The Fargo Travelogue

Welcome to the solid verbal.

I'm after me, I'm a man, I'm forty.

I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy.

You want to be happy for a day?

Edith state?

Is that?

Woo woom?

And now Dan and Tie.

Friday three fifty seven in the afternoon song, We're between Minneapolis and Fargo.

Hey Dan, Hey, Ty, how's life?

Life is good?

Welcome back to the solid verbal to those of you listening along with us.

As we are actually in the car. We are right now.

We are on the road, making about a three and a half hour drive from Minneapolis Saint Paul up to Fargo, North Dakota, where we're going to see North Dakota State presumably lose to the Colgate Wow wow uh last I heard the line has come all the way down. Now Colgate's favored by fourteen.

That's what it says.

Yeah, yeah, this has been a very flat drive.

It also feels like we've been awake for about ninety two hours straight since we're up very early this morning.

So okay, let's rewind.

So it is about three o'clock local time somewhere between Minneapolis and Fargo. Very flat, very very flat, extremely flat, and you've spent the night in my apartment. I did, slept on the couch. We got up around four am and went to LaGuardia, flew to Minneapolis. We got we got breakfast brunch with the podcast or friend of ours.

It was very good. It was.

It was the thickest bacon you and I have ever consumed together. It was, yeah, yeah, it was. It was about as thick as Derrick Henry's styles. Wow, very very thick. It's almost like you had that comparison prepared.

I didn't. Actually, this is what the road, the open road does to me. I like this. I like tie out of PA is something to behold. It is it is.

I want to I want to rewind for a second.

Though. Please people enjoy a good.

Travel story or a good travel horror story. Uh huh, can you just give me a good forty five seconds? And what went on next to you on the plane? Oh?

Yeah, the the DMZ was approached. There's a there's an unspoken agreement that the arm rests is a is a nice border setting. And the woman next to me, the arm rest went up to like a forty five degree angle, and there was there was some beyond b action there tie. Yeah, there was some beyond the action that was not my favorite. You're very uncomfortable with that, Yeah, it was. It was just unexpected. Yeah, I like my space. About a three

Actually really good, really really.

Good, and then they upset James Madison. You jokingly start tweeting live show from Fargo in all caps, and then or maybe you texted me that. We alluded to it on the show. More Twitter weirdness ensued, with the ESPN wanting us to come and telling us we should be on the sidelines, which is not happening. But we talked and we said, you know what, screwt, Let's go to Fargo. I've never been a Fargo. You've never been a Fargo.

I've played shuffle board and I've been to an ice rink, right, never doing both at the same time.

Okay, I am definitely not somebody with curling experience, and we're just gonna see how we do. My guess is poorly but in an entertaining way, also potentially tearing our groins. Yeah, well, I mean that's always on the table, right, And then we're gonna wake up early tomorrow morning. We're gonna go

The Raiders and the Bison play. Can I just interject for one moment, I'm ready.

We were just passed by a gentleman with a North Dakota license plate driving what appears to be a Super U outback wearing a cowboy hat.

That's wearing a cowboy hat. Feels Jerry Minnesota.

We're not in North Dakota yet, but he is headed where we're headed yep, and it feels very on brand.

Super Us are.

Bigger, and I would have figured in terms of popularity. But I think it's the all wheel driver, the four wheel drive. It's a versatile smart vehicle. Dan the Korean Australian. I know they have an outback model. I'm not gonna look it up.

I'm just going to assume Australia because of the outbout. Yeah.

So it's pretty flat, it's pretty gray, pretty brown, some smell on the ground. Yeah, but I'm pumped from some Upper Midwest Upper Planes football.

So what is the plan here.

We're gonna file a couple of these audio logs that we're gonna eventually stitch together. Yeah, so that people listening at home and people who don't live in the Minneapolis or Fargo area can kind of ride along with us and experience this as we do. Because Dan said we don't really have any familiarity with the upper planes, I think that's right, and so we're gonna try and do this chronologically and give people the full experience, even if you're unable to be here with.

Us in person.

Yeah, people were very high happy that we were actually making the trek to Fargo, So why not virtually take them with us?

That's my thinking.

If I haven't already mentioned, it is extremely flat at the current moment.

You can see for what appears to be just limitless miles. Here, I see Brian Harson looking west. I see, I see Brian. He's just chilling, just getting ready for the What are they in the Vegas Bowl?

