Bakken Bowl

[Marana CAT]

UND is on the up and up of being a contender in the BSC. It would be cool to get the rivalry with them upgraded. From my experience they have pretty good fans, not a lot of trash talkers and great to tailgate with. They have a cool facility (beer) and the distance is not too crazy to go watch an away game at. It would be cool to get a few oil people together and create the "Bakken Bowl". I can see a Steel 55 gallon oil drum with the complete history of the series on it. The Montana/North Dakota high school game is already a big deal thanks to a bunch of smart idea people in Miles City.

For the years Cat/griz is not in Bozeman it would be nice to see the UND game replace it as far as excitement goes. Start to really make it a big deal. I know it will never get to the level of Cat/griz but it would be fun to see where it could go with some good PR work. I believe there will be an increase of UND fans traveling to Bozeman for the game because of the success they are starting to see. More energy for this game will bring in bigger crowds.

Does anybody else see a potential in this? Just an idea.....

[TomCat88]

Great idea! But not the Bakken Bowl. Unfortunately Badlands Bowl is taken.

[Marana CAT]

Great idea! But not the Bakken Bowl. Unfortunately Badlands Bowl is taken.

Bakken is the oil field under Montana and North Dakota... To me it might help bring in some oil money by calling it the Bakken Bowl....

[TomCat88]

Great idea! But not the Bakken Bowl. Unfortunately Badlands Bowl is taken.

Bakken is the oil field under Montana and North Dakota... To me it might help bring in some oil money by calling it the Bakken Bowl....

Hmmm. How much money?

[Joe Bobcat]

I'd be more excited about your idea if they had renamed themselves the Frackers. There's just something about that name that would have been guaranteed fun.
As it is yeah I guess it would be fun to develop the rivalry more. I had plans to go to that game last year but instead had to go to a funeral. It could have been worse, it could have been my funeral.
I see where you're coming from with the name but it doesn't exactly jump right out at a person.
About the money, maybe this should go into the quiet phase until crude recovers. The activity over there could take awhile to pick up again.

[Marana CAT]

Great idea! But not the Bakken Bowl. Unfortunately Badlands Bowl is taken.

Bakken is the oil field under Montana and North Dakota... To me it might help bring in some oil money by calling it the Bakken Bowl....

Hmmm. How much money?

There is an extreme amount of "New Money" in Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota. If MSU does not have a point person out in that region they should! Quite a few farming and ranching families that support MSU have had a supplemental income out there in the last 10-15 years. I'm surprised MSU has not been able to tap into it yet. Maybe they have but I don't remember seeing anything in the media. Things have slowed down out there the last year but there is still a lot of black gold being pumped out of the ground. Ramping this game up could possibly benefit both schools financially...

[Marana CAT]

I'd be more excited about your idea if they had renamed themselves the Frackers. There's just something about that name that would have been guaranteed fun.
As it is yeah I guess it would be fun to develop the rivalry more. I had plans to go to that game last year but instead had to go to a funeral. It could have been worse, it could have been my funeral.
I see where you're coming from with the name but it doesn't exactly jump right out at a person.
About the money, maybe this should go into the quiet phase until crude recovers. The activity over there could take awhile to pick up again.

I don't know about you but the "Brawl of the Wild" had to grow on me for a few years...

Yes things have slowed down but there is still big money out there that can maybe find a home at MSU....

[TomCat88]

I can live with Bakken Bowl.

[85CatGrad]

I can live with Bakken Bowl.

Let's not forget coal, wind and hydro in those areas. Maybe we could call it the Energy Bowl or Power Bowl.

[kwcat]

Power Bowl is kinda cool.

As a side note I think Schweigert is a heck of a coach and recruiter. I have a friend who played there and his son as well.
When the son was recruited Bubba told him "nobody wants to cheer for an asshole." He was referring to building program support and game attendance.
Other students and community members definitely like to cheer for guys that they like and that help form a sense of community.

As a MonDak native, I like the idea of further developing a rivalry with a quality and class program.

[Rich K]

I think sending the band to Grand Forks would be appropriate since they are a rival and since we send the band to Missoula when we play the other rival. That, in my opinion, would be a good start.

[onceacat]

I can live with Bakken Bowl.

Let's not forget coal, wind and hydro in those areas. Maybe we could call it the Energy Bowl or Power Bowl.

This is wrong on so many levels.

1. The Bakken is basically dead until oil recovers to at least $60/barrel. The Bakken wells run out really fast relative to other oil, and are expensive to start. Coal is in even worse shape. Every major coal company is on the brink of bankruptcy-and those aren't ever coming back. The market for coal is going the way of the Kodak camera. At lest the Bakken will fire back up when the price of gas hits $4 again, but until then, all those royalties aren't going to make a lick of difference in the economic decline of Eastern Montana & Western North Dakota.

