Sioux-Bison rivalry

[jimdahl]

http://new.in-forum.com/articles/?id=20414

If UND doesn't move up but remains competitive with NDSU in football, I would think that NDSU would not want to play a D-II team that might actually beat them, especially if NDSU has playoff hopes.

If, however, NDSU develops into a much stronger team than UND, I would think UND would quickly lose interest in getting pounded every year by a former competitive rival -- I suspect it would be very painful for a lot of UND fans to be forced to admit that NDSU's football team was actually decisively better.

Just my prediction -- unless they're in the same division, the UND-NDSU games will eventually end. Personally, even in situation #2, I'd love to see it continue for the bragging rights on those rare occasions UND does win.

[UND Fan]

If/when NDSU's program evolves to point where they can easily handle UND, there certainly doesn't seem to be any upside for UND to continue the series. The only reason to do so would be a large guarantee from SU for our traveling down to Fargo.

If NDSU doesn't rapidly surpass UND, something will definitely be wrong in the Bison camp. There is no way that a "good" program with 36 scholarships can compete with a "good" program with 63 full rides. You can't use UC-Davis -- Sacramento State as an example because Davis is a "better than good" DII program and Sac. State is a "much lousier than average" I-AA school.

[dbarker]

You would think that a program with 63 scholarships playing at home against a school with 36 scholarships (or less) would easily win, but for whatever it's worth, our friends from Central Washington went into Montana St. last Saturday and won convincingly. If I'm not mistaken, Central Washington's starting qb didn't even play. Montana St. is not as good as Montana, but they were actually ranked in the top 25 in I-AA a few weeks ago. Maybe this was something of an aberration, but then again last year New Haven beat a then-ranked Villanova team a few weeks after they were destroyed by the Sioux. I think it would take quite a while for NDSU to dominate consistently against any top-flight division II program. I really don't think the difference between the top I-AA teams and the top division II teams is all that great (see UNC against Montana this year). I certainly wouldn't hesitate to play home-and-home with NDSU for the foreseeable future. I wouldn't agree to a road-only series, but if they're willing to continue coming to UND every other year, then let's see how it plays out.