82SiouxGuy

There is a pretty good chance that you are both right. Florida State knows that there will come a time when their use of the Seminole name again will be challenged. It might come because the tribe doesn't feel like it needs them any more. It may come because the NCAA takes the next step, it is obvious that the current policy isn't the end game for the NCAA. So it might just be a matter of which happens first, or maybe the NCAA will work with the tribe, or maybe the NCAA will wait for the tribe to make a move and the NCAA will expand the policy at that time. Either way, the policy isn't going away and will probably be expanded at some point. So FSU is being proactive. They see a problem ahead and they have come up with a potential solution. At the same time they can make some extra money by selling Cimarron stuff to kids and maybe even pull in some new fans with the cute new mascot.

I do know how hard it is to schedule games. NDSU did well. But the grudge that some of you are holding is unbelievable. And I'm not going to go through the math again, but NDSU could come out ahead by well over $100,000 over a 2 year period by using premium pricing for UND games and by not having to pay anything to bring in an opponent. SU is doing "fine" but could be doing even better. That doesn't include the huge PR boost that both schools will get for each game. A large part of the state and parts of both Minnesota and South Dakota would be watching a UND-NDSU game on television and that is exposure that neither school would get for a game against pretty much anyone else. That PR is worth a lot of money.

There is a group on Bville that still have their feelings hurt from when Roger Thomas canceled all games between the schools. Somehow they believe that this damaged NDSU, even though they brag about how successful their transition was to Division I (I don't know how you can have both sides of that story). That group doesn't want anything to do with UND, and some of them would be very happy to damage UND any way they could. Some of us have explained to Bison fans on this board how they could come out money ahead doing a home and home with UND versus hosting home games each year with some nobody school. But they can't seem to grasp the math, the grudge gets in their way. I really don't know how they can get anything done in life carrying that heavy load around all of the time.

You mean the game played right after the NDSU football team lost in the playoffs? Don't you think that the football loss might have played a part in the attitude of the crowd? Especially since the NDSU fans had probably been drinking all afternoon watching football, only to have their hopes and dreams shattered. And UND was losing pretty bad so their fans weren't going to have fun. Another very selective opinion.

Two of the biggest problems are there is no housing available, and regular businesses can't afford to pay the wages needed to keep employees. A 1 bedroom apartment goes for at least $2,000 per month if you can find one. A sleeping room alone is at least $800. McDonald's is paying $17-20 per hour and has trouble keeping employees. They are building housing, motels and other businesses as fast as they can. But they have trouble bringing in people to do the construction. They don't have a place for the construction people to live. It has become a vicious circle. Besides that, the sewer system, water system and highway system are all being pushed to the limits. They are trying to catch up on those also. They were overwhelmed and are going to have trouble catching up within the next couple of years.

Reed mentioned the $250k and said he felt good that it was so close since the other side had spent all that money on a campaign. Obviously, the Alumni Foundation has spent very little of that money. But I would watch for a campaign coming to a North Dakota newspaper near you within the next couple of weeks.

Reed Soderstrom was on KNOX radio and said that they are still working on the Constitutional Amendment. As far as he knows, they are still around 20,000 signatures. They need approximately 27,000 approved signatures, so they will probably need to get at least 32-33,000. They need them by early August to get on the November ballot, but he said that they could also turn them in by early December to get a special election next spring. The main reason he was on was to discuss the Forum poll. He continues to say that the warnings of harm to UND are just fearmongering. He said that the sanctions are marginal. He says that UND will not be removed from the Big Sky and part of his proof is that the schedules are made out until 2015. He accuses the people trying to retire the name of lying. And he is still promoting that people vote no to defeat the NCAA. Of course he is wrong about the potential damage to UND, the Big Sky has the ability to remove UND at any time they want, and we have seen mainly lies and partial truths coming from his group. The 1 question I have never heard anyone ask him is how a no vote will defeat or harm the NCAA. A no vote will not harm the NCAA in any way, but it will harm the University.

There is still the Constitutional Amendment issue, the group is still working on getting signatures to put that on the ballot next November. Who knows what Al is going to do next.

I guess that the President of UT doesn't have a clue. These are his words from today's USA Today, which was linked earlier in this thread, http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/story/2012-05-13/texas-william-powers-split-division-i-football/54959996/1. But of course a Bison fan knows more about football and college athletics than the President of UT. Also from the article. Glad you could come and educate all of us on what will happen in the future since you, as a wise Bison fan, obviously know so much more about the top end of college athletics than people who aren't involved like President Powers and President Emmert. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

Why do people get caught in this idea that things can't be changed? The only constant in sports and in all of history is change. If FCS can thrive as a division now, why can't another division be carved out and still thrive?

I knew I was missing one, but couldn't think of it. So all except Jamestown College and U Mary are controlled by the state of North Dakota. The rest of the point is still true.

