University of Jamestown reportedly applies for NSIC membership

[Matt Witwicki]

I don't get all the Massey hate.. Is it the be all end all?? obviously not, but what you can't say is that it's biased unlike most of our opinions. It's all data driven. Massey had it at 6.5. My guess would not have been that close, but I'm human. After the Vikings squandered a chance in the 2nd half to kind of blow the game wide open, Jamestown responded, and had the ball with a chance to tie the game and just couldn't execute due in large part to the pressure of that Viking defensive front. I'm not sure how good Massey ratings are this early in the year, and where there is siloed scheduling they become difficult to be accurate, on top of the fact that the out of conference games happen early in the season and aren't always accurate as teams change over the course of the season due to injuries and adjustments.

I know one thing... watching a NAIA game from back home got me a whole lot more jacked for college football than I thought it would!! Dad was a VCSU grad, and I grew up in Barnes County, played a lot of basketball and ran some track on that campus in HS, and was to more than a couple football games there. First college football game I ever attended was at VCSU. Brings back some memories! Back then, that was quite the rivalry game, often a homecoming game, and VCSU students would take pumpkins and smash them on the road around both towns to mock the Jimmies. The conference changes certainly took something out of that rivalry, and if UJ goes D2 would pretty much end it I'm sure. Me, I hope even if the NSIC gets to an even number of teams that they leave week 1 for non conference, though I know that certaonly presents challenges too as many conferences like the GLIAC have many more weeks to fill than just week 1.

https://masseyratings.com/cf2023/ncaa-d2/ratings

Here's the Massey Ratings as of this moment. "data driven" you say. What data suggests NWMSU is better than Ferris and GV? That's why Massey gets clowned..stuff like that.

[Matt Witwicki]

JImmies up 8-7 at halftime. Looking decent against 2nd best team in the North Star

Barry..my guy....love ya, but we both know how bad the North Star is fella. Worst conference in the NAIA..? You tell me buddy, but I'm guessing it's an easy yes. Everyone in the NStar having to play each other twice is kinduva brutal schedule..but it's a conference on life support.

I did watch some of the UJ at VCSU game last night on the youtube just because it was a college football game to start this fall..and I thought the VCSU fans did a nice job of making that feel like a big (rivalry) game.

[SW_Mustang]

Barry..my guy....love ya, but we both know how bad the North Star is fella. Worst conference in the NAIA..? You tell me buddy, but I'm guessing it's an easy yes. Everyone in the NStar having to play each other twice is kinduva brutal schedule..but it's a conference on life support.

I did watch some of the UJ at VCSU game last night on the youtube just because it was a college football game to start this fall..and I thought the VCSU fans did a nice job of making that feel like a big (rivalry) game.

I saw some video footage last night and was impressed with what the crowd looked like. I didn't think there'd be quite that many people there.

Good for all involved.

[WBChargerDad]

https://masseyratings.com/cf2023/ncaa-d2/ratings

Here's the Massey Ratings as of this moment. "data driven" you say. What data suggests NWMSU is better than Ferris and GV? That's why Massey gets clowned..stuff like that.

The challenge at the D2 level is the quantity and quallty of the data. Having said that, they have NWMSU at 1, but aren't they actually tied with Ferris?? They lost by 5 points on the road at GVSU, by 2 points at Pittsburgh, and by 9 points at Central Oklahoma last year. Grand Valley beat Ferris by 1, and lost by 3, and Ferris beat Pittsburgh by 3 at home. I wouldn't have the top 4 in exactly the same order as Massey, as most probably wouldn't, but to have a computer formula say that the team you may have at 3 is tied for 1 with the team you have at 1 with all those close results from last year certainly isn't warranting of a clowning IMO. I do think what helps NWMSU and Pitt State in a rating like Massey is that Massey perceives the MIAA to be a deeper conference than the GLIAC. Given that the results on the field from last year show all those 1 score games between those 4 teams, I think you can say that the top 2 in each conference last year were relatively close. And the next 3 or 4 in the MIAA I believe were better football teams than the same in the GLIAC. I think the biggest flaws in the Massey ratings aren't in those 4 teams at all. It's in the relative lack of data from non-conference games because of silo'd scheduling in some conferences, and even where there isn't silo's, the small number of non conference games that can be used to generate data points. The first NSIC team is Mankato at 28. The first PSAC team is at 26 (Shepherd). I think those are much bigger misses than having NWMSU and Ferris tied at #1 to start the year, and I suspect it's because of insufficient data. So, as I look at Massey ratings for D2, which to be honest I haven't looked at before, they do seem more problematic than the ratings I'm more familiar with at the FBS and FCS levels of D1 where the data is better because of more out of conference competition. Having rambled all the way through this long post, I will probably now join you in never looking at Massey ratings for D2 again LOL

[WBChargerDad]

I saw some video footage last night and was impressed with what the crowd looked like. I didn't think there'd be quite that many people there.

Good for all involved.

I wonder what the crowd actually was? Viking feed didn't really show the stands at all.. there was like 1200 people on the Youtube feed when I looked at it which was more than I expected. Maybe boosted by it being one of the few college games going so early in the season??

[SW_Mustang]

I wonder what the crowd actually was? Viking feed didn't really show the stands at all.. there was like 1200 people on the Youtube feed when I looked at it which was more than I expected. Maybe boosted by it being one of the few college games going so early in the season??

Some of the footage I saw, it looked like the area behind the endzone was packed with students. To scale, it looked to me like there was a solid crowd from what little I saw.

