USD at UND

[petey23]

This is what makes college football so exciting!

Get out to the Al on Saturday!

Yep. Pat Sweeney is electric!

[darell1976]

In 2009 there was 12,431 at the UND-USD game...lets try to break that!!

[darell1976]

5dimes.com

USD

UND -2

Zeb Miller may want to keep warm because the game may come down to his leg.

[sioux24/7]

Jake Miller needs 85 yards I think to reach 1,000 on the season. Who was the last player to reach 1,000?

[UND92,96]

Jake Miller needs 85 yards I think to reach 1,000 on the season. Who was the last player to reach 1,000?

Josh Murray in 2008.

[the green team]

The problem with UND athletics marketing is that outside of the Greater Grand Forks area (except for perhaps the Northern Red River Valley), UND does not have the presence that it should have considering it is again (thank God) the largest university in the State of North Dakota. Both football and basketball have been short-changed in marketing for years and years. For a long, long time, football wasn't advertised until a week before the first game. And once the commercials start, they take on the following attitude: Hey, Sioux football is back. We are at home this weekend. Tickets are available. Come and check it out, unless you have something more important going on. If you listen to NDSU marketing, it makes you want to drive to Fargo overnight to buy a ticket to a game (football and/or basketball). When the UND Women's Basketball Team was winning national titles in the 1990's, it did not generate the level of hype and excitement in the marketing that it should have. When NDSU's women's team was winning national titles before that, they made it seem like they were beating the UConn's and Tennessee's of the world. I do not like NDSU athletics at all, but they have much better marketing of their programs than we do. And if we are going to succeed at the Division I level, we will need to change that. It has real world consequences for attendance, fundraising, recruiting, media exposure, ect.

Ok let me get this straight--from your marketing standpoint. You say that football & basketball haven't been marketed. Uh, I believe they've received a lions share of the marketing, why? Because even the marketing department knows that hockey needs very little if any in recent years. It markets itself and resources can be used elsewhere. ie the other sports. The great thing about UND is that you can visit with many of the integral figures involved as they are easily accesible walking around at tailgating, sioux boosters. I visited with Lisa Persuiti (sp?) about this very subject a few years ago, and she pretty much said the same thing.

Now to your point of marketing to the Greater Grand Forks area and the Red River Valley as opposed to the rest of the state. Well, I hate to tell you this that I travel the state for my job and I do hear radio spots promoting UND Athletics. And perhaps UND has the biggest leverage in that they have the Fighting Sioux Sports Network that reaches a vast majority of viewers throughout the state. What better advertising then to showcase product and oh yeah, they have promotional ads during those broadcasts too. I do have to argue as a business man about your logic of spending more further away from the region. Let's say you spend a lot of money marketing in Bismarck, Minot and Williston as opposed to the Red River Valley. Do you think that is a good business decision? If your trying to sell tickets- many are going to discount the opportunity on the distance that it requires to come to a game for that reason alone- those that want to come are already coming. Not say you don't need a presence but in my mind they already do and to recklessly spend on foolish marketing campaigns further and further away from the base won't necessarily equal ROI- return on investment.

Your other point about the commercials is an argument about creative. That's 6 of one, a dozen of the other when it comes to personal preference. I will say this... that the simple message is often times- the most effective.

[zonadub]

one more note... when it comes to football, especially, you are not going to get a bison fan to go to a Sioux game by advertising the Sioux game, no matter how compelling the ad is. Nor would you want them to. the green team has a point about targeting your advertising - those that are going to drive in from the western part of the state are already doing it. again, do you think a cool ad will make someone drive 4 hours each way from Bismarck to watch the Sioux play Black Hills State? maybe next year when its Montana State.

[Cratter]

Boy oh Boy. I just came in from outside (GF). Its 10 degrees. The "feels like" (weather.com term) is currently -8. High of 21.

So glad for indoor football today!

[the green team]

Boy oh Boy. I just came in from outside (GF). Its 10 degrees. The "feels like" (weather.com term) is currently -8. High of 21.

So glad for indoor football today!

Amen to that- don't know how much tailgating were going to do today- maybe a little. But, definitely going to be at the game. Go Sioux!

[fightingsioux4life]

one more note... when it comes to football, especially, you are not going to get a bison fan to go to a Sioux game by advertising the Sioux game, no matter how compelling the ad is. Nor would you want them to. the green team has a point about targeting your advertising - those that are going to drive in from the western part of the state are already doing it. again, do you think a cool ad will make someone drive 4 hours each way from Bismarck to watch the Sioux play Black Hills State? maybe next year when its Montana State.

Maybe I should clarify something; I was NOT talking about marketing to Bison fans. I was talking about getting people that aren't into hockey like most of us in Grand Forks to come to Grand Forks for home football and basketball games. I think one of the points that proponents of Big Sky membership vs. MVFC/Summit Membership made is that it expands our reach westward vs. eastward. Now that we are in the BSC, it's time to capitalize on that advantage we have over the other Dakota schools, whose focus will be more eastward. And I fully realize that people won't drive 4 hours to watch us beat up on teams like Black Hills State; that is why I've been one of the most vocal critics of some of the home scheduling decisions made in the Bunning/Faison era.

As for the Return on Investment point made by the green team, that is probably the same logic behind scheduling SD Mines next year when we should work on building a playoff-calibre portfolio of opponents (a.k.a. FCS teams!). We get weak, lower-division opponents to come to the Alerus Center, we beat them like we should and then we get to keep more of the gate and that insures a good Return on Investment. That bargain basement approach worked in D-II where everything was cheaper; it will NOT work at the DI FCS level.

For the record, I am not suggesting a reckless advertising program, but one that targets the fans we want to get to come to Grand Forks and/or tune in on TV and/or radio whereever they live. If we are going to make this Division I move pay off (financially and otherwise), we will have to change how we treat our non-hockey programs. They were neglected for so many years that it will take a long-term plan to raise their profile to the point where we can achieve what I think we can achieve. That means a nationally-ranked, championship contending DI FCS football team and basketball programs that are in contention for Big Sky titles and trips to March Madness (which will help both marketing and finances). The hockey teams should continue to roll along like they always have. That is my vision for Division I UND sports.

[UND92,96]

IMO, Goska's best game was last year against Lamar--229 passing yards, no int's and a td, and 95 rushing yards and a td. 324 total yards is probably too much to ask today, but 250-plus total yards would be huge. The running game has struggled the past few weeks, so we may need more running by Goska, either by design or scrambling.