What a day in Normal, NDSU returned its offense to normal; getting two running backs over 100 yards rushing in a dominant second half win over Illinois State 38-20. The Bison clinch the Missouri Valley for the 2nd straight year and in the process lock up the top seed for the playoffs. Jeff and I will have our full bracketology show up around 11:30pm tonight, so you’ll have a full 12 hours to watch before we live blog the selection show at 12:30, enjoy the return of the Victory Belt!
Here is my quick guess:
Big Sky
#4 Eastern Washington
#3 Montana State
Cal Poly
Big South
Coastal Carolina
Stony Brook
Colonial Athletic Association
Villanova
#2 Old Dominion
Richmond
MEAC
Bethune-Cookman
Missouri Valley
#1 North Dakota State
South Dakota State
Illinois State
Northeast
Wagner
Ohio Valley
Eastern Illinois
Patriot League
Colgate
Southern
#5 Georgia Southern
Appalachian State
Wofford
Southland
Central Arkansas
Sam Houston State
Can you believe that most of this team will be back next year?
Senior starters: Joe Lund, Andre Martin, Bobby Olman (although he wouldn’t be starting if Colton Heagle didn’t get hurt), Garret Bruhn (although he has missed the last few games).
This team will be very good next year too.
First things first the Bison need to work on fixing issues over the bye week. The passing game comes to mind. They also need to get the special teams return game more consistent.
Way to go Bison! On the way to another DI National Championship game! And all of the opponents will be DI, not like other minor sports that have DII and DIII teams competing for a DI National Championsip. Go Bison!
Testing one two, check, check.
A real Division I program, Texas A&M, played a real Division IAA program yesterday, Sam Houston State…both ranked in the top ten in their respected divisions. It was 40-0 in the third quarter before starters were pulled for Texas A&M.
There is a HUGE gap in quality of football between FCS and FBS football as was evident yesterday. So Red River you use “Division I” very loosely in believing that a FCS is a real Division I.
Please go back 2-3 years , we(THE BISON) have been winning consistently over FBS teams, Gophers, Colorado State, and others.
those are the worst teams in FBS you just mentioned. I would recommend NDSU play and win national championships at the TOP level of football before ridiculing other school’s accomplishments. and as well all know, that is never going to happen.
I say it again, if the teams from the FBS are so easy to beat why aren’t other teams scheduling them and beating them? New Hampshire played the Gophers this season and got blown out. SDSU has not beat a FBS team. UND has not beat a FBS team. Georgia Southern has not beat a FBS team.
The Bison beat the teams on their schedule and that is all they can do.
This is a very talented and well coached football team that has a very good chance at winning back to back National Championships at the division I level.
The Bison have 9 national championships and they expect to win more. Winning a national championship is expected for the Bison and as you can see they have met those expectations quite a few times.
If NDSU moved to FBS it wouldn’t change what the fans or the administration expects of the Bison football program. We expect them to win and we help give them the resources to win.
Hail The Bison! The March Is Still On!
Tim, you are comparing Apples to Oranges here. Please have some realistic expectations. As a FCS team our budget and scope is limited compared to the FBS teams, yet we managed to win against a decent FBS opponent. Being a cold country up here and we are in the FCS championship hunt we must be very very proud of our staff, team and fans. Just imagine weather alone could be a major factor and prevent us from getting talented players, yet we manage to beat a decent FBS team with limited resource.
The outstanding game in the 2nd half.
Brock Jensen clearly needs to play with confidence and style to get things clicking and he started doing that in the 2nd half.
The Running Backs are the key and this game they showed what they are made of, hats off to Rocket the Crockett and Sam Ojuri
Only two things:
1) We need to start early, Bison is slow to get into the game, if we start the game with some positives then Brock will play with confidence if not he will end up throwing interceptions or incompletes.
2) We have no long passing games at all. Wide Receivers, TVG, ZV, are still dormant. We need to use those monsters .
So we if do this
a-Get Brock Jensen off to a quick good start,
b-Running Back using our #1 defense’s abilities to find holes and run
c-Complete passes to WR
then we are firing on all cylinders and nobody can touch us.
Bison- read the comment by red river. Thanks.