University of Minnesota head football coach Tim Brewster's threats of not playing a Division I Football Championship Subdivision team are officially over. North Dakota State is going back to Minneapolis.
The Bison and Gophers agreed to a 2011 game at Minnesota's new TCF Bank Stadium, scheduled to open next fall. NDSU will receive a $350,000 guarantee, but will only get 2,500 allotted tickets.
Considering a 2007 game at the Metrodome between these teams drew an estimated Bison fan base of between 20,000 and 30,000, NDSU followers may find tickets hard to come by.
"That's in the contract because of the new stadium," said NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor.
NDSU was allotted 5,000 tickets two years ago, a game the Bison won 27-21. But the Metrodome's 63,000-seat capacity and a poor Gophers team gave NDSU fans plenty of ticket opportunities. TCF Bank Stadium will have a capacity of 50,000.
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The Bison got $300,000 each for the 2006 and 2007 games.
Taylor said the $350,000 figure for 2011 is reasonable and was not up for negotiation.
"They could say if you want to negotiate, we'll find somebody else," he said.
For a while, Brewster was hoping that was the case. He said on at least a couple of instances, including the week of the '07 game, that his preference was to not play FCS teams.
"We're committed to playing FCS opponents from our region," said Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi in a statement. "We think that's a good thing for those institutions, their fans and their alumni in this area."
Taylor, citing conversations with Gophers athletic officials, said he had a positive vibe all along that NDSU and Minnesota would play again.
"It was a matter of finding a date," he said.
The game will either be on Sept. 10 or Sept. 24.
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"Put Sept. 24 in dark pencil," Taylor said.
Minnesota has committed to play the University of South Dakota in 2010. The Gophers also announced on Friday they are hosting Southern California at TCF Bank Stadium in 2010 and traveling to USC in 2011.
Down the line, Minnesota has scheduled Missouri Valley Football Conference member Western Illinois in 2013 and South Dakota State in 2015.
SDSU gets its first shot at the Gophers next November.
With the addition of the Gophers in 2011, and Georgia Southern already coming to the Fargodome, NDSU has space for one more nonconference game. Taylor said he wants to keep it open as the back end of a home-and-home agreement with an opponent starting in 2010.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546. Kolpack's NDSU media blog can be found at www.areavoices.com
