Future Schedules

[darell1976]

No. 1: I, like everyone else, wishes that SDM was not on the schedule. This opponent serves no purpose other than to give this still-young team some action before getting into a very difficult schedule.

No. 2: Your quote "Why can't we do that?" was in comparson to SU. You address part of answer above - football is No. 1 down there. They sell a ton of season tickets and their dome is normallly very near, if not, full. Averaging twice as many in attendance results in a huge difference in revenue.

No. 3: I also hope your statement that "crowds will show up" with better opponents is true but it may take awhile (and some success) before that happens. We had less than 10,000 for Cal Poly at Homecoming and an embarrassing 7,400 for a game with our only current rival for a conference championship.

No. 4: There have been no excess funds laying around to "invest" in a better schedule - especially when we are still trying to get our arms around all the additional scholarship, recruiting and travel costs of moving to DI.

No. 5: It is very easy for us (including me) to second-guess many things within UND's athletic department but we are naive if we think Faison and others wouldn't like a better schedule, that the men's BB team hasn't tried to recruit more size, that the FB coaching staff didn't wish they had more talent at QB, etc. Just because we want something to happen doesn't mean it will.

No. 6: I realize that am being a bit hypocritical because, if you look back at many of my posts, they have often been critical of various things within the athletic department (mostly coaching). But most of our concerns ultimately revolve around money (even our recruiting successes - or lack of). If our pockets were deeper, I think we would all see some things happening quite differently.

No. 7. End of rant!!

If its all about money explain how can SDSU have a full DI schedule their last year in transition and none since. Our football budget has to be bigger than the Jacks. I will be pissed if USD has ZERO non-DI teams on their schedule because I know our budget is bigger than theirs.

[Dagger]

Did SDSU have a year to two where they only had 3 or 4 home games? I might be wrong on that.

[star2city]

If its all about money explain how can SDSU have a full DI schedule their last year in transition and none since. Our football budget has to be bigger than the Jacks. I will be pissed if USD has ZERO non-DI teams on their schedule because I know our budget is bigger than theirs.

To schedule like SDSU doesn't take a lot of money. SDSU doesn't pay for a single home game. All its non-conference FCS games are home-home swaps. SDSU also gets a huge pay day by scheduling Nebraskas and Illini etc. SDSU doesn't pay out anything for home games and needs the $'s from a big FBS payday to keep its budget balanced.

To schedule like NDSU takes a lot of money. Two non-scholarship teams that must be flown in. That's probably $350,000 right there, which the FBS payday barely covers. NDSU also pays its coaches quite a bit, so Teammakers and ticket sales are putting much more substantial $'s into its program than the SDSU and USD obtain from their resources.

UND is between those two conditions, largely because the Fighting Sioux club puts more into UND athletics than the Teammakers puts into NDSU and substantially more than SDSU's Jackrabbit Club (or whatever they call them). Football can thank hockey for that. UND also is not relying on huge FBS paydays (N Ill, Fresno St, and certainly Idaho don't pay that much in the scheme of things). UND's ticket sales obviously don't come close to NDSU's sales, but, because SDSU has very low prices, the home gate of UND may actually exceed SDSU's because of the price differential.

Next year, the key issue for UND will be season ticket sales. Season ticket sales need to go way up in anticipation of the Big Sky games and a meaningful season. Without a season ticket, it may be difficult to get a ticket for the Montana game. Montana will probably brings a few thousand fans by itself for that game. If UND can get to 6000 or more season tickets, then "purchasing" FCS home games like NDSU does will be much easier.

[darell1976]

To schedule like SDSU doesn't take a lot of money. SDSU doesn't pay for a single home game. All its non-conference FCS games are home-home swaps. SDSU also gets a huge pay day by scheduling Nebraskas and Illini etc. SDSU doesn't pay out anything for home games and needs the $'s from a big FBS payday to keep its budget balanced.

To schedule like NDSU takes a lot of money. Two non-scholarship teams that must be flown in. That's probably $350,000 right there, which the FBS payday barely covers. NDSU also pays its coaches quite a bit, so Teammakers and ticket sales are putting much more substantial $'s into its program than the SDSU and USD obtain from their resources.

UND is between those two conditions, largely because the Fighting Sioux club puts more into UND athletics than the Teammakers puts into NDSU and substantially more than SDSU's Jackrabbit Club (or whatever they call them). Football can thank hockey for that. UND also is not relying on huge FBS paydays (N Ill, Fresno St, and certainly Idaho don't pay that much in the scheme of things). UND's ticket sales obviously don't come close to NDSU's sales, but, because SDSU has very low prices, the home gate of UND may actually exceed SDSU's because of the price differential.

Next year, the key issue for UND will be season ticket sales. Season ticket sales need to go way up in anticipation of the Big Sky games and a meaningful season. Without a season ticket, it may be difficult to get a ticket for the Montana game. Montana will probably brings a few thousand fans by itself for that game. If UND can get to 6000 or more season tickets, then "purchasing" FCS home games like NDSU does will be much easier.

