NDSU preps for 2012 FCS Title Game
No Sunday Night Ramblings tonight, but had a few things I wanted to share, first NDSU lost one of it’s football founders tonight in Dr. Denis ”Izzy” Isrow, I only met Izzy once but I know he was one of the most well-respected men on the NDSU campus and I’m sure Jeff will have more on Izzy later this week in the paper.
As we start the now 3 week buildup to the National Championship Game in Frisco, each team knows exactly how to prepare for what’s to come down in Texas. NDSU will give its players some time off before starting the grind, I already know the coaching staff hasn’t missed a beat already out recruiting trying to finish up the 2013 class. I have been told that NDSU will be the ROAD team for the title game, there was a coin flip held before the semifinal round, Sam Houston State won that, meaning that likely the Bison will not wear their gold jerseys as they’ve done all playoffs long and wore in last year’s title game, it appears they’ll be in their customary road whites. More on that when it becomes available. Tonight I dug up some preseason stuff I did both for TV and the radio with each team previewing the season and seems fitting to look back tonight, so for your enjoyment or distraction, here’s my preseason interview with Craig Bohl talking about expectations and SHSU Head Coach Willie Fritz about getting back to Frisco from Dizzo’s Den.
As far as looking ahead, tomorrow or later this week could be a huge day in college basketball circles, already we’ve seen the 7 non-football schools break away from the Big East to start their own league and more are certain to follow, watch for Butler, Xavier and St. Louis just to name a few. There’s also one another huge school to look for and that’s Creighton. The Missouri Valley Presidents were holding a conference call tonight to address what will happen if the Blue Jays decide to leave, which would seriously hurt the MVC, they are a known commodity nationally. Several reports I’ve seen has 3 schools already lining up for the Valley from VCU to Illinois-Chicago to Oral Roberts. ORU may fit the best, the two sports the Valley is traditionally good in are basketball and baseball and those fit ORU to a tee. I have to believe NDSU is somewhere on the Valley’s radar screen and a 2nd title game appearance has to help, but I just dont know how high they are on it. This article explains the presidents meeting this weekend. Much more on the title game coming later this week, doing some re-charging tonight!
What are Sam Houston’s colors? Gold can easily be a “road color”, as the green jerseys are traditionally home jerseys. Not a stretch at all. If the NCAA allows anything the Oregon teams wear, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Being the ROAD team suits me just fine, as the Bison have been great on the road this year!
Exciting times at NDSU. I know the Bison wore gold as the road team in Sioux Falls this year against USD.
We are praying for Dr. Isrow’s family and the Bison family affected by his loss.
You would think NDSU would be high on the list for the Missouri Valley Conference. Does the conference go big to help with future defections?
MVC has a list of 10 schools that are on their radar. The rub is it depends on if you are a public (sans Wichita) or privates. Privates would rather have schools like Oral Roberts, Valpo, St. Louis, even UW-Milwaukee (not private) etc. I think the publics (at least three that I know people at) are far more open to adding NDSU and SDSU. They like the idea they are land-grant, research institutions (good academic profile) and are working hard at improving facilities (they recognize the worth of both institutions). You then could fold football into the conference. Even the idea that the small population base is getting the argument, well unlike several of us they are the #1 game in town, not the second or third.
So we will see how this all plays out. My gut tells me that if Creighton decides to stay in the Valley they will stay at 10 members and be happy and will not need to cross this divide. If Creighton leaves….all bets are off. They could then go 1 or 3 at that point and who they pick will say a lot about the future of the conference.
It is a basketball first conference. I think NDSU and SDSU being the dance has helped. Both starting the year well has help, NDSU building a new area helps, good RPI etc. It will get interesting the next few days, months…..
Dom has said that the MVC cares more about basketball. That the Bison winning football titles really means nothing as far as getting into the MVC. I believe if NDSU would have broke ground on the new arena it would have helped the Bison chances to get a shot at the MVC. Not being able to get the last two million to close the deal doesn’t look good in my opinion. I would love to see us and the Jacks go together into the MVC. It would be great for both schools.
If you really want to show conferences that you are serious about facilities then I say spend $150 million and expand the dome to 35 or 40,000 seats. Forget about rebuilding the BSA, put that $10 million of Sanford money toward building the 6,000 seat basketball arena addition onto the Dome that was planned a few years ago. Drag Erv out of retirement to help raise the money through companies like Sanford, Scheels, Kilbourne and MIcrosoft. Go out and talk to some to the oil companies making millions out it western North Dakota and get some donations and/or naming rights fees from them. Fargo/NDSU would have an absolute top notch sports facility that would help NDSU’s chances of getting into a conference like the MVC and maybe someday something bigger and better.
SHSU has an orange jersey for their home games. I am guessing that orange and gold would not be allowed.
Their orange and our gold are not similar.
Cats wearing Orange and Bison wearing Gold. Orange vs Gold, uh…not a pleasing picture to imagine
Imagine that combo on red turf!
LOL
So, does the road team mean that NDSU fans will be on the SHSU sideline they had last year? Does this mean that all of the people who bought tickets on the announcer side of the park, where we were last year, are now in SHSU territory?