The Sicatoka

First non-conference loss in what, eight, ten, years, and the critics are out in full force. Yeah, I'm sure Kelby's regretting having ever met Luke Schleussner .... and that ring.

That eight (or is it 13) years of probation, yeah, that'll help basketball recruiting and attendance. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying an average of 5k for Bison hoops won't happen for a decade.

JBB: The Fabulously (Flooded) FargoDome could put up its own "Fargo Arena," but there'd be some noise from the people in Fargo. That'd be fun to watch. Why renovate BSA if there is going to be an 8000 seat arena across the barren parking lot? The donor who was going to put up the womens hockey arena? He's gone. He pulled out. Not gonna happen. Sorry. Even I'm more up on that than you. And about D-IAA? You hold the paint brush that put UND and USD into the corner. That's OK. When the budgets go sour, we'll remind the State who did it.

Nice photo! I'll reserve comment about a redhead and an Irishman involved in a brawl. Pat O'Leary would be good. He shut down Heatley (one point) for a weekend. I think his abilities there alone would make this team better. We can also see by the Heatley weekend that Dean Blais must have some level of confidence in him. Pat O'Leary started those games to shadow a guy who is now becoming a name in the NHL. Works for me. Patrick? Where are you? And did I mention that Heatley's point came when Pat couldn't get out there on a change (transition play didn't allow for it) to get "the blanket" over him? If it was good enough for Heatley, why shouldn't it be good enough for say .... Thomas Vanek?

With the departure of Fournier, UND only has 14 forwards on the roster. Coach Blais has said he likes to have five full lines in practice. There are only seven defensemen on the roster (plus that transfer who can't play this season, Dahlen). Most of the defenseman drills they run require seven or eight defensemen. You can't easily cheat a guy up from that group. Has anyone been watching the team? Are there any walk-ons? Is there anyone else that could grab a spot on the team? There appears to be a slot open for a guy willing to step up and into it.

Hrkac got 54 points his first year. I guess I could live with that from Mr. Parise.

Jim: Three Goopher sports are in the black: FB, MBB, M hockey. The others are red ink.

Yo bison-dude: I saw the following posted over at that response-to-the-article board at In-Fool'em. How'd you respond to this person's concerns? They seem more than legitimate.

Could have a lot of NDSU fans seen the other conflict and decided to go to SDSU instead of UNO knowing opportunities were running out? Reverse the attendance numbers for those two games and the numbers look more normal for each. And no, Evil Goldie finished behind last year's #2 in D-I hockey attendance. You need a hint: The team has seven D-I hockey titles.

NDSU was #2 in D-II attendance last year. UND was #3. (Well, you beat us at something football last year at least. ) There is a huge drop in that D-II list from 5 to 6 (from over 10300 to around 7800). Last year at least, UND looked like one of five D-II FB attendance "haves." (Those stats show 1998 on and UND isn't below #8 in any season.) By the way, where does NDSU's "desired" I-AA travel partner (SDSU) show up on that 2001 list? #14, about 6700. One more quick note: UND's 2000 average (8500) would have been top third in I-AA last season. The 10000+ 2001 average would have been top quarter in I-AA in 2001. And since butts in seats appears to be an issue, do you know who was second only to Wisconsin in D-I hockey attendance last season?

bisonguy: Getting a two-for-one deal would be smart. We're dealing with administrators from both sides here. Have you ever known a smart administrator?

What do some D-IAA football stadiums have for seating capacity? http://www.eteamz.com/I-AAfootball/locations/ It looks to me like Alerus Center is comparably sized to a lot of those stadiums. It's not in the top half for size in that list, but it's not in a major population center like Harvard or Penn either.

