bincitysioux

Yes, UND is a space grant university.

I don't see why that would be a factor. Carson-Newman, Arkansas-Monticello, and Concordia St. Paul are also DII in the eyes of DI. As long as NDSU continues to schedule at least one I-A game each year, they will likely continue to schedule one DII each year to offset it. In 2008, that could be UND. Wouldn't it be better for NDSU to bring in UND in 2008 for free and have 19,000 fans buy a ticket than it would for them to pay a different DII $35,000 to come to Fargo and only have 12,000 butts in the seats?

Yeah, I agree it is too bad that only 58 schools field an ice hockey program. It gets real old for us UND fans watching our school beat up on the schools that do have DI hockey. Ya know, like Minnesota, Notre Dame, Michigan, Wisconsin, Boston College, Ohio St., etc., etc., etc. Not nearly as exciting as NDSU's first DI sporting event against Valparaiso's non-scholarship football program. Did you know that that game was like NDSU's 5th biggest drawing fb game at the Fargodome in history? The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th biggest were all against UND.

That makes alot of sense. Kearney is the key, I think. If the NCC loses USD and fails to add Kearney, UNO has absolutely no incentive at all to stay in the NCC. I also think that the NCC and the NSIC will do everything that they can to avoid an actual merger. But they will perhaps work together on an unoffical expansion and scheduling arrangement, in order to maintain the two NCAA autobids that they currently have in the Northwest Region. The remaining NCC schools will look to add a few of the NSIC schools and/or DAC/GPAC schools like USF, Minot St., or preferably Winona St. or Northern St from the NSIC. Remember, Roger Thomas also has ties to Augustana and the Sioux Falls area. Although, I think that with UND and USD gone (if USD ends up going), that the top NSIC schools would prefer to remain in the NSIC. I think 5-10 years from now, the NSIC is going to be the premier DII conference in the upper midwest.

On WDAZ, Coach Lennon said he wanted to be playing NDSU, Montana, & Montana St.

I think it is unlikely that it would be that early. There are alot of variables. I would be surprised if it happens before the middle of the 2007-08 academic year (exploratory year) at the very, very earliest. All the UND fans now need to start pulling for NDSU & SDSU to get into the Mid-Con within the next couple of years because that would solidify the Great West, and make UND extremely attractive to the Mid-Con & GWFC. The worst thing that could happen would be if the Mid-Con snuffed the State U's, and the Big Sky added NDSU at some point during our transition.

Don't forget which University had DI athletics first! The reality is that in the last 5 years 3 of the top 4 athletic programs of the NCC left (now UND is leaving making it 4 of 4). NDSU has always been one of the top athletic programs in the NCC. However if NDSU had been Augustana-like athletically in the past 25 years and Augustana had been NDSU-like athletically in the pat 25 years and Auggie had left while NDSU stayed, UND would still be leaving. NDSU doesn't have an inferiority complex, they are simply inferior! I admit though, NDSU made the right decision when they left, and UND is making the right decision to leave now (finally).

When they do finally play again for the first time, it will undoubtedly be in the Fargodome.

Does anybody happen to know when exactly the FSSN first became operational and when it first started televising all the home games?

A South Dakota radio station interviewed USD's A.D. Joel Neilson today. There is a breif recap of what he had to say about the situation that USD is left in at the USD Coyote Fan Board. I would really like to see USD take the plunge with us. At the very least it would be one guaranteed entertaining football game and two guaranteed entertaining basketball games each year throughout the transition.

Thanks, Brandon. And thank-you for your dedication to DII Football. You provide one of, if not the best avenue for news and insight about DII athletics, including the University of North Dakota.

I was just surfing the web and saw on South Dakota State's site that seven different Jackrabbit sports can be heard on the radio in South Dakota, and the rights to each sport are split up between two separately owned broadcasting companies. http://www3.sdstate.edu/Athletics/Broadcasts/Index.cfm Perhaps this is what UND should have been doing. Offer the big draws of Hockey and Football together as a package, and M & W Basketball and Women's Hockey as a separte package. I know the Clear Channel network is great because it reaches so far, but Basketball games are on GF station 100.3 FM only. Good luck getting that if you're more than 25 miles away from Grand Forks.