Now?

They're in some other Bowl games? Sure, I think it's Fresno State and Arizona State. So yeah, so far, I enthusiastic comes up to Minneapolis, excited to get out with Yeah, excited to get back tomorrow. As you're listening to this Sunday or beyond Sunday, please know, if anything happens to us, our dying wish is that you know that we seem to appreciate the city of the municipality of Minneapolis.

That's all. That's all. I got the end.

Until next time.

Friday, ten o five pm and.

We're back Dan from curling curling.

Yeah, so it's as you now know, it's ten oh five pm right on.

I have lost track of the day. I still Friday.

Okay, it's Friday. We're back in the hotel room.

We're drinking decaffeinated green tea to keep the instrument lubricated.

I didn't even think about that. Good job by you. We arrived at five. We listen.

I'm gonna be real listen.

Oh god, Oh it amuses me, it does. I took like a twenty five minute nap. You got to see me. Tell Siri to wake me up in twenty five minutes?

Yeah, And you have the is it the Australian or the British British?

I have a British Seriy. He's great.

And we got a burger at a place.

Called Pounds Pounds Pretty good, not bad. I liked your description. Dan's description of the place was the burger tastes like the burgers you get at a friend's house, which just happens to be very skilled at grilling really good burger friend.

Yeah.

So it wasn't like a gourmet anything. It was just like it was a good burger, a good picnic burger.

Yeah.

And then we met up with the ESPN crew that is calling the game tomorrow happening in thirteen hours, which was Kevin Brown who started this whole, not the Dodger pitcher right, No, you know what, maybe he has the build he does. Kevin Brown, DJ Shockley Georgia Great Georgia, al Teimer and Cole Kublick Auburn participant now Auburn Alzheimer as well.

We love call.

We went curling at a local club about fifteen minutes away, a curling club, because that's the kind of thing.

That exists in Fargo, North Fargo, North Dakota, as it should.

And I had a blast.

I was not very good.

If you go on the solibrable Instagram, I mean, I don't know when you're listening to this, but at some point I've got it archived.

You have an archived that you are preserved good.

I'm glad.

Cryogenically we split into teams and we will. We learned to curl, which is very difficult. There's a stone with a handle, right, and you're supposed to one one of your shoes has like a slick bottom, the other one is gripped bottom, and you sort of slide and release and two other people. I just burped up some almonds. Will will brush, will broom will sweep for you. It's very people know curling I don't know.

I think I think our audience is familiar. Yeah, so my position are they position?

My role?

My job, I was the SKIP and I put that on the Instagram feed as well. That job, as I understand it is to just yell at the top of your lungs. And I was talking with DJ because he was he was that's right, he was a rival SKIP. So it was a bit contentious, but it neither one of us really knew what to yell, so we were just yelling as loudly as we could. And that's part of the reason why I now have to drink this tea before I go to bed so that I can talk tomorrow when we actually meet the people.

I don't think you're a natural Skip. I did not hear you as I was sweeping. I thought you were like.

Well, okay, in fairness, the instructor.

He was yelling over you.

That was the test.

Well, it was a test, yeah, but I failed to test the initial test. Now the next the next few times, then I tried to be a little bit more assertive. You were better, but I didn't. Again, I didn't know what I was yelling.

You lost the locker room early, you really did, and that's okay, because I thought you were more of a natural deliverer. If the person who glides the stone, If.

If I would have had maybe five more runs at delivering the stone, I think I could have been at least I'm trying to think of what caliber.

And you'd be underwhelming. I'd be the least underwhelming. Give me your impressions of Fargo. So we haven't been to the NDSU campus. We have not seen the Fargo Dome. We're going bright and early to tailgate and friend, it is going to be it is nine degrees when we get there.

I did the math.

I hadn't realized like, oh, yeah, we've got a twelve eastern kickoff, that's eleven am. Yeah, so we're going to show up a couple hours early and get some some tailgating wandering in. It'll be single ish digits, which will be a new tailgating. Yeah, experience in and tailgating impressions of Fargo thus far. So we're staying in downtown Fargo.

Yeah.

On the on the ride home and we've driven around a little we've driven around a little bit. On the ride home, we probably went a good five minutes without seeing any other cars. In the road and that was at nine to thirty. Yeah, So I don't know if it's the cold keeping people indoors or if it's just Fargo, but in any case, it's a bit of a ghost town here at the moment, despite the fact that I think we've got the biggest game of the college football season in this town.

