The Sicatoka

bisonguy: I just don't expect anything new to come out tomorrow. I expect to hear most of the same hype. (That's not aimed at you but at Hallstrom's hype.) The situation really hasn't changed. What could either say? Do we expect the Big Sky to turn tail on their stated position? (They have a moratorium on new members.) I still believe if SDSU goes, so goes USD, and then UND has no choice but to follow. I've heard that Sac. St. wants to join the Big West when UC-Davis does. They're only 15 miles apart and could be travel partners. There are enough D-Is nearby in CA that I'm sure Wanless really doesn't like to have to shell out the travel bucks to Montana. I'm thinkin' he'd rather have to pay bus fare and not air fare.

You mean all of these rules? http://www.UND.edu/dept/our/logos/northdakota.pdf

We've been waiting how long? http://www.fightingsioux.com/sports/mhocke...RELEASE_ID=1400

Sockeye: I'm pretty sure 'jk' was just ribbin' Brian a bit. With this crowd, if it happens to you once, you're stuck with it forever. Now if had been one of them Gopher varmits saying it .... For example, Jason Notermann could bury every shot this season with five-holed, net-stretchin' solid twine slappers and yet we'd hear a yap about him and "p-ting" off the pipe all the time. (I'd probably be one of the guilty ones.) Hey, they all look like slappers over the glove from the dot on the score board and in the box score! We poke at 'em but love the hard-workin' muckers. Where else would a guy like Jim Archibald be remembered for 540 PIM and not a 154/75/69/144 career scoring line? (That includes a 37 goal senior season!)

Dropped passes or poorly thrown balls? Steve Hallstrom has hinted at the latter on his broadcasts. And UNC's seen the home of the Grizzlies already this year. FargoDome? Non-factor.

JBB: You make seven years of thrashing sound like something to look forward to. Imagine your life feeling the way you did about 9:30 CDT Saturday night, or like when UCD hit the flanker-reverse pass, for the next seven years. The lead dog in the NCC right now by far is Northern Colorado. I'm not sure about their schedule but I'm not sure who'll touch them either. NDSU's pass defense weakness was displayed by UCD. UNC will study those tapes just like they did for UND.

Simplest question I could ask: Who would you want running your team: Klosterman or Gorder? I know one of them CAN pass (when given time by his line) and can run, and has a conference and a national title. JBB: I hope you liked your trip to Davis. You'll be getting that treatment in IAA for at least six to seven seasons. (Anyone moving up would.)

Knowing Genoway has to sit for the first three and Canady's shoulder may not be ready, won't they be right on? Spiewak, Notermann, Hale, Lundbohm, Palmiscno, Fylling, Bochenski, Connelly, Massen, McMahon, Parise, and Prpich make 12.

History: Dale Lennon was hired by Roger Thomas to be his defensive coordinator. Terry Wanless was the UND AD at that time. Wanless is now at Sacramento State*. Thomas is now the AD. And Lennon was hired by Thomas to be the head FB coach. I'm not sure how you think there's this great Wanless/Lennon tie. The tie is Thomas/Lennon and Lennon is a UND alumnus. PS - Dale Lennon has a ring that he could show Babich so he'd know what one looks like, if you'd like. I mean outright conference title. Were you thinking of something else? *Sacramento State just had (2001-2002) their best IAA season yet. FB: 2-9 MBB: 9-18 WBB: On a 30+ game losing streak.

bisonguy: I found the post where "someone" claimed to be Bakken's son. Ryan Bakken isn't the Herald sports editor as that post claims. (I believe it is Kevin Fee.) That post appears to be a pure troll. You need to borrow a pliers to get that hook out of the corner of your mouth?

And of course there's always the "do it yourself" variety.

bisonguy: Like I said before, you took that bait? At least the miscapitalization can be explained away in a child. A little adversarial respect would be nice. I've tried to maintain that. PS - Wisconsin was looking to do a Gopher/Badger game at Camp-Randall and break that UM/MSU number. Of course, there were rumors of a UM/MSU rematch at The Big House also. (And of course the UM/MSU number was 30k under Michigan's average. Spartan Stadium ain't The Big House.)

