Sagarin Ratings.

[bengalcub]

Even with home field advantage, ISU is a 10 point underdog to North Dakota. Not sure that I would have thought that prior to looking it up.

 

[Bengal Roar]

That doesn't surprise me at all. I am not all that well versed in ratings-rankings-etc. but with the research i have done well I think we will be playing the same exact caliber of team that we are. I still think we will win and i am trying not to give any predictions but on this one i think the spread will be 6 points or less with ISU winning. These guys (know) how to win and they are use to it so that is a huge hurdle right there for us.

Changing subjects on a different team....I think Boise St. will lose (4) games this year and maybe (5). I don't think they are as good as they have been. It looks like the Dakota teams are taking people by surprise on the polls.

 

[weberwildcat1]

Uh...this is North Dakota not ND State!

ISU wins big at home!

 

[biobengal]

Even with home field advantage, ISU is a 10 point underdog to North Dakota. Not sure that I would have thought that prior to looking it up.

I don't think that's accurate. Sags doesn't rank D II or D III teams; note their schedule strenght: ZERO. Their current ranking is likely their preseason ranking.

 

[UND9296]

I believe the reason UND is ranked fairly high in the early season Sagarin rankings is that we beat Southern Utah on the road last year. That was our only FCS game. The only other thing I can think of is that another one of our opponents, Western Washington, defeated UC-Davis, and we beat Western Washington on the road. Based purely on strength of schedule so far this year, certainly we don't warrant such a high ranking.

A few other miscellaneous points about UND--we held a sizeable head-to-head advantage over NDSU and SDSU during the several years leading up to their move to dI (the last time we played was 2003). SDSU's head coach is 1-6 vs. UND. In our part of the country, where there are very few dI programs, we've historically been able to get a lot of talent that in other parts of the country would be at least FCS caliber, and probably FBS. That's part of the reason we were able to go into Northern Iowa two years ago and win.

Something else to keep in mind--even if you want to consider UND to be a dII team--which in essence we are until we've had a few more recruiting classes--there have been numerous examples in recent years of dII programs beating good FCS programs:

NDSU over Montana in 2003 (we beat NDSU that year)

North Alabama over Jacksonville St. in 2004 (we beat North Alabama that year)

Central Washington over Eastern Washington in 2006 (we beat CWU that year on the road)

UND over Northern Iowa in 2006

Western Washington over UC-Davis in 2007 (we beat WWU on the road last year)

 

[weberwildcat1]

NDSU over Montana in 2003 (we beat NDSU that year)

North Alabama over Jacksonville St. in 2004 (we beat North Alabama that year)

Central Washington over Eastern Washington in 2006 (we beat CWU that year on the road)

UND over Northern Iowa in 2006

Western Washington over UC-Davis in 2007 (we beat WWU on the road last year)

LOOOL! Sounds like the Directional State U Playoffs!!

 

[biobengal]

Something else to keep in mind--even if you want to consider UND to be a dII team--which in essence we are until we've had a few more recruiting classes--there have been numerous examples in recent years of dII programs beating good FCS programs:

NDSU over Montana in 2003 (we beat NDSU that year)

North Alabama over Jacksonville St. in 2004 (we beat North Alabama that year)

Central Washington over Eastern Washington in 2006 (we beat CWU that year on the road)

UND over Northern Iowa in 2006

Western Washington over UC-Davis in 2007 (we beat WWU on the road last year)

I don't think anyone considers UND a D II team.... right? You are FCS. BTW, I would like to point out a Zamberlin coached CWU squad took it to EWU on the road.

 

[UND9296]

Something else to keep in mind--even if you want to consider UND to be a dII team--which in essence we are until we've had a few more recruiting classes--there have been numerous examples in recent years of dII programs beating good FCS programs:

NDSU over Montana in 2003 (we beat NDSU that year)

North Alabama over Jacksonville St. in 2004 (we beat North Alabama that year)

Central Washington over Eastern Washington in 2006 (we beat CWU that year on the road)

UND over Northern Iowa in 2006

Western Washington over UC-Davis in 2007 (we beat WWU on the road last year)

I don't think anyone considers UND a D II team.... right? You are FCS. BTW, I would like to point out a Zamberlin coached CWU squad took it to EWU on the road.

Very true. Of course, UND also beat that same Zamberlin-coached team on the road that year.

Regarding the dII label, yes we are FCS. But the reality is that we're not any more talented than we were last year as a dII team. It's going to take a few recruiting classes with the additional scholarships to see a talent upgrade IMO.

 

[bengalcub]

And the fact still remains that according to the Sagarin ratings, the Fighting Sioux are 10 point favorites when they take the field in Holt Arena.

Not South Dakota, not North Dakota State, but North Dakota.

Here is the proof:

16 GREAT WEST (AA)= 51.81 51.01 ( 17) TEAMS= 5
College Football 2008 through games of 2008 September 14 Sunday the BCS uses the ELO_CHESS from here
HOME ADVANTAGE= 2.87 RATING W L SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 10 | VS top 30 | ELO_CHESS | PREDICTOR
112 Cal Poly-SLO AA = 60.24 1 1 62.89( 104) 0 0 | 0 0 | 59.46 117 | 60.58 110
132 UC Davis AA = 55.84 1 2 56.89( 149) 0 0 | 0 0 | 53.17 145 | 58.05 121
133 North Dakota AA = 55.70 3 0 0.00( 0) 0 0 | 0 0 | 55.53 135 | 55.54 134
185 Southern Utah AA = 43.99 1 2 74.89( 30) 0 0 | 0 0 | 46.45 178 | 40.81 194
200 South Dakota AA = 39.30 1 2 55.68( 154) 0 0 | 0 0 | 35.80 210 | 41.90 191
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


17 BIG SKY (AA)= 51.63 52.04 ( 16) TEAMS= 9
College Football 2008 through games of 2008 September 14 Sunday the BCS uses the ELO_CHESS from here
HOME ADVANTAGE= 2.87 RATING W L SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 10 | VS top 30 | ELO_CHESS | PREDICTOR
80 Montana AA = 66.73 2 0 52.12( 173) 0 0 | 0 0 | 66.63 80 | 66.39 80
103 Eastern Washington AA = 62.32 0 2 80.59( 12) 0 0 | 0 1 | 61.32 110 | 62.91 97
136 Northern Arizona AA = 55.26 1 1 80.25( 15) 0 0 | 0 0 | 54.54 140 | 55.55 133
143 Montana State AA = 53.72 1 2 78.41( 19) 0 0 | 0 0 | 55.52 136 | 51.46 148
153 Portland State AA = 51.49 1 1 58.71( 135) 0 0 | 0 0 | 51.24 154 | 51.31 150
166 Weber State AA = 48.35 2 1 69.63( 55) 0 0 | 0 0 | 48.93 163 | 47.31 169
172 Sacramento State AA = 47.13 2 1 64.69( 86) 0 0 | 0 0 | 44.89 182 | 48.84 163
188 Idaho State AA = 43.11 0 2 66.88( 71) 0 0 | 0 0 | 44.28 184 | 41.43 192
197 Northern Colorado AA = 40.28 0 1 75.17( 28) 0 0 | 0 0 | 39.99 196 | 40.15 196

In fact North Dakota is ranked higher than everyone in the BSC except Montana and Eastern Washington. They trail North Dakota State (113) and South Dakota State (111) in this weeks Sags. So if any of the Dakotas come into Holt Arena--they would be the favorites, right now.