It was a season.

Yeah, it's true cold, you know.

In about thirteen hours. As you said, Yeah, you know, I don't know if everyone is just talking in early to be prepared mentally. But so that's impression number one.

Which i'd see as a positive. I love it. That's fine old.

Heads at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Impression two is that it's very cold, but I think we've already covered that point.

Fine, that's to be expected.

Impression three, it's very quaint. Yeah, it's extremely quaint, and.

It just sort of seems like a small college towns.

It's a very small town. Yeah, but it's it's fine. It is not uh, you know, there are no apparently the wood Chipper.

Is around, like the Fargo or visitor center.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's not like Bleak and you know, Almond is here. It's just not very crowded and you know, very very quaint.

It's a small college town, which just seems like I've been too many and it seems like another one of them. And something I did notice when we were driving around, there has to be a business that installs lights atop other businesses, because every along the freeway there were probably seven or eight places that looked like strip clubs, right, but it was just a mattress store, it was just a pet hospital, but they had the lighting of strip clubs.

And where the buildings are.

Positioned to yes, right next to the freeway.

It's like you could go either way on whether or not it's you know, an eatery or a different kind of establishment.

So those are our early impressions of Fargo.

It is.

Total like I'm looking forward to and this is nothing. No slight on First of all, I'm looking forward to the game like crazy. Oh yeah, I haven't been to a college football game since Oregon Ohio State the National Championship game has been about twenty fifteen, the very very beginning of twenty fifteen, like early January twenty fifteen. I don't know if we're almost going on four years now. Well, because of the show. It's hard because of the show.

It's hard to go to game, yes, because of work, Yeah, all sorts of things. Yeah, I mean actual game. It's probably been longer for me.

You him in Deepenn State or Notre Dame or any of that. No, it's been a long time.

I'm excited that it's a game at the Fargo Dome, which you didn't even realize that, y, you had a dome.

Full disclosure. Yeah, that's okay, full disclosure. When you said on the show about the Fargo Dome. Yeah, I just assumed it was like that Patriot League.

Gagah, the Tokyo Dome.

We were talking about, you know, Lehigh playing Georgetown in the Tokyo don Stadium as Keeka.

What's what's the one in London is the O two Arena.

Right, So I just assumed this was another one of your guests. But thank Kevin Brown, not the Dodger pitcher, but the announcer. He said the Fargo Dome as well, And so I wasn't sure if this was just like a widespread joke that I hadn't colorble. No, it wasn't until this week that I googled it right and I sent to you on the Super Secret g Chat that in fact, oh damn, they do have a dome. That's cool, that's very cool.

Yeah, see, it's what about twenty thousand?

I think I think stadium our concert capacity, excuse me, is twenty four thousand I saw, but it looks like the football team gets about eighteen pten.

There's a good crowd for an FCS. It's a huge crowd. We were hearing tonight during curling that people will come up to the head coach, Chris Cleman of NDSU football and like the supermar currently as we speak today on Friday night, the current one he's rumored to be in the mix for the Kansas State head coaching job, that people will come up to him like good luck. This season we're saving up for tick. It's for Frisco, so we probably won't see you in person. Until then, it's.

Assuming a lot. Frisco, by the way, is where they play the champions, the National Championship.

Yeah, every year in Texas.

So no pressure, Bison.

Look past the Raiders at your own risk, is all I'm saying.

This is a second straight week now where an opposing head coach is rumored on them two a new job.

So it is, we've been up for a long time. We've been up so what it's ten to fifteen. We've been up since about what three fifteen our body time Central time. I need to import some footage. I need to sync up some audio and video. I need to sort of figure out what I want to do Tomorrow. We have the meet up tomorrow night. Tomorrow's another long day.

I am.

I'm excited. I'm gonna get some green tea too. You should, you should.

So while we're out here, we are please to remind you about our friends at the Athletic Oh please, who have so graciously decided that they wanted to sponsor some of this madness again Dan, So please do if you're interested.

It's not too late.

Of course, We've got the bull season, now, we've got the playoffs. They're going to start at the end of the month the National Championship, which I think we know is going to be Notre Dame versus maybe you guys have a special needs. I don't even want to jinx this. I was trying to be coy here. It's late.

I'm tired.

