GeauxSioux

Hence my questions: Does this sound like stability? My original post started out that I had questions regarding auto-bid and "core" schools regarding the BSC. Do you have any information on how each of these would impact the Big Sky or do you want to drop the facade and just call me stupid?

I was playing off the posts by both sicatoka and wyobisonman stating that the west coast big city schools would bolt for a conference that is a better fit. And yes, I think that the Dakota schools would offer better stability to a conference. How long were all of them in the NCC? Was it 1926 that it started? That is pretty stable. How many conferences in the country have had that kind of stability?

Questions for anyone who may know. If a majority of the presidents did decide that they wanted some stability for the future and voted all 4 of the Dakota schools in, who would bolt the conference? How would that affect the auto-bid for the Big Sky? How long would it take insofar as the "core school" portioin of the equation? I doubt that the 4 school scenario would happen all at once. It would need to be done incrementally. From past experience the Big Sky has always said that geography was the biggest stumbling block to the Dakotas, but if they had an attractive arrangement I would think that could overcome the geography problem. Perhaps taking NDSU and SDSU wasn't attractive enough to overtake geography. Perhaps a UND/NDSU or USD/SDSU would be due to the natural rivalries. I know much more about the UND/NDSU than the USD/SDSU. I would think that a conference would love to have what the North Dakota combo has to offer. The schools are less than 80 miles apart, nearly the same size and very competitive with each other.

I think if you had asked any Bison fan 1 year or even 6 months ago what they thought of the Mid-Con you would have had a much different answer than you have today. It may be that they just "warmed up" to the idea of being in the Mid-Con, but I would guess that most would still rather be in the Mid-Con. Good luck with your upcoming campus visits from the Mid-Con people. I don't recall any UND poster saying that a BSC invitation is a "cinch". Star2City seems to have done the most research on the Big Sky and even some of his posts have been tempered with "hope". As for me, I too am just hopeful that it is possible in the near future, as I think the BSC is the best fit for UND.

The gang that couldn't shoot straight. It seems to me that Paulson wants Potts gone Now and doesn't want to wait for until July 2007. http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/20...tate/118458.txt

I saw this in the Bismarck Tribune. As it stands Potts will remain the chancellor.

If we were talking about a big time BCS type football championship with a huge national audience and the capture all of media outlets around the globe, you may have a point, but Division II or even I-AA championships don't enjoy that kind of attention. By the way, I know you think that the comparison between your new logo and the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz is being overdone, but I still laugh everytime I see it. It's almost as if the Cowardly Lion was morphed into the logo. You may have some copyright problems with that.

From what I have heard it was a typo. It should have been $300,000.

Yes overall NDSU has more national championships than UND, but you will have to agree that most of those are in low profile, non-revenue sports. I am not trying to slight the championships or the athletes that earned them, just an observation that they are not something that give you high profile as an athletic department to the fan/supporter. The revenue sports is where UND was shining more brightly than NDSU and therefore leaving NDSU in a shadow. I know that you Bison fans don't like hearing it, but UND has 7 NCAA DIVISION I NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS. That leaves a huge shadow for someone else.

To say that Kupchella is not a visionary is inaccurate. His visions tend to be more academic than athletic, but he does have a vision for the University. http://www.UND.edu/stratplan/ He had also gone through a similar classification transition in Missouri and learned how painful they can be. You couple that together with the list that Star2CIty enumerated and he felt that it wasn't the right time. To say that he didn't think about it is being disingenuous. I think that UND was comfortable with where they were. We had a good solid D2 conference. The hockey team plays and excels in the best conference in the country. Why not be somewhat comfortable. I also believe that NDSU moved to get out from UND's shadow. Football is THE sport at NDSU and you were losing that battle to UND for the better part of 10 years and something had to be done. I do agree that Buning is doing a great job, but I think Kupchella is as well.

GF Herald story on Schmidt. http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/sports/15131743.htm

The title banner on the top of the page spells Sioux "Souix". Is that offensive or abusive?

Clemson and South Carolina Georgia and Georgia Tech are a couple of more that come to mind. Last game played in the year and big $$$ event.

