The Sicatoka

I like it! The only not-so-positive would be televising games: The Al would be easier if CSTV or ESPN-U came a-callin'.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo!.

UNH Black Student Union Acceptable Hockey Game Song List: - I Wanna Drive the Zamboni - Good Ol' Hockey Game

Jabba the goalie!

Let me state I believe there is a very specific set of circumstances that would have to occur before lacrosse would make sense at UND. Foremost would be UND going DI and gaining access to a conference for FB and BB that does not require baseball and golf (and others for that list might be softball and tennis). UND would be far from well positioned (climate, facilities) to be successful in those sports in DI. There seems to be a void in the sport entertainment market in Grand Forks as evidenced by the open dates at Alerus Center from late March to May. I believe lacrosse could be good both for UND and the city of GF (Alerus Center) by filling that void if an agreement on usage could be reached. ("dlsiouxfan" raises that key point which is a real concern.) A legitimate goal for attendance would be "top 10" on the following list. The reach goal would be to have attendance comparable to M/W basketball at UND. For comparision, the only spectator sport this notion would advocate dropping would be baseball which averaged 261 over 9 home games, 2347 total, in 2004. As of Wed, Apr 20, 2005 (roughly mid-season) here was DI home average lacrosse attendance: Rank Avg. (games) 1. 6526 Navy (5) 2. 5096 Syracuse (6) 3. 4024 Princeton (4) 4. 3577 Johns Hopkins (5) 5. 2948 Maryland (5) 6. 1770 Towson (4) 7. 1743 Hobart (6) 8. 1606 North Carolina (5) 9. 1535 Virginia (8) 10. 1529 Duke (9) 11. 1253 Georgetown (2) 12. 1107 Stony Brook (5) 13. 1075 Notre Dame (3) As far as competitiveness, I'd say make our friends to the east both 'happy' and accurate, finally: Load up half the team with 25-year-old Canadians to get some early success and momentum in the program.

That should say "NCC." Neither the men nor women have won an NCAA title. (They've come close.) As far as swimming, one of our guys recently broke his own DII record in an event. http://www.fightingsioux.com/sports/mswimm...RELEASE_ID=4523 But the time he hit isn't an "A cut" time in DI this year (as far as I can find on the 'net).

Can't beat it? Heck, you can't even make stuff like that up!

One question: Is it Winter Carnival in Houghton this weekend?

You really see it in that link when you look at the plots in the lower right corner, namely the 2005 data compared to the other years data. You can see an upward (rightward on the plots) shift happening in the ACT scores coming in to UND. Looking year-by-year, the center of the bell-shaped curve is moving to higher ACT scores. That's good. The other thing I see in those same plots is fewer of the marginal scores (17-19, 17 and below) in the freshmen at UND in 2005. Better scores means better prepared for college which should mean better retention (less washout).

Short-term, yes, because people may not apply because of the fear of not being admitted. Long-term, no, because you have better retention of students after freshman year (fewer washouts). Long-term, no, because you have better graduation rates from those folks too. And long-term, no, because "From an annual survey of an incoming freshmen, we know that every year the majority of them indicate that the number one reason they have selected UND is the academic reputation of the institution. With the new admission standards, nearly one-third of the factors that US News uses to rank colleges will increase. This is an important factor in student recruitment." (That quote is from the Associate VP of Enrollment at UND.) Higher standards means better reputation means better recruitment. The person to ask would be Alice L. Hoffert, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management at UND. Those oh-so tough new standards at UND have caused enrollment to slip less than 1% but the rank and reputation of UND to increase: Short-term (very small) hit for a long-term goal.

OK. We won't be able to pick up and move UND to New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles any time soon so that's out. I guess what has to happen instead is to create interest in coming to the game (and the arena) to cause more people to show up. How can UND Athletics folks help with that? How can REA folks help with that? How can the average BB fan help with that? How can the students help with that? All those folks working together should be able to make it work. It's easy to point out "problems." Coming up with "solutions" is the trick that can make you a good living throughout life.

At the risk of repeating myself, Instead of second-guessing what is done (and not going to change), why not figure out how to get more fans out and improve the atmosphere in The Ralph when you play BB games in there? (If The Betty is "too small" you'll have to play somewhere, right?) How's USD do BB in a FB arena and create "atmosphere"? How's Wisconsin or Ohio State do it with Kohl or Schottenstein? How do/did they do it in Target Center? How do they do it with HSBC in Buffalo (built for Sabres, not hoop)? How do they do it in any number of arenas. You want the glory days of Sioux BB to return? You need to play in REA so you can use that as a recruiting tool. Don't complain about it, work with it.

Let's try this a-a-a-a-again: The Swarm (already mentioned in the thread) play "box" lacrosse. The NCAA plays "field" lacrosse. You'd play "box" in The Ralph; you'd play "field" in The Al. Man, ya gotta read more closely; we covered this.

Regard each of those paragraphs: Yup, and yup. As far as "DI": Answer me "conference" and "cost" and you'll have the answer. Heck, answer one of 'em and you'll have the answer.