Serious you say? Saturday, October 6, 2001: Michigan at Michigan State --> Attendance 74,554. That was nearly a 1000 more than Michigan State's average FB attendance for the season. And it was a hockey game. Game recap: http://www.uscollegehockey.com/recaps/2001...0/06/um-msu.php Game box score: http://www.uscollegehockey.com/box/index.p...me=msu&gender=m Now tell me again about who takes what seriously.

Here is Dr. Kupchella's statement: http://www.UND.edu/president/div1.html What he said was, "There are great problems in intercollegiate athletics in America, and while these span all the divisions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, most scandals seem to be associated with Division I." He did not refer to the nature or types of scandals, nor to the perpetrators. You are attempting to associate or infer something that just is not there. However, with your opening sentence you may have slandered Dr. Kupchella. It would be wise for you to attribute the source for the statement you have in quotation marks.

By saying that, you're admitting that the 16 IAA's playing D-I hockey are D-I pretenders (not true). Thus, by your statement, IAAs are D-I pretenders. Gotcha.

When has UND done that? Roger Thomas has been very careful in his public statements to frame them around UND. Dr. Kupchella's statement was framed solely around UND. If you're uptight about an internet posting board where people can express their opinions about the move, that's a little paranoid. None of us here speak officially for The University of North Dakota. Like I said, NDSU made its decision. Have at it. UND plans to watch the rest of the cards play out and they've said so.

University of Maine, Orono, Maine: It's four hours by car down I-95 to anything. Orono is a suburb of Bangor (population 38000). The 'greater metro' (75 mile radius, Bangor, Orono, etc.) is about 90000. There's the best comparison possible for UND. Why? Same size towns (GF probably has a better 75 mile population number) and they have NCAA Division I hockey titles too! I'll save JBB the trouble: Maine plays IAA football.

Back to UND and Grand Forks, eh? (Intentional Canadian/hockey ending, eh? ) You are making the classic reverse psychology argument. Paraphrased: "GF just can't do it." But NDSU hopes to have SDSU as a travel partner in a new league? GF can't but Brookings can? Pardon me if I scoff at that. It proves that deep inside you know that NDSU needs the 20k FB gate that UND and very few others could provide (Was the unfortunately cancelled Maine game sold out? I don't believe it was quite there.) and it needs the benefits of a D-I(AA) new NCC. Getting IAAs from 1000 miles away to come to Fargo to play won't be cheap, and remember, most (non-conference game) teams want a payday on a trip like that. Logistically and fiscally, going D-I(AA) doesn't make sense unless a group would go together. It solves the travel costs issues to a significant extent. That's why NDSU hopes SDSU goes. If SDSU goes, expect USD to follow and then comes UND. Check out the link to Article 3 at http://www3.sdstate.edu/Athletics/Division...Study/Index.cfm SDSU as much as admits that they need a IAA NCC to make it really work. (And they hinted that they may prefer a conference FB scholarship limit under 63 at the start. Bet you love to hear that.) Honestly, how's NDSU any different? How's any NCC team, save for UNC, with more D-I(AA)s, near by, any different? PS - If FargoDome is so 'prestigious', why is the lighting so terrible? The endzones are dark and the lights are at angles such that they shine in your eyes if you are sitting in box seating. Is Fargo going to 'progressively' fix that any time soon? I'm not trying to be malicious here. I do believe lighting there is a problem.

I hope a Gopher, Badger, Wolverine, Spartan, or BC Eagles fan didn't hear that. "Shredded" would be the best you could hope for.

I believe they'll look the same from the front and back. The questions is if Nike (and their contract manufacturer) would put in "side panels" of mesh. On Nike jerseys that do that they don't carry the bottom striping all the way around. It looks goofy to me that way. (I think they do it trying to look like the Denver Broncos jerseys, but not carrying the bottom stripes on a hockey jersey all the way around just breaks up the continuity and flow.) If it's true that Gemini is the contract manufacturer, I'd hope they'd keep them the same as last season.

A big part of the conversation that is missed here is logistics. There are a ton of IAAs in the northeast. There are a lot of IAAs down in Northern Colorado's neck of the woods. Out east, schools that should be DIIs are IAAs because it's easier to schedule games because everyone else around you is IAA. (If you're a DI, you have to schedule DIs.) Travel isn't an issue because they're all packed in a close space. In the midwest, there are significantly fewer IAAs as most schools are DII. Being DII in this area makes logistic and scheduling sense. That leads me back to what I've said all along. I believe NDSU took the "two year" approach to this in the hope that some of the large public schools in the NCC would make the jump with them to help with the logistics and schedule issues.