The Athletic and is that what you guys?

That's right, that's right, Theathletic dot com slash soliverbal. We just actually had tweets coming in this week from people who cashed in on the deal, and they're very pleased with it. It's a great product, no frills. It's the future of journalism, as you've said, timing again Dan, the Athletic dot Com slash soliverbal. You get forty percent off your very first year. Buy it for yourself as a Christmas present, buy it for others as a Christmas present

That's a great deal. And by the way, if you want to stop the show right now and go grab it, it's like two ninety nine a month or something, just obscenely good rate wise. Uh, We're still in the coaching CAUs all time. It's right, and Bruce Feldman or pal Bruce, has been doing an incredible job tracking everything the coaching search and can only find that stuff on the athletic and you can only find our deal at the athletic dot com slash solid Burbo.

So come on, no Brainer, you.

Heard the man. Okay, so you got to import footage. I'm gonna import this audio and get ourselves positioned for the next couple captain's logs that we enter here. Yes, on our trip to Fargo tomorrow or trip back to Minneapolis to meet some of reballers and then eventually back home to the East Coast. But in the meantime, we're gonna we're gonna do we got to do. We're gonna get some rest and we'll catch you on the flip side.

Oh see tomorrow, Saturday, day five, all for in the evening somewhere between Minneapolis and Farigo. We can.

All right, we are we are back. We are on the road again.

We are and we are no longer virgins to the North Dakota State football first person viewing experience at the Fargo Dome.

I was really hoping you went in that direction when you said we are no longer virgins. This is this is my headline, and I tweeted this out almost verbatim. We went to the Fargo Dome and it ruled so so, so hard. And it's not just because it was a crazy atmosphere and a really good team. It was unlike anything I've seen. I heard the ventilation in there because the crowd was so quiet during the Bisons offensive possessions, which is what really good fans should do.

But it was it was a different place. That was a different place.

Hey, I keep I keep feeling like I want to say we came, we saw, we kicked its ass, but I don't.

I don't really know what they're doing. No, we did.

We did nothing except walk around and be mildly frozen and interview and talk to cool tailgaters who are also North Dakota State fans. But I said to you while we were there that I felt like it was part college football park monster truck rally.

Yeah it was.

It was definitely a venue that seemed like a rodeo monster truck. It was a very structured rectangle. It wasn't like your standard indoor stadium type Dome. But everybody went nuts. Man, everybody was like, that's the show in town. And you got that sense, you really did.

And so we saw a bunch of stuff in there that I'm sure we could talk through here as we're driving. We got two hours left yet on the hall back from Fargo to Minneapolis. But let's start here just a really really subtle way of asserting dominance. When the PA announcer comes on starts talking about buying tickets to Frisco, you reserve your tickets now.

It might have even been for next year, it may have been for twenty twenty.

Yeah, but start reserve your tickets now to Frisco Texas, where, of course, as we said yesterday, they'd play the national championship on the SCS level. Sort of a rude thing to do when the team you're playing is just getting vaporized.

So at a certain point, we're just talking about facts, right. In fact, a certain point, we're just talking about the fact that they've won five of six or six and seven national championships, and it just makes good sense that there is a good chance no matter what happens. I haven't seen anything with Chris Cimon and the Kansas State job since we started. No matter what happens with that, it's just good sense to plan ahead, as we all know. So when I tweeted that out that it was sort

It's like what parent heads do. They go on the Jimmy Buffett Cruise.

What North Dakota State fans do is they go to Texas early on in January, so you might as well plan.

Might as well plan it.

Yeah, that's what they're called parentids, right, Jimmy Buffett.

I believe so.

I believe so.

My other takeaway from the Fargo Dome is it's really freaking loud in there, but only what it wants to be, right, Yeah, that's what we were saying. Yeah, you mentioned it a few minutes ago, only what it wants to be.

When Colgate was on offense, that place was like a metallic concert.

When North Dakota State was on offense. You could hear a pin drop, you could hear the ventilation system at the roof.

You're very proposed to somebody across the stadium, a.

Very very respectful fan base, I would say.

Yeah, it was. First of all, we spent almost more time.

The tailgating was probably more interesting the game than the game itself, which was never really competitive. I think it was seven to nothing after the first quarter, and it was just we got to see a crock potting. We got to see maybe the crock Potting of twenty eighteen in person, which feels a bit right considering that we celebrate the sensation of crock potting. It it was really fun to tailgate. It was probably about ten degrees. We

I had no idea.

