2026 UND Football Season Thread

[AJS]

20 hours ago, Siouxdaddy said:

https://www.inforum.com/sports/bison-media-zone/mens-sports/mcfeely-is-history-repeating-itself-with-bisons-move-to-fbs?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

I was not alive when NDSU made the jump or for when anything Mcfeely is talking about happened. Was what he said generally true? And that being said, should Chaves position UND for a FBS move if truly a school like SDSU or the Montanas is debating jumping up too? Genuinely asking.

Quote

UND knew NDSU wanted to move up someday, but didn’t think the Bison were close.

Never believed a sentence more. I've ranted on this before, so will keep it brief. There's a lot of similarities between the D2 decision and the early 2000s and what's happening now. UND is a few peer institutions (most importantly SDSU, but also Montana's) from leaving away from being in the same place they were 20-some years ago. Maybe in a worse spot since the Summit League is so unstable (St. Thomas is on their way out, NDSU will take all-sports, same with SDSU in the scenario they leave). 

So yes, give me a poorly attended bowl game over an FCS playoff with no one left. I'm not saying FBS or bust, but I am saying, they need to be proactive in this. Plan accordingly. They cannot get left behind, again. 

[Undertherock]

20 hours ago, UND69er said:

Kupchella and Thomas made a huge mistake with the decision not to move when the SUs did. Not sure the current situation now with NDSU moving to FBS is the same. But if Montana, MSU, SDSU and USD decide to move then we should probably go too. My 5cents worth.

As an SDSU fan, I was opposed to the DI move and thought that it was foolish.  23 years later, while some suggest that we've just seen a golden age of SDSU athletics, I think the reality is a little more mixed, even though I admit to being wrong about the move.  Football has been wildly more successful at DI than at DII, because the institution and donors decided to start funding FB.  BB, VB and the Olympic sports have all prospered at the conference level but realistically, the hopes for these teams go no further than winning a conference tournament. And while Frost (now FBT) Arena is one of the best Summit environments, attendance pales in comparison to DII days and the bedlam that was old Frost against even non-NCC foes like Northern State.   Even as arguably the top mid-major women's basketball program, the woman are lucky to win one NCAA tournament game.  Of course in 2003, no one envisioned what the portal and NIL would do to men's college basketball.  Still, I doubt anyone would go back to DII/NCC days. 

I think the big difference between moving from DII to DI vs moving from FCS to FBS is that for the the xDSUs and UxDs, and even some of the schools that stayed behind, those institutions looked more like their soon-to-be peers in the Summit/MVFC than they did the Morningsides, the Augies, or the Marys, etc.  In retrospect, its easy to see that we would become the class of our conferences.  But whereas our institutions look like the class of FCS institutions, we don't look like the class of FBS.  Short of a reckless multi-billionaire throwing lavish money at an institution, there isn't a scenario where our institutions even sniff sustained competitiveness against the P4, let alone the P2.  My hang-up with a potential move to FBS for SDSU would be taking the one sport where national championships are possible, and reducing it to a scenario like all the other sports, to wit: The conference championship game (if it still exists), is the pinnacle of that sport's success.  

The only attraction I see to FBS is if there is a some kind of a split where the G6 has their own playoff but as noted earlier, G6 won't instigate this for fear of losing access to CFP.  If it would become a reality, effectively creating a new second tier of CFB, that's where I'd want SDSU to be, and I think the AD has made it clear that that is where SDSU belongs.  Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the admin feels like the window to move is closing, whether because of pending legislation or otherwise, and is feeling pressure from the NDSU move, and that we'll hear sooner, rather than later, that SDSU is ransoming their way into FBS as well.  This belief is entirely uninformed but AD Sell plays things pretty close to the vest and it wouldn't surprise me one iota to learn that a lot of discussions are being held behind closed doors on just how to fund such a move and backchanneling to potential conferences.  

[jdub27]

21 hours ago, Siouxdaddy said:

https://www.inforum.com/sports/bison-media-zone/mens-sports/mcfeely-is-history-repeating-itself-with-bisons-move-to-fbs?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

I was not alive when NDSU made the jump or for when anything Mcfeely is talking about happened. Was what he said generally true? And that being said, should Chaves position UND for a FBS move if truly a school like SDSU or the Montanas is debating jumping up too? Genuinely asking.

All the puff pieces must not be getting enough views so decided to go with the tried and true method of click-bating rival fans....
*yawn*

 

36 minutes ago, AJS said:

Never believed a sentence more. I've ranted on this before, so will keep it brief.

More accurately, no one thought they were going to convince donors to pay an unprecedented ransom on top of revenue concessions to buy their way in. Plenty of people knew things going on behind the scenes, they just didn't think NDSU would actually give into the demands that were out there. And the money still isn't there. Hopefully the ones that already opened their checkbook are willing to do so even more because they need some big checks.
On the flip side, everyone knew Sac St would do whatever it took, their president is either a genius or a clown, which time will be the judge of.

[NDRA]

1 hour ago, Goon said:

What is the benefit of joining FBS Football? We already saw what happened to James Madison and how bad they were beaten in the FBS playoffs. UND is probably right where they need to be as far as Division I football goes. Feel free to tell where I am wrong, just saying. Do we really want to go play in a poorly attended mediocre bowl game or compete in the FCS playoffs? 

To be fair a lot of FCS playoff games are poorly attended as well, exception for Dak/Mont home games.  If SU makes a bowl game you can bet it will be quite well attended by Bison fans.