SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

[rabbits64]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

Like Iowa and Iowa State? They aren't in the same conference, but every year that is one of the biggest games on the schedule.

Is it the biggest game for Iowa or just for Iowa State? I would bet that beating Wisconsin/Minnesota/Illinois/Michigan is much bigger for Iowa than beating Iowa State.
With some in-state rivalries, the game is much bigger for one team than it is the other, i.e. Michigan v Michigan State, Oklahoma v Ok State. In both of those scenarios, the bigger team has another rival the far outweighs their instate rival. Personally I would hope that the NDSU rivalry gets much bigger than the USD rivalry. For USD beating SDSU is the end all be all, but for SDSU beating NDSU has much more clout and importance.

[91jack]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

I've only read the last few pages of this post so I'm sure I'll be repeating other posts.
I think if SDSU plays USD, it should be at the end of the season. The last couple games are the only ones where the USD fans could help with attendance. They won't bring fans like NDSU but they should bring some. I think SDSU would beat USD on a regular basis in the cold. NDSU has problems winning here in November. USD can't win on the road to begin with let alone in bad weather.
I don't think SDSU should have to go to the dome but they eventually will. You could think about moving a game to SF after they rebuild Howard Wood. Until then, I think that place isn't very nice.
I guess if SDSU played USD this year, they would have been in the playoffs. Their game would have replaced the Cal-Poly or SFA game. The competition wouldn't have been as good but the playoffs would be an OK trade.
I think some people have the right idea when they compare this to the Iowa-Iowa State game. Both Iowa State and USD would think this is their bowl game. Iowa and SDSU say it's an OK game but other than 500 extra fans in November it doesn't mean much. You don't want to lose to USD but it will never compare to NDSU or some ranked/conference team that comes in.
I don't know if the crowds will get back to the DII days. SDSU still brings in SD kids in most sports but will USD. Part of the appeal to the fans was to watch SD kids that played against each other in HS do the same thing at the college level. People from those towns didn't have to travel very far to watch those games.

[rabidrabbit]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

The 2008 season, USD/UND/Bryant were ALL NON-COUNTERS as they were in that horrible first year of transition. So playing them would not have helped our play-off hopes.

From every year from here on out, they will count toward needed D-I wins. Until they get up to full schollies, SDSU SHOULD win. Nonetheless, they would make a more filled CAS than virtually ANY OTHER FOE.

However, I'd still be for a 2-4-1 with Yotes to start.

[rabbits64]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

There has been a lot of comparison between SDSU/USD to Iowa/Iowa State. So I e-mailed my buddy who is an Iowa Alum, and I asked him what game is bigger Iowa State or Wisconsin or Minnesota. His response was this:

"Wisconsin – This is my #1. We’re usually battling for the same recruits. Their fans like to party as much as we do! We’re probably the two most similar programs as well. With the big ten the top programs are obviously Ohio State, Michigan and then depending on the year; Penn State, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Iowa State – It’s a lose, lose situation. If we win, we’re supposed to win but if we lose, their fans are awful."


I thought it is an interesting take on the in-state rivalry. Thoughts??

[SUPERBUNNY]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

Iowa State – It’s a lose, lose situation. If we win, we’re supposed to win but if we lose, their fans are awful."

The USD game is a lose, lose, lose, lose for SDSU in my opinion. We are supposed to win, their fans are awful, we would have to travel to the Dakota Dump, and we battle them for recruits.

With everything they did to bring us down prior to and during transition, as far as I'm concerned it will take legislation to force us into a game with them. We don't need USD for ANYTHING. They sure as the hell need us. Let them suffer. Now I hope they succeed in transition and at D1 because it is good for South Dakota but we sure don't need to help them with anything.

The only positive that I see is the fact that it is a bus ride instead of a plane trip.

No sugar coating, that's how I feel.

GB, GB, GJ!

SUPERBUNNY

[zooropa]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

The USD game is a lose, lose, lose, lose for SDSU in my opinion.

I disagree. It's a win at the gate. It's a win for the budget, and near term, it's a cake non-conf game. And seeings how the pollsters don't give a rat's hinder about quality of schedule, cake wins mean something.

Plus, if we're going to dredge up the past, let's go way back.

SDSU / USD could be billed as the ORIGINAL rivalry game. The only rivalry games older than SDSU/USD are Princeton/Yale, Princeton/Harvard, and Harvard/Yale. SDSU/USD is older than every other in state and out of state rivalry outside the Ivy League.

