North Dakota State to join Mountain West

I guess good for $$. But sad for tradition. Seems like a bad move for the school. Competed for National Titles against many teams in that region. The $$ is the only positive for this move.

Fried Chicken said:

I guess good for $$. But sad for tradition. Seems like a bad move for the school. Competed for National Titles against many teams in that region. The $$ is the only positive for this move.

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Bison supporters were losing interest in the football program and some stop going to games due to being boring and knowing that another Bison championship is likely. With Bison moving up to Mountain West Conference will ignite more excitement to the football program.

Also I would like the Bison to build an outdoor stadium since is unlikely that they will host a home game in December. They did host some games in Dezember because of FCS playoffs but that is over.

Montana State is measuring for space to hang additional FCS national championship banners now that the Bisons are gone.

Well, almost right.

RUMMENIGGE said:

Bison supporters were losing interest in the football program and some stop going to games due to being boring and knowing that another Bison championship is likely. With Bison moving up to Mountain West Conference will ignite more excitement to the football program.

Also I would like the Bison to build an outdoor stadium since is unlikely that they will host a home game in December. They did host some games in Dezember because of FCS playoffs but that is over.

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If at some point FBS has two playoffi brackets - 1 for P4 and 1 for mid-majors, could there be December football in the FargoDome?

RUMMENIGGE said:

Also I would like the Bison to build an outdoor stadium since is unlikely that they will host a home game in December. They did host some games in Dezember because of FCS playoffs but that is over.

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Outdoor or Indoor, you would think a new, bigger, stadium would have to be part of the equation. The Fargo Dome only holds about 18,000 people. If moving to FBS doesn't generate enough interest among your fans that you consistently need more than 18,000 seats, then what's the point?

Hosting an outdoor game in Fargo wouldn't be unreasonable. Fargo's average December low is only about 4 degrees lower than Bozeman's and the Bobcats host multiple December games most years. . . but they aren't for wimps, that's for sure.

atl-cock said:

If at some point FBS has two playoffi brackets - 1 for P4 and 1 for mid-majors, could there be December football in the FargoDome?

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I believe the home team can choose to move the game to alternate site in the first round of playoffs.

Uscg1984 said:

Outdoor or Indoor, you would think a new, bigger, stadium would have to be part of the equation. The Fargo Dome only holds about 18,000 people. If moving to FBS doesn't generate enough interest among your fans that you consistently need more than 18,000 seats, then what's the point?

Hosting an outdoor game in Fargo wouldn't be unreasonable. Fargo's average December low is only about 4 degrees lower than Bozeman's and the Bobcats host multiple December games most years. . . but they aren't for wimps, that's for sure.

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What I worry about is extreme wind chills that can be life threatening if exposed in a little as ten minutes being outdoors. I believe that kind of weather is possible in Dezember, however I think playing outdoors in Fargo is doable from late August through November.

I guess the only advantage with playing indoors is you should not have to pause the game due to lightning storms in the area.

RUMMENIGGE said:

What I worry about is extreme wind chills that can be life threatening if exposed in a little as ten minutes being outdoors. I believe that kind of weather is possible in Dezember, however I think playing outdoors in Fargo is doable from late August through November.

I guess the only advantage with playing indoors is you should not have to pause the game due to lightning storms in the area.

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I think of the ICE Bowl NFL championship game 12/31/1967. Temperature in Green Bay -13°F.

And that's likely why the CFL begins and ends their season earlier than the NFL. While Winnipeg and Saskatchewan have new stadia, BC currently has the only indoor facility in the league (Toronto moved out of the Rogers Centre a few years ago). Maybe the money just isn't there for indoor facilities.

RUMMENIGGE said:

I believe the home team can choose to move the game to alternate site in the first round of playoffs.

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I assume you're referring to all non-FBS divisions in the NCAA?

RUMMENIGGE said:

What I worry about is extreme wind chills that can be life threatening if exposed in a little as ten minutes being outdoors. I believe that kind of weather is possible in Dezember, however I think playing outdoors in Fargo is doable from late August through November.

I guess the only advantage with playing indoors is you should not have to pause the game due to lightning storms in the area.

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I suppose if they did not demolish the Fargo Dome, they could always opt to play a December playoff game there while playing their regular season games in a larger outdoor stadium. But let's be honest, ND State isn't going to host a CFP game in FBS. Or, at the very least, the odds are so slim that it should not be a factor for future stadium considerations.

As for dangerously cold conditions, there's really no way to avoid it completely in the Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota, etc. I'm less than an hour outside of Bozeman and we hit -13 (air temp, not windchill) in _October_ a few years ago. A couple of years ago, we hit -42 (air temp, not windchill) the week before Christmas. You can mitigate it by moving late season games to 1pm starts, but its still brutally cold. Our first year here, we watched a high school semi-final football game in mid-November kickoff at 1pm at 1 degree. I think you just build the stadium and hope you get lucky with the timing of the cold fronts.