2006 schedule

[BIGSIOUX]

on d2 football.com UND is still shopping the dates of Aug 24,25, or 26th for this year.

i hope they can get that 11th game.

[SiouxMD]

on d2 football.com UND is still shopping the dates of Aug 24,25, or 26th for this year.

i hope they can get that 11th game.

Does this mean 21OCT is filled or going to be left open?

[UND92,96]

Tusculum also has an open date which would work for that week before the Central Washington game. They appear to be the only decent opponent with that open date according to those listed on d2football.com.

[bincitysioux]

Charleston is also looking for games on those dates, and are willing to travel. There were 9-2 last year.

[UND92,96]

Charleston is also looking for games on those dates, and are willing to travel. There were 9-2 last year.

That game could possibly be beneficial from an RPI standpoint--although I'm not sure how the RPI works exactly--but the West Virginia conference is brutal. I think any team in that league would be blown out by 50-60 points against anybody from the NCC.

[bincitysioux]

Charleston is also looking for games on those dates, and are willing to travel. There were 9-2 last year.

Check that, Charleston was 8-3 last year. At any rate, it sounds like they are looking for 3 games still either home or away. Tusculum is a bigger name, but they were only 3-7 last year, although they may play in a better conference. Still I'd rather see teams with winning records come to the Alerus.

[UND92,96]

Check that, Charleston was 8-3 last year. At any rate, it sounds like they are looking for 3 games still either home or away. Tusculum is a bigger name, but they were only 3-7 last year, although they may play in a better conference. Still I'd rather see teams with winning records come to the Alerus.

I suspect Tusculum would have been either undefeated or very close to it had they played Charleston's schedule. I just would prefer to see a team that could conceivably provide a challenge to the Sioux. I don't think anybody in the WVIAC would do that. Tusculum was evidently a bit down last year, but was 9-2 in 2003 and above .500 in 2004.

[RD17]

The past two seasons there have been 11 weeks to play 11 games in D2. This year the NCAA decided to add a 12th week back to the regular season to give people more flexibility in scheduling. The problem is that the NCAA waited until just recently to approve the weekend of 8/26 as the first permissable playing date. This is why you see UND looking for opponents on the 26th so late in the game.

There are two major problems for UND. First, many schools already had their 11 games scheduled before the 8/26 date was approved. So there are many teams that have the date open but already have a full schedule. The other issue is that I-AA isn't allowed to start play that early so that cuts out another potential pool of opponents.

I do know that several of the GLIAC schools have 8/26 open and have just 10 games. If someone from UND is reading this, I think these folks should receive a call:

Northern Michigan

Michigan Tech

Saginaw Valley

Findlay

Mercyhurst

[bincitysioux]

That would be awesome to have Saginaw come to the Alerus. Michigan Tech would also be a nice season opener. Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing the Sioux travel to play SVSU.

[RD17]

If UND is going to play, I'm pretty sure they'd require that it be a home game since the first two as it stands now are on the road.

SVSU has turned down virtually everyone (including UND as I understand it) that has wanted to play them the past couple of years. It would no doubt be an attractive matchup but I don't think it is incredibly likely.

Someone has just told me about another very good possibility:

Central Missouri State

They have a very solid team year after year.

[Smoggy]

I really like the idea of playing a GLIAC team. Getting a win would really help come playoff time. I'm not a great dII playoff #'s mind, but it should help the NCC as whole having a win over the GLIAC.

[bigmrg74]

That would be awesome to have Saginaw come to the Alerus. Michigan Tech would also be a nice season opener. Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing the Sioux travel to play SVSU.

You want to go to Saggy??? Eeeewwwww!!!!! Thats like the Armpit of the state of Michigan.

[SiouxMD]

2006 schedule as posted by pepperoniking:

A. Sept. 1 Central Washington (Friday Game)

A. Sept. 9 Mesa State

H. Sept. 16 Winona State

H. Sept. 23 Western Washington

A. Sept. 30 Augustana

H. Oct. 7 Minnesota State

A. Oct. 14 UN-Omaha

Oct. 21 OPEN-

H. Oct. 28 UM-Duluth

A. Nov. 4 St Cloud

H. Nov. 11 USD

Mankato confirmed.

[bincitysioux]

Geez, UND is the only team in the NCC that hasn't released their schedule yet. Either they're really trying to get out of that game with Mesa St. or they're really trying to get that extra game in August. Or both.

[SiouxMD]

GF Herald - 22MAR2006

"Until the Bison agreed to play Minnesota, both NDSU and UND had open dates on Oct. 21. Was there a possibility NDSU and Division II UND would renew their rivalry after a two-year break?

Taylor said he had conversations with UND athletic director Tom Buning about the open date. However, NDSU already had scheduled one Division II program - Concordia-St. Paul.

