NDSU & SDSU still alive in FCS playoffs

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I go to Sioux Falls fairly often just to shop and also because my cardiologist is based there.

It's a growing area. the towns around Sioux Falls like Brandon have been expanding.

There is a little bit of a college-town feel with University of Sioux Falls and Augustana. And the city has added some new amenities and performance facilities, including the Premier Center and the Pentagon. Lots of restaurants. Some casinos - mostly video slots.

my big gripe is traffic.

the main retail avenue in the South part of Sioux Falls is 41st Street. On a busy day, trying to make a left turn onto or off of 41st Street is a pain in the butt.
 


DarrenTheGreek said:
Took my daughter to a campus visit for both NDSU and SDSU last month. She's grown up a Gophers fan with me but just doesn't have the desire to attend an urban campus. We enjoyed both campuses. NDSU has about 13k undergrads in a 5x5 square block. SDSU has about 11k undergrads in a slightly larger footprint. Definitely felt less crowded and more open spaces.

Brookings itself is very small but we found their main street pretty quaint and enjoyed the campus. SDSU is her leader and I think she'll enjoy it.

The football facility looks pretty cool. Decent size and some open spots around to tailgate. She's hoping to be in the marching band so I imagine I'll end up traveling for a game or two.
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I think both would be comparable to the U's St Paul campus, also in mission since that is Ag and both are the Dakotas' Ag schools.
 
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DarrenTheGreek said:
Took my daughter to a campus visit for both NDSU and SDSU last month. She's grown up a Gophers fan with me but just doesn't have the desire to attend an urban campus. We enjoyed both campuses. NDSU has about 13k undergrads in a 5x5 square block.
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My daughter has grown up a Gopher fan and we toured NDSU....she decided before the tour was over that she wouldn't go to NDSU and we skipped out on the rest of the college visit (we had a terrible tour guide and that probably didn't help). She got into the U and now she's there. I've been to Fargo a few times and never really like anything about it, but NDSU is a good option for students that A) want something away from home in the Twin Cities but is still a decent drive, B) is affordable, C) don't want an urban campus, or D) couldn't get into the U. I know quite a few NDSU alum and they all seemed to like it there.
 

Word said:
My daughter has grown up a Gopher fan and we toured NDSU....she decided before the tour was over that she wouldn't go to NDSU and we skipped out on the rest of the college visit (we had a terrible tour guide and that probably didn't help). She got into the U and now she's there. I've been to Fargo a few times and never really like anything about it, but NDSU is a good option for students that A) want something away from home in the Twin Cities but is still a decent drive, B) is affordable, C) don't want an urban campus, or D) couldn't get into the U. I know quite a few NDSU alum and they all seemed to like it there.
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Mankato or Duluth seem like better options, to me. Unless you "need" DI football as part of your undergrad experience, for some reason.
 


Word said:
All 3 are decent options. Kids should just pick whichever fits them better.
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How about SCSU? They eliminated football, track, I think tennis. The campus is surrounded by low income stockers, your daughters can run from class to class to prevent being chased.
 



Tommyboy said:
How about SCSU? They eliminated football, track, I think tennis. The campus is surrounded by low income stockers, your daughters can run from class to class to prevent being chased.
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I think you're overstating. My daughter's best friend growing up (an attractive female) goes to SCSU and lives just off campus. She likes it there.
 

Panthadad2 said:
I think you're overstating. My daughter's best friend growing up (an attractive female) goes to SCSU and lives just off campus. She likes it there.
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They need to bring a Division 1 football program back onto campus
 

Tommyboy said:
They need to bring a Division 1 football program back onto campus
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They should have done that along with the other old NCC schools a long time ago. It's probably way too late now. I believe enrollment has plummeted the past several years the last time I looked.
 

Tommyboy said:
How about SCSU? They eliminated football, track, I think tennis. The campus is surrounded by low income stockers, your daughters can run from class to class to prevent being chased.
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First, people on here were afraid of NYC, now they are afraid of St. Cloud? What's next, afraid of Delano?
 



