(06-23-2017 12:30 AM)SDHornet Wrote:  

(06-22-2017 07:39 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(06-22-2017 05:13 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(06-22-2017 05:04 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Yeah, I think Montana has bigger fish to fry than Portland St and Sac St, frankly.

For years Montana resisted playing payday games with P5 teams. Now both Montana and NDSU have a fair share of P5 games lined up over the next 5-10 years.

Budgets cuts from the state will do that for you.

The Governor of ND just was just profiled by Forbes as the politician who best understands the entrepreneurial worls. He started an accounting software firm in Fargo and sold it for billions to Microsoft. He resigned from several high tech boards to begin his political career. He is attempting to make state government and education must more accessible and communicative by using apps and other software. The future government blueprint may well be North Dakota, which is become very business and consumer responsive. The President of UND is a former congressman and business leader who is fully on board and dreams big. Cuts were necessary to show that government and education can become leaner and more efficient and even friendlier and less bureaucratic.

And a Dakota cabal FBS conference centered around a region with zero media markets, limited recruits, and limited fans while significantly increasing the athletic expenses fits that ideal?

Ok. You sold me.

By going FBS, the Dakotas and Montana show their no longer backwater regions that aren't with the times, like the Sacramento region, which cow tows miserably to the Bay Area. The Dakotas are growing for the first time in a century, their incomes have expanded more than other states this century, and they want more entertainment and other amenities that most of the US has.

Many of the majority Minnesotans at the NoDak schools stay in the state because it still has so many good paying jobs. Going FBS will only improve the schools stature.