Hello all. First time poster here and I have an honest question. Would you be in favor of adding NDSU to your conference in all sports but more specifically football? Just looking for some general friendly discussion here. College football season is more or less over with recruit season going now and I am genuinely curious.

I'd love to add NDSU but I think it would require adding a bridge school such as Northern Iowa.

Only if they moved to Milwaukee first.

NDSU has a great football program, but I know nothing about their academics/the university itself. And it would take a toll on travel costs.

Think MWC. Not MAC.

(01-22-2016 05:48 PM)23Bison Wrote:  Hello all. First time poster here and I have an honest question. Would you be in favor of adding NDSU to your conference in all sports but more specifically football? Just looking for some general friendly discussion here. College football season is more or less over with recruit season going now and I am genuinely curious.

I think North Dakota State would be a fantastic addition to an FBS conference. Your school has the potential to be a flagship athletic program in the Dakotas. Fargo is a thriving community.

Unfortunately, the school is awfully far from the rest of our footprint. The MAC is, by and large, a bus league, so I'm not sure where adding a school in Fargo would take the MAC long term.

Would Bison fans be satisfied joining the MAC as it is, with the closest rival in DeKalb, Ill.? Would that work for everyone, long term? Or would we also be expected to add a school like South Dakota State or something in the future? And could ADs in Toledo, Muncie, and DeKalb really be expected to support flying their football, baseball, and volleyball teams to the Dakotas every year?

You guys have a great program, it seems to me. If North Dakota State was in Iowa or Wisconsin, this would be a no-brainer. I'd say yes, without question.

But, given the distance, it would be kind of risky for us -- probably a better choice than adding a school like North Carolina-Charlotte or Southern Mississippi, because your program is so dominant in your region. But... I'm not sure I see it happening.

I wonder if, long term, what ends up happening is that best football schools of the Big Sky and the Missouri Valley find a way go FBS more or less en masse, along with Idaho.

NDSU is a land grant Ag school. Total enrollment now is roughly 15k+. I believe our president has a plan in place now to get our total enrollment to 18k in the next few years. I do see travel as a bit of an issue for some/most schools in the conference. Would be great to get another school like UNI in the mix as well as we have developed quite the rivalry in football. NDSU is offering FCOA in all sports starting this year and I believe UNI is doing it in BB and as well as football.

(01-22-2016 06:05 PM)axeme Wrote:  Think MWC. Not MAC.

Not necessarily. It is 1,842 miles from Fargo to San Diego and only 1,180 miles from Fargo to Buffalo so NDSU seems to fit the MAC mold better.

It's 604 miles from NIU to Buffalo. It's 598 miles from NIU to NDSU. Doubling the physical size of the conference for just one member in the middle of nowhere in a state with fewer people than the greater Akron area is absurd.

(01-22-2016 06:06 PM)23Bison Wrote:  Would be great to get another school like UNI in the mix as well as we have developed quite the rivalry in football.

That's intriguing. Are your stadiums big enough?

Also, would North Dakota State making the move to FBS lead other other Dakota schools to declare for FBS, too?

NDSU is a fine school with solid athletics that in theory would be a smart addition to a conference like the MAC. However, the geographical remoteness and the financial impact of having more than 12 full members makes an NDSU and MAC partnership unrealistic. Nothing personal.

(01-22-2016 06:11 PM)RedandBlackAttack Wrote:  

(01-22-2016 06:05 PM)axeme Wrote:  Think MWC. Not MAC.

Not necessarily. It is 1,842 miles from Fargo to San Diego and only 1,180 miles from Fargo to Buffalo so NDSU seems to fit the MAC mold better.

Then they have big problems because they make no sense for the MAC regardless of how good heir football team is.

Great football and overall athletics program. If only Fargo were closer it would be a no brainer. The geography is just tough.

(01-22-2016 06:23 PM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  

(01-22-2016 06:06 PM)23Bison Wrote:  Would be great to get another school like UNI in the mix as well as we have developed quite the rivalry in football.

That's intriguing. Are your stadiums big enough?

Also, would North Dakota State making the move to FBS lead other other Dakota schools to declare for FBS, too?

The Fargo Dome fits 19,000 right now with expansion talks of possible getting it to 22-25,000. It more or less sells out every game. All tickets are bought within a few hrs of being available. I'm not sure on the UNIdome. I believe it's capacity is around 13-15. I'mnot sure about SDSU but I believe USD has said it will offer FCOA as well. Rumblings have stated that SDSU will most likely offer it as well. SDSU is expanding on their stadium right now with a capacity of 19,500.

What does San Diego State have to do with anything?

(01-22-2016 07:58 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  What does San Diego State have to do with anything?

Ha-ha, I'm taking that as a joke but its actually South Dakota State if serious.

I think the MAC has had enough of "adding one school at a time" and creating an imbalance in football schedules - even with the intention of adding another school later to re-balance. I think if they expand again - it'll be either to re-establish balanced divisions (if one of the 12 left) or it will add two schools at the same time to preserve balance.

Someone mentioned UNI (and they have some attractive history), but I think if UNI was interested/ready, it would make far more sense for the MAC to package it with MoState (for geographical reasons) than it would to pair it with NDSU.

(01-22-2016 05:48 PM)23Bison Wrote:  Hello all. First time poster here and I have an honest question. Would you be in favor of adding NDSU to your conference in all sports but more specifically football? Just looking for some general friendly discussion here. College football season is more or less over with recruit season going now and I am genuinely curious.

No. You are too far away to even consider it. I live in Minnesota and I consider myself way the hell out of the MAC footprint.

(01-22-2016 06:21 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  It's 604 miles from NIU to Buffalo. It's 598 miles from NIU to NDSU. Doubling the physical size of the conference for just one member in the middle of nowhere in a state with fewer people than the greater Akron area is absurd.

The geography is bad, like others pointed out. Not only that, we'd have to add 2 teams to even out the conference, so we're splitting the money between 14 schools then.

It's intriguing though, in that NDSU is a school that really supports their football team. Like Marshall, they could bring some enthusiasm to the conference. And the MAC sorely needs that, IMO. Maybe it's just that with NIU already being on the Western edge of the conference, I have little interest in adding another Eastern team that would leave as soon as they add anything to the conference. I mean, we added UMass and Temple, two basketball schools, for football only.

I would have to defer to the MAC bigwigs though, in terms of what is best for the conference as a whole, I'm sure there are a lot of considerations I haven't thought of.