It's the adaptation is really inspiring to witness. It's like how wolves adapted to be friendlier with humans because they were providing them with food right back in that in that in the day. The infrastructure that some of these fans have clearly invested in, yeah, is is incredible. I would also add to your point about tents. I saw more North Dakota State themed buses at this tailgate that

Like school buses.

Right. Is there bus graveyard somewhere up here where they can get these things for ten cents.

On the dollar? Yeah, I am a Well listen, they're not listen. Listen, They're not doing this for any.

Other teams, Like I don't think they're also twins fans on this level that they are North Dakota State fans, I don't think they are, you know, I think the year is built around this in the way that it's true elsewhere obviously, especially in the South, and you'll see a lot of those buses and setups like they're like that as well.

But yeah, when you have and this team is the best, this team is Alabama, this team is beyond Alabama.

I mean, what Alabama does against the competition is sort of unprecedented on that level. But in terms of the sport short of like the crazy, I don't I don't know how compares to like Mount Union and Wisconsin Whitewater on D three, but this is I mean, North Dakota State is beating They are beating Power five schools, so they're a lot closer than perhaps some of those dynasties.

That was the final score, right, it was thirty five nothing.

But I wonder if you should add like a Harlem Globetrotter element to it, because you go see the Harlem Globetrotters, you know who's winning.

You know that the Washington tricks, You're not going to see the score.

Right, So what I'm saying is you add one crooked ref just totally and clearly.

Donna ging out there.

You add a couple of players, mandatory players to North Dakota's starting twenty two, that are on English speaking, non football familiar people who will certainly affect the game.

Your left guard is five three eighteen.

You have to give them some sort of in the way that golf has a handicap, something along those lines.

You also need to borrow a page from the old twenty four handbook.

Okay, you need a good mole, You need an absolute mom need a mole, You need a pre installed Waki leagues.

Right, something some some like fly in the ointment.

Yeah, that can serve on serves a distraction on a couple different fronts.

And I think that might be it.

Okay, we were talking about this earlier and this I'm I'm gonna switch it up a little. We were talking about which Power five school you would definitively take the or give the points fourteen fourteen and a half points over North Dakota State playing on the Vikings Field, so like US Bank State US Bank Stadium, not the not the Fargo town to have that true home field advantage, but a relative indoor, neutral home field advantage.

And I want to add a little wrinkle to that.

Okay, See, I almost think the question needs to be playing in the Fargo Dome because, as we tweet it out, it's such an enormous home field advantage, certainly on the SCS level where they're used to playing in front of, like, gosh, two to five thousand people. Right the Fargo Dome holds I think it's max capacity as twenty four, but for football games they pulled down about eighteen. Colgate coming in there has to be wide eyed and a little bit terrified.

Gosh.

And I don't know if it's all that different for other schools going in there. Certainly a school like I don't know, I'll just say Notre Dame. Right, Notre Dame is used to playing in front of a lot of people, but maybe not playing in a place like the Fargo Dome, which is so unique.

Yeah, I think you're Dakota schools, you're Northern Iowa who play in domes and have played in the Fargo Dome often get the drill, right, But Coldgates. Here's my question specific about Olgate or any other like Northeastern power or a power like Sam. I don't think Sam used to say, I don't know if they've ever come to the Fargo Nome. Maybe I'm wrong, but somewhere that's distant and definitively at a disadvantage talent wise, coaching wise, and now environment wise.

There was a.

Camera in their offensive meetings. This is we're doing in this situation. These are the plays we're installing. These are the practice cut ups from like where it was strong and where it wasn't strong. If they were forced to deliver the entire offensive game plan with video evidence to Colgate as it was happening like a live stream. Does it ultimately change the outcome in any sort of dramatic way. I mean, if Colgate is ready for everything, it's all there,

They know what they've installed for the red zone. They know what every formation looks like.

They know out of which personnel package they're running this type of play. They know the calls, they know the signals. Everything is fully telegraphed. The quarterback might as well tell the defense, wow, this is what we're running here, this is what you know.

So you're really expanding upon the whole whole premise. Yes, that that is what triggered that in my minds.

Do you think thirty five nothing becomes a competitive game? Do you think Colgate wins? Do you think at best it's thirty five to twenty?

