bincitysioux

I think that we could be amazed at what this simple statement could do for UND Men's Basketball recruiting after a recruit walks out out of the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center down the hall and into the Ralph Engelstad Arena: "You could be playing Division I college basketball in this building."

Without trying to come off as arrogant or smacky, I don't think that it would be interesting at all. Average DI basketball attendance in 2004-05 was 5,095. Now let's define "successful DI mid-major". I would say that Gonzaga is the epitomy of a consistent, successful "mid-major" program. They draw an even 6,000 per game. Granted, they sell out every game, so it is unclear of their total possible drawing potential if they played in a bigger home arena. However, NDSU basketball, or UND basketball for that matter (if they go DI) is long, long, long ways off from being the caliber of Gonzaga. So, UND Hockey draws double of what the average DI basketball program does, and nearly double of what undisputedly is the most successful and high-profile mid-major basketball program in all of college basketball. Furthermore, UND Hockey draws better than all but 32 of the 326 DI basketball programs in the nation. The popularity of hockey in this region is further exemplified by Sicatoka's post about Gopher basketball attendance, keeping in mind that the Big 10 conference is the oldest conference in country, and a conference made up of some of the largest schools in the country with enormous fan bases. Only six of the eleven Big Ten basketball programs outdraw UND hockey. The three highest drawing programs in college hockey are Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Minnesota. That alone makes me think that hockey must be pretty damn popular in this region of the country. No "mid-major" basketball program could ever touch UND Hockey.

He would be a nice addition to UND. I went to alot of JC games when he coached there. He has a good coaching style, that is fun to watch.

Dan Grossman, UND's all-time career receptions leader, signed with the Sioux Falls Storm of the United Indoor Football League last week. Good Luck, Dan!! http://www.siouxfallsstorm.com/news/detail.cfm?id=205 Tony Hermes also plays for the Storm.

That's what I meant to say. UND and NDSU have always competed for recruits, and I think the DI label is gonna cause NDSU to win the vast majority of recruits, especially those from the twin cities area.

Yeah, they probably do. But I think a big difference between these schools and UND is that UND and NDSU have always been the most visible universities in our region. UND and NDSU are the "flagship" institutions of our state. Down the road, if UND remains DII, we are in jeopardy of losing our "flagship" status. I'm afraid that fans of Michigan/Michigan St. or Nebraska-Lincoln, probably view schools like GVSU or UNO in the same way that we view Mayville St. or Mary.

Isn't this the same job that Rob had with the UND Alumni Foundation?

Damn you, DakotaDan. Why'd you have to bring that up?!?

Geez, UND is the only team in the NCC that hasn't released their schedule yet. Either they're really trying to get out of that game with Mesa St. or they're really trying to get that extra game in August. Or both.

Isn't the owner of Forum Communications, Steve Marcil, a notorious tight-ass? Would he really be interested in expanding? He already has the GF television market.

Thank you Kristi Boese and Amy Mahlum!!!!!!!!!!!

71-66 with 23 sec to go

69-63 with :36 seconds to go!

Congratulations to both the Men's and Women's S&D teams! They got 3rd and 4th place respectively at the national tournament. Rodrigo set another record! It is indeed a great time to be a fan of Fighting Sioux athletics.

Holy cow! The softball team is 6-2 and has won 6 in a row! Good job ladies!

I'm sure from a financial stand point, the MIAA makes alot more sense to UNO than the NCC, i.e. rivalries and travel. To my knowledge, UNO's biggest in-conference rivals (hence biggest draws for football and basketball) were USD and nearly equally with SDSU. They've lost SDSU, and they were replaced with two schools from the Pacific Northwest. I imagine that is not a fun situation. At least UND still has SCSU as a rival and Duluth (from the hockey history) is becoming somewhat of a rival. I'll bet if UNO played Pitt St. in conference year in and year out, that could develop into one hell of a rivalry. I don't blame them for looking at the MIAA, but I sure don't want them to leave the NCC.

That's what I'm saying. If UND is gonna be a part of the NCC for the long-term, RT better be trying to make UNO happy, and keep them here too. I feel that the NCC is bad enough as it is now, I would want no part of it if UNO were not in it.

I found this comment by a Jackrabbit fan over on SDSU's message board. http://diaafootball.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB....384;start=30#30 I can understand the arguments that schools like USD or SCSU might follow UND if we move to DI. I know we have already speculated about it several times, but if it is true that the UNO AD is talking about leaving the NCC for the MIAA due to the geography of the current NCC, with its current members as is, that is scary. If UND decides to stay in DII, can you imagine a six team NCC that does not include UNO? If we're gonna stay, we better go to work at getting Kearney to join this league. If we're gonna move, we better do it before we lose basically our biggest draw for all sports for our last years in DII.

UMD 5 to 2. Way to go Dawgz!!!!

DU scores with 5 min left

Gwozdecki is climbing around on the boards again, the little monkey!!

I can't blame them. Could you ever be a fan of that program?

Me too. I'm pretty stoked that the West Regional tix that have been sitting in my desk drawer for the last 5 months are gonna get used!!!

Ditto! Someone here said a few days ago that it was time to face it that this Sioux team wasn't going to do anything in the NCAA's this year. Things have changed alot in about a 48 hour span. We just handled one of the hottest teams in the WCHA (even if it was the Dirty Mavs) pretty soundly in 2 out of 3. Now we're looking at getting out of the play-in game at the Final Five. Zajac is finally getting hot. And we are going to be PLAYING in the West Regional in our building. This young team could end up doing something special!

For what it is worth, Adam Woden just said during the CHA Championship intermission that he thinks North Dakota locked up an NCAA berth by winning last night. I hope he is right.