AJS

Current rumors, which might be obsolete by noon. ACC is still internally discussing the additions of not only Cal & Stanford, but also potentially SMU. MWC seems aligned. Would add Pac-4 but would not move the 9 best to PAC leaving others behind. AAC also wants remaining Pac-4 schools Here's my thinking. If I'm looking at the Pac-4, MWC, AAC. The big time $ is gone. The only way to get that $ is to move to one of the remaining Power conferences. Where I am a bit confused. Why would the ACC not admit Cal & Stanford? From a travel perspective, we're talking 1 road trip for each sport out to San Francisco. You play them both on that swing. Travel would be atrocious for Cal & Stanford, but not the other way around. Also, look what just happened to the Pac-12. There's only a handful of big players that aren't in the BIG, 12, SEC. Get them into the fold. My guess still is ACC admits Cal & Stanford. Wazzu and Oregon State to MWC. That's it.

Pete Thamel's reporting in the next 24 hours, there's two calls for the ACC to vet early exploratory discussions on the potential additions of Cal and Stanford. What would make the most sense to me. Cal and Stanford join one of the ACC / BIG / Big 12. I have a hard time believing they want anything to do with the rest in the West. Wazzu and Oregon State to the MWC.

The two big rumors right now going around are. MWC: Effectively dissolves. 9 members vote to leave the conference (waive the $34 million exit fees). MWC is in the position that the PAC is in now. Oregon State / San Diego State: In talks w/ Big 12 to go at a reduced rate. I want to concentrate on the top rumor. Where would UND be in the G5 / FCS pecking order? The worry now for me as far as UND is they are left out on this big shift that sees NDSU / SDSU / Mont / Mont State / Idaho / UC Davis / Sac State backfilling the MWC.

Bumping the presale question back up.

Lucky for UND fans that as much as NDSU fans wish Twitter / Fargo Media decided conference realignment, they don't. I genuinely don't understand though how having the Dakota 4 stick together is a bad thing.

This is the article I've been waiting for. Nothing surprising, but happy this was said out loud. Chaves has really impressed as of late.

This is starting to make more sense to me. Him being called slow a few days ago, couldn't be misconstrued, but the KK saga has been so confusing to me. If this is a situation given (to me) the new light @Wright4UND has shined on it. That KK is a guy that has all the physical tools. His positioning has not been good at times, think more on the mental side. Reading / Reacting. It would make sense that the Coaching staff would bet on him putting it all together and if he does, he could be a quality safety. Again, maybe it's just me, but that's not up to this point how I've taken the criticism about him.

Can you explain further? I do remember a play against NDSU where the WR got behind him, but he caught him. He looked pretty fast catching him. I appreciate @Wright4UND post on this. Is it more a situation where he's routinely out of position, or like I read a few days ago over and over, that he's incredibly slow? One seems to correctable, the other is not.

There's some sort of development camp that's taking place at the University of Minnesota right now (Bartlett Hockey?). Mooney is there as well as Cooley. A long shot feels even longer.

I'm feeling ok about the Safety position. Healthy Fort who was a starter, but hurt all year, plus Buckner with a year under his belt and a simplified system. Davis / Sutton with a year more of experience. KK with a lot of experience. You can feel confident they'll be much better than last year. There's no reason to believe they wouldn't be. OLB is really the one positional group that scares me. Need some surprises.

If they don't accelerate, two years. All of these players would be going into their Junior years. The rumor is that Hensler has accelerated. To be consistent, here are the Puckpreps rankings for those players (by Birth Year / American). Hensler - 4th Laurila - NR Potter - 1st Mooney - 2nd O'Neill - 33rd Lindberg - 86th

Alston vs NIL will be fascinating to follow over the next couple years. Trying to look at this objectively. NIL Tailor to certain sports (No Title IX) "Star" player Alston $ amount is in the sweet spot for Mid-Major (w/ FCOA = about 10K) Message behind it Tied to school, think it's way cleaner My questions with the NIL before I would donate. Do you know how much is in the collective. How is the money being divided (think would be the big one) Is there clear communication between the collective and the coaches There just seems to be too much room for misinformation with collective. Getting everyone (collective to coach to player) on the same page, seems like it would be extremely challenging.

