Showcase/Spring Game Recap

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Here are just a few notes and thoughts regarding the Spring Football weekend for NDSU Football.

1. The Bison Showcase evening was a lot of fun. Great food or snacks as you would have it. The Hilton Garden did a real nice job.

2. The coordinators, both offensive and defensive gave real thorough talks on the status of the team. As they talked, I could feel the excitement start to build for the year to come.

3. Some very neat items. If you got the fridge and don’t know where to put it, I have some room in my garage where you can store it.

4. Spring Locker Room sale- Disappointed this year. I have gone for many years in a row, and this year it seemed most stuff was over-priced and basically a lot of leftover stuff from last year or years before. Needless to say I spent much less than years past.

5. Spring game silent auction- Some decent items, but bidding started a bit high on some. Overall decent

6. Spring game- It is always fun to see the players and how they have gotten bigger or quicker or in some cases huge, since last year. The game itself was unique with the new scoring method. Kind of confusing with points and who was on which teams, but with so many players sitting out the game, it was easy to see why. It seems we are working a lot more on the passing game this spring which is probably good. Overall it seemed as though it was very low key and somewhat uneventful, but that is ok with me. When fall hits and all the new kids are in school and we are back to full strength, I will be pumped and ready and I am sure the team and coaches will be as well. Since spring is slow to get here and who knows if we will have summer, I say the heck with summer and bring on the fall and football. I can’t wait.

I ended with 6 bullets or comments and I would hope with that number, it will bring karma and the 6th home game. Gene Taylor joked with us at the Showcase, but I sure hope he can make it happen.

Go Bison.

Fat and Happy

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Well it looks like the 6th home football game is not happening. Am I upset? Yes! Who should I be upset with? Montana State of course, but what about our side of things. Jeff Kolpack wrote regarding the vultures circling and trying to gouge NDSU to come and play at the Fargodome. What about our own vultures trying to squeeze every dime out of us fans with or without a good product on the field or court. It is almost as if we should say( ah shucks, it is ok if we do not get another home game, we will just travel to another road site. We are very good at it so lets just do that and not worry about another home game)

Yes I am upset that we may not or probably will not have the 6th home game, but I will get over it. That does not, however, not make me hold our administration accountable for being fan friendly. Sports will always draw fans but when the product gets stagnate or un-friendly to those who pay the bills, it drops and sometimes hard. See NBA, NASCAR and teams of any sport who do not win.

This is a fan blog and fans are supportive of their teams. I am, and always will be, but the administrations and those making the rules need to be accountable.

Go Bison.

Montage

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After the disappointment of another basketball year, so many other things are exciting in Bison Land. Track and Field is succesfull as always with many honors going to our athletes. Baseball will hopefully one day be able to play here at home sometime. Softball also, but both are doing a decent job in there south swing traveling. The weather has not been the greatest for those road games either. Wrestling is wrapping up and NDSU has it’s first all-American at the D-1 level. Pretty cool. Spring football is almost here and then the season will begin. Cant’ wait!!!!!!!!

Funny things for Bison Fans. 1. How pathetic was the Big Sky Basketball this year- I was disappointed in our Basketball results but wonder if we were in the Big Sky if we would not have walked to the tournament fairly easy. 2. Minnesota fans who rip on NDSU and UND fans. They talk a big game but seem to get their butts handed to them often. I noticed the Gopher Hockey fans were rabid and cheering loudly for CC in the frozen 5. Whoops, maybe you would have had a better chance against the UNDies.

One thing for sure, not to end on a sour note, but I have seen some arguments over who is better SDSU and Nate Wolters or NDSU with Ben Woodside. To me, I say it does not matter. Wolters will probably be in the D league or overseas and until the Summit league starts to show something on the big stage, all the conference changes and movement will be on hold.

Finally– Lets get the 6th home football game and a new basketball arena and start being more fan friendly as the fans have been very supportive for Bison athletics.

Go Bison

Schedule and Tickets

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I was happy to see my season ticket statement in the mail yesterday and with it a listing of dates to mark your calender with. I like so many are chompin at the bit as they say to get this football season rolling. Since we are using horse references, I am concerned about the cart before the horse with those dates and events. I do not want to criticize or single out any of those in scheduling and planning, but I will challenge NDSU as a whole in a few things.

The spring game is scheduled for April 27. I had heard rumblings of maybe not having the game this year because of the long season and injuries etc.. Will it happen for sure?

The deadline for season ticket renewals is April 15. I will for sure be getting mine again, but it would be nice to know if we are having a 6th home game or not. If not will we be refunded some of our package? We all know the crap the MSU Poultry pulled on NDSU in bailing out of our home game, but we should have more answers as to a replacements by now.

Many would say we are enjoying some great times with NDSU football right now but I say you need to stay consistent with what got you there. Coaches and players seem to be on line for at least one more year of success, but things can change quickly. Playing fewer home games, charging more for tailgaiting and adding more rules and regulations, and overall making a fast buck, could bite NDSU just as quick as all of the fun and fanfare has evolved over the last few years.

Call me old school, as I have been tailgaiting and attending games as a student and alumni since the 80′s and I see the marketing and fan interest grow exponentially. I also see some changes that make me think that if something causes the bandwagon jumpers to fall off, we could be in a different situation.

