It’s the hottest talker right now surrounding the Bison football team thanks to Mr. Kolpack, wrapping up the schedule for the 2012 season. Now I know Florida State, Oklahoma, Michigan State and Pittsburgh are all sexy options and the fans would love to see how NDSU would stack up against the upper echelon competition. But I hate to throw cold water on these thoughts, but it’s NOT a good idea. Craig Bohl and Gene Taylor have stressed to me and Jeff over the past couple of years they want to play FBS games against teams they feel they have a chance to compete. (And beat in my opinion) As impressive as NDSU’s wins over Minnesota, Central Michigan, Ball State and Kansas are, these are not Florida State, Michigan State and Oklahoma. I’m not against NDSU playing one of those schools once every five years or so, but here are the potential downsides of playing an upper-echelon FBS School:
- Injuries (I know you can get hurt in any football game, but the chance certaintly goes up playing against most of the time bigger and sometimes quicker athletes)
- Potential Mental Injury – If NDSU loses say 47-7 to Oklahoma or Florida State, what does that do to the pysche of the team? Could it carry over to a game against a FCS or MVFC opponent and lose to a team that they should beat? Could ruin a potential great season.
- Leads to my third point, I firmly believe NDSU thinks they have the potential of another national championship with this class, either 2012 or 2013 and a loss to a team like a Nebraska, Wisconsin or FSU could de-rail some of those hopes.
Now I did a little research on five other Missouri Valley Schools and they’re FBS matchups, because the detractors to this post will point at SDSU and USD.
SDSU USD
- 2010 – at Nebraska - at Minnesota
- 2011 – at Illinois – at Air Force, at Wisconsin
- 2012 – at Kansas – at Northwestern
- 2013 – at Nebraka - at Kansas
- 2014 – at Missouri TBD
- 2015 – at Minnesota – at Kansas State
My opinion (and mine alone) looks at SDSU and USD and says those two schools are in a way different boat than NDSU. SDSU is trying to fund money to renovate it’s football stadium and a couple of big paydays at Nebraska and Missouri can certaintly help in that way; and facing regional schools near it’s backyard. NDSU fans would argue that Nebraska isn’t far away either, but I believe that Bohl just doesn’t want that game. South Dakota is wrapping up it’s D-1 transition and multiple games against FBS is a common trend (think 2007, NDSU played Central Michigan and Minnesota; a strategy Bohl and Taylor said he would NOT go back to) Now there a couple teams on these schedules that could/should appeal to NDSU; Illinois and Northwestern. Both are bowl teams (most years) and Illinois is an area NDSU in the past loved to hit for recruiting. Both also are matchups that NDSU can certaintly think heading into the matchup that they have a solid shot of winning the football game.
Western Illinois Northern Iowa SIU
- 2010 – at Purdue at Iowa State at Illinois
- 2011 -at Missouri at Iowa State at Mississippi
- 2012 – at Iowa State at Wisconsin, at Iowa at Miami (OH)
- 2013 – at Minnesota at Iowa State at Illinois
- 2014 – at Northwestern at Iowa at Purdue
We know UNI’s situation in terms of funds and the reason they’re playing both Wisconsin and Iowa next season. But you look at Western and SIU and the teams are reasonable in terms of location and skill. And for those poo-pooing NDSU’s future FBS teams a closer look says these squads are pretty good:
2010 – Kansas (Game was announced in June of 2009, NDSU coming off 6-5 season, KU was coming off an Orange Bowl win in 07 and a Insight Bowl win in 08, no reason to think the Jayhawks weren’t going to be pretty good until the Mark Magino blowup in 2009)
2013 - Kansas State ( Wildcats are coming off a 10-3 season in 2012 and a appearance in the Cotton Bowl, one of the oldest bowl games around, losing to Arkansas, I may be the only one in the boat saying this may be the best team NDSU has faced)
2014 - Iowa State ( Paul Rhoades has turned around the Cyclones, enough to beat Nebraska, Texas and this year Oklahoma State, giving OSU it’s only loss of the year, safe to say that’s a pretty good game when NDSU heads to Ames.)
2016 - Iowa ( Normally in the top tier of the Big 10 and almost always playing in a bowl game, you can bet if not Kansas State, then the Hawkeyes take the top spot of toughest team faced yet)
So there you go, definetly sense a Video Blog dedicated to this topic the longer an 11th game is an option! Gene Taylor has told me he wants that 11th game at HOME, the last option to him would be to play an FCS on the road in a home and home series, meaning they’d come to Fargo in 2014 (since 2013 schedule is done) And remember looming for NDSU is a home and home with Montana and Montana State coming to Fargo. Things looked pretty good on the schedule front.