As one of you knows a major Sioux contributor, I know a high-ranker from within the TeamMakers organization. A direct quote from him: "Fargo is a front-runner's town. When you win, you don't have enough seats. When you lose, you can't give them away." I'm amazed by the NDSU "scholarships" argument. -> "D-II is cutting scholarships. NDSU can't win like that." And NDSU isn't winning under the reduced scholarships tally. When the number in D-II was higher (and few D-IIs could fund them all) NDSU was winning. Now the number's lower, almost everyone funds them all, and NDSU isn't winning. OK, so now NDSU is moving to where there are more scholarships. But all the competition can fund all the scholarships. How is that going to be any better? What's it take to move up? Money and facilities. Money: Maybe an edge to NDSU. Fargo is larger than Grand Forks. (But Grand Forks has an ace in the hole that won't let one particular program face budgetary issues.) Facilities: FB: FargoDome vs Alerus. Seating edge to FargoDome. BB: BSA vs old REA (forget Hyslop, it's becoming the wellness center). Old REA holds over 6K now and that's before adding floor seating where the ice used to be. I'd say the condition of the two put them at par, with the slight edge (seating) to old REA. Training facilities: Last time I looked, the three largest weight rooms in the NCAA were the FB room at Nebraska, the FB room at Notre Dame, and the training area in some hockey arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota. UND plans to put a sports bubble over the old Memorial Stadium field. Sounds like the ability to train for track and baseball and soccer and football all year. Oh yeah, I guess you can seat about 13000 for BB in some shed called the new Ralph Engelstad Arena, too. (I believe the Kansas coach said he'd never seen a better arena.) In my opinion, both are about in the same position for a move up. UND may have more cash flow/fund raising issues, but they don't have to worry about putting up a D-I caliber basketball (real, not FargoDome or Alerus) arena. They have their funding lined up for facilities renovation (wellness, bubble, redoing REA). So what's worse? Trying to raise that extra million per year (assuming a D-IAA NCC) or paying down the debt on a $30,000,000.00 arena? Sounds the same to me. Hey, if Brookings (SDSU) thinks they can go D-I, don't insult GF and say they couldn't possibly. Ever been to Brookings? It wouldn't be the fifth largest city in ND. Both schools need to make the choice that's best for them. But please don't fool yourself and think that NDSU's two year approach isn't done with the quiet hope that some other traditional rivals come along. That would solve some of the need for an additional million plus in travel dollars for Stream Yellow.

JBB: Your statement makes the tacit assumption of a full FargoDome. We all know that only happens when UND comes into town. In terms of average attendance, the difference is around (probably under) 1000 tickets.

What 'mksioux' has just described is the "domino" theory put in motion by NDSU. It's working.

JBB: What I'd like to see happen (a flash of fiscal reality come to Albrecht Boulevard) and what I expect are two different things. I expect: 1. SDSU to go D-I. They're doing market assessment now. Grand Forks may not be Fargo, but Brookings sure isn't Grand Forks either. If they can do it (and I expect they will based on the signals their president is giving), UND surely can also. The hockey programs (plural) at UND are nearly self-sufficient with a sold out 12k seat arena. The new revenue situation for D-I at UND would be similar to that which NDSU faces except for the need for a new building for BB. (UND can use the new REA for big hoops games and is in process of moving BB and VB into old REA and making Hyslop the new campus wellness center. A campus wellness center is a D-I requirement. Coincidence? I think not.) 2. USD and UND, using a waterdown NCC, "they made us do it" rationale, make the same move. I say rationale because if the books are bad they can blame NDSU for forcing them into the move. (And we all know that NDSU is the source of all known evil. ) 3. The new and improved D-I(AA) NCC sees SCSU, MnSU-Mankato, and Augie drop out. Northern Sun? I'd guess. Maybe Augie'd go D-III. 4. UNO joins the MIAA. 5. Northern Colorado petitions to keep their spot in the new NCC. Northern Iowa petitions to (re)join the NCC. UNI was a member long ago. (There's six: UND, UNC, NDSU, SDSU, USD, UNI.) 6. Minnesota-Duluth evaluates dropping the NSIC and joining the NCC. (Toss a coin here. It's that close.) 7. (OK, now I'm admittedly WAY out there.) Cal-Davis and another west coast school join the Big Sky. Montana and Montana State decide it's too expensive to fly west all the time and join the NCC. (Hey, they'd be the only tourney-eligible teams in hoops for quite a while. Why not?) A new D-I(AA FB) NCC would take a lot of the costs out of the equation. NDSU projects having to go from $700K to $1600K for travel. A D-I(AA) NCC would take that down a notch or two, probably into the middle of those two numbers (figure $1100K). That's a half million bucks that wouldn't have to be raised. That's a big difference. I believe that NDSU would love to see my "expect" scenario (well, 1 through 5) happen.

