The Sicatoka

I'm hoping seeing "shovel in ground" progress will convince folks that this is real and that will cause them to help out with the funds to get the project completed.

If the B1G were able to get UVa and UNC they'd have done some major things: - effectively killed the ACC (VaTech, NC State, and Miami would go begging to the SEC; FSU and Clemson would probably call the Big XII) - added two AAU schools to the B1G's CIC -- additional lobbying power in Congress - added a ton of new TVs to the B1G Network - set up their next targets: 2 of 3 of Duke, GaTech, and Notre Dame Delany and the B1G are playing chess and everyone else is playing checkers.

It's being driven by money, but not the money you may expect. http://forum.siouxsports.com/topic/16061-conference-realignments-take-2/page__st__1200#entry609846

Give the power to me. Everything will be fine. Trust me.

Regarding Dr. Hamid "Ham" Shirvani ... it's not working out. It's time to smoke the Ham.

Bison Dan and a UND fans agreeing on something? <scurries to window to look for four pissed-off dudes on horseback coming over horizon>

I'm spending more time lately out and reading other forums and learning about potential conference realignment goings-on. (I miss "star2city" because he'd normally be that guy around here.) What I've seen recently (and there's enough smoke to believe there's something to it, especially when eastern newspapers are writing about it): The Big Can't Count (aka B1G) has the University of Virginia as their next target, with the University of North Carolina next up after that. Crazy talk you say? From 16 they'd go to 18 with Georgia Tech and maybe Duke. Why those four? They're all Association of American Universities schools. The approach wouldn't surprise me. The B1G is playing a game of tactics not driven by football, but by money, money from the B1G Network, and from Federal funds via the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the B1G's CIC.

When he said "up the road" and referenced what is in Bismarck as the "Missouri River", he must be referencing "the lake behind Garrison Dam."

And much the same could be said of Mr. Taylor's response.

Was Montana State within the agreed terms of the contract with NDSU? If so, the terms were agreed upon by both parties to the contract. That means NDSU agreed to the terms which Montana State just exercised. Rather than railing on Montana State, and the Big Sky, maybe Gene Taylor should rail on the person who agreed to the terms and signed the contract for NDSU ... or would that be himself.

Here, this'll make you feel better. http://forum.siouxsports.com/topic/18022-north-dakota-uno-saturday-637-outside-on-the-pond/page__st__280#entry607781

1. Watch the personal stuff. 2. If either had the funding (BSA updates or UND ITF) they'd be under construction.

They could have the Horizon drop baseball and have all those teams become Summit baseball affiliates; however, you then have to ask if the Horizon would still meet the "MBB plus two other mens team sports" criteria to remain a recognized conference.

Translated: We're tired of Big Sky and MVFC teams showing up and demonstrating that the gap isn't as great as we claim.

All hail the greatness of the Big Can't Count.

Knives? For amateurs. Rusty spoons.

UND at home? Midco. UND at Wisconsin? Do we see that now?

1. If you're watching on Midco now, nothing is changing. No. Wait. You're getting HD next year. 2. If you're watching nationally on FCS, we're sorry, but that three-year deal is up. 3. The new deal is in HD on CBSSN. It's not as many games as the deal with with the league, not UND. 4. Watching on the internet next year, if that's how you watch now or will be watching in the future, will be in HD. 5. All that could change is not known yet. 6. UND knows it's in its best interest to spread the "Gospel of the Green" to the masses. (Yes, Hajdu, you may steal that.)

No Jim, that board was "#2".

Why does this surprise me not.

First, I'm unabashedly stealing most of this information from a source on another board. I believe it is accurate based on my own research. The Forum had a story on if the Summit League will retain the autobid in baseball. According to the story, the Summit League has already entered its grace period for baseball, as the sixth team Omaha is not a DI member yet. What the story doesn't state is that having six members in baseball is critical to the Summit being recognized as a DI conference. As a non-football conference, just like the WAC now, the Summit has to maintain autobids in two men's team sports other than basketball, to maintain its conference standing. To keep an autobid you need six full DI members playing the sport under your conference banner. To stay a conference you need either FB plus another mens team sport or MBB and two other mens team sports. The Summit is right now MBB, mens soccer, and baseball. Lose baseball's status and you could lose conference status in the eyes of the NCAA. The Summit currently has five baseball-tournament-eligible programs in North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne, Western Illinois and Oakland. Nebraska-Omaha won’t finish its NCAA reclassification until 2016. Now imagine if Oakland bolts to a different league (as has been rumored). By not setting whatever bad blood or politics aside, the Summit has put itself in a dangerous position by not getting Northern Colorado or UND (or both) to join as affiliate baseball members. I'll say it again: It's good to be the ones watching and munching on the popcorn this time.

Not really affecting much of anything at first glance, but it seems UMass-Lowell is moving from Division II to Division I and will be joining America East (replacing the recently departed Boston University). UML currently plays in DII except for hockey (Hockey East). http://collegesportsinfo.com/2013/02/13/report-umass-lowell-to-join-america-east/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+collegesportsinfo+%28CollegeSportsInfo.com%29

(The following is a repost of a post of mine from another thread. It seems to fit here again ... exactly.) So if the B1G will only play with themselves ( ) and that screams to me as a step on the path to Saban's vision (bold above). Not playing FCS is a step to creating their own new "top tier" where they only play with each other.

Because all of the other sports at UND that we don't think of at first thought use the Hyslop for practice.

I spell it "lake behind Garrison Dam".