Sioux Football Success

[Riverrat]

In discussing the demise of the NCC, Jeff Kolpack of the Forum believes it to be related to scholarship reductions in 1986 and again in the early 90's. This timeframe appears to directly relate to the rise in fortunes of the Sioux football team. Is there a correlation? I've been curious for some time, but never seen a discussion on the topic.

[petey23]

The demise of the Bison could probably be traced to the scholarship reductions as the veer is a very "expensive" offense to run as far as how your scholarship money gets divided.

[bincitysioux]

In discussing the demise of the NCC, Jeff Kolpack of the Forum believes it to be related to scholarship reductions in 1986 and again in the early 90's. This timeframe appears to directly relate to the rise in fortunes of the Sioux football team. Is there a correlation? I've been curious for some time, but never seen a discussion on the topic.

That timeframe also happens to correlate with the arrival of Roger Thomas as football coach. That, I believe, was the reason for the Sioux football team's rise in fortune. And it is not like UND football was ever the doormat of college football. Sure, there have been some dark stretches, but they were few and far between and that happens with every program. IMHO, the best Sioux teams were those of Jerry Olson's early 1970's teams.

[gjw007]

MHO, the best Sioux teams were those of Jerry Olson's early 1970's teams.

I would agree with the Sioux teams of the mid-70s being the best as I attended UND during this period (mid-to-upper 70s) but the overall win record of UND suggests that it has been successful more often than not. The demise of the NCC may be due to scholarship cuts but only in the sense that in the 70s, it would have been impossible to see Crookston or other similar schools be at the same level as UND. As such, it was only a matter of time before schools such as UND and NDSU began to look at moving up, something they should have done in the 70s. Given the potential for SDSU and USD to follow, and UNO to move to the MIAA, it left the possibility of the NCC's demise should any of the major schools decide to leave, something that is now happening.

[The Walrus]

I believe UND is fully funded at 36 Scholarships, I am not sur all NCC Teams are.

UND seemed to get more production out of less Scholarship dollars under Roger Thomas, then some other schools at the time that were fully funded.

I also think when Roger Thomas brought on a full strength and conditioning program, got it funded with a seperate staff it make a huge difference in our athletes.

We always seem to do more with less, that is a tribute to all the coaches UND has had.