This argument makes no sense at all. The UND NDSU match up would bring way more people to the games than a game with Montana, Montana State, or Georgia Sourthern. I have to wonder if this petty bickering has something to do with UND not wanting to schedule NDSU when they moved up to division one? This should be a slamb dunk without much thought. Remember you can't have sucks without NDSU...
The North Dakota Board of Higher Education normally doesn’t get involved in athletic matters like scheduling, either.
Taylor insists on the every-other-year format because NDSU’s nine-team Missouri Valley Football Conference gives the Bison four home and four away league games. As for the three non-conference games, NDSU annually schedules one road guarantee game leaving two open dates. The school would prefer those to be at home as much as possible.
“We put something on the table that works for us,” Taylor said. “Is it the perfect scenario for them? No, but it gets the game going. For them to draw that line of having it every year, then they have my answer.”
Plus, Taylor said, scheduling UND every year would eliminate games against the likes of Montana, Montana State and Georgia Southern. Division I Football Championship Subdivision programs are allowed to schedule 11 games most years.
“Based on the way we’re scheduled in football, I can’t get there,” Taylor said of a yearly game. “He has different challenges where he can. He’s more flexible.”
UND plays in the five-team Great West Conference, which leaves seven potential non-conference dates. [Fargo Fish Wrapper]
I think it has more to do with strength of schedule. NDSU also wants 2 home games a year out of conference if possible. By scheduling every year, that would only give them 2 OOC home games at most every other year. Then you throw in the issue of return games (most home opponents require a return date at their place) and that number starts going down. Every other year would allow NDSU to still have 2 OOC home games at least in the years opposite the UND game. UND wants it every year (which I agree, they should play every year) since they have 7 open dates OOC every year to fill.
ReplyDeleteThis should not be an issue once the name issue is resolved, either way. Once that happens, SDSU, and NDSU would benefit from USD and UND in the same conference (and coincidentally recreating the old NCC with UNI). The MVC will probably lose teams at some point (or expand to 12 and get a champ game). Right now Missouri State and Indiana St have no business being in a top flight football conference in 1AA (sorry, FCS).
so what's the deal then? are we going to see the every other year game or not?
ReplyDeletepersonally, i'd like to see it every year, but if every other year is what ndsu wants, then let's just do it already; that just means we can parade the nickel in front of them on the off years without their having any hope of getting it back that season.
at least if we start the every other year now, it's a step toward getting the game going on an annual basis.
i'm confident that once taylor sees the profit margin of this game versus the rest of ndsu's non-conference games, he'll be on board with the every year idea.
by the way, real tough:
ReplyDeleteyear 1:
und at home
georgia southern on the road
montana at home
year 2:
und on the road
montana on the road
montana state at home
year 3:
und at home
montana state on the road
georgia southern at home
problem solved. they get to play the three teams they like to schedule, each team twice in three years (once at home and once on the roade) and they get their biggest money making game every year with und. if they want to change things up at any point, no problem. just use the same logic as above but replace one of those three teams with the new team.
That works, except the big money game (ie @ FBS team). Trust me, once UND gets a conference with more than 5 teams (ideally 9 total) the money game is important. A $300k road game at Iowa State, Texas Tech, or similar schools is a big deal. That leaves you with two games to schedule, and you could conceivibly be on the road for all three ooc games. For example:
ReplyDeleteyear 1: (5 home, 6 away)
@ Minnesota (Away)
UND (Home)
@ Montana (Away)
Year 2: (4 Home, 7 Away)
@ Iowa State
@ UND
@ Montana St
Year 3: (5 Home, 6 Away)
@ Wisconsin
UND
@ Georga Southern
Assumptions: Since NDSU is not a player in FCS yet (no playoffs yet, only 2 years eligible) we would have to take the road game on the front end of a Home/Home deal with any school as this is the usual case.
It also assumes Montana doesn't pull its famous stunt of buying out of the return game (Thanks Griz, you really know how to make a school love ya).
Now, the argument around this is that Taylor needs to do a better job scheduling. And if he schedules UND yearly, that is an extra money game every other year. My argument to that is NDSU is trying to establish itself as a IAA power (and started well in the 10 - 1 season, but has fallen off a cliff the past two years). So if you want to be the man, you have to beat the man. UND isn't the man at this point. So Gene is trying to schedule the IAA elites (Montana, App State, Georgia Southern, he already gets UNI).
Disclaimer: I FULLY support a yearly Bison vs Sioux game. It was the best college football game in the upper Midwest bar None (no NDSU vs SDSU is a sham, and when has Minnesota consistently won one of the big three trophy games).
I just am trying to look at it from a business and program building perspective.
i understand the difficulty here. however, otzu, in your examples, why would ndsu play montana state, montana, and georgia southern all on the road without ever playing any of them at home?
ReplyDeleteif those teams just don't want to do a home/home with ndsu, then taylor is better off telling them to screw off. i predict the und game would make more money than any of those games anyways.
now if ndsu feels they need to play those teams in order to establish themselves as a d1aa powerhouse, then so be it, but i would think beating minnesota, or especially wisconsin, would further that cause more than beating the three teams you listed.
regardless, even though i'd like to see the every year game, i think und should accept the every other year deal for now since both schools would benefit from that over not playing at all.