Mike McFeely on UND Hockey and NDSU Football

It must be that time of year again. Checking the calendar, it's the month of April and the Bison Football vs. UND hockey comparison is again making the newspapers and blogs. Everyone's favorite Fargo Radio host Mike McFeely has this interesting blog post this morning.

Honestly, I have never really liked UND fans calling NDSU's football program JV. First, let's not forget, UND also has a JV football team and UND third-year head coach Bubba is doing a great job resurrecting a team that was left for dead after the last head coach ran the program into the ground. Now, checking the results the last five years, their JV football team is better than ours.

UND's record isn't even .500 and the Bison have won back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back NCAA FCS championships. That's pretty impressive in any league. While I don't care for the NDSU football team, I must tip my hat to them. They're a powerhouse in FCS football. I suspect that Bubba will have UND's football team playing at an elite level in the not too distant future.

During the football season, UND hockey fans derisively refer to the Bison as a junior varsity or “JV” team because they compete in the Football Championship Subdivision of NCAA Division I, not the highest level of Football Bowl Subdivision. FBS is home of big-time conferences like the Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern Conference, etc. (McFeely)

On the flip side of the coin, we have this argument.

During the hockey season, Bison fans belittle UND hockey as a team competing in a low-profile sport relatively few Americans care about. They point to dismal attendance at NCAA regional sites, low TV ratings and the small number of Division I hockey programs and say, “Hockey is a regional niche sport that few outside passionate hockey towns care about. UND is a big fish in a really small pond.”

Let's face facts, hockey is a unique sport, it's the one sport where a division III school can beat the big boys. Rarely if ever, does this happen in FBS college football. I am not sure that NDSU would ever beat Michigan in football, but UND did so in hockey.

Two weeks ago, while wearing a Fighting Sioux jersey at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, I had many Jets fans come up and complement my jersey. I doubt that few Canadians know who the NDSU Bison are. I wonder if we should just go to our corners and agree to disagree? I don't think we will ever move on until we do.