It would appear so. The only game that doesn't conflict is UND vs. Winona, UMary plays a night game that night. I don't think it matters much, as long as KXMR still broadcasts UND football games, which is why it was stupid for NDSU to break off negotiations with CC just because they couldn't get KFYR. KXMR is probably the second most powerful station in the state, trailing only KFYR. I wonder if that means that Hockey will move over to KFYR? That would be a good thing for hockey fans.

I just heard the blurbs on the radio today, but WDAZ reported tonight that Chancellor Potts will ask the State Board of Higher Education to buy out Chapman's contract if he doesn't acknowledge Potts' authority.

That would suck.

They're saying on Bisonville.com that the reason NDSU cut off negotiations with Clear Channel was because they were told that KFYR would not be available to carry NDSU games. Why would that be? UND football has always been on KFYR, and according to that GF Herald article, will continue to be.

Whoops, you failed! Sorry, but I don't think that the DAC-10 schools are our peers. They are simply what is available to play in our region, along with NSIC teams. Our men's bball program is indeed in disarray, however they were only two games below .500 last year, and won 20 games the year before. I am excited about our new coach and a change in philosophy. The entire non-conference schedule consists of NSIC and DAC schools because that is what is available to UND to without having to pay large guarantees. And that is why a move to Division I is necessary.

I sure don't either. Arrgghhh!!! And I thought when last years schedule came out that it couldn't get any worse. I've been proven wrong, again. My freshman year at UND I had a close friend who played basketball at Mayville St. so I drove down for just about all of his home games so I am absolutely ecstatic that I'll get to watch UND play all of the teams I watched Mayville play back then. {note extreme sarcasm, beating head against monitor} And why have the Dickinson St. game on Dec. 8 start at 6:00 when the Hockey team is playing Wisconsin at 7:30? If they had an afternoon matinee game they could get a decent attendance for that game just because of all the people in town for the hockey game. I can tell you though that I ain't shelling out $12 to watch the first half of a basketball game against Dickinson. Same thing with Jan. 20th. Conflicting Bball game against UNO with a hockey game against Bemidji. The UNO game is a game that would actually be fun to go to, but alot of people won't because the hockey game will be going on next door. And Feb 10th Duluth is in town for basketball, Mankato for Hockey and the games will be played at the same time. If they're trying to generate interest in a floundering men's basketball program they're going about the wrong way by putting together this type of schedule and then pitting the team head-to-head against the hockey program on gameday. The only intriguing non conference game is obviously Northern St. I'd bet that one will be on the FSSN, that is if any of the non-conference games will be televised.

Today is the 12th of June, the last Herald article regarding the radio deal reported that today could be the day an announcement was made. Anyone heard anything?

Sounds quite similar to NDSU's 1st year DI schedule. It wasn't pretty, but they survived.

Because the NCC has an autobid and the great west doesn't. That was my assumption. How many years until a conference can get an auto bid? 13? I could be off a little bit but it goes something like this.......the same 6 full member schools have to be together for 5 years.

I just wanted to say that since this whole nickname issue fired up, I have a new-found respect for Dr. Kupchella. I think he has handled it very well in taking a hard stance against the NCAA. His latest letter just reaffirms my new opinion of him. And in regards to the hypocrisy (sp?) in the manner this resolution was implemented by the NCAA, I can't seem to find it now, but I believe I recently read that of the original 17 schools on the list that there are only 5 or 6 that are still on it including UND. That is pretty bad if you ask me.

Question: If a transitional school like NDSU or SDSU is admitted into a conference with an autobid, what happens if one of the transition schools wins the conference title? Does the 2nd place team or highest ranked non-transition team get the automatic bid? Question #2: Why is Chicago St. leaving the Mid-Con? I understand that they are in some hot water with some NCAA violations, but why voluntarily leave the conference? Did the Mid-Con ask them to leave?

Well I don't see a problem with 12 teams versus 10 teams, and I have no idea about the Mid-Cons expansion intentions. I just don't understand two divisions for a non-football conference. If you had 12 teams you'd just have 22 conference basketball games. My question is does the split-division format benefit any sports other than football?

What is the advantage to a split-division conference that does not sponsor football?