ozzie679

You got that right!

Agreed, they need more teams.

Anyway, do you deny the BTHC's upside is huge?

Football and basketball are the biggest sport on the vast majority of college campuses. The NCHC is an exception to the norm. I'm worried that the B1G will become the destination conference for elite hockey players. This won't happen enitially, and the NCHC will always be a major player. But the schools of the B1G have massive athletic budgets, tons of recruiting money, and a media machine promoting the B1G brand. Not to mention, the B1G has major research institutions with prestigeous reputations. The BTHC's upside is scary.

How is the Big Ten a dying conference? They are probably the #1 or #2 most powerful entity in college sports.

THe other hockey conferences are kiddind themselves if they thing they can compete with the Big Ten brand. That doesn't mean the BTHC has better programs (which they don't). But that brand is extremely valuable. Not to mention all of the schools are national research universities that have loads of money and a TV network.

Living in Gopher country, I hear opinions from two camps. One camp says, UND needs us more than we need UND, so let's screw'em over by not putting them on the schedule. The other hate to lose the annual series with UND. Winkler got lambasted by the media and the public. He lives in his own little St Paul legislative world, and forgot that the voters don't like legislative games and that most of the voters don't give two craps about college hockey.

The bill was "tongue in cheek". It was a shot at Minnesota's football program and administration for paying $800k to get out of two games against North Carolina. The proposed legislation is a joke (literally). So don't read into it.

The Fighting Norsemen would be cool.

...and you made it home without being raped or robbed You're one lucky guy!

When is the last time you've been to downtown Mpls? Seriously, it's safe. You can find trouble after bar close in Mpls, StP, or Grand Forks for that matter. You should be able to find accomodations....there are almost 10,000 hotel rooms in Mpls. It's a first class city.

UND doesn't have the proximity advantages of UM. But the NCHC will have a "North Dakota" rule. There's no way the fans of the NCHC can fill the Target Center without UND fans.

When was the last time you were in uptown Mpls? It's all atrsy fartsy hipsters and trendy BMW driving yuppies.

Downtown Mpls and the Warehouse District are extremely safe. Target Center is next to Target Field, and how many times have you heard people complain about crime when they talk about Target Field? They don't.

I think it's strange that the ND Legislature and now the citizens of ND will vote to determine UND's nickname. Shouldn't the issue be decided by the admin, students, alumni, faculty and staff?