I was waiting for someone to invoke the word "wing." At an almost 5'8" and ---* pounds, how would Fournier fare on the wing? Imagine him going into the corner against DeMarchi and Tallackson. He needs the open ice at center. But is he one of the top four centers on that roster? I don't know. I do know that Fylling or Lundbohm or Spiewak, and especially McMahon, would have a lot better shot at living to tell about time on the wing in the WCHA. I still don't like the fact that this seems like he made up his mind a while ago and now the team has an open scholarship and is left short a forward. * I am not going to open up THAT can of worms.

Problem: D-II becoming watered down with former D-IIIs. Solution: Water down D-I with former D-IIs. Uh, how about (a) fixing D-III, there must be a problem if teams are moving up, or (b) fixing D-II? The NCAA admits all D-I teams are NOT equal, hence IA versus IAA football. Why doesn't the NCAA create a complete IAA (all sports, or at least the major sports, FB and BB)? If not, with Duke and NDSU in the same BB category and UND and Stanford in the same swimming category, how long until the largest of the D-Is solve the problem the way NDSU did? (Don't think the biggest of the bigs wouldn't love to form Division ELITE and not share any of the TV revenues.)

Playing time is the issue for him? We all know the Dean Blais philosophy: Skate or sit. But another thought has crossed my mind in light of guaranteed playing time coming up as an issue for Fournier (a center). I don't know, I'm just going to ask: Could this indicate how good some of the other centers are (Genoway and Parise and McMahon)?

I just finished the article in The Foolem. That's the domino effect, or more like a baseball batting order: UNC led off NDSU hit second SDSU is at the plate UND is on deck (like the article said) USD is in the hole

JBB: NDSU has stated that "going D-I" and "hockey" are mutually exclusive. This D-I move by NDSU signals that hockey isn't on their radar for a while. That "domino" effect that you mention is exactly what NDSU hopes for in taking the "two year" approach. An NCC without UNC, NDSU, and SDSU would be not a good thing. NDSU hopes that their move 'creates' more local D-I(AA) programs and thus helps their travel budget (projected to have to double plus 25%). The problem: What would a D-I NCC (IAA in FB) look like? NDSU, SDSU, UND, USD?, UNC? (would they still want to travel up here when a lot of D-IAA schools a lot closer to them?), UNI? (would the Panthers come back to the NCC? Remember they were a member long ago.) Are the travel costs to the west coast (all flight) hurting Montana and Montana State? Would they leave the Big Sky? Bussing over plains is easier than bussing over mountains. Like I've stated before, I have my doubts about SCSU or MnSU-Mankato or Omaha jumping up. Minnesota-Duluth may be a better possibility than those. You need six teams to form an NCAA recognized league. Which six? The core of the NCC is four or five. It all comes down to conference and money, and conference comes down to travel costs, which is money.

An article in the Herald about this that you can find. Imagine that. http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/s...rts/3997203.htm

But why? Why have another Division I "also ran" league made up of UND, NDSU, USD, SDSU, and ..... who? I doubt UNO would ever jump with Nebraska 60 miles away and Creighton across the river and the D-II MIAA right there. St. Cloud or Mankato, even Duluth? Do they want to try to fight for more money against Minnesota in St. Paul? Augie won't go. They'll probably do what Morningside did (go D-III). And Northern Colorado is still a long way to travel. So who else in this new D-I NCC? Northern Iowa? Who else? Don't just think football when you consider this. This moves all your programs to D-I. (UND versus Stanford in swimming?) You can't play anyone but D-I schools after that either. (UND versus Texas in baseball?) Sorry, but if this happens I know that you and I had better treasure conference championship because, in my lifetime at least, the only Division I National Champions banners that'll be hung in a Division I NCC arena will be over a sheet of ice.

You can read the NDSU press release at http://www.gobison.com My apologies for poluting this site with a link to that one.

I know running and lifting are two big areas. (I was told lifting is normalized based on what you weigh so 140 pound Sofie lifting 140 is the same as 220 pound Massen lifting 220.) I believe the two-time defending champion is backup goalie Ryan Sofie. Tom Philion won it (four in a row?) before Sofie I believe.