The Sicatoka

Let's look at 3000 to 4000 people for a USHL game: Those are teams playing in a city with no real "connection" to the population (other than the occassional hometown player). The USHL is drawing 3000 to 4000 without deep roots in the community. Imagine a hockey team with strong hometown connections, like a team wearing the logo of the local university. Des Moines, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City: That's four in Iowa. Toss in "River City" (formerly Omaha, now playing across the river in Council Bluffs) to make five. That's five in a 12 team league and two more (Sioux Falls and Lincoln) are short drives to the Iowa border. But there's no hockey interest in Iowa.

I've wondered why other schools with strong USHL franchises (and decent hockey facilities) in town haven't followed the "Omaha" model and started DI hockey. Examples: Sioux Falls -- Augustana or USD or SDSU Waterloo -- Northern Iowa Des Moines -- Drake or Iowa State Cedar Rapids -- U of Iowa The model shows that a school can fund a very significant portion of their athletic budget from hockey revenues.

Folks, we know Roebuck prefers a cramped-feeling home gym with people hanging right on the court. Look at the inside edge of that roof truss relative to the top row of seating. I think it's designed to feel "cozy." We also know that even with "The Beaz" last year, UND mens hoops averaged 500 less than capacity of that place. I still believe that REA is "home court" as a recruiting tool and that only the games that are obviously going over the 4000 seating capacity will be in The House that Ralph Built. I can't prove it. Call it a gut feeling. Time will tell. PS - Only 133 of 327 DI mens BB and only 23 DI womens BB teams averaged more per game last year than REA-SC holds.

See more here.

Now it's off to Vermillion with control over your own destiny. Don't let all the hard work against Omaha go to waste. The DakotaDome is a tough place to play so don't look beyond it. One by one.

They seed to avoid teams from the same conference playing in round one (except where impossible, meaning three from one conference).

Lost in this week's poll is the new #1 in the West Region.

Trevor and Tyler are Craig's twin boys.

It's simple math: 9534 in a 13500 seat arena will be louder than 9010 in a 19000+ seat arena. The crowd at the UNO game was pretty mellow. I think everyone was on a post-Halloween-candy-sugar-high crash. The crowd only came alive at the very end. I wasn't surprised to read similar "dead crowd" reports from the Bison game in the Forum.

And in that scenario, the question becomes: Who do they invite to play in their new sandbox? PS - Isn't there a team in Utah somewhere that is an NCAA member but their mens soccer (?) team is playing in a semi-pro league? I remember reading a story about that some time ago.

You don't have to tell me that. However, you need to convince one of your fellow Bison fans.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that the voice of Sioux football in 2004 will be .... Dan Hammer. I have no proof. It just looks to be setting up that way.

tony, aren't Sioux fans always being told "no one cares" about hockey by Bison fans? Well, if the BCS schools bail, their issue will be hoops and football. Does the SEC or Pac-10 care about whether or not the Big 10ers play hockey at all, much less who they'd play? They'll play anyone in the so-called minor sports as long as it makes them a buck. Because, this is what all this (March Madness, the BCS) is about, right? A buck? And the big schools are out to keep the lion's share of the biggest money. (They almost act like college athletics is a business.) Not trying to speak for Goldie, but having observed them, Minnesota hockey will play whomever they need to to keep that "Golden" cash-cow mooing. (Minnesota is "in the black" in three programs: football, mens BB, mens hockey. Without those the accounting knives come out to cut programs.) Will the BCS-schools bolt? Will they ask for an NDSU-like solution (move to a new higher NCAA level)? I guess we'll just have to see how it plays out. bisonfan1234: There are about 70 BCS schools. That'd leave about 170 Division I (A or AA) football playing schools.

I said "larger and larger." Didn't you read the Congressional Record this week? And if paying for post season matters, only two post seasons are pulling their weight in terms of revenues. Only "March Madness" and the "Frozen Four" show black ink for the NCAA (the last time I checked).

But what happens when the "10%-ers" want a larger and larger cut of the big pies (March Madness and the BCS)? What'd NDSU do to DII is a hint of the answer.

All this and yet the Mike Prpich's of the world (not saying he'll never play for pay, but just the same) still pick UND to get their ENGINEERING degree at.

NDSU and SDSU both had private consultants "road map" how to do this for them. They addressed the same things jimdahl and I do when we discuss it here. From NDSU's Carr Report:

So, does Zajac rhyme with "Kojak" or "Hrkac"?

Would that be Ian Kallay and Lee Davidson? :)

The problem of "watering down" that prompted NDSU to move from DII to DI is now happening in DI. What was the problem? Schools like MSU-Moorhead, with 10% of the athletic budget of NDSU and UND moving into the division and trying to lower existing division rules. What's happening in DI? Schools with budgets 10% of the athletic budget of 'The' Ohio State University are moving into the division and trying to lower existing division rules. So what would their logical recourse be? Hint: 'Up' for them just might be out of the NCAA. Remember what the Duke Asst. AD said (paraphrased): The NCAA is voluntary. We choose to be members. We choose to pay its fees. (I've provided links to stories in the past.) Which means they could choose a decision to "move up (out)" also.

I thought being a DIAA, like Yale, was the road to great publicity and fiscal prosperity. :)

So the old story here remains the same: Control what you can control. Put another way: Beat Omaha.

No WYO, you've got the right guy in mind. It's amazing to me how Ed went from conservative to liberal right around the same time that (conservative) Scott Hennen took over as the Program Director at WDAY-AM, the head-to-head competitor of KFGO, and is in the same time slot as Ed. Yes, that is the Scott Hennen who is the PA announcer for Fighting Sioux hockey at REA.

I'm only interested in this for one reason: To see the mindset of owners and players as the current NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) comes to an end at the end of this NHL season. The owners of the Wild are sticking to a lower cost solution. The players want the money. What did Dupuis want? What did he get? What did Gaborik want? What was the offer? Seeing the Wild let their best skater leave the country tells me that the sides are not anywhere close and that the NHL may not start up again in 12 months because of the lack of a new CBA. The status of CBA negotiations will definitely affect NHL team thoughts about signing collegians between now and the a new CBA.

Omaha knows what's at stake and they won't roll over. One by one.