I mean, well, first off, you're not telling Colgate what North Dakota State's doing on defense. It's actually the bigger problem, the bigger problem. So I don't think it changes the outcome. Maybe North Dakota State, I.

Mean they turned over, they forced you know, they they've maybe eight.

But the problem, the problem with the game that we saw was that it really was not competitive.

The better team was North Dakota State.

Yeah, and I think it starts up front with their defensive line. We're not gonna do any deep analysis here, but Colgate was just so overmatched on the offensive side of the ball going up against that defensive line.

So even if they knew, even.

Everything that the buys in we're gonna do was telegraphed, I don't think right any much difference.

Yeah, I think they probably score a couple of times. I think they forced.

Turnovers, but don't convert in the red zone, because you're right. The big problem for Bolgate was it took a super human effort from their defense this season to become a top ten ranked MCS team, right to overcome the fact that their passing game just didn't really exist against the better teams on their schedule. I know they had some nice passes last week against James Madison, but it was it was a non starter.

So let me ask you this because we'll kind of get to this.

We were talking about this in the bagel shop before we hopped in the car to make this journey back to Minneapolis fourteen and a half points.

It's your hypothetical spread.

Yeah, I'm gonna say we're playing the game in the Fargo Dome, in the Fargo Dome, in Fargo.

Dome, which is both different and less daunting, a smaller crowd but louder in some cases than a lot of opponents on the road.

So let's go through big ten teams. Okay, you tell me who you would take to cover fourteen and a half in the Fargo Dome.

Okay, we'll start easy. Would you take Michigan and Ohio.

State, Yes, Michigan in Ohio State, I or at least two touchdowns better in the Fargo Dome.

In the Fargo Den the Bison, Yes, Penn State. Penn State had trouble with app State this year.

Well, Apstates I would take. That game was in beaver Stadia. Appstate's legitimately good.

And I don't think you can look at app State and say into the Sun Belt Champs. You can't look at Appstate and say, like, could you imagine struggling against Apps State and now they're good.

Penn State struggled with Rutgers.

I think that would be the more Apps exam of Penn State looking flat against a team that doesn't have the talent of Penn State. Would I take Penn State to cover on the road, Yes, I think I would. Eventually they win that game because of the line play and because of players like Miles Sanders and kJ Hamler, who even if the offense is not rolling like it should be with Tracey McSorley, they can turn eight into eighty eight.

Yes. Michigan State.

No, No, Michigan State definitively does something extremely poorly, and that's play offense, and I think that would be their undoing. I would definitely take those points, if not take like the money line, you'd go money line.

Yeah. I think North Kota State one upset Michigan State.

Wow.

Yeah in the Fargo Dome. Yes, absolutely. Michigan State feels like a team that wouldn't take them seriously. Michigan State could shut them down. But I think North Dakota State could definitely win that game thirteen to ten for.

Sure, So would you.

I'd be inclined then to put along that same line of Northwestern.

Did Michigan State barely get by Rutgers at the end of the year, that's the most recent example.

Yeah, Northwestern played in the Big Ten championship game. Yeah, this is a good one, but but kind of has like a fatal flaw every game somehow, Right, whether it's Clayton Thorson turning the ball over four or.

Five times, yep, whether it's well, it's usually not.

The defense defense has been reasonably solid on the FBS level, but offensively going into a strange place. I guess it's not too too far of a trip for Northwestern, but they probably win.

I don't know if they cover fourteen and a half though, you know, don't like that.

By the way, this is all to be clear.

North Dakota State has an NFL caliber quarterback once again. He is on draft boards. He's not like, I don't think it's a higher round pick like Carson Wentz was. But Easton Stick.

Yeah, I'm gonna say you're burying the lead that his name is Easton Stick Eastern sick.

Could he be a long time Chase Daniel asque backup in the NFL with some health luck? Absolutely, he throws a nice ball and he's he's a good size.

Yeah.

The fact that Chase Daniel is still a Chase danielish back is probably probably evidence enough for Eastern stick, so.

Northwestern to get back to the main road. Yes, I probably would not. Northwestern is a team that plays up and plays down, and I would take Northwestern to win, but I would have them winning twenty four to twenty something like that.

List for me.

The teams that in the Fargo Gum outside of Michigan State, yeah, North Dakota State would be would beat outright.