I will be mailing off my teammaker and season ticket check very soon and have the spring game date locked on my phone along with other dates. I am even putting my cart in front of my horse for a third trip to Frisco, but deep down I will try and stay the course and not do things too crazy. I hope NDSU does the same.

Oh ya, the basketball teams are playing today in the first round of the Summit tourney and Wrestling just finished a pretty successful season and Track and Baseball and Softball are underway with what looks like some possible good results ahead. Go Bison.

Movin’ on up

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With the recent turmoil in the Bison football schedule and our latest successes, discussion of moving to the FBS has begun to spring up. The Bison do need to move up, but this will require extensive resources and a sustained commitment from NDSU, the Herd, and the North Dakotan people. It won’t happen overnight (or even next year), but with inspired leadership and the steadfast support of the BisonNation, NDSU could be competitive at college football’s highest level.

To be competitive in the FBS, NDSU will need to build a new stadium. The Fargodome is a great place to play football, and I along with most of the Bison faithful have great memories there, but it is not capable of hosting a successful FBS program. While the Fargodome’s capacity allows NDSU to rank near the top of the FCS in attendance 9 (9th in 2011 and 6th in 2012), it is less than half of the average attendance at an FBS football game (46,074 in 2011). Without the revenue and fan exposure generated by this level of attendance, maintaining the staff and training facilities and recruiting top players would not be feasible. NDSU’s current attendance does best some of the lower-end FBS programs, but with nearly every team we’ve beaten in the playoffs contemplating a move up, the bottom of the FBS is likely to be very crowded for the foreseeable future. With the heavy competition for conference bids, a facility upgrade could well make the difference between languishing in the bottom of the Sun Belt conference and joining the Big 10 to thwart Minnesota’s attempt to escape us.

Building a reasonable FBS stadium, although it would require a major resource commitment, would not be infeasible. At a construction cost of approximately $6,700 per seat, which is roughly what Paul Brown Stadium and Qwest Field cost, a 45,000 seat stadium could be built for 300 million dollars. Boise State hosted only 34,018 fans per game in 2011, and building a stadium to host that many fans could be accomplished for about 230 million dollars. Building this type of stadium would provide NDSU and Fargo with a state-of-the-art multipurpose facility, and give the Bison a venue that would prove they belong in the FBS. If the Bison could sell out this stadium on a regular basis, they would be drawing about as many fans as Purdue, Pitt, or Rutgers, which are not bad company. Watching the Bison play a home game to a sold out house against the likes of Minnesota or Air Force would be an incredible experience I hope we all get to enjoy someday.

Sources:

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/resources/stats/football/attendance/index.html

http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/06/expensive-stadiums-america-forbeslife-cx_ae_0806sports_slide_2.html?thisSpeed=15000

http://www.american.com/archive/2008/april-04-08/a-closer-look-at-stadium-subsidies

Zipperheads vs Bisuns

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Let me start by stating right off the bat, I am in a testy mood today.

I know this may come off as a sore loser post, but I actually thought the Herd played very well in spurts at a place that has given it’s team an advantage, one that has the team holding the longest winning streak in college basketball as of right now.

Refs! can you be more home cooking for the Zippers.

Zipperhead crowd! Can you be more vulgar and absolutely jack— like.

ESPN announcers! Can you ever do some freakin homework and get players names correct and be less homerish. There are 12 kids playing. Is it that difficult to ask the team how each kid pronounces their name. Is it too tough to get a nickname pronunciation correct. Bisons? Seriously?

I know it is a big deal to get on the big whoooooo ESPN channels, but it never fails to have those east coast hacks constantly mess up and treat ND like they only know geography east of the Mississippi. Whether it is NDSU football in championship games or UND in hockey playoffs etc., they constantly suck at ESPN-

I do not want to ruin it for those who like the ESPN coverage, but Hutch Johnson and his weather kids could do a better job calling games involving ND and SD schools.

E- Everytime  S-Sucks  P- Pronouncing  N- North Dakota teams and players

Not a terrible performance Bison, at least you were better than ESPN.

 

Montana State

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Wow, Montana State, really?

I was shocked to see that Montana State pulled some crap. Another reason to hate the Big Sky conference. Buyouts have got to come at a higher price.

Three years ago my family and I and many others traveled to Bozeman for a playoff game, in the year that one bad call could have possibly kept us from heading into next year looking for a four-peat. The Bobcat fans were a hoot, the team was good, until we again wore them, like many other opponents down in the 4th. The city was friendly and I even wrote an editorial in their paper which they printed. I complimented them up and down. Too bad for those fans and people that an administration would now turn around and shaft NDSU by pulling out of this year’s game.

First off, I have faith in Gene and Craig to fill that home game with another FCS opponent, and the 100K can go right to that team.

Without looking too far ahead, Oh how sweet it would be to see us hosting playoff games throughout next year again, and would it not be sweet to have the football gods end up with a matchup of let’s say Montana State at NDSU in 2nd round of 2013-2014 FCS championship playoffs. Hey Bobcat administrators, give Georgia Southern a call and see how that worked out 2 years ago for them.

Hope you get your game with an FBS team. Apparently you need to play a lesser opponent. Remember NDSU is still a little ole FCS school not a big FBS school.

Sorry Bobcat fans, we were looking forward to returning the hospitality to you, but your administration just fumbled.