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And from a remote undisclosed location

If that's all they cut why would they hire a consulting firm? I think it will go deeper yet. You would be cutting roughly 64 women and 27 men from the program. But I think even that keeps them easily within their title 9 obligations. But in all honesty if they can't cut any Big Sky programs they are very limited especially with the hiring of the new asst soccer coach because I will presume they know they are not being cut. That leaves little room for decisions on teams. I would also guess men's golf will be given the boot as well. They were cut once and are under special guidelines which I'm guessing after next year will be told they can no longer compete. In my heart I can't believe WH goes. I don't think anyone has the guts to cut the program. They will cut down to bare minimums required and use that money to put towards better coaching salaries to make programs better while still funneling massive dollars into an anemic WH program that will probably never be better than it is now.

So here's something to ponder. To cut any sports now they can't be any sports that are core to Big Sky....so seems soccer is safe with new hire....that would leave men's golf, swim/dive, WH and softball. Per Big Sky core sports it includes women's golf and men and women's tennis. So say WH gone...they will want to cut deeper. Do they cut all the remaining sports...they avoid any issues with Big Sky then. They don't want to jeopardize any potential conference championships for the next year. Or....do thy jump to Summit early....

Interesting.

Summit sponsors every sport UND has except MH and WH. The only sports the Summit requires is men's and women's basketball. After that, I'm guessing its up to the school to decide which sports in which to participate.

Absolutely agree with this. That article was dated 3/24, so last Friday, which mean he probably left earlier in the week. Considering the fact UND has brought in a consulting firm for this whole thing, I would imagine this are pretty tight lipped. Also, there probably was no decision made as of early last week, so rather than throw up red flags, just continue doing what you're doing. If WH gets cut, he will be looking for a job and will still need recruits...so whether or not those recruits will be for UND or a school to be named at a later date for him remains to be seen. If he can recruit on someone else's dime he will.

So with UND getting this money, I wonder if that has any effect on decisions about cutting sports? Wonder how long they have known about this money. I certainly think being in the Summit League will drastically cut expenses moving forward. The 1.3 mil they have to cut now I guess is for the next fiscal year? Clearly that money can offset scholarship costs which could help with the 1.3 right?

What's concerning is that in the fall WH was never even considered to be cut. So all things considered now, I wonder if Kennedy has seriously given thought to cutting the program. I agree also, the cost really is probably closer to 2 million but the men's team seems to absorb a substantial amount of their cost. The amount of money they absorb would be close to running one of the teams on the chopping block bet...

That's exactly my thought. I think at some point you have to say we just can't continue to funnel money into a program like this. If that money was going to any other sport and they were not conference champs over and over it would have been gone long ago. I also feel that if you had that kind of budget with some other sports, you would have continued success.

Exactly right. Tennis, golf, swim/dive, soccer, softball...all TBD if they survive or are cut. You don't mention WH as a sport staying. I would like to think those making decisions look long and hard at WH because the cost will never go down. I can see spending that money on FB and BB, etc. But spending 1.5-2 million on WH is mind boggling. I can't see the justification myself. It will be a shame to cut multiple sports to get in line with the budget cuts and keep WH. I am certainly not holding my breath and won't believe it until I see it. But to potentially cut 100 athletes to get budget down and keep 30 with an insane budget makes no sense to me. I know it's a hockey town a hockey school, but I think its the men's hockey everyone likes and tolerates WH.

So my thought on this announcement next week is that there are going to be multiple teams affected. If Kennedy was just cutting one team, I'm sure they would not have been in the market to hire a consulting firm. Even if that team were WH, I don't think it would warrant the cost of hiring a firm to make sure all their ducks were in a row and they are compliant. I still feel WH is untouchable for whatever reason, even though it appears as there is not much love lost for this sport. I think Kennedy is going to hold true to his word from back in August of 2-4 sports being cut and I am going to lean towards the 4. I think it will be one men's sport and 3 women's. Interesting thought, although golf is self funded, they could potentially keep golf and cut something else that's more costly...I have a child on a team that could be cut and it's difficult to think about and then what the options might be looking forward. Does anyone else feel like the cuts are going to be deep? I know changing conferences will help financially, but I keep getting the feeling that the president wants to cut deep enough that should budget cuts come again from the state in a couple years, no more cutting has to be done. I would not be surprised to see him get it to 7 mens and 7 womens sports which is the least amount the NCAA will allow. And track/field count as two sports.

They are playing Coastal Carolina, Northern Kentucky and UConn. Last week they played Auburn and James Madison, both top ranked teams.

Good luck to the softball team this weekend! The team is off to their best start ever.