Almost sounds like SDSU is playing with fire...what happens when there is a team that backs out of the home and home? We have had it done twice in 3 years. I would love it if UND could put more money into football and less in hockey. Hockey basically takes care of itself with the REA being a HUGE recruiting tool. The Alerus is nowhere near the Ralph or even the Fargodome. It needs all the help it can get.

[darell1976]

Did SDSU have a year to two where they only had 3 or 4 home games? I might be wrong on that.

2004 they had 4 home games: Winona State, Western Oregon, NDSU and Augustana, however in 2005 they had 8...yes 8 home games only 2 of them was non DI teams. 2006 they also had 4 home games.

[badger1]

any word on a trip to C-R Stadium? ha ha hope not. that south dakota game was ugly

[darell1976]

any word on a trip to C-R Stadium? ha ha hope not. that south dakota game was ugly

With that nickname thing out of the way maybe UND will get a call from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa in more sports than football.

[UND1983]

Did anybody see the Forum today? GSU's buyout for the NDSU game was only $60,000! That's less than half of what it cost to replace the game. That is a terribly negotiated buyout by NDSU.

Faison looks pretty damn good getting $150,000 from UCA.

[Bison Dan]

Did anybody see the Forum today? GSU's buyout for the NDSU game was only $60,000! That's less than half of what it cost to replace the game. That is a terribly negotiated buyout by NDSU.

Faison looks pretty damn good getting $150,000 from UCA.

Game was contracted in 2006 before buyouts were common.

[UNDColorado]

Did anybody see the Forum today? GSU's buyout for the NDSU game was only $60,000! That's less than half of what it cost to replace the game. That is a terribly negotiated buyout by NDSU.

Faison looks pretty damn good getting $150,000 from UCA.

I am going to beat the trolls to the punch here in that we did get hosed by Idaho State as I think it was only a 25k buyout (buning at his finest).

To your point: Faison is indeed starting to get it done!

[Risky]

I thought I read somewhere that the contract on the return game for Georgia Southern, after the game down there in 2006, was renegotiated since the original game.

[UND1983]

Game was contracted in 2006 before buyouts were common.

You think buyouts started in 2006?

[the green team]

The Idaho State buyout debacle was set up by the Bunning administration. Um, I'm pretty sure buy-outs have been pretty common for longer than the last few years. That is a funny statement.

[Bison Dan]

You think buyouts started in 2006?

Before a lot of teams took the buyouts.

[UND92,96]

Per the recruiting live chat on undsports.com, UND will be playing San Jose St. in 2014.

[homer]

I like the scheduling of the FBS games within the boundaries of the Big Sky conference.

[mg2009]

I've said that fans DON'T seem to show up no matter who the opponent is. My guess is the SD Mines game will probably be the first or second best attended game on next season's schedule.

it will be. just like 2010 and 2011, all the incoming freshman will go to the first game, watch UND play down to mediocre competition, yawn, and never come back until they graduate, if then.

[UNDColorado]

it will be. just like 2010 and 2011, all the incoming freshman will go to the first game, watch UND play down to mediocre competition, yawn, and never come back until they graduate, if then.

Hopefully they are smart enough to look at the schedule and realize that other than the mines game we have a top notch FCS schedule; finally good teams will consistently be coming to GF. FYI I do wish that the mines game was off the schedule.

[jodcon]

FYI I do wish that the mines game was off the schedule.

Everybody does, it serves no purpose.

[mg2009]

Hopefully they are smart enough to look at the schedule and realize that other than the mines game we have a top notch FCS schedule; finally good teams will consistently be coming to GF. FYI I do wish that the mines game was off the schedule.

me too. We've had biggish names before, cal poly and USD should move the needle. Never really turned out that way. I think the BSC will help turnout, but it might be a few years down the road.

[darell1976]

Per the recruiting live chat on undsports.com, UND will be playing San Jose St. in 2014.

Someone (hopefully Faison) explain to me how we can schedule a SJSU, or a PSU but we can't get rid of SD Mines.

[82SiouxGuy]

Someone (hopefully Faison) explain to me how we can schedule a SJSU, or a PSU but we can't get rid of SD Mines.

SJSU and PSU are simple to explain. UND can pretty easily schedule away games at lower level FBS schools, especially several years in advance. Paying for PSU was easy because of the buyout that UND got.

It's expensive to bring in FCS schools for a single game, and FCS schools don't seem to like coming to this part of the country for home and homes. Even NDSU has had some problems filling home schedules. It would be nice to get rid of SD Mines, but I would guess that the number of schools that want to come to Grand Forks for a modest fee would be pretty small. Remember, if you pay a school $125,000 plus buy out SD Mines you need to sell 10,000 tickets at $15 per ticket just to pay those costs. Then you still have to pay all of the other game day costs. And the goal is usually to make money on home games, not lose money.

[Cratter]

Excuses, excuses, excuses......UND could easily have scheduled home and homes with SDSU, USD, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, NDSU, Illinois St, Indiana St, Western Illinois, NDSU.

Once UND stops scheduling non Division I teams, because it caused us to miss the playoffs, will the excuses stay the same?

[WeAreNorthDakota]

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.

[UND Fan]

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.

Very well said!!!