The last 72 hours has been one of the most bizarre and eye opening experiences in my professional career. I know I addressed Sunday night what was going to go away with the guidelines that were instituted, so there’s no need to go over that ground. I will say that it has been really impressive to see the amount of support for what we have done here on this blog, our videos, pre and postgame shows (which have included many of you that visit this site) and the radio show. It’s unbelievable. Everything from former players to parents of players, who have told me the only way they can connect with their son or daughter is been thru here, that’s pretty impressive to hear.
The continued drumming of Jeff and I has been disappointing, but not unexpected. I get that some believe we complained and got “our way”. I know deep down as I wrote on Sunday, we would do whatever we could to deliver the same great content like we have over the past six years and we will continue to do that in 2016. Our series throughout the summer has been very popular and the Twitter countdown video series leading up to the season opener has been as equally popular. Those will continue. We have never asked for or received money to produce our shows on location, ranging from the different locations we’ve done the show over the past six seasons. For the countless fans I’ve said hello to in the tailgate lot, I look forward to seeing you again and saying hi. For those that thought we “belly-ached” and got our way, sorry to say that wasn’t the case. I don’t think I have ever gone on here and told everyone how hard I work and went on and on about how long it took to edit a segment to get it on the site. I did it because I loved to do it, not for accolades, not for back slapping.
Shall we discuss some actual topics?
The Missouri Valley preseason poll was released Tuesday, no surprise at the top but some in the middle in my mind:
- NDSU (37 first place votes)
- UNI (2 first place votes)
- SDSU
- Illinois State
- Youngstown State
- Western Illinois
- South Dakota
- Southern Illinois
- Indiana State
- Missouri State
I had Youngstown State third in my personal poll, with SDSU at 4 and Illinois State at 5. I’m curious to see who wins out the Jacks quarterback competition, is it Lujan or Christion? Western Illinois is a surprise to me at six, I had them eighth, I understand what they return for this upcoming season, but new head coach and losing some players after Bob Nielson went to Vermillion, I think they struggle this year. The bottom teams are nearly interchangeable to me, I think SIU, Indiana State and Missouri State will struggle this season.
Thought it was interesting to post this, starting this year is a new cycle of Valley teams that are dropped off the schedule, here are the matchups gone for the next two seasons:
- North Dakota State – Southern Illinois
- Illinois State – Northern Iowa
- South Dakota State – Indiana State
- Missouri State – South Dakota
- Western Illinois – Youngstown State
Adding to this topic would be the addition of another school to the Missouri Valley Football Conference. Commissioner Patty Viverito was emphatic about that topic this morning on the conference preseason call, saying the league is “satisfied with the current membership agreement.” Wichita State is lurking out there if they do intend to re-start football, but after that, who would the league target? I have to imagine the league would want to add two schools if they decide to expand, which would make scheduling really fun.
Speaking of scheduling, Viverito said that adding a 12th game, as has been discussed by the Southland and Ohio Valley Conferences, is a “non-starter” with the Valley. That was the sense I got when visiting with NDSU athletic director Matt Larsen back in June and was validated today. I asked Viverito if there’s enough momentum to make this policy happen without Valley support, I didn’t get a clear answer there, but I’m curious where the CAA and Big Sky come down on this issue. I don’t think playing nine conference games is the solution, I prefer to see more intra-conference games.
Eric Peterson wrote more about the proposed changes to the FCS playoff bracket, which you can read here. It’s at least a start to a broken process, which was severely flawed last year with five teams from one conference on one side of the bracket.
Tomorrow NDSU holds its annual media day. Chris Klieman is scheduled to speak at 2:30, you will be able to watch it on WDAY.com or WDAY’Z Xtra. We’ll have full coverage on WDAY 6 News tomorrow at 6 and 10. Also some cool guests are being lined up for this Saturday’s Kolpack and Izzo.
Thank you to everyone for opening my eyes, good and bad. It’s on to football.