The Sicatoka

Back on the cheap stuff again, eh PCM?

Who to cheer for in the Friday night semifinal? Easy: The Boards The Glass The Pipes The Ice Hit 'em! Hit 'em again! Go-o-o-o-o-o End Boards! Seriously, give me a good, clean game where the better team that night wins.

And my point is that it is a league contract that is given and that should at a minimum mandate live broadcast of all five at The Five no matter who's playing when.

Highest average per game price in the mens WCHA: Mariucci Arena's tenant. But you didn't answer PCM's question: What can UND or even REA do when someone else controls the rights? The fix for this has to come not from a school but from the league because it is a league contract that gives the rights to the Final Five.

All Fighting Sioux home games are carried regionally on the Fighting Sioux Sports Network. FSSN is carried by Midcontinent and other cable companies in NW MN and North and South Dakota. FSSN also tries to pick up as many feeds from road games as they can. This season they had the Saturday UMD game and a few others. All that aside, this is the league playoffs. Showing both semi-finals is only right. You're telling me that Fox Sports North is getting better ratings with this line-up? 2:00 PM NBA Action '03-'04 2:30 PM Big 12 Showcase '03-'04 3:00 PM On Campus '03-'04 3:30 PM 54321 4:00 PM Spinks vs Mayorga at Boardwalk Hall (rerun from Sunday night) The "money" issue for a Friday afternoon semi-final is a canard. The cameras are there already from Thursday. If you're really cheap just insert the league webcasters' voices or go with no announcers at all. Just turn the cameras on.

No FSN schedule changes here: http://www.foxsports.com/named/FS/Regional...&categoryId=298 Show five at The Five.

Circumstances here easily lead to conspiracy theories: - Minnesota gets what some could easily call preferential treatment - Only one semi-final, the one Minnesota is in, gets TV coverage, yet - The play-in game gets coverage? Is it that Minnesota gets better numbers (gate or TV) or, that Minnesota doesn't want any other good teams (semi-finalists) playing on "their network" and possibly looking better? (Hey, it's a conspiracy theory. It's supposed to be a little wacky.) There's an easy way to make all the conspiracy theories and rhetoric die: Show five at The Five.

How about: Where are the leather seats?

So then let's play it "clean": - dump the "Minnesota rule" - pre-set game times based on seedings (#1 plays at 7:00 pm).

'vindy' catches a great point: What kind of fans won't take half a day (a Friday afternoon no less) off to watch their team play?

First, Anchorage plays on wide ice. The cameras are already in place from Thursday night and ready for Friday night. It's not an issue of "cheap" from that angle. Look at the "quality" Friday afternoon programming they'd preempt. http://siouxsports.com/forums/index.php?&showtopic=2288 Show five at The Five.

All we can give are opinions on Spirko. Let's ask someone who's played against him in the USHL. Q: Rank your opponent: Who is the toughest forward ... you have faced this season? A: Forward would probably be (Rastislav) Spirko (Tri-City). The question was from Jason Shaner of "Hockey's Future." The answer was from (former Minnesota Gopher and current) Des Moines Buc forward Mike Erickson on January 6, 2004.

Fine. Just don't take a swing at anybody if you know what's good for you.

JMB: Even if you are 100% correct, still, why not broadcast all five at The Five?

Diggler, ask the simple questions: You show Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night. Why leave out one of The Five, a SEMI-FINAL, on Friday afternoon? The cameras are already in place (see Thursday night and Friday night). Flip the switch. Give the viewers live programming of teams playing for a championship and an NCAA slot. Show all five at The Five.

Forgive me, but why should (almost) home fans need a night game to come out and see their team playing in their "second home" rink? Those fans should turn out just as well for the afternoon semi as the night semi. It's the fans who have to travel that should be given the added (travel) time of playing in the night semi. The locals early, the travelers late, seems to me would be better for the gate (and the local pubs). I'm not thinking it's the league as much as Fox Sports North involved in this scheduling. They do have an "unholy alliance" in place during the regular season and they seem to be able to keep that team on in the evenings at the Five. Does the league get a cut of TV revenues from FSN? Does FSN buy the rights and "pick" who plays when so they get the max? The easy solution is show all five Five games.

The "Minnesota Rule" is bad enough (Gophers always play in the night semi-final); but according to the following link, Fox Sports North isn't covering the other semi-final. http://www.foxsports.com/named/FS/Regional...&categoryId=298 They will cover the third place game however. If they are covering the Friday night semi-final and the Thursday play-in game, why don't they turn on the cameras Friday afternoon? People will survive missing this "hot" Friday afternoon line-up: 2:00 PM NBA Action '03-'04 2:30 PM Big 12 Showcase '03-'04 3:00 PM On Campus '03-'04 3:30 PM 54321 4:00 PM Spinks vs Mayorga at Boardwalk Hall (rerun from Sunday night) Politely let them know what you think here: http://www.foxsports.com/named/FS/Feedback What the heck, tell the league officials too (from the WCHA website): bmcleod@du.edu clabelle@du.edu gshepherd@mailstation.com dspencer@mailbag.com Let's make some noise.

The Fox Sports North website says they aren't showing the Friday afternoon semifinal. Yell at them here: http://www.foxsports.com/named/FS/Feedback

What? Are you "anti-diversity"?

I think the SDSU 40 point mens loss was a karma-thing after the SDSU women put down their host C-SP by 35 (74-39).

No shootouts this weekend (except for the 3rd place, Saturday afternoon, game). From my copy of the current NCAA Ice Hockey rulebook: My "19 overtimes" is possible, not probable, but possible.

How about a "Woog's Line-Ups" sign? "Lundblum" Which other names has he mangled? EDIT: More "great minds" stuff, eh PCM?

What I'm trying to say is this: I'm OK (not happy, but OK) with the Minnesota Rule as long as UND is the #1 seed.

As much as I don't like the "Minnesota rule," in one way right now it works in UND's favor: - they catch the winner of UAA and CC on Friday afternoon after their night game - UND will have the extra rest going into Saturday - hopefully UM and UMD will go 19 overtimes

Back to atmosphere. I detected two noteworthy items Saturday: - Give the crowd something, anything, and they'll jump in and make noise*. - It was as loud Saturday, without the students, as any other night this season. This tells me we all need to be pulling on the same rope in the same direction. * The first shifts of the third told me that the team wasn't planning on playing on Sunday so I woke up just like they did.