Ex-North Dakota State football player pleads guilty in ND theft ring

This is for the people that haven't seen this. It will be interesting to see how the NDSU Bison fans over on Belligerentville spin this. Crickets chirping...

A second former North Dakota State football player has pleaded guilty to felony theft in connection with a theft ring at a Best Buy store in Fargo.

Garrett Johnson was sentenced Monday to the two days he had already served in jail, 50 hours of community service, 18 months of supervised probation and a $500 fee.

In June, former player Greg Reid Jr. pleaded guilty to theft and was given a suspended jail sentence and probation.

Twelve people are charged in the case, which authorities say involves as much as $150,000 in merchandise taken from the store between last September and February.

Johnson, a defensive end from Chaska, Minn., and Reid, a defensive tackle from Milwaukee, Wis., were dismissed from the team in April. [Grand Forks Herald]

NDSU doesn't want to play UND every year in football

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]

Legislated football games.

Now we have the state legislature in North Dakota attempting to write bills that NDSU and UND play each year in football. Don't these people have something better to do, you're waisting our tax dollars arguing petty bills. Get back to work doing the people of North Dakota business. I believe this is an issue for the two schools to work on without interference from the state legislature. Leave it to a democrats to come up with this type of a bill. In the end I believe this bill will fail.

Bill would require NDSU and UND to play an annual football game
Kevin Fee Grand Forks Herald

The state is trying to get involved in the UND vs. North Dakota State rivalry.

Rep. Weezie Potter, D-Grand Forks, has introduced a bill in the North Dakota House that mandates that UND and NDSU play an annual football game.

The schools haven’t met since Oct. 18, 2003, when the Sioux defeated the Bison 28-21 in overtime in the Alerus Center in Grand Forks.

The stoppage of the rivalry, which began in 1894, was mostly due to NDSU moving its sports programs to NCAA Division I to start the 2004-05 school year. But UND joined the Bison in Division I this school year.