"Tom and I talked about it," Taylor said of the Oct. 21 date. "But we already had a Division II school on our schedule.

That (UND game) was behind the Minnesota option, quite frankly.

""

Do you interpret this as meaning UND was the next option behind Minnesota or not in the picture?

Who is responsible for scheduling...the AD...the coach or both?

[bincitysioux]

GF Herald - 22MAR2006

"Until the Bison agreed to play Minnesota, both NDSU and UND had open dates on Oct. 21. Was there a possibility NDSU and Division II UND would renew their rivalry after a two-year break?

Taylor said he had conversations with UND athletic director Tom Buning about the open date. However, NDSU already had scheduled one Division II program - Concordia-St. Paul.

"Tom and I talked about it," Taylor said of the Oct. 21 date. "But we already had a Division II school on our schedule.

That (UND game) was behind the Minnesota option, quite frankly.

""

Do you interpret this as meaning UND was the next option behind Minnesota or not in the picture?

Who is responsible for scheduling...the AD...the coach or both?

I'd say it comes down to the AD, but the coach has alot of input. I doubt UND was the next option after UM, they were trying for Eastern Washington and Northern Iowa, but apparently cooler heads may be prevailing and the idea was tossed around. They would have preferred any scholarship I-AA come to Fargo, but they were only offered away games for 2006. If they had to travel they made the smart move in traveling a short distance for $300,000. I think Coach Bohl has been pretty vocal about not wanting to be associated with UND, and has also said he would have preferred not to play Minnesota this year. But Taylor was getting desperate, and Bunning is not Roger Thomas, so that's what I think opened the door to at least throw the idea around. Bunning has showed interest in renewing the rivalry. Ain't gonna happen for a couple years though, I don't think.

[dakotadan]

Who are UND's options as far as possible games to still be scheduled? Does anybody know who they may be talking to or who even still has open dates similar to UND? It doesn't seem like this late in the game there would be alot of options left. At least not real good ones.

[bincitysioux]

With only 9 confirmed games, I wonder if UND hasn't been trying to get out of the Mesa game. That would mean they're looking for two games, not one. Or, maybe both Mesa and UND are ungodly slow about releasing their schedules. I haven't heard of any quality openings other than what we talked about earlier in the thread, Tusculum would be a name opponent, Charleston was willing to travel but that would be a blowout for sure. UND really missed the boat earlier in the year when Pitt St. was looking for a home game. You couldn't ask for a better non-conference game than that, whether it was on the road or at the Alerus.

[UND92,96]

With only 9 confirmed games, I wonder if UND hasn't been trying to get out of the Mesa game. That would mean they're looking for two games, not one. Or, maybe both Mesa and UND are ungodly slow about releasing their schedules. I haven't heard of any quality openings other than what we talked about earlier in the thread, Tuskegee would be a name opponent, Charleston was willing to travel but that would be a blowout for sure. UND really missed the boat earlier in the year when Pitt St. was looking for a home game. You couldn't ask for a better non-conference game than that, whether it was on the road or at the Alerus.

This was in a Herald article a couple of days ago:

UND's schedule for 2006 isn't set.

The Sioux tentatively will open their season at Central Washington on Sept. 1. Only 10 games are on the schedule so far, but there have been negotiations for an 11th game.

It doesn't confirm the Mesa game, but since it says there are 10 games so far, odds are that the Mesa game is probably happening and it's just the August 26th date they're still trying to fill.

[UND92,96]

Mesa State confirmed: link.

[wsuwarrior]

As a Winona State fan, I just felt a little better. After last year's game, I was fearing UND having a week off before they faced the Warriors.

Best of luck on every game that isn't against Winona State.

[bincitysioux]

It's getting pretty late. I'm guessing we're only gonna have a 10 game schedule this year. 5 away, and 5 at home.

[bincitysioux]

Hey Jim, I see you have a countdown until kickoff going on the Siouxsports.com home page. Does this mean its official, and we have a 10 game schedule? Personally, I hope that you'll end up having to revise the countdown by about 7 or 8 days or so.

[jimdahl]

Hey Jim, I see you have a countdown until kickoff going on the Siouxsports.com home page. Does this mean its official, and we have a 10 game schedule? Personally, I hope that you'll end up having to revise the countdown by about 7 or 8 days or so.

Nope, just started the countdown on that page for testing, ready to revise as needed (I don't have the hockey start time yet, either). Frankly, we're pretty late in the regular football scheduling season and there's some point at which you start looking forward to the 1st game, as currently scheduled.

[farce poobah]

Dumb question - how does playing a 10-game or 11-game schedule affect the arithmetic for qualifying for the D-2 playoffs? Does it make a loss harder to overcome? Ignorant minds want to know ...