AJS

I'm going to take the glass half full approach for the game as there were some positives that I saw. I was impressed with the freshman d-man, especially C. Poolman and Johnson. UMD is a solid team full of upperclassman and I thought UND played them tough 5 on 5. The difference was special teams, UND's power play is just atrocious. It seems like it's the same thing every year, they just are never very good. Regardless with the talent on the team. Let's see what happens tomorrow, a split is what I expected coming into the weekend, need the W tomorrow.

Out of the last 3 games of the regular season, I feel most confident about this one. Weber definitely has a quality team, but if you really look at who they've played and their final scores, it's not as impressive (I know similar things can be said about UND). Being at home is a huge advantage. I see it similar to the SUU games. UND 38 WSU 17

CBSSports doesn't start broadcasting NCHC games until January.

Definitely. Win out and they are a Top 10 team.

*8th. How we are ranked compared to other 2 loss teams is big to note. I was hoping that maybe Western Illinois, Youngstown or Montana would fall below us, but that didn't happen. I've been on the need to win out train or a while. Do I feel better now than 2 weeks ago? Yes. Do I think an 8-3 record now would get us in. Absolutely (i.e. if we lost to Idaho State, ect, maybe it wouldn't of). Things can really change though from week to week. Keep winning and hope that a couple teams ahead of you each week fall. Starting with Montana to EWU next week.

Will the 1st line be as dominant as the CBS line? No, but I also don't think it's a completely lopsided argument either. I do think UND's first line can be dominant in its own right. My argument would be although the 1st line won't be the same, I'd take this years version of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th lines over last years. It's early and I'd like to see a couple more series before I'd put any money on it, but the Freshman forwards have been a positive surprise. Especially Hoff, Yon, Bowen.

UND moved up two spots to #17 in the STATS FCS Poll.

There's usually a huge learning curve for freshman, especially on defense. 1/2 of UND's D-core this past weekend were freshman. It'll take them some time to adjust. Not making excuses, that's just the way it is. I think Colton has played pretty well thru 5 games and Casey seems to be picking it up the last couple as well. Outside of the freshman, I've been really encouraged by Shaw's play, Ausmus has struggled, but we know he's rock solid. The defensive unit will improve this year, that's a guarantee. IMO, I'll take this years forwards over last years. Again, they are young, so it'll take some time to gel, but I think they are much deeper than last year.

I'm interested in this too. I've been using the STATS poll to go with UND's ranking, because that seems to be the one that every television broadcast uses.

Perception is so important with these polls. Northern Arizona had 0 votes in the STATS poll going into last weekend. I wouldn't be surprised if Montana fell about the same as they did in the Athlon poll. I predict UND will move up and be #18 in the STATS poll. Even though 4 teams lost that were within 10 places of them, I think most were all too low to drop enough for UND to jump them (outside of Eastern Illinois). Things change a lot on a weekly basis, but every week the same holds true. It's just tough to move up significantly in the rankings on a weekly basis. UND is still in the position that a loss to Weber will send them right to the bubble. Got to keep winning.

I've seen it both ways this year, is Arnell a Senior or Junior?

I've thought about that too, since UND is currently 4th out of the Top 4 BSC teams in every ranking. EWU still has to play both Poly and Montanta. IMO, it's best for UND to not only win out (obviously), but also have EWU beat both Poly and Montana. I'm cheering for Poly in every game except EWU. Cheering against Montana every step of the way. This is looking at it strictly from a standpoint of what would help UND get the highest seed possible.

If Cal Poly wins out, they'd definitely be ranked higher than UND, based on their wins over 3 Top 10 teams.

Believe SDSU had offered.

Here's my best guess. This is going on the assumption that Kennedy has numbers on different scenarios that could either (1) Save money (2) Add Revenue to get to the $1.4 Million (captain obvious, I know). The only thing that would make sense to me, is something happened the week In-between when the Coaches / Athletes gave their speeches and yesterday, that led him to believe that the savings would be there. This is all pretty obvious stuff, but whatever it was (league affiliation, ect) he must have a much better feeling on it as of today, then he did two weeks ago. I just can't imagine there being anything else, other than that. You wouldn't march coaches / athletes for the fun of it, if you knew that wasn't an option. It's either that (hoping) or the guy has absolutely no spine and when push come to shove he folds.