There was a recent story in the Bismarck Tribune about an arena football league looking at expanding in either Bismarck or Grand Forks. They cited the lack of spring sporting events in the cities as the reason to look at them for expansion. Lacrosse would answer that if the potential is really there. Plus, lacrosse at UND would put some events into the Alerus Center in the spring (when it is really slack). The table is a quick look at 2006 NCAA lacrosse season weekends (by Fridays) and what's at The Al and if UND's spring revenue teams (MH, MBB, WBB) are at home. I see dates where there is open field and no other UND sporting event going on in Grand Forks. [TABLE] [CAPTION] Weekend / Alerus / UND Team [/CAPTION] [TR][TD] Feb 17 [TD] nothing [TD] MH v. UMD [TR][TD] Feb 24 [TD] car/boat/RV show [TD] M/W BB (Thu/Sat) [TR][TD] Mar 03 [TD] nothing [TD] MH v. MTU, NCC BB Finals(?) [TR][TD] Mar 10 [TD] nothing [TD] WCHA 1st round(?), NCAA BB Regional(?) [TR][TD] Mar 17 [TD] nothing [TD] nothing (MH Final Five) [TR][TD] Mar 24 [TD] nothing [TD] nothing (MH NCAA regional) [TR][TD] Mar 31 [TD] Home/Garden Show [TD] nothing [TR][TD] Apr 07 [TD] car show [TD] nothing [TR][TD] Apr 14 [TD] nothing [TD] nothing [TR][TD] Apr 21 [TD] nothing* [TD] nothing [TR][TD] Apr 28 [TD] nothing [TD] nothing [TR][TD] May 05 [TD] nothing** [TD] nothing [TR][TD] May 12 [TD] nothing [TD] nothing [/TABLE] * Ballroom hosting Sioux-Per Gala on 4/22 ** A children's choir festival? You'd guess "ballroom" on that. Where you see nothing and nothing in a row means there'd be an arena open and no other game in town. Seems like facility and date availability wouldn't be an issue. Think the city leaders in GF would like people coming to town in the spring (like they do in fall and winter for football, hockey, and BB)? EDIT - Rats. The table formatting didn't work.

Go here http://www.manitobalacrosse.mb.ca/ and click on "Box" or "Field" for who plays what on where. As far as floor size, The Al is (from what I can gather from 'net searches) 6 feet narrow to the diagram in the NCAA manual under Rule 1-2 that gives fields and standoff spaces. Yeah, it'd be nice to have a few more feet of width, but from the NCAA mens lacrosse rules: Rule 1-2 is "The Field" outlining field size and standoffs, 1-10 is the bench areas, and 1-14a is limit lines. You just get teams to agree that they'll play there even if it's a few feet narrow. The provision already exists and I'm sure folks use it or it wouldn't exist. Me? I'd cheat the non-benches side limit line closer in to make up some of the difference. The rest I'd narrow out of a 60 yard wide field. Two yards out of 76 isn't "fret-worthy." PS - Teams play lacrosse on traditional turf like The Al has. That "real grass or field turf only" requirement is for soccer only to my knowledge.

That's "box" lacrosse and yes, The Ralph would be a place to play that. However, the NCAA plays "field" lacrosse and you'd play that on the turf in Alerus Center.

From the NCAA, here are average home attendance numbers for the 2003-2004 season: Team Men Women UND 2550 2387 NDSU 2440 2512 SDSU 3375 2484 USD 3076 2006 Augie 2591 1891 SCSU 2764 <1588 (not in top 10) Mont 3605 4210 Mont St 3644 1779 Weber St 4984 963 E Wash 2765 753 Port St 981 284 Sac St 1017 318 Idaho St 2140 883 N Az 1782 408 BSC 2672 1376 NCC 2574 1767 DI 5154 1572 DII 864 472 DIII 427 212

Amen.

The only folks crying down there are the ones who didn't by season tickets. And that's what sports teams want: season ticket holders. If you can walk up to the windows and buy a ticket and get in that's not what any sports team wants. They want full, pre-sold arenas. If they turn some folks away at the game day window that might encourage more folks to buy the full season ticket package for next year. (That's what they want.)

Not fully funded there; not fully funded here. I believe you'll have better "gate" with lax (compared to those two) which could solve some of the problem.

Just another note about the new UND VB coaching opening: UND's senior womens administrator, Betty Ralston, was a decorated volleyball coach before going into athletic administration at Eastern Illinois. I'm sure UND will be able to find a volleyball coach willing to coach in and recruit to The Betty.

Read the notions in the thread that brings up lacrosse. Quick summary: - if go DI, drop baseball, softball, and golf (M/W) and add M/W lax. - it'd be a Title IX "wash" - M lax would (hopefully) draw better than what we have now Read the thread that was linked to.

And now the plot thickens .... http://www.fightingsioux.com/sports/wvball...RELEASE_ID=4558