mksioux

He was fired after he was cleared of the charges.

Right. People kept on bringing up state law in why it was taking UND so long, but I could find nothing in state law that would mandate such a lengthy process. The only thing state law had to do with it was the open records stuff. As far as I could tell, the rest of the convoluted process was all UND internal policies.

I think Mankato had to keep the "acting" or "interim" label on him until Hoffner's MNSCU appeal process was concluded.

Wow.

It should not be the job or the mission of a public university to protect students from being offended. There should be no "speech codes" at a public university. There should be no forced sensitivity training for those who don't share the same monolithic thought as the prevailing culture on that campus. The cure for "offensive" speech is more speech. It should not involve discipline from the university. This is the essence of a free society. How our society has devolved to a point where it accepts a public university disciplining students for speech it deems offensive is truly a sad indictment on our society as a whole.

The only positive thing to come from the nickname going away, or so I thought, was that I wouldn't have to listen to the whining and complaining from the anti-nickname crowd anymore. I guess not. It's not enough for them to have won. Now they want to "re-educate" everyone through sensitivity training into liking what happened (or at least to shut them up from expressing their opinions).

This has actually been discussed quite a bit on this board, and for a long time. I don't think your opinion is that unpopular on this board. I think most posters share it. Division I baseball makes little sense at UND. I'd much rather see lacrosse. I don't see it happening though.

Ummm, you mean my "viewing party" of 2? I think I'll just show up. If they don't want to put it on, I'll go somewhere else.

If anyone is watching the game in downtown Minneapolis, feel free to stop by the Pourhouse and join us. I figure that bar should have some goodwill toward UND fans after last weekend and will put the game on at least one of their big screens.

With less than a week to prepare and make arrangements, the only way you will see a lot of Sioux fans at a regional is if it is within a reasonable driving distance from Grand Forks or near a large alumni base like Denver or Minneapolis. That's the way it's always been as long as I've been a fan. Nothing has changed with the fan base.

Any Sioux fans planning on watching the game in downtown Minneapolis? If so, which bar? (I know Sensers in Bloomington and Roseville attract Sioux fans, but I prefer to stay downtown.)

Not at all actually. There are lots of affluent and "beautiful people" at Wolves games (at least in the lower level). They are quite tame. There's a greater chance of "thuggish" behavior at college hockey games than at a Wolves game.

There have been a few publicized incidents downtown over the past few years, but I've never felt unsafe. You just have to be smart. Don't talk to panhandlers, mind your own business, stay in groups, don't go off the beaten path, etc. Just use common sense and you'll be fine. As someone else said, the unsafe parts of Minneapolis are not downtown and there's really no reason you'd end up there.

It would still block the view of the suite holders on the end where you put the students. Preferably, you'd have a section where the students block nobody. But under the current design, it would be better to place the students on one of the ends then rope off the top row or two immediately below the suites, and then let the students stand.

Part of this was a design flaw in the Ralph. Sure, the Ralph is beautiful, no bad sight lines, etc., but they designed it like a pro arena. Students are a unique and essential part of the college game. For a college hockey arena, they should have designed a student section right into the design. A section where the students could stand and not block the view of others. I know people will say you don't need to stand to get into the game. That's true. But it's also true that, for whatever reason, students like to stand and are louder and more into the game when they stand. Rather than fight that, the Ralph should have embraced it.

Good insight. It's really too bad if police are going through the student line looking for evidence of consumption, like kids going to the high school prom or something. I'll add another theory which probably won't be popular with many posters on this board. As you said, not having the top rivals on the home schedule this year didn't help things. But I don't think it's just that they were not on the home schedule this year, I think part of it is that UND's conference no longer includes Minnesota and Wisconsin. Without the Big Ten schools in the same conference as UND, there could be a perception creeping into the new students that UND hockey is not "big-time." Obviously those students that know about UND history, or know something about college hockey, won't think that way. But some of the new students that don't have much familiarity with college hockey might perceive it that way. I hope that's not the case, but you can't completely discount it I don't think.

I watched all three games. I had a couple buffering issues a few seconds here or there each night, but nothing major. The feed definitely looked SD to me, not HD. This was a great product for free and I really appreciated being able to watch the games for free. But it confirms my previously held belief that the product is not worth paying for. Until it gets to the point where it is virtually like watching it on TV, I won't be paying for webcasts.