This is really a story about what Jones has been doing so far, but it does touch on scheduling as well. http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/sports/15122941.htm

Attendance requirement may not be an issue. http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.d.../607230310/1001

I didn't say that UND has been dominant in the last 15 years. In fact the Glas years have been a disppointment with the exception of the early 90's when he had great assistants like McDermott. In showing the records against the SU's and USD I was demonstrating that over the long haul UND has faired well for being a "hockey school". You chose to take a snapshot of the last 15 years of men's basketball to make your point. There is one thing that is changing with the move to Division I and that change has already occured in coaching. I was not alone in my trek between the venues. You can still go to a hockey games against Minnesota after playing a basketball game against, say UWGB. They typically start the hockey games later when the basketball team is home. I'm not involved in the decision making of scholarships, but if you can get a money game in a couple of years after playing I-AA football and the basketball team will not be able to get to "the dance" for a few years it would seem that football is where the scholarships should be allocated. The $$ made of the "money game" in football could pay for scholarships elsewhere. I realize that some conferences such as the Mid-Con would look at basketball scholarships first others such as Big Sky would look toward the football scholarships. Some may look at that as a telling sign of where UND is trying to position itself.

Yes hockey and basketball are played at the same time of the year, but they don't play at the same time of the day and they are not always at home on the same weekend. There are many nights when I would go to WBB, MBB and hockey all in the same night and that was when you had to walk in the dead of winter from Hyslop to the old REA. Hockey has been the primary sport at UND for quite some time and yet have winning records against: NDSU 156-128 USD 94-77 SDSU 105-77 I think that shows some commitment to basketball.

I have read on other board where others feel our success in hockey will work against us. Their point often being that with hockey being king at UND everything else suffers and that conferences wouldn't invite UND because we wouldn't put money or effort into the other programs that would be a part of their conference. I have a different take on the issue. I think that the exposure that UND hockey receives would enhance the visibility of the conference in which the remainder of UND's sports would be members. I also believe that UND hockey would see an expanded fan base, especially if we were able to get into the Big Sky. I have read that there is quite a significant hockey following in Montana for instance who may end up following UND hockey. I have family in New Orleans that are huge UNO Privateer fans that have since started following Denver Pioneer hockey, only because they are both in the Sunbelt Conference.

Does a ticket include free salad bar? Cool.

I'm not scumming the Mid-Con. The end of my post says "if given a choice". It just seems that the majority of the Bison fans that are posting here are saying that they wouldn't jump if the Big Sky did offer. I think that you would have to admit that the Big Sky is much more in line with peer institutions than the Mid-Con.

It makes sense in I-A, but I agree that it doesn't in I-AA unless I-AA goes away from the playoff system. Which I think most would agree isn't going to happen anytime soon. I'm trying to understand why it seems many Bison fans on SS.com are saying that NDSU wouldn't jump to the Big Sky if offered. I would think that the alumni base ($$$) would be more inclined to give if NDSU was Big Sky rather than Mid-Con. I'm assuming that NDSU has a sizable alumni population in Denver and the western states, more so than in Mid-Con land. Big Sky makes more finanacial sense if given a choice.

I disagree that NDSU would stay put in the Mid-Con if they were invited to the Big Sky. I think they would jump. If he knows that they will never come east, why say anything at all. He would gain nothing by saying it.

I'm hoping that you're right. I don't know NDSU is going to handle their MidCon invite, as I think it is coming. They would need something concrete from the BSC to turn down an invitation from the MidCon.

You're right that indoor is much more difficult to expand. I believe that is why Sicatoka said some "creative engineering" may be required. My point is you need to start somewhere. Hopefully there was some mindset during design that expansion could happen in the years to come. As for playing outside, I think you would see the attendance fall back down. When I lived in GF I never missed a game, no matter what the weather, but back in the 80's and 90's attendance was a far cry from where it is now. I went to the Potato Bowl last year and it was great to be indoors. The crowd was great, the atmosphere, the noise. I don't remember Memorial rocking like that for a many years (with the exception of the Bison games), even when we had good teams.