Up to this point, from a competing offers standpoint, this class has not been unique to past classes. Let's highlight up to this point. Since the Alston announcement on 07/14, I don't believe any offers have committed elsewhere (Varvel was a few days before). The (Langden) College into Buchanan commits were very solid from a competing offers standpoint. I'm very interested in the following. Kallstrom Kayser (Committed to UNI) Porter* Rich Bauman Porter is one where his other offers are UNI / USD. Location could be difficult, but those are two schools that UND needs to start consistently winning recruiting battles. The others have offers from schools that would be perceived ahead of UND in the Football pecking order. UND I'd guess would be the only one to offer the Alston Awards. Let's see how UND does with those five.

Buchanan has a good list of competing offers including UNI & Kent State.

Is that type of scenario that far-fetched? Pac-12 loses almost all of their members and are replaced by a large majority of the MW and SMU. Who backfills the MW? Would the Dakota 4, Montana schools be completely out of the realm of a possibility? If the MW needed to say backfill 8 spots? Is the biggest issue that there's really nowhere for Pac-12 schools to go. I've read the Big-12 wants to get to 14. Would they change that to 16 if they could grab 3 Pac-12 schools? Would the BIG reconsider expansion if they could get Oregon / Washington at a discount?

I want to discuss the Dakota 4 in relation to moving to a G5 league. This would not be Football only, but instead an all-sports invite. NDSU: Need to go with the most to gain. They've maxed out at the FCS level. Interest over the past few years is on a downward trajectory. They need a change or there's no reason to believe things will turn around (fan excitement standpoint). SDSU: Based on their current standing, by far the most to lose. Highly successful but have room to grow. Moving from the Summit would be a huge blow to M/W Basketball. To me the move doesn't make sense. UND: They don't have much to lose. Do have the highest athletic budget of the Dakota 4. Painful reminder of the mistake of not moving to D1 at the time of the XDSU's. USD: Edited: I don't know enough to speculate. I would think the SL tournament would be a huge reason to not go for them as well. Given each schools location, I do feel sticking together and being united is key. Could the other three kind of in a way block NDSU from going? They would need a travel partner for MW, if the other three schools said no, they'd be essentially stuck, right?

USD / UND seem to be in similar spots when it comes to conference realignment and at least public perception. They aren't discussed at all. In relation to SDSU, what's Coyote Nations general feeling on this? Nervous? I'm interested in it.

Seems to be the conventional wisdom. As I have recently, let’s take NDSU out the conversation. One thing that is rarely brought up is the Summit League BBall tournament. If an all sport MW invite came, not only the simple question of how would SDSU afford it, but why would they give up what they have for M/W BBall?

Having two of your nine schools being Wash / Oregon State is an issue. How you laid it out makes the most sense to me. It's a brutal business. If you're making decisions on what's best for you (i.e. your conference / schools), is to essentially eliminate one of the P5 conferences.

Pac-12 currently at 9 schools. What's the general consensus out there? If UConn gets the 14th Big-12 spot than the Pac-12 could be ok? Hypothetical change SDSU for Colorado wouldn't be bad. If Arizona gets that 14th spot, how in trouble in the Pac-12? Would Boise State be the next up? That would seem disastrous for the Pac-12. Essentially adding another Wazzu or Oregon State.

Newest UND Hockey Podcast is out. Part of the focus was on potential recruits to watch. When Schlossman talks recruiting, you always try to read between the lines. Does he know more than he's letting on. Recently, when Zmolek entered the portal, the amount of time they spent talking about him made you wonder. Two names were mentioned that I got the same type of feeling, made me wonder if they know something more. Caleb Heil (G) and Masun Fleece (F). Nothing else stuck out to me, except there was zero mention of Hensler.

There are a few GPL posters who are close to USD fan forum level of delusional. Not to the USD fan forum level of course, but kind of close.

Although Mooney was never going to play Cooley, the idea that Mooney was going to commit to another school while Cooley was on roster really seemed unlikely to me. I would still have them as favorites, but this would have to open things up a bit, you'd think.