I guess I will show my age. Correct me when/if I go astray.
Let me start out by saying that all coaches copy other programs at the outset of their HC careers or in the case of NDSU ...a major change. The reason we all like what we see in NDSU is because coach Bohl certainly admired Jim Tressel & what the Guins we able to accomplish. Likewise coach Tressel patterned after GA Southern. We all know just how successful YSU was in the 90s. 1990, 91, 92, 93 and 94 final appearances ...going 3-2. Toss in the 1997 & 1999 championship games as well.
GSU was an independent & highly successful. They brought their program back in 1982. The proceeded to this as an independent:
1982: 7-3-1
1983: 6-5-0
1984: 8-3-0
1985: 13-2-0 (national champs)
1986: 13-2-0 (national champs)
1987: 9-4-0 (lost in second round)
1988: 12-3-0 (national runner-up)
1989: 15-0-0 (national champs)
1990: 12-3-0 (national champs)
1991: 7-4-0 (Lost to YSU)
1992: 7-4-0 (Lost to YSU)
Just so you realize how dominating these two clubs were. In the 10 years between 1985 & 94 ...only 1 time did either YSU or GSU fail to play in the I-AA national championship. So Tressel had success off of GSU & Bohl is having similar success off of that. Tressel knew that the OVC was dominated by EKU, probably the most dominating team in the history of the division. The idea is to do the same now ...become and independent. Well I say 'no', and here is why:
1. All teams that step up into our conference are quite successful at first ...look at Western Kentucky and YSU. NDSU will not be able to maintain the level of success that YSU and GSU had, as they have to face much more tough conference opposition. Why did YSU go to 5 title games in a row & then miss the play-offs in three of the next 5 years? Simple ...we joined a conference.
2. Scheduling is just TOO TOUGH as an indy. Think about it. Just what teams were going to risk scheduling GSU in the late 80's, or YSU in the early 90's? NONE. No one is going to schedule such stiff competition on top of their conference slate. A team spends their summer procticing for the conference portion of their slate. Tressel had the luxury of proacticing to make th type of team he wanted ...not the type of team that a conference would mandate. So YSU and GSU faced teams that seldom practiced for more than a couple of days before they faced each other. Both schedules were kind of light. In fact I remember YSU barely holding on to a win over eventual DII champ Carson-Newman and GSU having to come-from-behind to beat DII power Vadosta State. In a conference, you have 8 or 9 preset games.
3. There was no SOS component back then for the post-season. YSU and GSU scheduled some real "cupcakes" in the day. Yesterday we lost out on a bid, in part because of our schedule. How many times have we heard that over the years?
The list of reasons why independence is a bad thing, could go on and on. We just need to take what ever action is needed to play competitive ball.
