2025 Non-UND FCS News/Scores Thread

[siouxweet]

27 minutes ago, 1972 said:

So NDSU looses a recruiting battle to the Gophers in their own back yard.  Maybe the allure of NDSU isn't so  strong when you are not playing for championships

Really?  They have lost recruiting battles to us while they were winning championships, I don't think this statement flies.  Maybe some kids would just want to play for a Big Ten school.

[1972]

24 minutes ago, siouxweet said:

Really?  They have lost recruiting battles to us while they were winning championships, I don't think this statement flies.  Maybe some kids would just want to play for a Big Ten school.

But the way the NDSU faithful have framed the move, you would think it was every kids dream to play in Fargo for a chance to play in a nothing bowl

[siouxweet]

3 hours ago, 1972 said:

But the way the NDSU faithful have framed the move, you would think it was every kids dream to play in Fargo for a chance to play in a nothing bowl

I get it.   I just don't pay attention to what segments of their fan base think as those segments can go do you know what to themselves as their is a segment of ours that can go do the same.  They don't live in reality. 

[SIOUXFAN97]

come to fargo...you can win natty's just like bama....now it's who wants a dumb jv title.....you wanna win the bluebonnet bowl against toledo?

[fightingsioux4life]

On 2/18/2026 at 2:42 PM, USTBench said:

Nothing really, but we were about as sportsmanlike with St. Olaf as NDSU was with us. 😆 That, and winning 2/3 of the team titles in an 11/12 team league, it was pretty clear it was time to go. I was upset at the time, but having a few years to reflect on it, I get why the MIAC did what they did. The mission of our athletic department was incompatible with the rest of the conference. That said, it's sad UST has left the football program out in the cold while they pour money into everything else. 

Getting kicked out of the MIAC was the best thing that ever happened to UST. And I think your FB program will eventually land in the MVFC.

[fightingsioux4life]

6 hours ago, 1972 said:

So NDSU looses a recruiting battle to the Gophers in their own back yard.  Maybe the allure of NDSU isn't so  strong when you are not playing for championships

B1G > MWC

It's not that complicated.

[SIOUXFAN97]

29 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

B1G > MWC

It's not that complicated.

tell that to the midget and the madman of cass county

[GeauxSioux]

This guy??

 

[USTBench]

1 hour ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Getting kicked out of the MIAC was the best thing that ever happened to UST. And I think your FB program will eventually land in the MVFC.

That'd be nice, but it sounds like AD Phil Esten and the powers that be don't have much stomach for scholarship football, but if there is a path it will require some major facility upgrades. When UST's unsolicited offer to buy the Town & Country Club for an athletic village for $60 million was rejected they decided to buy the old Ford Motor plant site in Highland Park about 2 miles south of campus, where they'll move baseball and softball, but Minnesota and their endless bureaucratic nonsense will have that project stalled for awhile with environmental impact studies and whiney neighbors.

Softball shares space with soccer and baseball takes up a ton of surface area on the NW side of campus just north of the football stadium. I don't know what, if anything, they have that space earmarked for, but if they could get a proper indoor facility for track/football/soccer and make some serious upgrades for spectators at the football stadium it might be MVFC worthy. Of course, having dumpy facilities never stopped Western Illinois, Indiana State, and Murray State from being part of the MVFC, so who knows. I just think if UST is going to make that type of move it will be to compete for a conference title, and there's challenges to being landlocked with unfriendly neighbors (sharing a stadium with track & field, no space to build out the stadium or revamp it, etc.). The other major issue is getting folks on board to fund scholarship football when they've clearly decided to flagship basketball and hockey, which is a little shortsighted as I think football is the hood ornament of just about every major school in the Midwest and it raises your profile in ways that hockey just can't. That said, drawing 7,000 to 8,000 fans a game would be optimistic, even with upgrades to the stadium, especially if game times overlap with the Gophers. What UST is missing is a rival like SJU to push them into an arms race, and you're just not going to get that in the Pioneer League, because Drake/Butler/Valpo just don't care enough about football. 

