Take advantage of the early stops and score yes. This is a continuation from my earlier post. It wouldn't let me edit.

Ags are going to have to bleed to stay in this football game...it won't be pleasant.

We are ranked number 4 on things other than our point performance this year. We haven’t covered the spread in a game this year. Computer rankings like Sagarin that are based on point differential would not have us number 4.

I believe I saw them after the Berkeley game.

AggieFinn I think you are very wrong (I hope so at least). We have a strong passing game which the Bison will be most worried about. We are much faster and more mobile. Can we run the ball is he big question. We never did back in the day with NDSU. Yes this is a biggie. We are probably a 20+ underdog, but that is great. This is what the big time, anything can happen on a Saturday, is all about! I think this will be a high scoring game. Ags by 3.

I have no doubt the Aggies will move the ball and score. What will determine if the Aggies can make a game of it will be how your D holds up against NDSU’s running game. Yes NDSU has the brawn up front, but they also have speed and power in their skilled positions. If they get their running game going it could be a long day. If the Aggies can contain it you have a great chance.

24.5 point underdogs

Edit: early money is on the Bison - now it’s a 25.5-point spread.

Wasn’t the line +13.5 at Cal? Now +25.5? What the hell do they know anyway. Aggie pride cannot be measured.

Concerning NDSU moving to FBS; I remember reading somewhere on some forum last year, Bison fans responding to this saying that NDSU would love to move up to FBS, but because there is no FBS conference with enough schools close enough to Fargo, no FBS conference would want them. No FBS conference has enough schools that would want to have to make the trip to Fargo. There are also concerns that having games in Fargo does nothing for recruiting for the other schools because it's not a big metropolitan area. I don't remember for sure, but I think they said the Fargo Dome itself was not an issue.

Last time these 2 teams met in Fargo in 2005 the Ags won. Pretty good year- Stanford and NDSU. Bison had 5 yards rushing that day - don’t think that will matched Saturday, but the Aggie D is going to have to step up.

Fargodome holds 19,500 with SRO, they have expansion studies that can get it to like 22k

Only 2 FBS conferences we are actually in the footprint of are the B1G and B12

Fargo Metro is roughly 244,000, 3 hrs from MSP with TV and Radio coverage under signed contracts in ND, SD, MN. Reaching MT, NE, IA, WI.

If there was a G5 conference that overlapped our location we would be there

Hopefully it helps school still isn't in session. No classes, labs, fewer distractions.

If there was a G5 conference that overlapped our location we would be there — BiZon

It has to be more than distance. The Pac12 is pretty spread out. Looking just at USC, they play Oregon, Washington, CO, and Utah for conference games. But maybe access to a major airport is a bigger issue, especially if MSP is the only option and is three hours away. Something just never seems to add up. Either way, makes no difference to me. Looking forward to a good game this Saturday!

Airport does not matter, FB teams do not travel Commercial flights, it's all charter

The nearest MAC school in DeKalb, IL is 600 miles away, and it's a hell of a long way to Buffalo NY
The Nearest MWC school is Laramie Wy at 800 miles

We are closer to Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas st and Kansas than any of the MAC and MWC schools

And we are not getting Into a P5

Airport does not matter, — BiZon

If airport size did matter, WSU would have been kicked out of the Pac-XX a long time ago. Pullman/Moscow Airport is about as tiny as you can get.

Exactly, take Manhatton KS for example, they have a small regional airport with service from only 1 carrier

I think the 2005 team was the best Aggie defense I ever saw play. Only ended up 6-5, but look at the schedule:

vs. New Hampshire
vs. Portland State
@ Stanford
@ Sac State
vs. Southern Utah
@ North Dakota State
vs. Cal Poly
@ Stephen F Austin
@ Eastern Washington
vs. Northern Colorado

If I recall correctly that 2005 team lost a future NFL tight end Daniel Fells and featured running back Nelson Doris in the Stanford game.Doris ran for 115 yards at 4.6 yards per carry against Stanford. That was a big loss

After reading about the Syracuse's head coach using a chess philosophy (move fast and hope for subsequent 2 moves if opponent can't keep up) in football, i.e., more plays leads to more opportunities to score leads to better win opportunity, I thought I'd work up some stats from NDSUs 2018 season and 3 games to date in 2019 with a loss from 2017 thrown in. That doesn't seem to hold with NDSU. See attached. Retirement has its benefits.

I hope NDSU fans are taking note...Aggie fans do plots and analyses to help identify key contributors to our opponents success.

It's funny to see the trolling back and forth on the forums.

North Dokota State is bad ass; no doubt about it. But in the words of Mr. Miyagi, we're pretty okay too. Time to shut up and play the damn game already.

And we have seasoned Jedi Masters like Speckman & Young.

This is exactly right

not to look BEYOND this game, but the forecast for next Saturday's day game (thanks, Roots TV) v Montana is 75 degrees. that's gonna be a HUGE game for both teams.

Aggies are right in this thing. Get out ahead early like at Cal, and who knows.....

Containing a running game hasn’t been our MO this year, it’s been all about forcing long drives and hoping to disrupt the offense by getting into the backfield and also hoping for their offense to be inefficient with turnovers and penalties. Then we outscore them. I kind of like the old fashion approach of taking away the run but that’s not what they talk about.

NDSU fans and jounos are wondering what the heck happened to us in San Diego. No classes has to help us focus and prepare.

what happened in San Diego is we were highly efficient on offense but let some scoring opportunities get away such as the turnover in the red zone and getting field goals in the red zone. This was impacted by no depth at running back that game. On the other hand San Diego statistically didn’t have great success running the ball but always seemed to pick up first downs one way or another and therefor won the time of possession battle and held down the score even though they couldn’t stop our offense. Change a few plays, i.e the kickoff return, the interception in the red zone and the field goal after having a first and goal inside the five and the result would look a lot different.

what happened in San Diego is we were highly efficient on offense but let some scoring opportunities get away such as the turnover in the red zone and getting field goals in the red zone. — Riveraggie

This seems like an oxymoron, that the offense was efficient, except when they weren't. Looking at the stats, what sticks out to me is that Maier had two runs for a loss of 6 yards. The USD QB had 8 runs for a net of 19 yards. How many of those 19 yards resulted in 1st downs? Looks like 17 of them:

1 - 4th and goal at the 1 for a TD.
2 - 3rd and 5, rush for 10 (+ a personal foul for another 15 yards)
3 - 3rd and 4, rush for 6 to the UCD 4, which set up the near TD at the end of the game.