FARGO -- The athletic directors at North Dakota State and the University of North Dakota are at a stalemate in renewing the football series. And there appears to be no hope for checkmate in the near future.
The crux of the problem is the frequency of the game. UND's Brian Faison wants to play every year; NDSU's Gene Taylor prefers every other year.
"If they want to play us, it's on the table to play us," Taylor said. "To worry about every year to me -- if I'm in their shoes, I don't know if I would draw that line in the sand."
A solution does not look imminent and it's reached the point where somebody else may have to intervene, Faison said.
"I think we're probably at a point where we may have to get a higher authority involved like the presidents," Faison said. "Gene's position is firm. Our position is firm. It doesn't take much to read into that there's an impasse there. But things change."
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Immediate presidential involvement may be questionable considering NDSU may not have a permanent president in place until this fall. NDSU spokeswoman Najla Amundson said interim NDSU President Dick Hanson will not get involved.
"He said he's leaving it up to the athletic directors to work it out," Amundson said.
The North Dakota Board of Higher Education normally doesn't get involved in athletic matters like scheduling, either.
Taylor insists on the every-other-year format because NDSU's nine-team Missouri Valley Football Conference gives the Bison four home and four away league games. As for the three non-conference games, NDSU annually schedules one road guarantee game leaving two open dates. The school would prefer those to be at home as much as possible.
"We put something on the table that works for us," Taylor said. "Is it the perfect scenario for them? No, but it gets the game going. For them to draw that line of having it every year, then they have my answer."
Plus, Taylor said, scheduling UND every year would eliminate games against the likes of Montana, Montana State and Georgia Southern. Division I Football Championship Subdivision programs are allowed to schedule 11 games most years.
"Based on the way we're scheduled in football, I can't get there," Taylor said of a yearly game. "He has different challenges where he can. He's more flexible."
UND plays in the five-team Great West Conference, which leaves seven potential
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non-conference dates.
The teams last played in 2003 in Grand Forks -- won 28-21 in overtime by the Sioux.
But a scheduling rift developed when NDSU started an NCAA Division I schedule the following season while UND remained in Division II. The Sioux ultimately started their five-year Division I transition in 2007-08 and is considered a Division I counter.
"We're ready to go," Faison said. "But Gene has a particular scenario that he feels is critical, and we can't agree to that. It's an every-other-year issue for us."
The schools are renewing their rivalry in baseball this weekend when the teams meet at the Metrodome in Minneapolis on Sunday and Monday.
Kolpack is a reporter for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.