Why don't you tell the President of the University of Texas, the Athletic Director from the University of Idaho and the former Athletic Director from the University of Montana that this can't possibly happen. They have all discussed it publicly, the first 2 in stories this week. The disparity in resources is exactly the reason that it could possibly happen. All you have to do is look at high school sports in EVERY STATE in the country. Schools move up and down because of student population, and some are able to move up to compete at a higher level. But they are able to have games against different levels. This isn't rocket science. BCS schools already play non-BCS and FCS schools. Lower level play games against upper level. Maybe you missed where NDSU played the University of Minnesota in football? This isn't something that someone on SiouxSports.com made up. People at the top of college athletics believe that it is possible. Just because you can't wrap your mind around it doesn't mean it doesn't have some validity. There are major issues in college athletics, and major differences in resources between schools. Something is going to happen. Lower level FBS schools can't compete with BCS schools and BCS schools are giving away more money than they want to lower level schools. There is no guarantee that this set up is going to happen, but it isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Which was my original post.

The NCAA uses scholarships to define the levels right now. That doesn't mean that they have to use that in the future. The top 50 programs in FBS spend on average more than double what the rest of FBS spends on athletics. That separates them into 2 different divisions. Possibly the current BCS schools would pay athletes a stipend, as has been discussed in the past. Most of them have the revenue to do that while the other FBS schools do not. So maybe the BCS would have 85 scholarships plus a $2,000 stipend per player, FBS made up of the lower conferences of current FBS and the upper conferences from FCS have the 85 scholarships and the remainder of FCS have 63. Maybe 85, 75 and 63. Or they could split it any different way they wanted. You act like all of this is written in stone. The NCAA has the ability to create different rules if it wants to create new rules. What is so hard to understand about that?

I didn't say that they would be, did I. Try reading what I wrote. I said that the NCAA has the ability to do it. Of course the difference in your example is that Notre Dame is a private school and not controlled by the state in any way so the state couldn't control the Notre Dame moniker. UND, NDSU and every other school in North Dakota other than Jamestown College is controlled by the state. If the NCAA decides that they want to put sanctions on the state of North Dakota because of a law that they believe is objectionable, they can. As I have said in many other posts, I don't think that the NCAA will do that, but they absolutely have the ability to do it. Go troll back on Bville if you can't comprehend what is written here.

It is definitely possible that there could be someone outside the UND hockey family that fits the qualifications and might be interested. But UND has been hiring mainly UND alumni as hockey coaches for most of the last 35 or more years. Blais is one of the few exceptions. So my money is on a UND alumnus if one is available.

UND hasn't officially finished the transition to Division I yet, so it is understandable why they wouldn't be actively puruing FBS. The lower levels of FBS under the current conditions are very difficult for many schools. Montana said that when they looked at moving up. However, the situation will be different if the BCS schools set up their own division. I am pretty sure that UND is watching the developments and would be able to make an adjustment if that is needed.

That would be my guess also. It is probably a pretty short list of people that might be available, meet the requirements, and have a UND connection. Berry is at the top of that list.

The way the University system works it is almost impossible to hire someone that doesn't fit the requirements listed in the job listing. If those items weren't actually required they wouldn't have been put in the job description. That job description was written with specific needs in mind, so I don't see any way that they would just throw out the job description to hire someone else. Hakstol obviously wants someone with strong experience in coaching defensemen, he isn't looking to train a new coach. Hale may be a good coach in the future, but you normally don't get a job with one of the top programs in college hockey without some strong previous experience.

The job listing says that they require experience coaching defensemen at the Division I level, they require recruiting experience at the Division I level, and have several other requirements for specific experience. I don't believe that Hale has any of those. So he may not qualify based on the requirements listed in the job description.

I was bored enough to do a little math. In 2011 the Mountain West, Conference USA, WAC, Sunbelt and Mid-American conferences added together averaged 22,168 fans in seats per game. Adding in the Big East would bring the average up to 25,553 per game. The Sunbelt and Mid-American both averaged less than 20,000 and the WAC was less than 21,000. I could see them either eliminating a minimum or setting it at 10,000 or less for a newly defined FBS with the above conferences plus a few more like the Big Sky, MVFC and the top eastern and southern conferences.

And if the price of oil goes down to $40 per barrel it won't matter because the cost will be too high to drill. Or if other things change and the demand for oil goes down. Things look good out there, but there are no guarantees that they will continue. It is far too early in the process to know what will happen long term.

That depends on what a new FBS looks like. Once you take out the BCS schools, most of the ones that are left won't be playing in 50,000 seat or bigger stadiums. Most will probably be more in the 20,000-40,000 range. The Alerus may be in a workable range, although probably near the low end. Demand for tickets is a bigger factor in deciding whether a new stadium will be needed.

A lot of the people coming in to work in the oil industry are not permanent residents at this point. They may or may not stay. The entire area is in a state of flux. Things are going to change, but I'm not going to trust your take on the long term situation. I have other people I know living in the area that give me information I trust.

Wow! Nothing else, just wow.