[fightingsioux4life]

2 hours ago, USTBench said:

That'd be nice, but it sounds like AD Phil Esten and the powers that be don't have much stomach for scholarship football, but if there is a path it will require some major facility upgrades. When UST's unsolicited offer to buy the Town & Country Club for an athletic village for $60 million was rejected they decided to buy the old Ford Motor plant site in Highland Park about 2 miles south of campus, where they'll move baseball and softball, but Minnesota and their endless bureaucratic nonsense will have that project stalled for awhile with environmental impact studies and whiney neighbors.

Softball shares space with soccer and baseball takes up a ton of surface area on the NW side of campus just north of the football stadium. I don't know what, if anything, they have that space earmarked for, but if they could get a proper indoor facility for track/football/soccer and make some serious upgrades for spectators at the football stadium it might be MVFC worthy. Of course, having dumpy facilities never stopped Western Illinois, Indiana State, and Murray State from being part of the MVFC, so who knows. I just think if UST is going to make that type of move it will be to compete for a conference title, and there's challenges to being landlocked with unfriendly neighbors (sharing a stadium with track & field, no space to build out the stadium or revamp it, etc.). The other major issue is getting folks on board to fund scholarship football when they've clearly decided to flagship basketball and hockey, which is a little shortsighted as I think football is the hood ornament of just about every major school in the Midwest and it raises your profile in ways that hockey just can't. That said, drawing 7,000 to 8,000 fans a game would be optimistic, even with upgrades to the stadium, especially if game times overlap with the Gophers. What UST is missing is a rival like SJU to push them into an arms race, and you're just not going to get that in the Pioneer League, because Drake/Butler/Valpo just don't care enough about football. 

The way I see it, not having FB is preferable to non-scholarship FB. 

[FSSD]

3 hours ago, USTBench said:

That'd be nice, but it sounds like AD Phil Esten and the powers that be don't have much stomach for scholarship football, but if there is a path it will require some major facility upgrades. When UST's unsolicited offer to buy the Town & Country Club for an athletic village for $60 million was rejected they decided to buy the old Ford Motor plant site in Highland Park about 2 miles south of campus, where they'll move baseball and softball, but Minnesota and their endless bureaucratic nonsense will have that project stalled for awhile with environmental impact studies and whiney neighbors.

Softball shares space with soccer and baseball takes up a ton of surface area on the NW side of campus just north of the football stadium. I don't know what, if anything, they have that space earmarked for, but if they could get a proper indoor facility for track/football/soccer and make some serious upgrades for spectators at the football stadium it might be MVFC worthy. Of course, having dumpy facilities never stopped Western Illinois, Indiana State, and Murray State from being part of the MVFC, so who knows. I just think if UST is going to make that type of move it will be to compete for a conference title, and there's challenges to being landlocked with unfriendly neighbors (sharing a stadium with track & field, no space to build out the stadium or revamp it, etc.). The other major issue is getting folks on board to fund scholarship football when they've clearly decided to flagship basketball and hockey, which is a little shortsighted as I think football is the hood ornament of just about every major school in the Midwest and it raises your profile in ways that hockey just can't. That said, drawing 7,000 to 8,000 fans a game would be optimistic, even with upgrades to the stadium, especially if game times overlap with the Gophers. What UST is missing is a rival like SJU to push them into an arms race, and you're just not going to get that in the Pioneer League, because Drake/Butler/Valpo just don't care enough about football. 

I would love to see SJU move up.  Completely agree on needing them to push football forward.

[F'n Hawks]

Interesting to compare the payouts for these games.

[Cratter]

UND Basketball has a .0001% to win a national championship.

But UND still moved up a division so I guess theres a bigger picture than winning championships.

Ive seen the Nebraska Cornhuskers go play at non p5 conference schools.

Having Nebraska or Minnesota come to the Fargodome would bring natty type excitement. 

[UND69er]

5 hours ago, Cratter said:

UND Basketball has a .0001% to win a national championship.

But UND still moved up a division so I guess theres a bigger picture than winning championships.

Ive seen the Nebraska Cornhuskers go play at non p5 conference schools.