Lot of factors at play - big rivalry game, proximity of opponents, first game of the year for both schools (and for all of college football for that matter). 1200 honestly isn't bad given the schools in question (if that's what it was).

[WBChargerDad]

Some of the footage I saw, it looked like the area behind the endzone was packed with students. To scale, it looked to me like there was a solid crowd from what little I saw.

Lot of factors at play - big rivalry game, proximity of opponents, first game of the year for both schools (and for all of college football for that matter). 1200 honestly isn't bad given the schools in question (if that's what it was).

Yea, don't know what the attendance was, but 1200 on youtube was solid. For sure doesn't hurt that they are less than 40 miles apart. I just wonder how much of the feel of the rivalry is still left when they don't play every year, aren't conference opponents, and when they do play it's usually the first game of the season before most fans have had a chance to really get into football. Certainly can't live up to the later in the year homecoming matchups.

[Matt Witwicki]

The challenge at the D2 level is the quantity and quallty of the data. Having said that, they have NWMSU at 1, but aren't they actually tied with Ferris?? They lost by 5 points on the road at GVSU, by 2 points at Pittsburgh, and by 9 points at Central Oklahoma last year. Grand Valley beat Ferris by 1, and lost by 3, and Ferris beat Pittsburgh by 3 at home. I wouldn't have the top 4 in exactly the same order as Massey, as most probably wouldn't, but to have a computer formula say that the team you may have at 3 is tied for 1 with the team you have at 1 with all those close results from last year certainly isn't warranting of a clowning IMO. I do think what helps NWMSU and Pitt State in a rating like Massey is that Massey perceives the MIAA to be a deeper conference than the GLIAC. Given that the results on the field from last year show all those 1 score games between those 4 teams, I think you can say that the top 2 in each conference last year were relatively close. And the next 3 or 4 in the MIAA I believe were better football teams than the same in the GLIAC. I think the biggest flaws in the Massey ratings aren't in those 4 teams at all. It's in the relative lack of data from non-conference games because of silo'd scheduling in some conferences, and even where there isn't silo's, the small number of non conference games that can be used to generate data points. The first NSIC team is Mankato at 28. The first PSAC team is at 26 (Shepherd). I think those are much bigger misses than having NWMSU and Ferris tied at #1 to start the year, and I suspect it's because of insufficient data. So, as I look at Massey ratings for D2, which to be honest I haven't looked at before, they do seem more problematic than the ratings I'm more familiar with at the FBS and FCS levels of D1 where the data is better because of more out of conference competition. Having rambled all the way through this long post, I will probably now join you in never looking at Massey ratings for D2 again LOL

Having looked at the Massey stuff for 15-20 years, it's pretty clear they use data from the last few seasons..case in point, Valdosta at 19..after going 5-6 last season. Mankato not being ahead of Shep makes zero sense..given they have a common opponent and a similar record otherwise. Kato almost beats Mines..and Shep gets destroyed by them.

[Stanger86]

Embedded Tweet

[SW_Mustang]

Yea, don't know what the attendance was, but 1200 on youtube was solid. For sure doesn't hurt that they are less than 40 miles apart. I just wonder how much of the feel of the rivalry is still left when they don't play every year, aren't conference opponents, and when they do play it's usually the first game of the season before most fans have had a chance to really get into football. Certainly can't live up to the later in the year homecoming matchups.

Oh, that's watchers on YouTube. Yeah, that was likely due to it being the first game of the season. There were a couple of bigger Twitter accounts tweeting about the game, so that could be why there.

I agree on your points - but on the bolded, from my perspective small-school football attendance tends to taper off as the season wears on. Weather is the main culprit, but there are some other ones too. IMO, it's better for some of these schools to take advantage while the weather is in their favor and before North Dakotans shift their focus to the stretch of the FCS season if attendance is in consideration.

[NSU4LIFE]

I don't get all the Massey hate.. Is it the be all end all?? obviously not, but what you can't say is that it's biased unlike most of our opinions. It's all data driven. Massey had it at 6.5. My guess would not have been that close, but I'm human. After the Vikings squandered a chance in the 2nd half to kind of blow the game wide open, Jamestown responded, and had the ball with a chance to tie the game and just couldn't execute due in large part to the pressure of that Viking defensive front. I'm not sure how good Massey ratings are this early in the year...

I enjoy Massey but I'm not passionate about it either way. Not everything in life is deserving of passion, haha. Only thing that matters is the entertain purposes of watching a game and the final score. I've gotten boring over the years. Though I still care, after life without sports in 2020 I realized how much time I was wasting on caring about things that I had no affect (effect? I'll never get that right) on. Life is too short.

[NSU4LIFE]

I so think Jamestown is kind of a prideful community, meaning they will continue to support their local team and maybe this builds some more momentum for them.

[crixus]

I saw some video footage last night and was impressed with what the crowd looked like. I didn't think there'd be quite that many people there.

Good for all involved.

The boxscore says 2,500. But I always take attendance #s with a grain of salt. Make that a pound of salt. 😁

https://vcsuvikings.com/sports/footb.../boxscore/5020

[SW_Mustang]

The boxscore says 2,500. But I always take attendance #s with a grain of salt. Make that a pound of salt. 😁

https://vcsuvikings.com/sports/footb.../boxscore/5020

The interesting thing about that number is that's what VCSU lists as their max capacity. Someone probably looked at the stands and said "Yup, that's pretty full. 2.5k and send it."

Lokken Stadium - Facilities - Valley City State University (vcsuvikings.com)

"Max attendance is estimated at 2500 people."

[oldyellaHer69]

Jamestown lost to Valley City, let’s take them both! How far we have fallen