The Sicatoka

I'm more than comfortable with the returning offense even though QB is a big question mark. That seems rather strange to say, however, eight of the top ten of the two-deep offensive line return and the returning skill position people allow for the QB position to be a ball manager and not need to be a dynamic playmaker. That will give time for any QB to adjust. (And why no mention of Setness? Isn't he in the running with Freund and Landry?) As far as defense, we're going to be relying on another Manke for leadership. It's going to be a youngish set of LBs and DBs and Rory is going to have to play his position (very well) and help others adjust to and learn theirs. The other guy that needs to play a big role is Holinka in the middle. (It would really help if Donovan Alexander can shut down the receiver on his part of the field alone like he did in the South Dakota game.)

Continuing with the above notion, in the linked rendering you are on Columbia Road between Hyslop and Memorial, looking north. That tower on the right, as it stands, it's a "Bridge to Nowhere" and it is under construction today. You don't build a "Bridge to Nowhere" unless nowhere will be somewhere soon (or you're a legislator from Alaska). http://www.parking.UND.edu/hot_topics/futureparkingmap.jpg

A possible (albeit speculative answer) is that with the Canad Inn coming on-line at The Al soon, the convention center aspect of the facility may become more important than the football aspects.

I'm buying Wodon's words here more and more every day. Putting a ramp behind Tabula would have centered it between the Union and Gamble, would have made it a quick one-block walk to REA (to the north), and if they were going to build "a Skyway to Nowhere", couldn't they have built it over Tabula to the south side of University also?

Allow me to ramble for a moment: - Some say The Betty is too small. I say it's about right given VB and practice and non-conference BB (and given access to REA and The Al). - Some have claimed an outdoor football stadium is something on the planning horizon. - The City of GF would not be happy if Sioux Football left The Al. Now the strange question: - As compensation to the city, in the event of on-campus outdoor football, would UND offer to make The Al home to Sioux (Division I) Basketball? (I'll let someone else bring up that other word I use once in a while. )

USA Under-18 v. NCAA DI this year: 9/29/06 Univ. of Alaska-Fairbanks Anchorage, Alaska W, 5-3 9/30/06 Univ. of Alaska-Anchorage Anchorage, Alaska L, 9-2 10/8/06 Univ. of Michigan Ann Arbor, Mich. L, 2-3 (OT) 10/13/06 Boston College Chestnut Hill, Mass. L, 4-5 (OT) 10/14/06 Univ. of New Hampshire Durham, N.H. L, 1-7 10/19/06 Michigan State Univ. E. Lansing, Mich. W, 5-4 10/28/06 Clarkson Univ. Potsdam, N.Y. W, 6-2 11/19/06 Robert Morris Univ. Moon Township, Pa. T, 2-2 11/22/06 Canisius College Ann Arbor, Mich. T, 2-2 12/1/06 Univ. of North Dakota Grand Forks, N.D. L, 4-5 (ot). 12/9/06 Univ. of Vermont Burlington, Vt. 7:05 p.m. 12/15/06 Northern Michigan Univ. Marquette, Mich. 7:35 p.m. 12/16/06 Lake Superior State Univ. Slt Ste. Marie, Mich. 7:05 p.m. 1/5/07 Princeton Univ. Princeton, N.J. 7:00 p.m. 1/20/07 Colorado College Colo. Spgs., Colo. 2:00 p.m. 2/2/07 Wayne State Univ. Detroit, Mich. 7:05 p.m. 3/2/07 Bemidji State Univ. Bemidji, Minn. 7:35 p.m. 3/3/07 Bemidji State Univ. Bemidji, Minn. 7:05 p.m. They are 3-5-2 against NCAA DI schools so far this year (with three of the five losses coming in OT, and against Michigan, Boston College, and North Dakota no less!). That's not a bad team.

Dale Lennon is on Terry Wanless' wish list. I should be surprised?

Those evil, rotten, no-good, dirty University of Idaho Vandals pickin' on Germans. And oh the humanity in South Bend, IN, (see: Fighting Irish).

FSSN is why I have (Midcontinent) cable and not a dish.

