The Sicatoka

That old axe is out of the shed again? I thought NDSU president Joe Chapman set the Legislature and the ND SBoHE straight on all of that and made NDSU's growth and budget wonderful. Joe's made it all "wonderful" for NDSU, yes indeed. And this will sting all of the NDUS schools because I suspect the Legislature will seriously relook at the power it gave to the ND SBoHE under the Education Roundtable.

That's what we're being told. I'd like to hear the auditors' view.

That's my experience (at UND) as well. That's the question you weren't supposed to ask.

1. You're not going to win lots of friends in small town ND telling parents that they're paying tuition for someone other than a professor to be teaching their kid. (I'm from the realm that says you need to have a masters to teach folks working on a bachelors, and a doctorate to teach masters degree classes.) 2. You need those "more undergrads" to pay their tuition bill (which is a part of the shortfall per Dr. Hanson). In my UND days there was a word for someone who didn't pay their tuition: Disenrolled. Apparently the word for that at NDSU is: Headcount.

Let's go further inside the numbers. At NDSU 3066 waivers, 14186 students: 21.6% on a waiver. Let's talk dollars instead. NDSU waivers: $11 million UND waivers: $7 million If NDSU went down from $11 million to $7 million in waivers that

Dern it, you guys got me. All that Summit League noise had me thinking there was a hard date in February. Settlement Agreement

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/263086/ And NDSU fans were worried about waivers for 18 womens hockey scholarships?

Folks, it can't. The NCAA agreement says UND has to have agreement from both tribes by Feb 2010. We're no longer up against "soft" deadlines from the ND SBoHE; we're up again hard deadlines from the agreement.

Looked at that way, that's a real "ouch" to the students.

That's wonderful. But wouldn't it be nice if the NDSU Foundation had that "bling" to cover this gap?

Now press that against this: " ... a $1.55 million cost overrun for a new home for North Dakota State University's president, ... " Add back one $22k Washington DC boondoggle and the expense of the $83k (average of last five years) "magic credit card" someone had, and there might not be a $1.8 million shortfall at NDSU.

"Big dogs" in desitination conferences? I wouldn't expect them to move. Because the potentials are *not* "big dogs" is the reason why a more measured approach is called for.

I love it when people make my work easy. Bruce McLeod proved he is clueless about the state of the speed and safety of the game. Read this article. When all the commissioners were asked, "If you could uniformly institute or amend one rule, what would it be?" there's a notable gap as there is not a comment on the subject from Bruce McLeod. The other commissioners talk about "calling the game tight", "eliminating the trap", "make fighting/throwing a punch an automatic ejection", or "hits to the head and those circumstances where players are in vulnerable positions ... " Bruce? He. Had. Nothing. He had no quotes, no ideas, noted in that section of the article. What's Bruce most concerned about? Adding BSU and UNO and making more money from the Final Five.

That's where the commissioner's office will probably be looking at costs versus benefits of various league sizes. Going to 12 makes sense: You sell the conference FB championship game. That I'd expect is net positive overall. Going beyond 12, then you have to start looking at splits from the MBB tourney payout. If you don't get more teams in, and more wins from those who do get in, you're dividing the same share among more "mouths". That's net negative. Then comes the evaluation of Big Ten Network and potential TV sets and advertising revenues. It's enough that it'll take some serious business case analysis.

UND should add mens lacrosse to add event dates to Alerus Center in the spring. Our Canadian friends would love it too. The preceding message was brought to you so you all could see GeauxSioux post a smilie.

I've always enjoyed: Big Te(leve)n Big Can't Count As far as the Big Ten-or-so going for 14, I can't see it. The biggest benefit is going to 12 for a conference championship game. Beyond that I don't see benefit for an "end point" conference like the Big Ten. The Atlantic 10 is not an "end point" conference. Teams in it would go if invited to a BCS conference. The A-10 is at 14 to cover the possible event of an unplanned departure with no impact on their status (and autobid).

Translated: We're making Delaney earn his check this month. He needs to use the "internets" to gather data on a short list of schools we might be interested in. Important stuff, like best pre- and post-game bars, and how much money we can squeeze out of them as an admission fee. And that dern star2city fellow knows the list somehow already.

I'd like to see the WCHA be the same for officials as it is for players: The best and brightest move on to the professional ranks. The others, after four or five years, move on to life after hockey and other careers.

No, it's both a BS answer and the sad reality of today. And ScottM nailed it: They've learned nothing from Bina, LaPoint (twice, concussion and slew foot), and now Genoway. I hope I'm not there the day that Travis Roy seems minor and instead they need a body bag.

The blatent problems with lack of control and willingness to do their jobs by officials is getting more and more notice in this league. Virg Foss spent some ink on the issue recently.

Go big or go home. PS - Santa doesn't give wishes that could be construed as selfish. Those wishes would benefit everyone so I'm golden. Ho! Ho! Ho!

I think I heard somewhere that one of the players on the roster has a dad that's played a few games at goalie in some beer-league. Maybe he could coach-up Eids and Dell. "NHL" stands for National Hefeweisen League, so that's a beer-league, right?

This is why I'm not always happy with 25-man rosters.

Given that the Saluki-grinch took a coach from UND around the holidays recently, I wouldn't expect a lot of sympathy from this crowd.

In the Manitoba v. North Dakota exhibition the "Bisons" dressed 22 (20 skaters) and UND dressed 23 (21 skaters). UND is running a 25-man roster. The non-appearance guys for UND were D Ryan Hill and G Tate Maris. Roll forward to this game: No Genoway, no Zajac, no Kristo. UND can only wish that it had 23 bodies to dress: 19 skaters and 3 goalies.