Question: Where are Easton aluminum bats made? If you guessed Easton, Pa., you were wrong. They are actually made in a suburb of Los Angeles, but Easton, Pa., is home to Lafayette College, which comes to the Fargodome on Saturday. A few things I took from interviews with head coach Frank Tavani and quarterback Ryan O’Neil today:
- Tavani was great, I could have talked to him all day. He talked about Hurricane Irene interrupting preparations because of a two-day power outage, although he said that did not affect game planning for NDSU.
- Lafayette just put $33 million into facilities including a state-of-the-art sound system, which will get a workout this week. Noise, a lot of it, will drown the players during practice to simulate the noise of the Fargodome. It’s nothing new for teams prepping for the dome, but don’t tell that to the neighbors living around Lafayette’s stadium. “The mayor told me the noise ordinance starts at 9,” Tavani said.
- O’Neil is a senior quarterback who is already among the best passers in school history. His older brother was a three-year starting quarterback at Holy Cross and his sister went to that school as well. “He’s given me tons of advice,” Ryan said. As for not going to Holy Cross? “It just didn’t work out and it wasn’t meant to be,” he said.
- Lafayette lost five games by six points or less last season, something the players hope to avoid this season. “It shows we were just one or two plays away,” O’Neil said. “That motivated us all off season.”
I think this team will be better than most expect, but I suspect the Bison will over run them in the fourth quarter.
Good stuff Jeff. Only a few more days to wait.
31-10 ndsu, no excuses and no reason to show any wrinkles before gopher game. Give the gophers nothing on film and pray to god that vigen added anything in 2011
Easton, PA is also the home town of long time heavyweight champion Larry Holmes.
Although that has nothing to do with the thumping NDSU will put on Lafayette this weekend.
Bison by 30+
Might take a half to figure them out but the Bison should win this by 3 TDs.
They do not face the competition we do and our talent should wear them down in the 2nd half.
I wonder if this team will be better than we think. I feel the Bison will win but I hope we don’t go in over confident. If we do and lose it puts us behind the eight ball the rest of the season trying to get in the playoffs. NDSU-24 Lafeyette-16 Go Bison!
you’re kidding right BisonJeff? Lafayette has no scholarships. if we lose we won’t have to worry about trying to get in the playoffs, as our 0-8 conference record will speak for itself.
No schollys doesn’t meen no financial help for players. They give basically the equivalent of 50 scholarships. So no, it’s not 63, but it’s not 0.
Lafayette>Drake.
Bison only, please.
There are three methods employed by schools with football programs in DI FCS to “pay” football players:
1) Direct athletic aid, “Scholarships” – the school puts X dollars in player A’s student account. All the dollars given to all the players added together is a line item in the football program’s budget each year.
In DI FCS, a program may not give money to more than 85 players and total dollar amount divided by some figured which is agreed upon between the NCAA and the school to represent a ‘full ride’ can not exceed 63. There is no minimum. (In DI FBS, on the other hand, the min is 76.5 and the max is also 85 – hence the common misconception that FBS teams can only offer full rides) The distribution of the dollars to the players is at the discretion of the coaches, as they see appropriate. In other words, if coach thinks player A deserves a full ride – that’s what he gets.
2) Need-based athletic aid – this method is only used by the Patriot League. The football programs still give dollars directly to the players (a lot of dollars, in fact! – think $50k/yr tuition) and those dollars added together are still a line item in the football program’s budget. The only difference: the distribution of dollars to the players is NOT at the discretion of the coaches. The amount that player A receives is entirely dependent on his financial need.
However, the NCAA treats the total dollars given out based on the need-based formulas the same way as scholarships – and thus limits each school to a 63 maximum. The top competitive Patriot League schools give around 50 scholarship equivalencies of aid to their players. The less competitive schools (Georgetown, Bucknell) give far fewer.
As you can imagine, coaches hate this system because it restricts them even further on who they can recruit. There is one Patriot League member, Fordham, that has abandoned the practice in favor of scholarships. Supposedly, the PL is to vote if the whole league will switch to the scholarship method for football. So far, the item continues to be tabled by the league leadership.
3) Institutional Aid only – these are the hardcore non-scholarship schools that don’t give any football players any money from the football budget. Football players at these schools may only be awarded the same financial aid that anyone attending the school is eligible for. These generally fall into two categories: Ivy League and Pioneer League.
The Pioneer League are schools whose football programs used to play in DIII. The NCAA then forced their football programs to play in DI because they played DI basketball (think Dayton). More recently, they’ve been joined by schools starting new programs that can’t afford to give scholarships.
The Ivy League is strictly non-scholarship based on ideology alone. On the other hand, most Ivy schools are so rich that they can offer every single student free tuition.
So in a sense — just like in DIII — every football player here more than likely receives some type of grant or scholarship. And also more than likely, being a football player might just help getting the award *wink wink*.
Dear Billy, I think the Bison will win. I just think first game, we have more talent. Lost to god O-lineman last year now have to move guys around because a thumb injury might sideline a very good Left Tackle. Bison will win I just hope we take care of business early, finish them off fast. I’m sure you remember the Millersville playoff game in 1988. Bison trailed in the 4th quarter and finally won it in the last 5 or 6 minutes. That team was thought to be no match for the Bison either. Then as I am sure you know the Bison when on to an undefeated season and national title. PS- I will be at the game as I have been most home games since 1979! I will be on Terry Vandrovec’s blog tomorrow 2 to 3 pm on the Sioux Falls Argus Leader Website. Terry, a former Forum writer does a great job and his blog is done right. The South Dakota guys on there are good guys who never even ragged me when the Jacks beat the Bison football team 3 years in a row. As always Go Bison!