Yeah in the Big Ten or any we know they could beat Oregon, but how dare you Big ten? In the Big Ten, North Dakota State could outright beat Rutgers.

Yes, in the Fargo doll.

I think they could outright beat Maryland, even though the best of Maryland should be the you know, the average of North Dkota State. The best of Maryland is not something we always saw. I think they could beat that Maryland team, especially with injuries a quarterback. I think they could beat Minnesota, even though the Minnesota defense did improve by the end of the year.

They could beat Illinois.

Illinois actually scares me a little bit because of how well they ran the BOT.

I mean, they can control a little bit on the ground, but I think they could beat Illinois for sure.

They could beat to Purdue, but I would probably lean towards giving those points with Purdue just because they themselves have a good quarterback and some game changes on offense. I think North Dakota State could beat outright. I don't feel good about Nebraska. I mean I am to say that I feel good about Nebraska winning. I don't feel good about it beating Nebraska. Who else am I right now? Indiana?

Indiana? They could beat Indiana.

North Dakota State has recently competed well with Iowa, so yeah, we saw some ugliness from that of the Iowa offenses here.

So anyway, the point here, I think the larger point is that.

North Dakota State is a.

Maybe below average right now Big Ten team, but they're hovering within average.

Right like they could get both. Yes, this is what it amounts to. Incredible venue for a game.

Definitely a bucket list trip to come up and check this out. It is different, though, and it's different in this respect because I don't know if it's because I know in the back of my mind that it's FCS football as opposed to FBS. I don't know if it's because it's that FCS team playing in a really cool

Really big time Texas.

High school football and like middle tier Big ten football. It feels to me, wow mentally, like it like it's just somewhere in there. And I don't quite know how, And I don't mean that as any disrespect. I'm sure it'll come across that way. Well, it's just such an odd setting to see a whole town rally around at FCS school.

That's not something I've seen. No, in the Northeast, it's most certainly not like that. And you know, in the South there are certainly pockets that appreciate and support FCS schools rightfully, so, but there this is the one hundred and twenty five thousand people live in Fargo, and a lot of the towns in the South and Texas are much smaller that have FCS schools. So no, it's a

I came away just crazy oppressed with the.

Experience, and I almost have to wonder at what point And I don't know different conference qualifications because then you start getting into academics and you.

Know you North Dakota State is not going to join the Big Ten.

But when you win eight of nine, when you win ten of eleven or twelve fifteen, when do we have to say North Dakota State should be the Mountain West like that? And that has to be like in a not so distant time. That conversation has to be had.

Well?

And the point here is I think even if their coach leaves, yeah, it might be that they've gotten to the point where the program is it's almost a critical mass, right, because they've gotten such an infrastructure advantage having that as our home stadium. Yep, they can probably afford to throw a little bit more into their football program than a lot of their rivals because they have that and they need to continue that.

Tradition, right. I also think they are and it's part of it. I don't think it's a main part of it, but it's part of it. I think they're kind of

You know what, just Dawnamy, what did you happen to see the science saying I prefer Crest?

Yeah, kind of Coldgate. It's just dawned to me that they're comparing Colgate to toothpaste.

Yes, in the car several hours after the game.

Yeah, No, you were focused on many other things and that's acceptable.

Yeah, I'm okay with it.

But yeah, I would recommend because we get a lot of these emails and it's off the beaten path for sure. People ask should where should I go? I've never been to a game. I live in Australia coming to the States. Should I go see Texas or should I go see Alabama?

Something?

To be fair, if you're coming from Australia, don't don't make Fargo your first slag at the first one.

Don't make it the first one.

But if you've been around and you want somewhere new and difference. Go to a big game at the Fargo Nome in like late October, late October.

Yes, at the absolutely because you're still get it. It'll be crisp, It'll be like the thirties or something, probably forties, right, I do recommend it. I had a great time. The people were terrific, the atmosphere was great.

It was we went curling, We ate burgers, we layered up, we wandered around on tailgates. We got to see the end of the Patriot League football season. Did you got to see a clip of me curling on the game broadcasts? Yes, with Cole Kublic and DJ Shockley, Which it's very strange to say that I went curling with DJ Shockley and Kole Kublick, but I mean mostly DJ shock I could and I could anticipate. I could have anticipated a world in which I went curling with a former offensive lineman.

It's still very flats getting it is foggy. It's just a new wrinkle. We keep passing icy bodies of water.

Right.

