AJS

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.

Looks like Student Orientation week just took place. Anyone hear how the preliminary numbers are looking?

Lots of good information. 3 FM NTDP guys. Harvard entering the equation for one of them definitely throws a wrench into it. Like you said @stoneySIOUX, can't blame him if that person goes that route. Lindberg doing a late visit to Minnesota isn't ideal Mooney / Hensler. This might seem like moving the goal posts a bit. The last time I was genuinely shocked with a commitment was Boeser. These two would be into that category. Although I wasn't shocked about Emery, it did give me the "maybe it can happen" feeling with Hensler. IF Mooney would commit to UND over Minnesota, that's almost more than I could process. Frank @siouxforce19 nailed it, Colin Frank. I would say one of the highest sought after uncommitted '06's. This one is a complete shot in the dark from me.

Less than a week away, let's get some predictions. How many players that are eligible to commit August 1st does UND land over the next year (Late '06 / '07 guys)? They got 5 last year that was in that group. Here's my guess. I think they get 7. I'm feeling a bit bullish with the Emery commit. Hensler Laurila Lindberg O'Neill Spehar Murphy Frank

This team does have a lot of “knowns”, still some questions, but a higher level of comfort than most years. With that in mind, this season to me boils down to as always staying healthy in key spots, but also have 3 or 4 guys completely exceed (from a fan standpoint) expectations / take their game to the next level. That could be a guy like Pedigo playing at an All-Conference level. Fort / Buckner solidifying a Safety position and raising that up to a much higher level than last year. One of the transfers being a true starter level talent on the D-Line. A RS Freshman jumping up the depth chart. I think they are that close to taking that next step.