Redneksioux's point. Which, as I understand it, is that UND hockey has more impact because it has more NHL players than NDSU has NFL players.

And when you consider that the NFL has 10X the TV ratings of NHL hockey.

No, the argument was explicit: NDSU has gotten more media exposure from its football team than UND has from its hockey team. These TV ratings indirectly (since UND wasn't in the Frozen Four Finals last year) support that argument.

It's just a clumsy rehash of the "it's better to be a big fish in a small pond" argument UND fans have been making for years. Unfortunately, he can't find numbers that really make his point.

No, you're reading more into it than what's really there. While it is true that college football is more popular than college hockey, unless you've surveyed the viewers of the Coastal - NDSU game, you have no idea whether they are general college football fans, fans of FCS football, or fans of one of the schools involved or how many there were in each category. All we know is that more people watched that game than watched the NCAA frozen four final. In fact, twice as many.

Again, UND bringing 10K to St Paul is not as impressive as NDSU bringing 17K to Dallas. In any case, you're trying to change the argument. You were the one that was wrong not Bison Alumni2011.

I don't think you'd find very many people who would say that 17K traveling 1,000 miles for a sporting event is not more impressive than 2,000 traveling 250 miles. That's what he said and he was not wrong.

The bolded statement is most certainly not wrong. Regardless of the circumstances of the game, NDSU bringing 17,000 football fans to a game 1,000 miles away IS way more impressive than UND bringing 2,000 fans to a game 250 miles away. None of the points you made change that. You seem to be saying that UND would have brought 17K fans to that game IF it had been a playoff game and IF the arena was big enough to hold that many. Maybe you're right maybe you're wrong. Either way you can't take credit for things that didn't actually happen.

No, it shows that more people watched NDSU in that particular game than watched last years' Frozen Four Final. Which does tend to support the argument that FCS Football is more popular than NCAA Hockey. It says little or nothing about the relative popularity of the sports at any other level. Although it certainly is true that football is more popular in this country than hockey.

How in the world is that relevant to a discussion of NDSU and UND's media exposure?