mksioux

I agree 100%. The problem is that these small towns depend on their universities and I can't imagine a political scenario where some of them are shut down. As far as Hoeven intervening into the conference affiliation issue, I just can't see it. He's been relatively hands-off on the Sioux nickname issue. It doesn't appear that he cares enough about athletics to spend political capital on the issue. I think UND is on its own in finding a conference.

I hope there will not be meaningful notice and penalties requirements for leaving this new "conference". I understand the benefits of having a scheduling alliance with other independents, but I hope UND does not make too much of an investment in it.

Oh boy. I can already hear the forensic accountants firing up their calculators.

When looking at the 2008 schedule, to me, it's more important to look at the road games and see which opponents you were able to secure a home-and-home with. USD did a very good job securing home-and-homes with McNeese and SE Louisiana. Last I heard, SE Louisiana will not be making a return trip to UND.

I tend to favor an outside applicant. Having said that, it kind of bothers me that they cited a hard deadline as the reason not to accept this person's application. Today was the first time I'd seen anywhere that there was a hard deadline for applications. If there was a hard deadline that I didn't know about, and this guy missed it, then I have no sympathy for him or anyone that supports him. But I don't think a hard deadline was ever established. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. On the other hand, what took him so long to express interest? I presume he wrote a "letter of interest" instead of formally applying to get around North Dakota's (way too) open records laws. But why did he do it so late? It just seems odd.

I'm a little under the weather (not of the self-induced variety) and won't be able to make it this year for the first time ever. If you're short of players, let me know and I'll still pitch in for the ice. Good luck!

Oh boy - the timeless "class-no class" debate from the hockey forum has made its way to womens basketball.

I don't understand why this theory that UND settled the nickname lawsuit because Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa wouldn't schedule us is becoming more and more popular (I'm not singling you out Goon as this theory is held by many on message boards). This recent vote by the NCAA members pretty much disproves that theory. I'm sure the scheduling ban played a role in some people's general outlook on keeping the Sioux nickname, but that's a separate issue than the settlement. The primary reason the lawsuit was settled was because the NCAA was going to amend its Constitution to specificaly give the Executive Committee the authority to enact policies such as the nickname ban. So even if UND had won in court, the Executive Committee, with its new authority, would simply have re-enacted the same policy and there's nothing UND could have done about it. So UND cut its losses and got what it could out of a settlement. There's nothing complicated or conspiratorial about it. UND would have settled the lawsuit even if it had no interest in playing Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

Florida's politicians did a pretty good job of it.

It makes some people feel better to think everyone in the UND and USD communities were against the move to DI back when NDSU and SDSU made the move. That way they can see things on black-and-white and good-and-evil terms. That's par for the course on message boards.

I'm pretty sure Cal Poly will be away. I actually would prefer it that way as it would cement the two home, two away games per year rotation.

Despite its FBS status, the University of Idaho is quite similar to UND. It has an enrollment of approximately 11,000, and is situated in a city of about 23,000. They play in a domed football facility that seats about 16,000. Idaho went 1-11 in 2007, with their lone win coming against Cal Poly 20-13.

I think you read too much into the "highlight" comment. In the first year of DI, people are looking for what's different, not necessarily what's the same. A game against one of the best teams in FCS is significant. Add the Dale Lennon factor and it becomes the "highlight" of the season. Of the teams on the schedule, obviously USD is the biggest rivalry game on there, but that doesn't mean it's the "highlight" game in the first year of DI. In football, I consider USD to be UND's second biggest historical rival, and the biggest current rival. I'm not sure what more you want than that?

This rumor is finally confirmed.

He's radio. All radio guys are biased. If you want to compare apples to apples, you need to compare Sweeney to Mazzocco. Sweeney sure isn't perfect, but he's not anywhere near the homer that Mazzocco is. But you probably wouldn't know that because Gopher fans seldom, if ever, have to listen to anyone but their own broadcasters. FWIW, I actually like Woog.

FSN couldn't subject precious Gopher fans' ears to objective broadcasting. That would be cruel.

I misinterpreted you then. To me, saying Winona was a playoff team is different than saying the DII "folks" considered them a playoff caliber team. The former is a fact. The latter is an opinion, implying that the larger DII community considered them worthy of the playoffs. I interpreted your statement to be the latter, which I was refuting.

I appreciate your thoughts. I don't doubt the coaches did all they could to get the best possible schedule, but that doesn't make it a good schedule. It is what it is...a bad home schedule. Besides, I don't think it's a bad thing for there to be an element among the fan base to hold UND to the highest of standards. And even using your DII evaluation standard, I would not be happy with the DIII game. A lot of UND fans made fun of the NDSU-Valpo game, but I would have been much happier with a DI non-scholarship than a DIII non-scholarship, even if the DIII team is better. In fact, I think that DIII game is really what is rubbing me the wrong way. Replace that game with the worst no-scholarship DI team out there and I'd be much more accepting. Call me arrogant, but I just don't believe UND should be scheduling a DIII team.

I think it's good that people out there will spin this schedule into a positive. But this is a flat-out BAD home schedule, even under the circumstances. I didn't think two DI home games was too much to expect. The away schedule is decent, but I wish they could have gotten a return game out of Southeastern Louisiana. I'll still go to as many games as I can, but there's not even one home game I can get excited about. And I don't care how good this DIII team is, it's still a DIII team. There's no spinning around that. Nothing good can come from that game. I'd much rather have a DI non-scholarship team over a DIII team.

Didn't we have 9 games confirmed for the 2008 season six months ago? We saw how that turned out...

Ummm, not sure where you get that about Winona. Not many people thought Winona deserved to make the playoffs all those years. But I have to agree with you about the hockey connections. It would have been nice to see at least one of them pan out. That's probably an area where it would have been nice to have an AD.

Keep wishing....