Mike McFeely's true thoughts about division I

[kchats]

Mike McFeely finally had an opportunity to write about how overmatched he believes NDSU is in the transition to division I. This article really shows his true feelings about the move. He could have written about how well the soccer team is doing but he chooses to write about the volleyball team after they lose at home to the number 2 division I volleyball team in the nation. I think the fact that the #2 division I volleyball team is playing in Fargo is a good advertisement about the benefits of the move to division I.

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=102632&section=Columnists&columnist=M ike%20McFeely

[tony]

No use going around with a DI-sized chip on our shoulder :) People will think what they want to.

Personally, I've never thought it was NDSU's goal to sneak up on teams like Washington - it was to beat them when they were at their best, but that's going to take a lot of building.

[kchats]

Yeah but he writes for the only paper in Fargo and that is the only thing many Bison fans hear. Stuff like this makes the transition that much harder. I don't know if I have seen one positive article from him. I do vaguely remember him acknowledging that the competition was better in division I-AA but that is it. Makes the Team Makers job of convincing the older generation that only reads the Forum to give money.

[gwendel]

My thought, too, when I read McFeely's column this morning was, shouldn't the local paper be promoting the home team? Isn't it good for advertising dollars to get MORE people to town for the game?

If the Bison had gone 3 games scoring only 11 points against Washington, it might have been more justifiable, but I think he could have posted a very positive article highlighting how well the Bison women did in game 2 against Washington. Instead, that moral victory was only mentioned in passing.

Don't you suppose McFeely was standing right beside Jeff Kolpack when the Washington coach commented,


“They served well, passed well and they hit the ball in,” Washington head coach Jim McLaughlin said. “If you do those three things at any level anywhere, you’re going to do well.”

But he didn't mention that. Nor did he mention the positive things Minnesota's players had to say after they whupped the Bison.

And yes, soccer is undefeated. They beat Drake. Maybe Drake is 0-7, but they are frustrated with that record because they know they are better than that.
And they are. They lost to #23 Kansas 2-1, #19 Florida 3-1, and Minnesota, an unranked team with a winning record 2-0. Maybe McFeely could have mentioned that as a highlight.

If the Bison lose to NSU, McFeely will probably have an article. But if the Bison win, he might not. After all, it would be a DI highlight and "DI highlights are few and far between." Yeah, right.

In fairness to McFeely, though, it was just a week ago, Sept. 2, when we were all praising McFeely for this article:

Katrina Consumes Bool Weevils Coach http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=101869&section=columnists&columnist=M ike%20McFeely

And just so this doesn't get moved to smack, in the current article, McFeely did mention,


A smaller-than-it-should-have-been crowd of 1,547 – Washington was the second-rated team in mighty Division I, folks, the equivalent of a Duke or North Carolina coming here to play men’s basketball – was on its feet and roaring at the Bison Sports Arena.

Perhaps it's just that McFeely's positive comments are highlights that are "few and far between."

[Jeffdaryl3rd]

From personal experience and from those shared with me by others with experience, I have found that Mike McFeely enjoys stirring up controversy and writing about the negative side of issues as much as he possibly can. *I don't like this fact and think that it damages NDSU's attempts to better itself by moving to Division I, but seeing as how he is basically the go to guy in Forum sports, we may just have to deal with it, unfortunately. By the way, does anybody know the exact number of Land Grant institutios (NDSU being one) that are not DI? I know it isn't very many.

[kchats]

I think NDSU and SDSU were the last ones that weren't. I believe they are all division I now.

[silkamilkamonico]

That is funny.

McFeely is a true idiot.

Did he know, that the volleyball team's starting setter is injured, which is the most important position in the game, even more important than a QB, or a dominant starting pitcher, or even an absolute stud basketball player?

And to make things worse for them, they are going with a freshman setter, which makes it all the more difficult.

McFeeley should be barred from writing anything about NDSU.

NDSU is Division 1 now, and that's obviously way out of his league of knowledge in sports.

[Jeffdaryl3rd]

Ok, I was curious, so I did a little research. *There are currently only nine land grant institutions in the US (not including Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.) that are not currently DI
7 of the teams are Division II:
Tuskegee (Alabama), Alaska-Fairbanks (no football), U of District of Columbia (8 teams, no football), Fort Valley State College (Georgia), Kentucky State, Virginia State University, and West Virginia State College
1 team is DIII:
Lincoln University (Missouri), no football
1 team is NAIA:
Langston University (Okla), only 6 teams

Of all these schools, only Alaska-Fairbanks and U of D.C. are the only land grants in their state. *I'm glad NDSU and SDSU are no longer on this list.

[GCWaters]

You've got the wrong land grants--I believe the ones that you list are the Native American ones which wereonly recently given land grant status....each state has a land grant that is typically also a major university that stems from a much earlier congressional act: U. of Minnesota, U. of Georgia, U. of Arizona, Virginia Tech, Auburn, U. of Tennesee, U. of Nebraska, U. of Missouri, etc... Of those, I believe all are DI....

[Jeffdaryl3rd]

The list I saw online was all land-grant schools, so all of those major schools were included on it. For example, South Carolina had U of South Carolina and Clemson. Whether they are the correct land grant schools or not, the point is that either NDSU and SDSU were that last schools to make the switch, or was on a short list of athletic departments not in DI. Here's where I found the list of land grants.

http://www.higher-ed.org/resources/land_grant_colleges.htm

[GCWaters]

Yep, that lists the original land grants--Like Clemson--and the Historical Black Institutions who were given land grant status later (i.e., South Carolina State)...I screwed up on the NA part, and I was confused by your post where you said there were only nine land grants in the US...my bad!

[Jeffdaryl3rd]

Yeah, I modified the post to note that only nine land grants were not dI, as opposed to there only being 9 total.

[IowaBison]

Land grants:

http://www.nasulgc.org/About_Nasulgc/members_land_grant.htm

[sambini]

They were setting next to each other on press row.

[MRBISON]

I think that if enough people complain about McFeely maybe the Forum will get rid of him. :-/

[Bisonguy]

I think that if enough people complain about McFeely maybe the Forum will get rid of him. :-/

No, they won't. Two of his main objectives are to get people talking and to sell newspapers. I don't know if people are proclaiming, "Oh, my. You have to go buy The Forum to see what McFeely wrote!" or not, but he sure gets people talking. He writes columns that you either agree with completely, or disagree with completely, just like he's paid to do.

Love him or hate him, but people talk about McFeely's columns.

[Tatanka]

100% correct. He's not paid to do anything but stir poopy and make controversy. Yes, he's a douche but he does his job very very well.

[Bisonguy]

100% correct. *He's not paid to do anything but stir poopy and make controversy. *Yes, he's a douche but he does his job very very well.

He did think Babich should have been let go well before most Bison fans did.

[Tatanka]

Again correct, but I'm a firm believer that 1000 monkeys on 1000 typewriters will eventually type something legible. The sun does shine on a dog's butt sometimes.

[Jeffdaryl3rd]

I could be way off on this, but it seems to me that it is possible McFeeley just doesn't know enough about sports in general to do anything but point out the obvious when things go horribly wrong (for example, volleyball and baseball in the last year). *Once again, I could be wrong, but it just seems like a personal thing with McFeeley taking shots at NDSU's/Fargo's sports teams when he gets the chance.