2. I've never understood the bromance on this board for UND. I've got nothing against them, but its a freaking 12-13 hour drive to get there, through some of the most desolate country on God's green earth. FWIW, the BSC has decided that we and UND are rivals, so they are the only team in the BSC we are going to play every year. Fine, but there are 5 Big Sky schools (UM, EWU, ISU, WSU, and SSU) that are at least 4 hours closer. Portland and Flagstaff are the same distance, but there is a direct flight to Portland, and the combination of flight/drive to Flagstaff is about 2 hours easier than Grand Forks. Same with Sac State & Davis. Plus, Flag, Portland, and SLO are all vacation destinations in and of themselves. Grand Forks-not so much.

3. One year does not turn UND into a contender. If in 2 years they still have a winning record, call me back. In the meantime, there's a pretty good chance that last year was lightning in a bottle. UND struggled with an MSU team that was horrible on the road (and it took the worst game of Prukops career to make it happen) I'm going to lay odds that UND is the ISU of 2015. Or, remember how solid Sac State was 2 years ago. Or Poly the year before that. Great year, but no sign of a turnaround in the near term. When UND can post a winning record 3 years in a row, lets talk.

I don't mean any of that to sound douchy, even though it probably does. But for the time being, UND is one of the odd men out in the Big Sky. I'm not sure why all our fans have such an affinity for them.

[Go Scats Go]

For those of you that think UND is not for real...

The Big Sky conference scheduling is such a cluster that ... UND will most likely be a playoff team in 2016.

UND does not play PSU, EWU or UM in 2016
and their conference road games are msu (toughest), Sac, ISU and UNC.

UND will be Southern Utah part 2

[LongTimeCatFan]

UND offers FCOA scholarships now. In case you all forgot.

Also, the break even is $35/bbl in the Bakken, not $60.

[85CatGrad]

For those of you that think UND is not for real...

The Big Sky conference scheduling is such a cluster that ... UND will most likely be a playoff team in 2016.

UND does not play PSU, EWU or UM in 2016
and their conference road games are msu (toughest), Sac, ISU and UNC.

UND will be Southern Utah part 2

I agree that UND is on the rise. I have quite a few UND friends so rekindling that old rivalry would be cool.

And So Utah will likely be a contender again this year.

[85CatGrad]

I can live with Bakken Bowl.

Let's not forget coal, wind and hydro in those areas. Maybe we could call it the Energy Bowl or Power Bowl.

And can't forget all the natural gas that comes from those Hi-Line fields, not too mention Hi-Line himself. TF

[TacoCorpEBDB]

This is a rival game in accordance with conference scheduling. Every team in the Big Sky was afforded TWO conference rival games and the Cats got UM and UND. The Cats will play UM and UND EVERY year as a conference game in football. UND is a total hockey school and it might be tough for them to get the football program where they want it especially with NDSU in the same state. I think this game will turn into a rival type game without naming it. UND is a very good football team and they will give the Cats all they can handle in Bozeman next season.

[LongTimeCatFan]

For those of you that think UND is not for real...

The Big Sky conference scheduling is such a cluster that ... UND will most likely be a playoff team in 2016.

UND does not play PSU, EWU or UM in 2016
and their conference road games are msu (toughest), Sac, ISU and UNC.

UND will be Southern Utah part 2

I agree that UND is on the rise. I have quite a few UND friends so rekindling that old rivalry would be cool.

And So Utah will likely be a contender again this year.

They ran out of 28 year olds. So probably not

[BigBruceBaker]

Great idea! But not the Bakken Bowl. Unfortunately Badlands Bowl is taken.

Bakken is the oil field under Montana and North Dakota... To me it might help bring in some oil money by calling it the Bakken Bowl....

Hmmm. How much money?

There is an extreme amount of "New Money" in Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota. If MSU does not have a point person out in that region they should! Quite a few farming and ranching families that support MSU have had a supplemental income out there in the last 10-15 years. I'm surprised MSU has not been able to tap into it yet. Maybe they have but I don't remember seeing anything in the media. Things have slowed down out there the last year but there is still a lot of black gold being pumped out of the ground. Ramping this game up could possibly benefit both schools financially...

THIS. I hope someone from the athletic department is reading this post.

I golfed in the griz golf tournament last year, (Alpha bought my ticket). Would love to have some representation from MSU out here.


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[Siouxfan]

UND finally has a football coach that can take us to the next level. Two freshman were standouts last year in a good recruiting class. and this class should be even better. The team will start spring practice in March because our brand new indoor practice center on campus allows it. Before we had to wait til April when the anow melted. UND is on its way up, back to where we were feared and hated, even by NDSU.

And that holds for men's basketball too. Although we don't have a good coach, he recruits well. UND has traditionally had the strongest basketball programs in the Dakotas.

The Bakken will be back. Numerous petrochemical plants are on the drawing board, and eastern ND is still in boom times. North Dakota is expected to rise to 1.4 million people by around 2030, easily out distancing Montana.