But we have the meet up in a little bit in about four hours in Minneapolis. You can check into our hotel to eat some dinner. And I think Tye is going to do some independent research on Fargo in North Dakota. I'm very curious about Fargo North Dakota. Tye is borderline becoming obsessed with like why do people move to Fargo, Why do people leave Fargo? Why do people start businesses in Fargo? Why don't they start businesses in Fargas don't they?

I want to know.

I want to know the official pitch, yeah, from the Fargo Chamber of Commerce to prospective business clients who might want to bring their operations inside the city limits. And I mean that not again in any derogatory way. I'm genuinely curious about how this works.

Yeah, it was. I got questions after this trip.

It was an interesting place that is extremely far away for most places I've been.

So what I would add as we sort of wrap up here a little bit, Yeah, big thanks first and foremost to our Frank Kevin Brown from ESPN.

Yeah, planting the seed. Who planted the seed?

You know, I guess we kind of planted it a little bit, but he took it and he watered that seed and gave it sprouts yep, to the point where we thought, hey, what the hell, let's do it. So Kevin a really good dude. It was great to meet him for the first time. Yeah, and I'm sure he did a magnificent job with the broadcast. If you listen to his intro to the broadcast, there were a bunch of little Easter eggs in there for sOliver bawlers. Yeah, who might have been watching wondering what is this game

Could use that. We could use that. Yeah, shout out once again to open.

Floor Lowe, But I U Kevin Brown up and pay attention.

Listen. We made Adam a meme. Listen, listen, we made Adam a meme. That's a joke. We can make Kevin Brown.

We are secret king makers of play by play broadcasters.

Kenvin Brown. Thank you.

Also, big thanks to everyone in North Dakota State on very short notice kind of giving us, you know, our.

Lay of the land here.

Driving their credentials to our hotel, which is, believe me, not something that normally And you know, big thanks to all of the fans who kind of opened their tailgates up to us, welcomed us in. Thank you for helping keep us warm throughout this because it was very cool. What was the best thing you ate at a tailgate? What was that bacon? The whiskey, cayenne, bacon, sugar?

Yeh, some guy made some sort of slurry with whiskey or bourbon and cayamne pepper for spice and brown sugar.

Yeah, that was the best bacon.

I frizzled it over the bacon before bacon, and yeah, it was excellent bacon. I don't know what the best thing I had was. It might have been that bacon. It probably was that bacon. But we had meatballs and sausage and we did do a jellow shot. We didn't want to be rude, right, and I think we had a little bit of breakfast burrito.

It's good food. It's tough in the morning. It's tough in the morning.

It was an eleven am local pick to throw together at tailgate, especially when nobody really wants to be outside manning the grill.

A lot of sausages around the parking lot. All right, Dan, So now we are off to Minneapolis. Yeah, for our next trick. We're gonna meet some for ballers. Yes, at Surly Brewing Company. I recognize when people listen to this they will not be able to to like adjust their plans and meet up with us, but nonetheless that's where we're headed. Yeah, a little bit later on the seating to meet some Minneapolis for ball.

Er some people saying Paul overballers.

Yeah, from the greater Minneapolis area, which is always fun for us to go out and meet some of the people that support the show.

So that'll be fun. Then we fly back to reality early tomorrow morning, very early tomorrow.

I didn't tell you this, but I think we're going to be departing from the airport in two different cabs. WHOA, Yeah, I think I'm meeting Jody with an I for brunch, pre existing reservation. Okay, so it's going to This trip is going to end before you thought it was going to.

It's okay, it's okay. But we're used to this life, Dan.

Yeah, we are indeed, so I a huge success. Could not categorize it as anything less than a huge success.

This was.

If it's not my first FCS football attendance, I can't think of what was. And other than the fact that the game was in no way competitive beyond the.

First quarter, I cradd in a it was.

It was a great time and again recommend it to all go support the the.

Bison and dominance. It's it's your duty already, damp. I think that's all I got.

I don't know if we do the normal outro here being so we are in a moving vehicle, right, But there's been a fun trip. We appreciate everybody who who has sort of joined us spiritually.

Yeah.

Well, driving into the fog, this might be the last recorded evidence of our existence.

They're going to find this, yeah, in a fiery crash, but no, thanks to everyone who supported it, who played along with all of our fun. We will catch you on a few days. In the meantimes, stay solid, Peace,