The Mike McFeely Mess

Author John Millea previews his soon-to-be-released book, "Prepville, MN: Unforgettable Stories of High School Sports" with podcast host and Forum columnist Mike McFeely. John covered high school sports for decades in Minnesota for the Star Tribune newspaper and the Minnesota State High School League. His book is a collection of the best stories he wrote involving athletes, coaches, officials and the great small-town atmosphere of prep sports in the state. 

BetMGM released its Group of Six college football win totals, which allow bettors to pick the "over" or the "under" on that number, and North Dakota State's seems a little high. The Bison, in their first year in FBS and the Mountain West Conference, have a win total of 9.5. In other words, if you bet the over and hope to win money NDSU would have to win 10 games for you to collect. It would seem betting the under is obvious. Even if the Bison have a still-very-successful season and win 9 games ... you'd still win. NDSU's win total prediction is the highest in all of the Group of Six.  Chase Kiddy is a betting analyst and blogger for BetMGM and an old friend of host Mike McFeely's from the time when NDSU and James Madison were fierce playoff rivals in FCS. So Mike called Chase and asked him to explain how the bookmakers at BetMGM could set NDSU's win total so high. Mike wrote about the high number in a column earlier this week, but thought it would be fun to get Chase's thoughts on the 9.5 win total. Here is the full list of BetMGM's win totals in a blog post written by Chase. 

WyoSports.com sports writer Alex Taylor joins host Mike McFeely to chat about a column Alex wrote for his newspaper: "Will Wyoming and North Dakota State be Mountain West rivals?" All signs point to "yes" since both programs need a conference rivalry since college football realignment has shaken up the landscape. Wyoming lost Colorado State to the Pac-12 (even though they'll play non-conference games for at least a decade) and NDSU lost South Dakota State, which remains in FCS. Many seem to believe this will be a good matchup, and Alex and Mike are no different. They explain why.

The news broke on Friday, Feb. 6, that North Dakota State was in serious discussions to the join the Mountain West Conference as a football-only member. It became official three days later when the school and league announced the invitation had been extended and accepted. It's been about 12 weeks, nearly three months, since the news broke and a whirlwind of activity was set in motion from the league, the school and the local media. Podcast host and Forum columnist Mike McFeely, WDAY-TV sports reporter and voice of the Bison Dom Izzo and The Forum's NDSU beat writer Jeff Kolpack sat down to discuss the hectic three months and give their impressions now that spring football is finished and (some) things will slow down for a while.