So when UND fans rally to vote for a UND player in the fan voting for the Hobey, do all the voters objectively believe every year that the UND player is better than all the other finalists? It's okay to be a homer for Hobey voting, but not okay for this? In the grand scheme of things, all of these fan voting things are meaningless, but this one is even more meaningless than the Hobey. I say, vote for whatever goal you want for whatever reason.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Phase I and II total $13 million? How long did it take for them to raise the funds for Phase I? I don't know the answer, but it seems it took a few years. And I don't believe they've even finished the fundraising for Phase II. How are they going to fund a Phase III, which at a minimum will double Phase I and II combined, in time for the timeline under your theory?

Moreover, it is extremely unlikely that a stadium expansion would be approved at the Alerus Center in time for the move-up in the next 2 or 3 years. Such an idea would have to go through the Alerus commission and then the city council. I doubt there is the political will at the city-level to approve a very costly stadium expansion in the near-term, particularly when UND has been at about 50% capacity the last couple years. At a minimum, the city would require UND to sign a lease amendment increasing rent and probably adding several more years to the back-end of the lease. Even then, I don't think an expansion could get done that quickly. Thus, as far as I can tell, there are no expansion plans at Memorial Stadium or the Alerus Center in the near future. The way I see it, short of a Engelstad-like donation, I don't see UND jumping to FBS anytime soon.

There are a lot of UND alumni that live in the Twin Cities area that might go to a Friday night game, but not a Friday afternoon game. Certainly not as many as Gopher fans, but probably more than St. Cloud fans. Having said that, I think the league should go with whatever CBS wants. Long term, I think it is in the league's best interest to get the best television ratings as possible and improve upon its television deal in the future.

Right now, the Sun Belt has absolutely no incentive to do it. Under SiouxVolley's theory, the Sun Belt contractually agreed to it a few years ago. His theory is that the Sun Belt had an incentive to make some sort of agreement like this back when Idaho was shopping around the WAC. I think his theory is that that the Sun Belt did not want the WAC to encroach on its territory and preferred that it stay out west. He thinks that Idaho was courting the MVFC (and maybe other FCS conferences?) and the Sun Belt didn't want that. Therefore, he thinks an agreement was entered into back then wherein the Sun Belt would let Idaho in for a few years until the Big Sky was ready to move up, then it would take in the Big Sky schools, then they'd break away two years later. Thus, ensuring that any new FBS conference stayed out west. However, SiouxVolley admits he has no evidence that such an agreement actually exists. Moreover, he hasn't really refuted the more probable possibility that no FCS conference was ready to move up at the time and all of them rejected Idaho/WAC. That, to me, is where the actual evidence lies. WAC football died because it couldn't attract any schools. It's probably as simple as that. There isn't always some grand conspiracy. Maybe the Sun Belt didn't want central/eastern competition from the WAC, but ultimately, it didn't have to worry about it because the WAC couldn't attract any conference to move up and WAC football simply died. SiouxVolley, what evidence is there that the MVFC or another other FCS conference was ready to make the move up if Idaho and the Sun Belt hadn't orchestrated this plan? And, moreover, why would Idaho not favor a sure thing with the MVFC or some other conference over a not-sure thing with the Big Sky? It seems to me that Idaho would have preserved the WAC with any schools ready, willing, and able to move up before the WAC charter died. Under your own theory, it is not a sure thing that the Big Sky will get enough schools FBS ready to make the move. I just don't see any evidence that Idaho had any conference seriously interested in moving up to FBS to save WAC football.

I don't know what you are talking about. I was responding to your claim of UND not being an "upper FCS team" not on UND's viability to compete with the schools you mentioned. UND certainly can and should be an upper FCS team.

Small-thinking. There is no reason UND can't be an upper FCS team.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I think UND football should be in the second highest division no matter what happens. I'm very skeptical of UND being in the highest division. But there is absolutely no reason UND should be in the third highest division. So, as it stands, UND is probably where they ought to be. If there is a split up top (which I highly doubt will happen), then UND has to move up to the second highest division.