IMO discarding a rivalry that is (conveniently) as old as South Dakota itself based on grudges from the transition period that didn't amount to a hill of beans then, and are worth even less now, is a waste.

I mean, shoot, you've got a rivalry that began in 1889, you've got a state that was added to the union in the middle of football season (Nov. 2nd), and you've got, to be quite honest, the PERFECT rivalry game.

But, nah, it's so much better to grouse about USD trying to torpedo the transition (especially since SDSU is doing better in D-1, on the whole, than they were in D-2).

[Rabbitden]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

Man I like pie!

[SUPERBUNNY]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

You were right about one thing, it would be a cake game. Almost always was, almost always will be.

Where you were wrong is that it hasn't been a win at the gate. You can see the numbers a couple pages back. A win for the budget? Only if you can draw a lot more for that game versus others.

USD put a torpedo to the near perfect rivalry and let's not let it happen again! So rouse about it and let it die? You bet!

GB, GB, GJ!

SUPERBUNNY

[zooropa]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

it hasn't been a win at the gate.

Ought to draw better than Cal-Poly and Illinois State did.

BTW: The 'USD torpedoed this rivalry' line of reasoning is just silly, IMO.

Yes, USD made a mistake by staying D-2. I think everyone agrees on that. I think Jim Abbott would even agree to it, if you caught him off guard and without his talking points.

But they ain't D-2 anymore. Let bygones be bygones.

You can save the "Rivalry Week" game for NDSU/SDSU, and you can schedule the "State-U Classic" for the weekend closest to November 2nd. Have the Gov. show up, invent a suitable traveling trophy, and carve the results of all one hundred and four previous matchups on it. Then schedule the games so you get one of those two as a home game every year.

I mean, frankly, we've got people trying to figure out how to boost late season attendance, and we've got the state's anniversary falling on Nov. 2nd, and we've got a rivalry sitting in the fridge under tinfoil just waiting to be warmed up and served again.

Seriously, folks, apart from the nastiness of the D-1 transition, what reasons are there not to do this? Besides, who was hurt more by all the negative talk about the D-1 move? SDSU or USD?

[Rabbitden]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

Let bygones be bygones.

Exactly, 16 post (not that this has anything to do with it), welcome aboard, but you hit the nail on the head. This statement goes both way's, it is not a rivarly anymore, was, but that is the past, SDSU is moving forward and the U does not do a thing for us. Please let bygones be bygones.

[zooropa]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

it is not a rivarly anymore, was, but that is the past

Did you notice that I put the RIVALRY game in as SDSU/NDSU?

SDSU/USD is, near term, an attendence booster, an easy non-conf game, and a way to raise visibility of the program in-state.

All of which are vital goals for the athletic department.

---

USD is in a different league than SDSU metaphorically as well as in reality. Obviously they stand to gain MORE from playing SDSU than SDSU stands to gain from playing USD.

However, USD having a bigger upside is simply no reason to disregard the upside to SDSU.

---

Furthermore, I might simply ask what any Coyote fan would ask--in order to play devil's advocate: "What are you afraid of?"

---

I've made my case: Oldest State-U rivalry in the country renewed annually on the Saturday closest to Nov. 2nd, with all the hoopla that a state of roughly 800k can generate. Televised games, border to border coverage, yada yada yada.

---

Oh, BTW, Class of '97. I was there when it WAS a current rivalry, and when drawing 9k to Hobo Day was a major accomplishment.

[JackJD]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

What if USD wants nothing to do with SDSU for a while?

[zooropa]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

One other note....

While current students and recent alums may not see USD as a major rivalry, MOST of the SDSU alumni base, and certainly the most well established SDSU alumni see USD as a rival.....

Certainly something to consider.

[zooropa]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

What if USD wants nothing to do with SDSU for a while?

This can't happen until 2012 anyway.

Frankly, I would be quite disappointed if administrators from both programs decided to put the petty squabbles of the recent past ahead of:

1) financial gain (You'd see a sellout crowd at the dome and well over 15k at CAS) coupled with microscopic travel costs

2) exposure (the first game to renew the rivalry would get a serious amount of coverage).

3) history (this rivalry is almost 130 years old, and there are dang few things in this state that are that old).

[HoboD]

Re: SDSU/USD Solution--Million Dollar Game

Lock Down! Please! I beg you!