I don't think the Summit league would be a discussion if UND wasn't in the financial trouble it is in. One thing is clear, something needs to be done to fix the budget. So, if you take away the Summit league and the savings on travel it would provide, what would you do about the $1.4 million deficit now that Kennedy took away cutting sports? I'm not following the enormous opportunity the Big Sky presents either. In all reality, outside of Football and Basketball, none of the other sports (not including MH) matter on a national stage. Basketball with obviously the biggest opportunity, which we'd be able to accomplish in either league.

What sport did they redirect the money to by cutting baseball? This question doesn't apply, because UND is in a budget crisis. They should have made cuts as well as look for ways to generate more revenue (which they are doing). You (as well as Kennedy) obviously feel that UND athletics as a whole are stronger having more programs then a school this size should have... I don't.

In what way? The Summit is stronger in basketball than the Big Sky, plus it would would be huge savings in travel to the budget. That's pretty interesting, you'd think the other schools would be for it as well. Then again, one trip to GF wouldn't make or break any schools budget, where as UND leaving would throw a wrench into scheduling, with them now having an odd number of teams. I just hope we start getting answers quickly. The news today left me uneasy.

I've never understood any push back to joining the Summit in everything, but football. It seems like a win / win situation all around. Increased attendance with the Dakota schools, Omaha and Denver in basketball and massive travel savings for many of the non-revenue sports. I'll never agree with not cutting at least a couple sports, but there are still enough things to do to salvage this mess. The most crucial / important is getting into the Summit. This has to get done.

This is a genuine concern of mine as far fetched an idea as I think it is. My concern originally started when the idea was floated in the first IAC meeting (then shot down in the 2nd meeting). Is the reason Kennedy hasn't come out and said himself this isn't a possibility, is because it's so insane that why would he even need too? Now my fear is what happens if the "revenue generating" ideas don't pass and the Summit (believe there is mutual interest) doesn't come to fruition? What happens if at the end of all of this there is still a deficit? As unlikely as I think it still is (especially when they were quick to go FCOA), I wouldn't put anything past the University of North Dakota. They've always thought small, no matter who has been in charge. Kennedy just made it clear today that he'd rather run this athletic department like a high school. I wasn't worried about Kennedy until today, now I'm terrified.

Besides the IAC's recommendation of not cutting any sports, every other revenue generating idea the IAC recommended requires third-party approvals (which Kennedy acknowledged). My question is what if the Ralph / Alerus say no to reviewing their contracts, the student body senate (or whoever would vote on it), vetoes raising student fees? What if the Summit league decides not to accept UND (if that was a route they were counting on going to save on travel). When would the three recommendations by the IAC be voted on / reviewed? When would conference affiliation be ironed out? Making such a definite this will not happen under my watch while there are so many unknowns at this time seems extremely short sided. Why wouldn't you get the answers to all of the unknowns before making a decision? I'll go back to his original comment about making sure the University has the right amount of sports for a University of its size to fund each one at a championship level (aka what NDSU does). Kennedy is all bark and no bite. When it came down to making tough decisions he folded. What's he going to do in other areas of the University when budgets get tight? This is very concerning.

Yep, his quote about wanting to make sure they have the right amount of sports for a school this size, so that they can fund them at a championship level was complete garbage. I don't know why I would have thought any differently. UND leadership has been and will continue to be trash.

I do agree however that this most likely points towards the Summit League, which will take care of a lot of the budget deficit in travel cost. As long as that / increase revenue, ect... takes care of it, then I'm good. I just can't comprehend what took place the past 3 months with the IAC meetings. If you thought there was any way to solve the budget crisis without cutting sports, wouldn't you first look at all those possibilities? Conference affiliation, other ways to increase revenue, ect. After you exhausted all other options, then announce you are looking to cut sports. If you thought there was any way that this could be handled w/out cutting sports, why even bring it up, until absolutely necessary? Putting the "non cut" sports thru hell these past 3 months for nothing? Growing up, did anybody think leaders could be this dumb?

You didn't think the IAC Committee was a gong show? How about when the head asked about going D2 or moving to independent? Or how about when Kennedy made a not cut list and made every other program go in front and beg for their sports? Yep, definitely not a gong show at all.

I'm absolutely stunned. For how big of a sh*t show everything is at UND, I didn't think anything they could do would surprise me, well this has. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Kennedy = Kelley Part II.