AJS

I think there was a net gain of 2 recruits over the past 3 recruiting weekends. Definitely not the number they were supposedly shooting for. For awhile there was tons of momentum (think Colorado players committed). Seemed to stop after that.

This. Also, would like Schlossman's reasoning as well.

So, what happened with the vote today?

Here's what I don't understand. The goal currently for Football is to win a FCS Championship, right? The goal for basketball is to make the NCAA tournament, right? Why would you pay more in expenses (as well as potentially less revenue) to accomplish the same thing? For those who are saying look towards the future, what in the upcoming years would the Big Sky provide that the Summit / MVFC wouldn't?

I know rankings like this are completely subjective, but let's combine the MVFC and Big Sky. Ranking teams you want to see, rest being relatively similar (i.e. Northern Arizona and Illinois State). I'd put it: 1) NDSU 2/3/4) SDSU, Montana, Northern Iowa 5/6/7) Eastern Washington, USD, Montana State I think the MVFC has three teams that everyone will be very excited to see at home, compared to 1 in the Big Sky.

I can understand the wanting to pave your own path crowd, but when you really take a step back, I don't see any negatives with this move. It saves you $500K a year on travel and should increase revenues, by playing more teams people actually want to see. UND has been on an island for years and I don't think its helped any of their programs from a hype standpoint. I want UND to have a well oiled athletic department and this is the first step. Step two is to cut a couple programs.

It's like this year after year too. The Big Sky is not a good basketball conference.

I understand how this can be a very emotional issue, especially if you have a real connection to one of the sports that is possibly on the chopping block. Emotion won out a couple months ago with Kennedy and his decision not to cut. Like has been said before, nobody is happy that a sport(s) have to be cut. It would be devastating to be a student / athlete of one of those programs. Like everyone else, I wish there wasn't a budget shortfall and there were no talks of cuts. That's not where we are right now. It's time for Kennedy to recollect the facts and cut programs that make the most sense. Not only helping to fix the current budget problems, but pave the way for a stronger, more stable athletic department in the future.

I don't think there's anyone that thinks that. If you need to save $2 million dollars, and they cut sports, why would anyone think that they would reciprocate that to other sports? Then they'd still be $2 million in the hole. Now, in the future, once UND balances it's budget, not having these programs will help spread the money around with any budget increase.

I'm genuinely embarrassed for Goon after reading that tweet. He must have been so proud when he pushed send, took a victory lap while he pats himself on the back for being such a great guy. No money issues at UND, you think a women's sport should be cut? Sexist.

Well said. Kennedy needs to sit down and look at current athletic budgets, look at revenues, expenses, potential revenues / exposure and then make the best decision (obviously). To me, WH is the clear #1 to be cut and it's not even close. Now, I don't know the impact on Title IX and how the "tier" system works, so maybe WH stays for that reason. Regardless, sports need to be cut. What's really unfortunate is even though it seems like a no-brainer, there's going to be a very vocal minority that would be out for blood for cutting a women's sport. I think at the end of the day, you cut a sport that has equal men's / women's (Tennis, Swimming / Diving). We don't live in a world of common sense anymore.

This is great! No doubt, need a minimum of 6 wins to end the year. All starts this weekend!

Are you sure about this? I don't think that was the case.

Sweep this weekend and get back on track! I'm with you that if they make the regional in Fargo (I expect them to), that anything could happen. Just get hot at the right time!

My comments were only about the freshman dman. I think both Shaw and Wolanin will be great college players. Both have shown flashes this year and I'd say Shaw has been our #2 Dman. Once Wolanin puts it all together, he's going to be a stud.

Agreed, Thompson wasn't bad (either was Ausmus). I've actually been pleasantly surprised with how the freshman this year have played (imo the worst defenseman has been Ausmus). I don't think however that any of the three have a high ceiling to be anything more than an ok college defenseman. Same with the group they have coming in next year.

I haven't, Stecher and Ladue were fantastic as freshman. I'll give you Thompson though. Stecher had "it" from his first game with the team.

I like Kennedy and I loved his message about wanting to support UND athletics at a championship level. He seems to be very supportive and really understands what a positive boost athletics brings to the University. That being said, I hated how he handled this earlier and how he didn't have the guts to make the cuts when they should have. Not saying it's an easy thing to do, but it needed to be done. My hope is that Kennedy cuts 2 or 3 programs and gets UND to a number that fits the size of the University.

I know you can't base everything on draft rankings and junior accolades, but I'm at a loss for words at what will be the last two defensive recruiting classes (this year and next). I know how it happens and every school has plenty of misses when you recruit young, but this coaching staff missed, bad, on everyone. I don't see an above average player in the group. The 3 that came in this year were all average, in juniors. That's not changing with the 3 coming in next year.

Is this the final weekend they are hosting recruits, or are they doing one next weekend as well?

First round WHL pick.

Now they are in the same position they were before the Union game, at 10th in the PWR, getting close to the cliff. Tonight has turned into a must win situation for them. I know it's been talked about to death, but what's so frustrating is they just can't seem to turn the corner. They come off a great weekend and then play awful at home. Get the win tonight and sweep Duluth and let's go from there. The only team that has more L's than them in the Top 20 is BC, they need another string of W's in a row.

Yes

I think they've only played 3 really bad games all year, Michigan State X2 and Saturday of WMU. In the rest of the loses, I thought they played reasonably well.

Agreed, this year there has been a lot of one step forward, one step back with their performances from weekend to weekend. This is the weekend to solidify themselves as a Top 8 team in the pairwise as well as for the first time since the very beginning of the season where I'd say they'd have a "good" record. Huge weekend!