Panthadad2 said:
They should have done that along with the other old NCC schools a long time ago. It's probably way too late now. I believe enrollment has plummeted the past several years the last time I looked.
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I was in St. Cloud last summer for work and had some free time so I drove/walked around campus and was very unimpressed. Not like the poster above stated about running from class to class - I felt 100% safe, but the actual campus felt run down, dying, etc. Very stale environment - can't really explain it other than it was not a place I would want to spend 4-5 years of my life.

On the other hand, totally opposite was Mankato - I can't believe how nice that school is now. When I was attending college 20 years ago Mankato was a dump.
 

MNfootballfan said:
I was in St. Cloud last summer for work and had some free time so I drove/walked around campus and was very unimpressed. Not like the poster above stated about running from class to class - I felt 100% safe, but the actual campus felt run down, dying, etc. Very stale environment - can't really explain it other than it was not a place I would want to spend 4-5 years of my life.

On the other hand, totally opposite was Mankato - I can't believe how nice that school is now. When I was attending college 20 years ago Mankato was a dump.
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It's been a couple years since I checked, but I believe Mankato is the only traditional 4-year MNSCU school that came anywhere near maintaining enrollment over the past decade (not sure about Metro State). SCSU used to be slightly larger than Mankato but it's a lot smaller now.
 

Panthadad2 said:
It's been a couple years since I checked, but I believe Mankato is the only traditional 4-year MNSCU school that came anywhere near maintaining enrollment over the past decade (not sure about Metro State). SCSU used to be slightly larger than Mankato but it's a lot smaller now.
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Low income housing is extensive on the southside SCSU of the campus, by the sports facility. There have been a few shootings and gang stuff.
 
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Panthadad2 said:
It's been a couple years since I checked, but I believe Mankato is the only traditional 4-year MNSCU school that came anywhere near maintaining enrollment over the past decade (not sure about Metro State). SCSU used to be slightly larger than Mankato but it's a lot smaller now.
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The city of Mankato and the University have aged really well in the last 10-15 years.
 

My last post on this issue as we've already derailed the FCS thread. SCSU used to be huge, about 22,000 students. I just saw a link that said enrollment is now about 12,000 but that seems low. Not sure what happened.

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www.sctimes.com

How has enrollment at Minnesota State schools changed in a decade?

Compare student headcounts at Minnesota State's colleges and universites against themselves and other schools in the system.
www.sctimes.com
 

MNfootballfan said:
The city of Mankato and the University have aged really well in the last 10-15 years.
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SCSU once had 20,000 students and in the late 70's rated a top party school in Playboy, now they have less then 9,000 and probably 40% are international students. No Football team, when they shut it down there were only 50 people with season tickets, yet they built a new stadium without a track.
 

Panthadad2 said:
My last post on this issue as we've already derailed the FCS thread. SCSU used to be huge, about 22,000 students. I just saw a link that said enrollment is now about 12,000 but that seems low. Not sure what happened.

View attachment 22425
www.sctimes.com

How has enrollment at Minnesota State schools changed in a decade?

Compare student headcounts at Minnesota State's colleges and universites against themselves and other schools in the system.
www.sctimes.com
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Can't speak to the history there, but it's probably coming in-line with what it really should be. I don't think it ever made sense for SCSU to be at 22,000.

Keeping it sort of on topic, NDSU enrollment also dropped since 2010 (by about 2,000 students).
 

Panthadad2 said:
My last post on this issue as we've already derailed the FCS thread. SCSU used to be huge, about 22,000 students. Not sure what happened.

View attachment 22425
www.sctimes.com

How has enrollment at Minnesota State schools changed in a decade?

Compare student headcounts at Minnesota State's colleges and universites against themselves and other schools in the system.
www.sctimes.com
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Word said:
Can't speak to the history there, but it's probably coming in-line with what it really should be. I don't think it ever made sense for SCSU to be at 22,000.

Keeping it sort of on topic, NDSU enrollment also dropped since 2010 (by about 2,000 students).
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Poor leadership, they had a few left wing presidents, shut down sports programs, emphasized International students to make up for declining enrollment, a large group migrants moved into the community, along with declining student population to recruit from. If they would have moved up with the rest of the Valley teams and have been more progressive in thinking they would have been in a really good spot, with being located 1 hour from the cities.
 