Your statement is accurate. The 2000 Frozen Four was very profitable for Michigan and BC. St. Lawrence and UND were the other two there that year. Because St. Lawrence is DIII and UND is DII, Michigan and BC split the participant's pot two ways instead of four. They forced UND to take home a trophy and banner instead of dollars. We won't talk about 2001.

JBB: We'll have to agree to disagree. I know a lot of Bison supporters. I've seen the anti-D-I sentiment in that group hold steady at about 8 or 9 to 1. The Herald editorial board thinks it's a bad idea. So? Dr. Kupchella thinks the same way. So? If this is so wonderful, why are you so concerned about them? Go your own way. Be happy. Start raising all of that additional capital to bring in all those students (to teams that are on probation until fall of 2008). Forget what the Herald says. Look at what UNI's AD says. Look at what Sacramento State's (Big Sky) AD said. Message: Those conferences aren't looking to add right now. I'm guessing those conferences are waiting to see what the NCAA 2004 "relook at divisions" fallout is. However, you've heard it here. There is a lot of UND sentiment that says if the league went UND'd go along. I'm guessing if SDSU goes, so go USD and UND. Logistically it'd help them all especially in terms of travel and schedule. Heck, maybe UNI'd dump that two conferences/long travel mess they're in now and re-join the NCC. That'd help them in those terms as well. (UND is closer and logistically better to UNI than is Indiana State.) You're painting UND as holding NDSU from doing this. I ask how? NDSU did what it wanted. I know if UND does change its stance you'll howl about UND trying to steal the spotlight. Either way it's all UND's fault. I guess UND must just be the source of all evil for NDSU. It must be The Vast Fighting Sioux Conspiracy* hard at work again. * Remember, we're the guys that caused a 63% no vote to Fargo Arena even though NDSU's own voting district voted more 'no' than that rate!

I told somebody yesterday that "even Rich Glas could out-kick Doug Brien." They told me, "You mean Jeff Glas." I told them, "I meant EXACTLY what I said."

Fargo's always been larger than Grand Forks. Why is it suddenly an issue? UND has survived just fine in a smaller Grand Forks. Sorry, but I don't see this as an issue. And if it really is about athletics, those coming losing seasons during the transition aren't going to be good community PR. And how is UND "blocking" NDSU from doing this? UND is merely stating it's position. They've allowed themselves an 'out' from that position as well. What would you have UND do, announce they too are going D-I? Then you'd be ranting that UND is doing it to overshadow NDSU's move. By saying UND is "blocking" the move you are nearly admitting that NDSU can't do this unless UND comes along for the ride. GF will lose the Fargo hockey market? Now I know you are diluted. The hockey fans in Fargo are primarily UND alums. They wouldn't support a Bison program anyway. And in general, hockey support in Fargo is a non-issue at best. Evidence: Concordia's nationally outstanding D-III program draws about 600 per game; the USHL has had TWO franchises in Fargo fold. (Bears, IceSharks) Now, more than 60 teams play D-I hockey. That list is those that I am sure are D-I schools. I believe Brown, Vermont, Army, Denver U, and Western Michigan are D-I also. That's more than half that are D-I. UND is "playing up" in that group. Other schools? UMass-Lowell, Merrimack, Clarkson, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Union, American Int'l, Bentley, Fairfield, Iona, Mercyhurst, Sacred Heart, Alaska-Fairbanks, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, UN-Omaha, Northern Michigan, Colorado College, Michigan Tech, UM-Duluth, Mankato, St. Cloud, Alabama-Huntsville, Bemidji State, Findlay, Niagara, Wayne State. (I'm pretty sure AIU, Iona, Wayne State, and Mercyhurst play in some watered down D-I conference, but I'll count them as not D-I also.) And is it because UND wants a low-budget approach, or is it because UND knows what it costs to run a big-time, national championship contending Division I program? Go back and read some of the quotes from the UNI AD. NDSU's trying to model after them. They're cutting programs after a D-IAA FB playoff appearance. Personally, I'm interested in seeing what the NCAA comes out with in 2004. It wouldn't surprise me to see the biggest of the bigs "move up" (create a new level for themselves) for the same reasons that NDSU wants to move up: small, low-budget no-names are coming in and diluting where they're currently at.