First of all, there will be a loud vocal few who will use their confirmation bias and mob mentality to instantly dismiss or poke fun at this... but perhaps for once could we try to get some civil discourse. Can people take a step back, a deep breath, and challenge their own assumptions for once in regards to Klieman?
It's plain as day for anyone being willing to get over their own insecurities about our University. NDSU is an extreme outlier at the D1 FCS level and very undervalued in casual public perception. Anybody who is a true College Football nerd should know this with some of the pearl clutching reaction to only the thought of Klieman.
NDSU, as has been posted several times only to have goalposts move - according to Sagarin ratings is better than any FBS G5 team besides UCF and better than half (or more) of the Big 12 currently. This shows the EXTREME overvalue sheep place on G5 teams simply because they aren't FCS when in reality the very top of the FCS is every bit as good as FBS G5. (NO, there's not near the depth of quality teams in FCS, at the bottom of the FCS there's some very very very low budget and absolutely terrible teams)
I'll stop here and do a quick comparison to Troy and Neal Brown, who I do believe to be a solid candidate as well. Troy is right around the same Sagarin rating as North Texas, so NDSU would be 15 points better than than Troy according to Sagarin. That alone doesn't mean Klieman is a better coach than Brown but I do think it's important to take into account the strength of the team whose coach you are considering hiring... especially if it's been their program for 4 (NB) or 5 (CK) years..I would hope most rational people would agree
No, Sagarin ratings aren't perfect, but those ratings and similar power ratings are the basis of vegas point spreads. What's a better way to compare the strength of two teams? If you think you're sooo much smarter than those ratings, move to Vegas and you can become a millionaire in a couple weeks. Even for those that are delusional and do believe they are smarter than sagarin ratings... do you REALLY think your eye test is that much smarter? Even if you do, have you actually WATCHED the team you're instantly dismissing? Or are we too high and mighty to watch such a "small time" team because we've never won an athletic national championship in our university's history?
My point in addition to the above, if Klieman can maintain and elevate a program to the level they are at for 5 years (can't say it's not his team forever) in freaking FARGO!! North Dakota!... what could he do at an actual big time football program in a big time conference at Kansas State?
TL;DR: CK and NDSU is EXTREMELY UNDERVALUED and D1 FBS Group of 5 schools are EXTREMELY OVERVALUED in comparison (although NB is still a decent choice)... that's why Klieman is the ultimate big balls moneyball move.. If we'd be willing to stand firm and take the backlash from the uninformed or unwilling to educate themselves crowd.
It's plain as day for anyone being willing to get over their own insecurities about our University. NDSU is an extreme outlier at the D1 FCS level and very undervalued in casual public perception. Anybody who is a true College Football nerd should know this with some of the pearl clutching reaction to only the thought of Klieman.
NDSU, as has been posted several times only to have goalposts move - according to Sagarin ratings is better than any FBS G5 team besides UCF and better than half (or more) of the Big 12 currently. This shows the EXTREME overvalue sheep place on G5 teams simply because they aren't FCS when in reality the very top of the FCS is every bit as good as FBS G5. (NO, there's not near the depth of quality teams in FCS, at the bottom of the FCS there's some very very very low budget and absolutely terrible teams)
I'll stop here and do a quick comparison to Troy and Neal Brown, who I do believe to be a solid candidate as well. Troy is right around the same Sagarin rating as North Texas, so NDSU would be 15 points better than than Troy according to Sagarin. That alone doesn't mean Klieman is a better coach than Brown but I do think it's important to take into account the strength of the team whose coach you are considering hiring... especially if it's been their program for 4 (NB) or 5 (CK) years..I would hope most rational people would agree
No, Sagarin ratings aren't perfect, but those ratings and similar power ratings are the basis of vegas point spreads. What's a better way to compare the strength of two teams? If you think you're sooo much smarter than those ratings, move to Vegas and you can become a millionaire in a couple weeks. Even for those that are delusional and do believe they are smarter than sagarin ratings... do you REALLY think your eye test is that much smarter? Even if you do, have you actually WATCHED the team you're instantly dismissing? Or are we too high and mighty to watch such a "small time" team because we've never won an athletic national championship in our university's history?
My point in addition to the above, if Klieman can maintain and elevate a program to the level they are at for 5 years (can't say it's not his team forever) in freaking FARGO!! North Dakota!... what could he do at an actual big time football program in a big time conference at Kansas State?
TL;DR: CK and NDSU is EXTREMELY UNDERVALUED and D1 FBS Group of 5 schools are EXTREMELY OVERVALUED in comparison (although NB is still a decent choice)... that's why Klieman is the ultimate big balls moneyball move.. If we'd be willing to stand firm and take the backlash from the uninformed or unwilling to educate themselves crowd.