In case anyone wanted to know, although the softball team was 1/5 for the last weekend, they were in Auburn, AL and played two of the top 25 teams in the nation. No they may not have won the games against James Madison and Auburn (played them twice) but they took Auburn to all 7 innings the first game, lost 6/0, and Auburn threw their best pitchers and had their starters in both games. Auburn is the #2 team in the nation who went to the College World Series the last two years. Maybe they didn't score a run, but they got hits and got in base. Our pitchers did amazing. They played James Madison, ranked 13th. Lost 8/0 in 6 innings. They have one of the top 10 pitchers in the nation. Guess what? She pitched the entire game. These teams showed a lot of respect for our team because they could have thrown lesser pitchers but did not and the girls did great. Just as an FYI, when James Madison played Mizzou, they had 2 hits against the JMU and we had 3. The JMU pitcher struck out as many batters at Mizzou as us. My point to all this is simply, the UND softball team is really good. They are playing tough competition along the way and doing pretty darn good. Congrats to the coaches and girls. When they play at home, you should really go watch them. Good luck this weekend lady Hawks!

Good luck to the softball ladies in Alabama!

So the softball ladies made a great debut to their 2017 season! Looks like they are off to a great start. Many new faces on the field this weekend. Congratulations to Coach Stevens and his team. Good luck in Florida!

I'm not offended by any of this. Everyone has their opinions and ideas of how things should be run, what sports could/should be cut, etc. I too am a little confused at how we had a huge deficit of millions of dollars and the impending doom feeling of we have to cut now or we can't survive...that's why I think there's more to this than they are letting us know. Perhaps there has been plenty of money and it's been misappropriated? Maybe there's too much spending somewhere that shouldn't be? Somehow, someone found something and now no sports get cut. When in fact, we were told 2-4 would be cut and that was from the president. Something happened and we don't know yet, but I would venture to guess it will come out at some point.

It has been gut wrenching and I can tell you that from personal experience. I have a child in sports. It's been a long two months with tears and stress. I can envision the entire team crying out of relief, including the coach. It's been hard as a parent watching from 1,000 miles away.

Is it possible that by taking the financial part away from the Athletic Dept. and the AD, they happened to "find" money? Maybe a new conference is on the horizon. I still find it odd that the decision of cutting sports had to be made in two months. Such huge decisions and too many other possibilities that couldn't be made in such a short time. I would welcome them going to the Summit. The travel costs alone in savings would make up the shortfall 3 times probably.

That's what I'm reading. It talks about the budget shortfall and talks about Mark Kennedy, so I doubt it's from 2010...

Well the article I just read talks about President Kennedy...so pretty sure that's new

No actually it's not. It's new. Read the story....

Interesting points, however, I would like to say I don't think the university is too concerned about how much "Local" talent they have on their rosters. The school offers a discounted tuition rate to a number of states. Although I'm sure they would like to see kids from the state on the rosters, I don't think it's something that will make or break a sport. As far as facilities being on or off campus, there are quite a few mid-major schools with facilities off campus and they do quite well. Yes, it may influence the attendance some I'll give you that. With a facility off campus, sometimes it is cheaper than having one on campus. Rent on a softball field may be $2-3,000 for the year. No maintenance involved. Personally, a move to the Summit is overall, in my opinion, the way to go and keep football in Big Sky...if they would allow it. Your travel costs would be drastically reduced. Take that money and put towards making the sports stronger. Plus, you would be playing teams more local and I think that in itself would draw more people to attend the games. You still probably have to put your teams down to the 18 mark, but with the change in conference, it would free up a lot of cash.

I am very new to UND and this forum and have found this all to be unsettling at best. However, when you research the 3 components of Title IX, it is basically never says anywhere, that I can find, there has to be equal money spent. In fact, component 3 of Title IX says, (in a nutshell) budgets for male and female sports need not be identical, but it is important to document that the needs of girls sports teams are being met. Seems rather gray area to me. It also states items such as uniforms, coaching quality, practice and game schedules, facility access, facility quality, equipment quality and quantity, competent officials and a similar number of sport offerings and competitive levels are included in component 3. Component 2, which addresses financial assistance, simply says is must be strictly proportional. Component 1, which addresses effective accommodation of interests, simply says out of the 3 prongs, only one has to be met. I think here is where it becomes cloudy, with part b and c of the prong. Prong A says female sports participation should be proportional to female enrollment in the school. Prong B says the school shows a recent history of expanding sport offerings for women, either new sports or competitive levels for girls within the past 3-5 years. Prong C says the interests and abilities of female athletes have been fully and effectively accommodated, as documented by regularly administered surveys of females for emerging interests in sports. President Kennedy said he wanted to make sure the sports that were kept represented UND, and because MIH is so amazing, perhaps he feels the enthusiasm for WIH would carry over? Maybe it's because there are not as many WIH teams and UND gets recognition there? Maybe he feels there are Olympic opportunities out there? Clearly there seems to be many questions without many good answers. I do have a question to ask regarding the tennis teams. So, tennis is a core requirement for Big Sky. With that being said, having the tennis teams at these meetings trying to explain why they shouldn't be cut, leads me to the question of A) is a Summit move taking more shape than we thought because it's not required for Summit or B) are they planning on asking Big Sky permission to cut a core sport? Because, with a Summit move, everything is on the chopping block except men's and women's basketball, which is their only requirement. So after that, you can pretty much pick and choose the sports you wish to keep.

So, the softball team went 8/0 for the fall season! The team looks quite good and it's obvious that Coach Stevens has some great talent in his new recruits. Certainly moving in the right direction for conference contention. Will be looking forward to seeing them play in the spring.