Having Nebraska or Minnesota come to the Fargodome would bring natty type excitement. 

Hilarious! Gophers won't even play the Bison in MPLS. Huskers sellout 86000 per game! Sure they'll come to Fargo!

[Cratter]

1 hour ago, UND69er said:

Hilarious! Gophers won't even play the Bison in MPLS. Huskers sellout 86000 per game! Sure they'll come to Fargo!

Cornhuskers traveled to Wyoming.

Gophers traveled to other "lesser teams."

Theres more big boys than just those two examples.

Its only a matter of time....a decent amount of time - sure they're not even FBS yet.

But every journey starts somewhere.

[Johnny Five]

On 2/25/2026 at 7:25 AM, 1972 said:

But the way the NDSU faithful have framed the move, you would think it was every kids dream to play in Fargo for a chance to play in a nothing bowl

LakesBison doesn't speak for the entire fanbase.  Those Spuds players are legit.  And whether people want to believe it or not, PJ Fleck is legit  - for Minnesota.  Talk to anyone who has been recruited by him and those 3 kids all said similar.  

It'll happen from time to time as every kid has different path, plans and ambitions, but if you're turning down a B1G school for a Mountain West of MVFC that's a stretch.  Even the Gophers get some damn fun atmospheres and some kids want that and all the other "big school" perks.

[fightingsioux4life]

On 3/7/2026 at 8:40 AM, Cratter said:

Cornhuskers traveled to Wyoming.

Gophers traveled to other "lesser teams."

Theres more big boys than just those two examples.

Its only a matter of time....a decent amount of time - sure they're not even FBS yet.

But every journey starts somewhere.

Please don't enlarge the ego of Imperial Cass County. What's next, it's only a matter of time before Fargo gets an NFL team? 

[nodakvindy]

On 3/7/2026 at 2:16 AM, Cratter said:

UND Basketball has a .0001% to win a national championship.

But UND still moved up a division so I guess theres a bigger picture than winning championships.

Ive seen the Nebraska Cornhuskers go play at non p5 conference schools.

Having Nebraska or Minnesota come to the Fargodome would bring natty type excitement. 

But this will never happen.  If they play any G5 type school on the road it would be in a fertile recruit ground. Not Fargo

[SIOUXFAN97]

30 minutes ago, nodakvindy said:

But this will never happen.  If they play any G5 type school on the road it would be in a fertile recruit ground. Not Fargo

with imperial cass and ndac inferiority complex...wouldn't be surprised if they paid millions for someone "big"to come to the dirty fargo...

[fightingsioux4life]

47 minutes ago, Johnny Five said:

LakesBison doesn't speak for the entire fanbase.

LakesBison only speaks for himself and the voices in his head.

[forksandspoons]

Did they actually pay a 1-11 Fordham team $475k to come to Fargo?? 🤣

[Cratter]

5 hours ago, nodakvindy said:

But this will never happen.  If they play any G5 type school on the road it would be in a fertile recruit ground. Not Fargo

They'll start with teams like Boise State and Deion Sanders.

App State got the Miami Hurricanes to go to their stadium just a few years after joining FBS.

[nodakvindy]

2 minutes ago, Cratter said:

They'll start with teams like Boise State and Deion Sanders.

App State got the Miami Hurricanes to go to their stadium just a few years after joining FBS.

That was before the NIL and CFP.  Different ballgame now. The power leagues are just at a different level now. Only way it would happen is if ESPN wants it. That's were things are. 

[UND69er]

10 minutes ago, Cratter said:

They'll start with teams like Boise State and Deion Sanders.

App State got the Miami Hurricanes to go to their stadium just a few years after joining FBS.

Unless I slept thru the news Deion is still at Colorado and is not a "team".

Always some strange stuff happens every year though.  I am sure when Hawaii plays in Fargo there will be planeloads of fans from Honolulu arriving.

[UND1983]

5 hours ago, forksandspoons said:

Did they actually pay a 1-11 Fordham team $475k to come to Fargo?? 🤣

Also a home and home with Sac State, oh how the mighty have fallen