The Sicatoka

How'd we get so young? Easy. By design of the NCAA. The rules about transitioning to DI (five-year transition with no playoffs) are intentionally set up to prevent a DII powerhouse from making the jump up to DI and winning immediately. Let's face it: At their peak, Grand Valley State University might have been the best college football team in Michigan that wasn't in the Big Ten. (Yes, I just disrespected the entire MAC conference.) Imagine if they could have, in say 2002, made an immediate jump to DI with all their programs. They were winning DII Director's Cups as the best overall DII programs. They would have beaten many, many "established" DI programs in many sports. That would be a massive embarrassment to those DI programs. Instead, the NCAA mandates a five-year transition to "help" those programs "establish" themselves in DI. No, what's really going on is the NCAA is guaranteeing that the transitioning schools are hammered with no playoffs for five years. What's that guarantee? Weak and small recruiting classes*. And it guarantees the "established" DI programs don't have to deal with upstarts (see GVSU) coming in and making the playoffs immediately and getting a share of (pay attention kids, here the punchline) tournament revenues. The five-year transition is a predatory rule toward move-ups. Nothing more. *UND is facing that right now. Look as the dearth of juniors and seniors on the rosters. Those are the kids that came in despite knowing there'd be no playoffs during their college years. That's why there are so few.

Malone 2 SCSU 1 UND 1 Does Brad get the two points in league standings? And MSU-M hit an empty net pipe with about a minute left. I thought only UND could do that.

"Bottle flu" does not count as "sick".

I think we need a common location for reporting WCHA officiating gaffes. Why not here. We know our fellow WCHAers lurk here so they'll join in as needed. And please, let's keep this focused on reporting the errors. Thank you. Our first example: http://boardsroom.blogspot.com/2010/12/about-that-goal.html My first example: Why wasn't Cichy's "pipe" on Saturday reviewed?

I'm not too surprised to see Sac and SJSU staying aligned with "all sport" conferences for the time being. For either it'd be bad to jump to a split alignment (FB in one conference, rest of sports in other) and find FB left out in the cold later for whatever reasons.

I see your Gandhi and Carl Spackler and raise you ... "The fear of loss is a path to the dark side." - Yoda "But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they." - Yoda The North Dakota Yoda has spoken.

Seems there's been some sort of problem at Notre Dame under Kelly's watch already, and not just a 7-5 record. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/14338753/prosecutor-eyes-notre-dame-rape-allegation/rss http://jezebel.com/5703316/prosecutor-speaks-out-on-notre-dame-rape-coverup Is this a "Notre Dame" thing or a "Brian Kelly" thing? If the latter ... Makes you wonder about success, at what price, at Grand Valley State and Central Michigan and Cincinnati now doesn

The first two you list have somewhat "self-eliminated" from what I saw. I pray the pistol offense was brought in for either Demler or Comes.

Now you understand why I did it.

Nope, and my lips don't move when I read either.

No human can possibly read that in that form. Allow me to fix it. Not sure if it's all factual, or if I agree with it all, but at least you can read it now.

The NCAA "reconsidering" would mean admitting that they were wrong in their infinite wisdom. That. Will. Never. Happen. The better approach by Spirit Lake would have been to sue the NCAA. Basis you ask? In Michigan all Central Michigan University needs is approval of one of the five Chippewa/Ojibwa/Ashinabe tribes in the state, and specifically, the geographically nearest. Why doesn't Spirit Lake get similar, dare I say "equal", treatment , meaning, they're closest to UND and their approval should be enough (being one of two, which is better than one of five mind you). But ... too little, too late.

Lots of seniors and juniors. A defensive corps that has first-rounders sitting on any given night. Shouldn't that be a team that is very mature and has rock-solid defense?

YaneA: I can cure your problem, but I'm not sure the cure is much better than the disease.

I was told that fast sports on projection isn't a great combination.

Why would a Notre Dame fan know anything about NDSU? The word you all are looking for is: Poseur. P-O-S, E-U-R. Poseur.

Dang it. Confused those two. Can I buy a game program around here to keep all this straight?

So what of UTSA? Without UNT I wouldn't expect UTSA to go to the WAC. Idaho, SJSU, NMSU, and LaTech really have to be wondering what the future holds.

Getting playing time for the second and third strings. Getting a DI win that helps get them to a bowl game. Gets them a home gate.

Wild guess: 4mcrue.

Hansel summed up part of the problem here.

Three MVFC teams make the playoffs (NDSU, UNI, W Ill) but none got opening round byes and one is on the road no less. That's not fun for those teams or that league. Meanwhile, both Montana State and Eastern Washington are in bye weeks.

That's what you need in Division I football. Depth.

Is he the best QB in Bismarck? I watched the Gibson kid from BHS and had flashbacks to Jake Landry at GFC: (for HS) Big body, big arm, poised demeanor and posture.

Claim to be classy and then drop to the name-calling trash talk. The irony just drips.