Whoa this went off topic, lol. As for how MNSCU schools are doing, though, it's certainly been a bit disappointing to see the declining enrollment at many places. When I went to Minnesota State Moorhead there were around 8,000 students, where now it usually ranges between 5,000 and 6,000.

However, in MSUM's case at lest, the enrollment doesn't necessarily tell the whole story. On the athletic side, the basketball team has had plenty of success in the last decade, the football team has improved, a new field was installed in the stadium, as were new video boards in the field house.

The rest of campus looks good, too, when I went there the whole library was renovated. Outgoing president Blackhurst managed to boost donations to the school. Forum Communications invested in the school's mass communications department, with the Marcil Center for Innovative Journalism being established.

Having gone to MSUM I also spent time around the NDSU campus, it seemed fine. I had no interest in going there but had friends that did and they seemed to like it. I think it's a fine school to attend if it has a really good program that fits one's major.

Interestingly enough I was actually considering going to UMD. I was impressed by the campus and liked the size of school/student body, but MSUM looked like it had a better mass comm program so I went there instead, and had a great experience.
 

Tommyboy said:
Poor leadership, they had a few left wing presidents, shut down sports programs, emphasized International students to make up for declining enrollment, a large group migrants moved into the community, along with declining student population to recruit from. If they would have moved up with the rest of the Valley teams and have been more progressive in thinking they would have been in a really good spot, with being located 1 hour from the cities.
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Yes, blame politics.
 

salzie said:
Yes, blame politics.
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More likely young people don't want to move to St. Cloud because it has a reputation as being populated largely by racist trash.
 

I was reading the Star Tribune today, St. Cloud has had the same Mayer for 20 years because no one wants the job. He is asking for 100 million dollars to revitalize from the state to revitalize the downtown. I guess that means all the buildings get a new paint job.
 


disco said:
More likely young people don't want to move to St. Cloud because it has a reputation as being populated largely by racist trash.
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I think young people want to go where the best jobs are.

Don't think there are many good jobs in SC? No idea though. I always get a chuckle passing "Opportunity Drive" on 94 between Clearwater and Hwy 75 exits.
 

just a reminder--

All times Central - All games airing on ESPN 2.

Friday, Dec. 16

Saturday, Dec. 17

interestingly enough, I have seen some grumbling/comments on twitter about attendance being down for the recent home playoff games for NDSU and SDSU. Some feel that the NDSU fans may have become somewhat jaded with all the success and are not as fervent as they were in previous years. with SDSU, a lot of the discussion is weather-related.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
just a reminder--

All times Central - All games airing on ESPN 2.

Friday, Dec. 16

Saturday, Dec. 17

interestingly enough, I have seen some grumbling/comments on twitter about attendance being down for the recent home playoff games for NDSU and SDSU. Some feel that the NDSU fans may have become somewhat jaded with all the success and are not as fervent as they were in previous years. with SDSU, a lot of the discussion is weather-related.
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That's been somewhat true for NDSU for a few years now. Here's a good article about it:
NDSU starts to address football attendance with survey, but is it asking the right questions?

Some of it is being bored with winning every game by double digit margins. Some of it is, like with all college football, the experience at home is superior and less time consuming, and some is the dome.

From personal experience, the Fargodome is a strange place to watch a football game. It's like watching in some kind of warehouse, or TV studio. There's no natural light, so everything has this odd hue to it.

The school doesn't own the stadium - the city does, so the school can't do much in terms of improvements, and improvements are needed in terms of restrooms, concessions, scoreboards etc. They don't sell beer at games for some reason, despite being off campus (technically).

Tailgating is a huge part of the deal at NDSU. From what I've heard, they've cracked down a bit on this, and of course this time of year, that's not really much fun anyway.

The interesting thing this weekend - As of right now, I think 94 and 29 are still closed, so you can't even get to Fargo or Brookings. I'm going to assume that Montana State was going to be a charter flight?
 

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