Wouldn't that help make UND's "group boycott" case? And what of the impacts to free speech on campus by such campus speech codes?

What we're missing here is really a key point: Dartmouth changed their "Indians" moniker assumably to address the problem of race on their campus. What'd they get for their troubles? A) Teams and fans still think of themselves as the "Indians". B) Race relations don't seem to have improved in 30 years on their campus. Observation of reality and net result: Changing a moniker was a "feel-good" solution. Changing a moniker was bankrupt at addressing the real issues. Dartmouth has yet to address their real issues (but boy do they sure feel good about themselves).

OK, two weeks (v. four months).

C'mon 'berg, be fair: The arena has set cameras (no set-up/tear down) and is scheduled months in advance for that Team USA game. This game is a week's notice.

There're these families from Warroad .... Cal, Scott, Dave (Izzy), and Lee Marvin. <-- three generations! Gordy, Ed, and Dave Christian. How's that for family?

Now ya did it: Ya gave up the secret seeding formula! You don't need to tell that to Fighting Sioux fans.

What Dartmouth's "Big Green" experience shows: They still have folks referencing "Indians" (retired for 30 years!) in regard to the school and its teams. If a name change were to ever occur that just can not be allowed to happen. What that means is that if you change names you can not leave the even the remote possibility of the old moniker being taken seriously from that point forward. You must change to something decisively different, so much so that the old moniker is completely refuted, and thus not worth even being mentioned. That's the only way to avoid the Dartmouth experience. Thus, .... Go Cavalry.

And South Dakota State lost to a DIII and ended up second in the Great West. Whups.

We all have opinions on schedules and who would have done what with someone else's schedule. I went to a source that has no dog in this fight (to try to take my opinion out of it): Massey Ratings, Strength of Schedule. NDSU 138 UND 149 If you want to talk Massey Ratings, here are the first five non-DI-As listed: NDSU Montana UMass North Dakota <-- #1 in DII, ahead of all but 3 of DI-AA Youngstown St.

How 'bout, Imagine going to NCAA events, with no Indian related images, where only Pontiac logos are allowed, but having that logo in. If not that: Cavalry. ..... (sound the charge)

UND's record through 12 games in the Dave Hakstol era: 2006-07: 6-5-1. 2005-06: 7-4-1. 2004-05: 5-5-2. Don't get me wrong. There's a ton of work this team needs to do. But good teams come together through adversity (like injuries to key players). All is not lost. Some of you need to get away from the rail of the ship.

Random Observations after reading through this: Fargo is sure of what it can achieve, to a fault. Grand Forks is sure of what it can't achieve, to a fault. Grand Forks could take a lesson in confidence from Fargo. (Those tech jobs didn't appear in Fargo by accident. They believed and maybe even overreached. GF needs to start believing in what it can do. The flood should have taught that lesson, but it still hasn't sunk in in some quarters.) Massey's strength of schedule has NDSU (137) just 11 slots ahead of UND (148), of over 700 teams listed, so please don't tell me about "most difficult NDSU schedule ever". A watered down NCC (no UNC, no xDSUs), with DI-AA UNI and Winona State as non-conference, was nearly as good. As far as "best Bison team ever", that's disrespecting the abilities of that (yes, I'll say it) Bison dynasty in the 1980s and what they could do. Those teams were powerful. Are the Bison very good this year. Yes. Are they believing a little of their own self-generated hype. Probably. Why'd only 5000-ish come to The Al Saturday? Simple. 49-2. I almost didn't go for that reason. I saw WSU v. Wayne State on FSN-North on Friday night and knew that their run defense wasn't going to stand up to UND's offensive line and that their pass blocking schemes hadn't improved. (Ask that QB's wrist.) Finally, never make the mistake of believing that today is the way it's always going to be. Using today as the reference point to how the future must turn out is an excuse to not do anything. Plus assuming that assumes that you won't slide down either. Set a stretch goal. Dream big, or go home.

Welcome to the second biggest reason for low attendance.

The biggest factor in "low turnout"? I'd go with this.

NDSU's and SDSU's reports are on-line. Dig a little.

Uh, not quite. From the 2006-07 DI Manual (for what that's worth):