Greeley, Co and Fargo, ND..

[OB55]

A tale of two cities.

Once upon a time, back in the old NCC days, there was a rivalry between Northern Colorado and North Dakota State in football. Likely which ever won the conference would be a major player deep into the D-II playoffs. One year Northern Colorado actually won the national title after having placed second in the NCC behind NDSU that year.

UNC decided to make the step up to the FCS and announced in the fall of 2003, NDSU quickly followed suit.

Ten years later the rivalry is merely a faint memory, NDSU has attracted the attention of College Gameday and as has already been posted here, Lou and Lee and company will sit in downtown Fargo this Saturday and broadcast their game show. This is the first time such an event has been staged at the site of a FCS school, and may not ever happen again.

NDSU has ran the gauntlet in FCS, arguably the most successful program at that level now and maybe even in the past. NDSU has impressed the big leagues by regularly knocking off FBS schools in early non conference games.

Northern Colorado could not even beat a Division II start up program that is playing in a conference that NC was in over 40 years ago, a conference they regularly were champions of. In effect, they could not even expect to challenge for the conference title in the lower division today with the program they have put together.

That is a tale of two cities, two programs that had similar goals, one did it right, one did not.

xsmhxxsmhxxsmhx

End of rant.

xnonono2xxnonono2xxnonono2x

[Laker]

As an old NCCer, this post is very accurate.

[Thundar]

A tale of two cities.

Once upon a time, back in the old NCC days, there was a rivalry between Northern Colorado and North Dakota State in football. Likely which ever won the conference would be a major player deep into the D-II playoffs. One year Northern Colorado actually won the national title after having placed second in the NCC behind NDSU that year.

UNC decided to make the step up to the FCS and announced in the fall of 2003, NDSU quickly followed suit.

Ten years later the rivalry is merely a faint memory, NDSU has attracted the attention of College Gameday and as has already been posted here, Lou and Lee and company will sit in downtown Fargo this Saturday and broadcast their game show. This is the first time such an event has been staged at the site of a FCS school, and may not ever happen again.

NDSU has ran the gauntlet in FCS, arguably the most successful program at that level now and maybe even in the past. NDSU has impressed the big leagues by regularly knocking off FBS schools in early non conference games.

Northern Colorado could not even beat a Division II start up program that is playing in a conference that NC was in over 40 years ago, a conference they regularly were champions of. In effect, they could not even expect to challenge for the conference title in the lower division today with the program they have put together.

That is a tale of two cities, two programs that had similar goals, one did it right, one did not.

xsmhxxsmhxxsmhx

End of rant.

xnonono2xxnonono2xxnonono2x


not the first FCS school Gameday has been to, Lou Holtz won't be here, and we are not the most successful ever

[Herder]

A little more history is needed in your story. DII had a max scholarship level of 45, then in the early 1990's, that level was dropped to 36. The effect of this change leveled the playing field, and lifted some upward in the watered down DII-36 level. This scholarship reduction had a specific effect on NDSU . . . significantly stunting its growth, and its level of performance vs. the rest of the NCC. NDSU quickly moved to a relatively average level in a strong NCC vs. UNC, UND, UNO, USD and others (OK Mankaot too).

If you asked me who would be the stronger program at the 63 scholarship level in DI FCS, UNC or NDSU, now that's a no brainer. NDSU by far. City, support, dollars, fans . . . all critical areas pointed to more success at NDSU. Are the results surprising? NO . . . well maybe a little. I didn't think UNC wouls suck as bad as they seem to be sucking.

[Grizalltheway]

Well, I've heard they both smell like ****. So you've got that going for ya.

[swaghook]

The pieces were all in place for NDSU to make the move up and be successful. Northern Colorado, USD, & un_ are all struggling at this level IMO. SDSU is the surprise in football at this level from the old NCC.

[dewey]

If I remember correctly UNC under coach Joe Glenn won National titles in 1996 and 1997. Those battles between NDSU and UNC in the mid 90's to the early 2000's were some very good games and the winner likely went to the playoffs and would be the favorite for the NCC title.

It is too bad that the UNC and NDSU rivalry is nothing but a memory.

Dewey

[Ex Pat]

My family relocated from the Twin Cities area to a small town in ND in 1993. My uncle had (still has) season tickets for the bison and would take me and my cousin to most home games. The NC game was the first time I stepped in the fargondome, and my cousin explained to me that it was the second best game to go to besides the sioux game. The rest of my family are all UND fans, the high school I graduated from is 30 miles from Grand Forks, and I'm an alum of one of NDSU's cross town 'rivals'. Even with the deck stacked against me, I have been a Bison fan since that day because of the fun we had watching that rivalry! It's funny how quickly we forget... Nice post!

[Ex Pat]

Never been to Greeley, but Fargo smells fine. Thanks for the input griz!

[NoDak 4 Ever]

If you ask me, part of NDSU's success has been getting into the Gateway Conference instead of the Big Sky. A better geographical footprint for traveling and recruiting. Getting rejected from the Big Sky may have been the biggest blessing in disguise we have seen.

[IBleedYellow]

If you ask me, part of NDSU's success has been getting into the Gateway Conference instead of the Big Sky. A better geographical footprint for traveling and recruiting. Getting rejected from the Big Sky may have been the biggest blessing in disguise we have seen.


This this this this this.

The ability for us to play exactly in our recruiting hotbeds was the biggest thing to NDSU's success.

[FargoBison]

The biggest keys to NDSU's success have been Chapman, Taylor, Bohl and Team Makers.

I think NDSU would have been fine in the Big Sky. We did great in the Great West and that was a far flung league. That said the MVFC is a better fit for multiple reasons mentioned.

[IBleedYellow]

I remember back when I was 6-15 when I would ride with my Dad and uncles, they would always talk about UNC and UN_ games.

