Originally Posted by
oldmantutters
The never playing them in GF talk aside, what would a trophy add? Yes it's a historic rivalry, but the Nickel is done. A new trophy has no history to it. In my mind both schools contributing to the end of the Nickel. NDSU decided they were going to move up and that came with the possibility of not playing UND every year. UND decided it would put them at a disadvantage for their post-season hopes and/or recruiting* to play NDSU every year**. The Dakota marker doesn't do much for me, and I think the number of trophy games Minnesota is involved in is ridiculous.
*I'd think the thought of not playing NDSU would have been partly to do with NDSU recruiting a higher caliber of athlete and having more scholarships putting the Bison at an advantage and most likely winning head to head games ultimately resulting in NDSU winning any recruiting battle. Funny thing is UND changing their mind and them losing out on pretty much every recruiting battle since.
** Without knowing the details of how it worked out had the rivalry continued, is it fair to assume that D2 UND would have hosted a D1AA/FCS team every other year? If that's true that's kind of crazy.
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