Dom I love your insight but you sound like a sissy. Top tier FCS teams can compete with anyone. UNI nearly beats every BCS team they play. #6 Nebraska beat a 5 win SDSU team 17-3. I could make a list but I won’t waste time. We can play with anyone besides the BCS National Champions, Alabama.
Gabe, I guess when it comes down to it, does the potential benefit outweigh the potential downside? In my opinion it doesnt, this is the list of the last five years FCS wins over FBS teams:
2007 – 9
2008- 2
2009- 5
2010 – 7
2011 – 6
In that span, just two teams beat ranked teams, Appalachian State over Michigan and James Madison over Virginia Tech. Those type of wins don’t happen all the time. I don’t debate that they can’t compete, but wins are not automatic.
I think the difference is the really elite FCS teams don’t always get a crack at the big dogs.
#1 Alabama – beat Georgia Southern in a competitive game
#2 LSU – played a terrible Northwestern State team
#3 Oklahoma State (no fcs)
#4 Oregen – Beat Missouri State by same margin as Bison
#5 Arkansas – Also beat Missouri Stae same margin bison
#6 USC – no FCS but beat Minnesota by 2
#7 Stanford – no FCS
#8 Boise State – no FCS
#9 South Carolina – Beat unranked Citadel 41-20 (citadel won 2 conf games in southern conf)
#10 Wisconsin – Destroyed South Dakoa (6-5, 3 wins over D1)
#11 Michigan State – Beat Youngstown 28-6
#12 Michigan – No FCS
#13 – Baylor No FCS
#14 – TCU – Beat unranked Portland State 55-13
#15 Kansas State beat eastern kentucky 10-7 (RANKED won OVC)
#16 Oklahoma – no FCS
#17 West Virginia -blew out Norfolk from the bad MEAC
#18 Houston – No FCS
#19 Georgia – beat bad coastal carolina 59-0
#20 Southrn Miss – beat 2 win Southland team
Go back 5 years and look at the 2 National Championship teams in the FCS. They fared decent against the big dogs.
2011 – NDSU beats Minnesoa Sam Houston beats New Mexico
2010 – Deleware didn’t play BCS and Eastern Washington lost to Washington by 3
2009 – Villanova (beat Temple) and Montana (no fcs games)
2008 – Richmond (lost virgina 16-0) and Montana (no fcs games)
2007 – Appy (beat Michigan) Deleware (no fcs)
I think we could compete. We probably wouldn’t win but if it’s close, it would be a big time win for the program.
Injuries? No difference. Now with that being said, I would much rather have another home game. 5 home games sucks!
Gabe
You said “I think we could compete. We probably wouldn’t win but if it’s close, it would be a big time win for the program.”
I take it you believe in moral victories. Sad.
We could win and I wouldn’t be shocked if we would win, but a ton of things would have to go right. A close game (as in 1 score) would be a moral victory but to EXPECT to beat them is not realistic. There is a big difference between a top 10 ranked Oklahoma and Minnesota or Kansas. If you dont recognize that you are delusional. Thats quite the contrast to Kolpack saying Bohl will be in the corner sucking his thumb.
Gabe, you lose a lot of points when you include the following statement in your post:
“They fared decent against the big dogs.
2011 – NDSU beats Minnesota”
At no point over the past 5+ years has beating Minnesota been anything more than beating one of the worst teams in FBS.
Check how #14 Kansas State did against an FCS playoff team.
Doesnt matter since we are National Champions, does it?
I will say this. We COULD be competite as an FBS team but I like FCS. Depth is the difference. Right now, early in the year when were healthy, FBC teams dont have quite the depth advantage. If we would play Oklahoma in week 2, we would be at full strength. Week 10 would be a challenge. But if we were FBS, we would have 22 additional scholarships to work with. Not to mention home games.
We are already at the level of some of these schools and its time we play them and prove that. You know Appy St. wasn’t backing away from anyone when they played Michigan. Bohl promised Jensen a game against Wisconsin when he recruited him. Obviously he’ll break that promise but Brock would take the opportunity of lighting up Florida St. defense in return.
Don’t forget Iowa State. As Dom pointed out, they beat Nebraska and Texas but don’t forget, Iowa State needed to go for on on 4th and goal from the 1 to beat UNI. We’re already there. It will be a big game for us. It will be a small game for them.
With that being said, I would still RATHER have a 6th home game!!! Why?: Home games and Bison tailgating is one of my all time favorite things to do.
Bohl promised Jensen we would play the Badgers? Link please.
I’m not going to find the link. It was in an article from 2009 when he committed. Obviously they were talking to Wisconsin about a game and that time and it fell through. I’m sure you can find it if you have some time and google.
Coach never promised that game.
