The Sicatoka

If they really do want to play some BB in The Ralph they should look at what they did in Buffalo during March Madness. HSBC Arena was built for the Sabres. They came up with a pretty good floor seating plan to make it better to watch BB in.

Negative. Schools can't waive an NCAA rule. He transferred DI-to-DI so he sits a season.

I hope the folks that say The Betty is too small turn out to be right. Why? That would mean attendance (and revenues) would be up compared to recent history and UND has the benefit of not one but two larger venues readily available. Until then, The Betty, based on recent average attendance, seems about the right size.

From the BSC press release: Seems like geography and cost are relevant.

Yet all through this, one troubling item, one item that Fullerton even recently specifically mentioned, remains.

Gonzaga played the 2002-2003 season in a 4000 seat arena. Wisconsin and Ohio State seem to make a common arena work. And if need be, you can play basketball in Alerus Center (~9000).

http://www.fightingsioux.com

Yes it has, and thus, someone is wrong in their prediction. Let's find out who. From USCHO: Dean Blais' prediction has not stood up to the test of time. PCM was the messenger. Why is the messenger being shot at?

I'd speculate that CU or CSU would draw what they draw for a home game if they played UNC in Mile High. (Big limb to go out on there.) You wouldn't have as many students but you'd get the folks who can't get other CU or CSU "home" tickets. The difference: UNC could count it as a home game and toward their per game average. (You can do that with one game per season.)

As far as any chance of making it, UNC would have a great shot at making the numbers if they could play Colorado or CSU in Mile High (as a pseudo-home game). Still, Sac State and PSU would each need to do 2.5 times attendance of what they do today. That'd take some serious work (or a home game versus Cal or Stanford in Sac State's case, or Oregon or OSU in PSU's case).

My attendance numbers were for the 2002-2003 academic year. That would be for the 2002 football season. Sorry. Didn't Montana State have the home game with Montana in 2003? It'll be interesting to see how the numbers come out this year (meaning do they oscillate based on whether or not they host Montana).

Here's a revelation for you folks: Writers write the articles. Editors write the headlines. PCM didn't write "Bochenski to Bolt". PCM wrote what U2Bad1 showed.

The "conference average" rule went away on 08/01/04 when the new 15000 average went into effect. The rule in place now does allow use of a "neutral" field for one game a year by a school and calling it a home game for attendance counting purposes (ala Wyoming playing Tennessee in Nashville and counting it as a home game for attendance). PS - In 2003, Montana averaged over 19000. Everyone else in the BSC was under 10000. BSC #2 in attendance Montana State averaged 48 more fans per home game than North Dakota. (Data from the NCAA stats site.) We're talking a 50% increase in attendence for almost the whole league to be DI-A.

I grabbed the wrong city off the NCAA list I have. Apologies. However, Moscow, Pocatello, I'm sure that radically changes the geographic center of the Big Sky and definitely moves Bozeman closer than 700 miles away.

If the BSC is only looking at those remaining four, let's see how they fit into the BSC: School - City, State Lat Lon Montana - Missoula, MT 46.86 114.01 Montana State - Bozeman, MT 45.68 111.04 Weber State - Ogden, UT 41.23 111.97 Idaho State - Moscow, ID 46.73 117.00 E. Washington - Cheney. WA 47.49 117.59 Portand State - Portland, OR 45.52 122.68 N. Arizona - Flagstaff, AZ 35.19 111.65 Sacramento St. - Sacramento, CA 38.58 121.49 Big Sky Conference Average 43.41 115.93 Max 47.49 122.68 Min 35.19 111.04 Possible expansion cities: NDSU - Fargo, ND 46.88 96.79 SDSU - Brookings, SD 44.31 96.79 UNC - Greeley, CO 40.42 104.69 SUU - Cedar City, UT 37.79 113.07 I only see one that is within the existing footprint (max-mins): Cedar City, UT (SUU). I see one that is fairly close to being in the footprint (and it offers a United Airlines hub airport a short drive away plus a major western media market, namely Denver, nearby): Greeley, CO (UNC). The other two are 15 degrees of longitude east of the eastern-most point of the footprint. That works out to be about 700 miles east of the eastern-most point, and about 1000 miles to the BSC "geographic average" point. Geography just doesn't bode well for a couple of those remaining four.

Has another anonymous source spoken to the Grand Forks Herald?

airmail's link goes to the 2003 list. You can find the DII portion of the 2004 list here. You can find the whole 2004 list here.

Same could almost be said for Gonzaga (WCC vs WAC).

DU ended up in the Sun Belt because there was really no other home for them at the time. Now, with NMSU and a couple others leaving the Sun Belt it's even less attractive. From chatting with some folks more familiar with DU athletics, back when they went DI DU's preference would have been the WCC. DU already has teams playing in other conferences while they're in the Sun Belt today (hockey, lacrosse, independent gymnastics, skiing, and others). So the BSC wouldn't support all their athletic programs: That's nothing new to DU.

I think you may need to re-read Fullerton's statement: It doesn't say those they are evaluating have to play DI-AA football. It says they'll be looking at the schools that are going to be playing DI-AA, however, it does not say that will happen at the exclusion of others (those who don't play DI-AA football). The more important words are "... of every school that is available." The Sun Belt is coming apart. Who is available? Gamble (Montana State, where NDSU's Chapman came from) is interested, but even he reiterates the past hurdle:

Because the SF Argus-Leader story will disappear over the weekend, I'll post it here. This is a quote of a SF Argus-Leader story. Credit them.

Free sushi for me! http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/players.html

Come on people! Sometimes you have to take the good (Sioux hockey information) with the bad (no comment).

I was told that Pat Sweeney had the list of applicants for the job on the WDAZ sports last night. How come no one has posted it here yet?

WYOBISONMAN said, "It is incredible the amount of conference turmoil. Makes me wonder when it will find an equilibrium point." -- I agree. Isn't the point of this conference shell-game trying to move up? Would Gonzaga rather be in the WCC or the WAC? Would DU rather be in the Sun Belt or the Big Sky or WCC*? The flip side is: Which schools fit into which conference's demographics and desires? Who does the WAC want? Gonzaga? DU? Who would the WCC want if they were looking? * DU wanted into the WCC when it went DI a while back. The WCC didn't want them (geography) and DU was left to go with the Sun Belt.