|
FARGO, N.D. -- North Dakota State should cash its biggest
check as an NCAA Division I-AA football team when the Bison play
the Minnesota Gophers in two years. The game is scheduled for Oct. 20, 2007, in Minneapolis, NDSU
athletic director Gene Taylor announced Wednesday. "This is fun for us. This is a big day," Taylor said while
signing the contract, which will be worth $275,000 to NDSU. NCAA Division I-A schools generally guarantee between $125,000
to $400,000 per game, Taylor said. The Bison will receive $150,000
when they travel to Ball State next season. "It's a little bit more than we thought," Taylor said of the
Minnesota contract. "I think part of it is that they knew they
were going to benefit from the ability to sell tickets to an
opponent." Taylor said he expects a minimum of 10,000 Bison fans to attend
the game. "Maybe more," he said. There are about 12,000 NDSU
alumni in the Twin Cities area, he said. The game should help the team gain recruits in the area, NDSU
head coach Craig Bohl said. The Bison had 31 players from Minnesota
on their roster at the beginning of the season, more than any other
state. "Any time you play a quality opponent on the gridiron, it
really starts to elevate how you are perceived," Bohl said. "I
know it's made a difference how we're perceived in the Minnesota
area when we've gone recruiting." NDSU, a longtime NCAA Division II school, is 0-4 against the
Gophers and 0-11 against the Big Ten Conference. The Gophers
defeated NDSU 69-7 in 1937, the last time the teams met. The Bison, in their second year in I-AA, are 4-3 overall and 0-2
in the Great West Conference. The Gophers are 5-2 on the season and
2-2 in the Big Ten. UC Davis, a member of the Great West Conference, shocked
Stanford 20-17 earlier this year. The last time those two teams
played was 1932, when Stanford won 59-0. "On any given Saturday anything can happen," Bohl said.
"That's going to be our approach with our players. Make no
mistake, our guys will be loaded up on the bus going down there to
win the football game." Taylor said he would like to schedule other regional I-A
opponents like Wyoming and Iowa State. "These are things that we couldn't have done if we had been a
Division II school," he said. "Now we have these opportunities." Taylor said he hopes to schedule the Gophers every three or four
years. The 2007 game could be switched to Aug. 25 if the NCAA
allows Minnesota to play that early in the year, he said. "We would like to keep it Oct. 20 because I think it's an open
date for them and it sits between Michigan and Wisconsin," Taylor
said, smiling.
|