What ever you say. Came right out of Jensen’s mouth.
I agree with all of your points, but you just missed out on a homophone trifecta. All you needed was to use ‘their’ in place of ‘there’ and you would’ve had the complete set. So sad.
But seriously, a game against Wisconsin or Nebraska in 2015 would be nice to round out the regional schools, but adding a second FBS to the schedule would be a bad idea unless CB & GT change their minds on scheduling 12 games when allowed. And while games like Wisc or Neb are nice for a change, I greatly prefer the choice of regularly scheduling FBS schools we have a reasonable chance of beating. GT has done a fantastic job of that over the years, IMO.
Did you bison fans hear our chats tonight @ the idiots from und?
Bison Rejects Bison Rejects!
How did that turn out for you????
I agree playing 2 FBS schools in the same year may not be good, but I disagree with not playing some of the big name schools. A loss to an FBS school doesn’t matter to the playoff committee and there is no evidence that more injuries happen. I guarantee most fans would rather play Oklahoma than Colorado State..
I still say we beat Alabama in a champions championship game. Final 10-6. I too would rather have another home game. It is fun watching opponents look around and say to themselves. “This sucks, I cant hear myself in my helmet, and I wish I would have come here to play.” Oklahoma would be my choice, then when we win we would start an inroads into OK and north Texas football recruits. They have talented players just like kids in football country here in ND,MN, and SD.
Go Herd.
You’re delusional.
clearly this guy is a troll
I would go with the home game option with a top FCS team at this point. Our fans and team deserve 6 home games! One FBS game per year is enough. But if we can’t find a team (FCS team) to play us at home, then go with the FBS option. Just so Gene doesn’t schedule a D2 team, which I think he will avoid.
I think the Bison need 6 home games every year. The Bison make enough money with their home games that they don’t need two money games from FBS schools. I like how Gene and Craig have schedule the FBS games (with better QB play NDSU would have beaten both Iowa State and Wyoming). Another FBS school that would be worth playing is Northern Illinois and Indiana wouldn’t be a bad game either.
As for the open date this year I say fill it with an east coast FCS team. Teams from the midwest and west need to continue scheduling and beating the east coast teams to eliminate the east coast media bias at the FCS I wouldn’t have an issue with NDSU scheduling more Patriot League teams. Other options would be to schedule the top teams in the Pioneer League. I am tired of that league believing they deserve an autobid and a beat down at the hands of the Bison should help put that to rest.
Old guy, delusional? Come on, you agree and you want to see that happen as well. I have read enough of your posts to know you better than to sell the Bison short. I agree with Bison Fan. Keep pounding on the big bad east teams with their ESPN gushing support.
Go Herd
NDSU is a great FCS school and can beat FBS doormats.
They’d get murdered by a big boy like Bama, USC, etc. Taylor knows it. Bohl knows it. Why they wont do it.
Northern Iowa almost beat Iowa State, Iowa State beat OK state, NDSU dominated Northern Iowa…Dont think the Bison get murdered by any of those teams
Um… that makes no sense.
But let’s say it does, well then NDSU lost to Youngstown state, who lost to SDSU, who lost to Cal Poly, who lost to UC Davis, who lost to UND.
Seems like by your resasoning, you’d have to admit a UND and NDSU game would be close.
If that many games seems like a stretch, let’s just go with NDSU lost to youngstown, who lost to 2-9 Missouri State. Thus, Missouri State (even though they actually got dominated by NDSU) would still keep a game close against NDSU.
I say bring on Alabama. I think there is a good chance we would beat them in a close game though.
You know drugs are illegal unless prescribed?
They should play anyone giving ndsu $600,000+
Take the moeny, dont be stupid, ndsu gameplan doesnt allow them to get beat 40-10. Maybe 31-14 or so.
Ndsu basketball is for real? Its put up or shut up time vs our rival sdsu.
The men’s basketball team had beaten SDSU 10 straight times before they lost in overtime to SDSU earlier this year. I don’t get what you are saying. If Taylor Braun and Lawrence Alexander don’t foul out the Bison would have won the game they lost earlier this year to SDSU. If Nate Wolters does foul out the Bison would have won the game they lost to SDSU ealier this year.
The Bison men’s basketball team has a bunch of potential. They are headed in the right direction they just need to keep building and developing players.
The Bison women’s basketball program needs to be blown up. Losing like they did to a transitioning USD team is embarrassing.
no way we get a top tier fcs school at this point. it will likely be a lower tier fcs team
Robert Morris has an open date on 9/22. Why not reschedule the Robert Morris game to that date and free up the 9/1 date. Have the Sioux buy out the game against SD Mines on 9/1. Problem solved. Rivalry renewed.