[NoDak 4 Ever]

Didn't the Walker era start during a game at Northern Colorado?

[FargoBison]

Didn't the Walker era start during a game at Northern Colorado?

Yeah he almost brought us back from the dead...I think Tony Stauss had like 4 or 5 interceptions that game. For some reason though the coaches stuck with Stuass for a few more weeks after that.

[kalm]

If you can do it in Cheney, you can do it in Greeley.

Oh...and Cheney smells nice.

[JSUBison]

I didn't realize Greeley has almost 100,000 people. Even with the FBS programs in state, you would think they'd have better attendance. 4,000 or so last year.

[Twentysix]

I didn't realize Greeley has almost 100,000 people. Even with the FBS programs in state, you would think they'd have better attendance. 4,000 or so last year.

Greeley is also like an hour away from 2 million.

For an analogy, that would be like Minneapolis being located where Detroit Lakes is...

[Laker]

Greeley is also like an hour away from 2 million.

For an analogy, that would be like Minneapolis being located where Detroit Lakes is...

Well, that would wreck WeFest! xblehx

[Bisonator]

Has something happened with highschool football in Colorado? Seems like all of their schools have really dropped off in football. Colorado State was never really great but UC and NC used to have good programs. You don't really hear of many recruits from Colorado either.

[Bison56]

Has something happened with highschool football in Colorado? Seems like all of their schools have really dropped off in football. Colorado State was never really great but UC and NC used to have good programs. You don't really hear of many recruits from Colorado either.
They all are too busy smoking pot now.

[Bogus Megapardus]

This is the first time such an event has been staged at the site of a FCS school, and may not ever happen again.



While it may not be the first ESPN Gameday at an FCS school (Penn holds that distinction) NDSU definitely is the first school truly to earn the honor based on its contemporary strength of play. I certainly hope it's not the last!

Congrats to the Bison - I'll be watching!

[Grizzlies82]

Has something happened with highschool football in Colorado? Seems like all of their schools have really dropped off in football. Colorado State was never really great but UC and NC used to have good programs. You don't really hear of many recruits from Colorado either.


No I believe Colorado High Schools are still cranking out some great prospects. I suspect you're just not seeing them over in the Midwest schools you play.

[OB55]

Has something happened with highschool football in Colorado? Seems like all of their schools have really dropped off in football. Colorado State was never really great but UC and NC used to have good programs. You don't really hear of many recruits from Colorado either.

They get recruited by Wyoming.

[OB55]

I didn't realize Greeley has almost 100,000 people. Even with the FBS programs in state, you would think they'd have better attendance. 4,000 or so last year.

That alludes to the program's suckiness. In reality, with a solid program that competes with the top of the conference they could only expect somewhere around 10K to go to games at Nottingham. UNC as always been known as a "suitcase" college, the majority of it's students are from the front range, mainly Denver metro, and they all go home for the weekend. Football to most of UNC's students is the Denver Broncos, and only the Denver Broncos. UNC's football even during their D-2 heyday is not more to the student body there than a novelty.

[OB55]

A little more history is needed in your story. DII had a max scholarship level of 45, then in the early 1990's, that level was dropped to 36. The effect of this change leveled the playing field, and lifted some upward in the watered down DII-36 level. This scholarship reduction had a specific effect on NDSU . . . significantly stunting its growth, and its level of performance vs. the rest of the NCC. NDSU quickly moved to a relatively average level in a strong NCC vs. UNC, UND, UNO, USD and others (OK Mankaot too).

If you asked me who would be the stronger program at the 63 scholarship level in DI FCS, UNC or NDSU, now that's a no brainer. NDSU by far. City, support, dollars, fans . . . all critical areas pointed to more success at NDSU. Are the results surprising? NO . . . well maybe a little. I didn't think UNC wouls suck as bad as they seem to be sucking.

Herdman, is that you??

:D

[Bisonator]

No I believe Colorado High Schools are still cranking out some great prospects. I suspect you're just not seeing them over in the Midwest schools you play.

Yeah we don't recruit there either. Was just curious.

[marenlee]

Yeah we don't recruit there either. Was just curious.

I don't follow recruiting too heavily but I'd be willing to bet their best recruits aren't playing for CU or CSU. With the rest of the PAC 12 and Mountain West why would they?

[OB55]

Well, now that Greeley has suffered it's first flood, perhaps they are now trying to close the gap with Fargo..

[deez_na]

How about the thought of espn coming back? That would be pretty awesome huh
http://www.argusleader.com/viewart/20130922/SPORTS/309220048/ESPN-official-says-Fargo-perfect-site-College-GameDay-

[AmsterBison]

Didn't Northern Colorado get screwed over by some big time donors who promised a lot but delivered nothing?

[OB55]

Didn't Northern Colorado get screwed over by some big time donors who promised a lot but delivered nothing?

UNC had seamlessly made two prior moves where they left old conferences to join bigger conferences that had more scholarships and assets without ever having to pony up right away. They had benefited by their geographic location, and prior reputation for winning to compete and in many cases compete for championships again without adding much in the way of investment in the program, that did not work out well in any way with the FCS transition. Colorado Rockies Owner, Richard (Dick) Montfort who is a graduate of UNC and who the Northern Colorado School Of Business is named after is the current sugar daddy in waiting to whom many look towards in a time of need, has not committed to pumping in whatever is needed to elevate the program, but again many are hoping/expecting the Montforts to jump on board.

They sold Fullerton and company a line of bull when they came visiting prior to inviting UNC to the Big Sky, promising this and that down the road rather than right now and the BSC bought into it.

UNC has no better than a good D-II stadium, track around the field and all, and is discussing no plans to improve it or any other facilities anytime soon to put them on the same plane as the most successful BSC members.