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Should UND go Division I?


Brent_Bobyck

Should UND go Division I ?  

42 members have voted

  1. 1. Should UND go Division I ?

    • Yes
      21
    • No
      21


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I am curious to see whether people believe that UND should make the move to Div. I. Seeing that USD is looking into it and with UNC, NDSU, and SDSU already going, I believe that the move is necessary to keep competitive. I believe that the NCC will be dead in a few years because no one wants to see Duluth play Augustana. We need this move!

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They hired a new AD who has alot of D1 experience.

And their last AD was a D-I hockey guy. He left after 5 years. Did you see the comments the new AD made about going D-IAA? He didn't make it sound like it would happen any time soon.

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I personally would like UND to have D-I athletics, but am not positive if their current economic situation can support it. With schools like UNC, SDSU, and NDSU reclassifying, it does seem likely that UND could also afford it. Therefore, my answer is that I definitely want UND to conduct a formal reclassification study so we can all see the numbers. We could then evaluate what changes in attendance/costs/fund-raising would be needed and evaluate the worst case/best case scenarios. Right now, we're all guessing blindly by trying to compare UND to NDSU/SDSU (the results of whose moves aren't known yet, anyway).

It's worth noting that being D-I would destroy UND's national competitiveness in every sport except football/swimming & diving (sorry if I missed any!) UND athletics are at a peak of success, so I can see why the insitution would be hesitant to risk that by reclassifying into a level in which we'll be much less successful. Will losing to obscure D-I opponents draw more fans than winning against D-II opponents? That's the big economic gamble.

I was digging through the football archives to try to uncover the last time UND swept the NCC (1975). Here are some of UND's non-conference opponents from then: 1971-80 UNLV, Montana, and Montana State were frequent opponents, 1973 Minnesota, 1976 Wisconsin

It's a shame we got away from that level of competition in the 80s, and I'd like to see us return to it. I know UND hasn't grown with UNLV, but the level of competition UND plays in football has defintely deteriorated. While football still wouldn't be "big time" (schools like Montana/Montana St are still very much "small time" compared to I-A), it would be a hell of a lot bigger time than playing schools like Newberry and Mesa State. For me the final word is that although the NCC still has quite a few institutions that seem like UND peers, the rest of D-II does not.

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I think that Northern CO., UND, NDSU, USD, SDSU, and Neb. Omaha should have all worked together to go to DI status instead of each school going on its own. Then they could have created thier own conference instead of each school begging to get into a conference. I know that UNO might not have been able to go DI because Lincoln would not want a Neb. school competing with it. Would that not have made sense though?

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I think that Northern CO., UND, NDSU, USD, SDSU, and Neb. Omaha should have all worked together to go to DI status instead of each school going on its own. Then they could have created thier own conference instead of each school begging to get into a conference. I know that UNO might not have been able to go DI because Lincoln would not want a Neb. school competing with it. Would that not have made sense though?

I agree...

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Look, study, evaluate: Yes.

Give honest answers to the hard questions: Yes.

Follow recommendations of experts (especially ones you hired): Yes.

Most importantly, do what is fiscally most responsible for the University: Yes.

The last two NCC road football games for UND concern me:

at MSU-Mankato - attendance 1888

at USD - attendance 3411

Also this past weekend:

NDSU at SCSU (last game ever at Selke Field) - under 5000

That doesn't say good things about the health of the NCC.

Alternatively, I'm interested to see the turnout for Concordia-St. Paul at NDSU this weekend. I want to see the turnout when there's really not much to play for. It's probably a good indicator of what would happen with any NCC team's attendance during a transition.

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Alternatively, I'm interested to see the turnout for Concordia-St. Paul at NDSU this weekend. I want to see the turnout when there's really not much to play for. It's probably a good indicator of what would happen with any NCC team's attendance during a transition.

I think that game is going to be for die-hards only. Look for something similar to the last few NDSU home games of last year. If they get more than about 7,000 or so, I'll be surprised.

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Attendance typically drops off for the last couple of NCC games due to people shooting at animals. I would guesstimate that nearly half of the crowd at Selke this weekend were Bison fans.

Sounds similar to UND at MSU-Mankato and UND at USD. (Half might be a little strong, but there was significant "green" in the stands.)

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I think we are much to far down the road to have a D1AA NCC. The window has closed on that opportunity. NDSU has moved on.

NDSU has moved on to what? The no man's land of a Division I independent? Chapman and Miller would cry tears of joy if the NCC decided to stay together and join NDSU in I-AA.

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There is no way enough NCC teams will move up to make a conference. UND is the only other team that should even think about it. I don't think the other NCC schools have the funding, facilities, or support to make it work.

Some of the other NCC teams that have expressed an interest must be living in a fantasy world.

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I think anybody else besides UND will have a huge uphill battle to move to DI. UNO has to get through the BOR in Nebraska, which is filled with Cornhusker alums. They don't want anybody competing for attention in Omaha. They're quite content on UNO being the little other school. The MN schools face the same issue with old Goldy. USD currently has to get back on track to be competitive in

DII. Augie-really doubt it. They need more support for their progams first.

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I think anybody else besides UND will have a huge uphill battle to move to DI. UNO has to get through the BOR in Nebraska, which is filled with Cornhusker alums. They don't want anybody competing for attention in Omaha. They're quite content on UNO being the little other school. The MN schools face the same issue with old Goldy. USD currently has to get back on track to be competitive in

DII. Augie-really doubt it. They need more support for their progams first.

How was it that Northern IA moved up despite 2 major D1A programs in Iowa and Iowa St.?

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Northern Iowa moved up in 1981. DI athletics wasn't quite the big business it is now. I'm not saying it's impossible for the other MN schools or UNO to move up. It will be more difficult for them to get the support with a juggernaut in their states that has a lot of support in key areas. A couple of UNO fans have stated that the Nebraska BOR is essentially controlled by Cornhusker alumni. Both Minnesota and Nebraska want to be the only show in their states.

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Northern Iowa moved up in 1981. DI athletics wasn't quite the big business it is now. I'm not saying it's impossible for the other MN schools or UNO to move up. It will be more difficult for them to get the support with a juggernaut in their states that has a lot of support in key areas. A couple of UNO fans have stated that the Nebraska BOR is essentially controlled by Cornhusker alumni. Both Minnesota and Nebraska want to be the only show in their states.

I understand what you're saying...but it's kinda funny that UMN is the only show in the state yet their attendence isn't very high.

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I think that game is going to be for die-hards only. Look for something similar to the last few NDSU home games of last year. If they get more than about 7,000 or so, I'll be surprised.

The attendance for the NDSU-Concordia SP game yesterday was 7,045. It will be interesting to see if this is going to be indicative of how a late-season game will draw when there's little or nothing on the line. Granted, Concordia-SP is not a big-name opponent, but on the other hand there was still potentially something to play for for NDSU yesterday. Will a late-season game against St. Mary's (CA) or Southern Utah draw much better? I guess we'll find out.

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