82SiouxGuy

My point was that they had an overload of cases going into the fall season. Therefore it shouldn't surprise people if they are still running behind going into the winter season. They probably have the staff needed to take care of a regular year. If they have a larger than normal load, they can get behind. If they start the year behind they will probably be behind going into the next season. If they normally start working on winter sports on August 1, and don't get started until September 1 then they will have trouble getting done by the time the season starts. It just depends on the case load for the winter season.

The NCAA has a clearinghouse for eligibility and every player has to be cleared through them. I read earlier this fall that they had a huge backlog, it sounded like it was much bigger than normal. I know that a lot of college football players around the country were not cleared to play until after practice started, they are usually pretty much done with fall sports before camps open up. That, plus the fact that Sharkova is from overseas which can make getting records more difficult, may have contributed to the problem. It is always better to be safe than sorry in these cases.

Those are the people that keep the school from getting into trouble with the NCAA for using ineligible players, and the penalties that come with that.

Finley is just one of a long list of athletes that have suffered from concussions and the problems they can cause. Brent Burns of the Minnesota Wild suffered a concussion last year and missed the last portion of the season. Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Petr Sykora are both currently out with the injure, PMB has missed 15 games so far. Some mild concussions can heal rather quickly. Some athletes have had careers ended by concussion. Contributing factors can include the grade or severity of the injury, whether it is happened before or not and how fast the individual heals. Repetitive injuries seem to multiply the effects in at least some cases. Many football players and boxers are still suffering the effects of concussions they had years ago. Troy Aikman is one example of a football player that retired because of a series of concussions. Muhammed Ali's current condition is thought to be at least in part due to a series of concussions from his boxing days. Eric Lindros' career was shortened by a series of concussions. The bottom line is that the brain is nothing to fool around with. If Chay has suffered a concussion let's hope that it was mild and that he heals quickly and completely.

There is a general lack of consideration for others in the world today.

That is probably true for them, but students need to learn that there are words that aren't used by most of society in a public setting. The times may have changed for college students, but they haven't changed for the majority of the general public. George Carlin once did a comedy bit saying that out of about 400,000 words in the English language, there were only 7 that you couldn't say on television. That number is now down to about 4 or 5. Unfortunately, those are some of the only words the students want to use.

Are games in college football at places like Michigan and Penn State for the students? Places that put 100,000 people in the seats? Do you think any of these places could keep the venues going and the programs going if you depended on the students? No. College sports, especially the bigger sports at the Division I level, are a marketing tool for the schools. Marketing obscenities is not good business. College athletics help develop leadership and teamwork. They are often a rallying point for the school and help build school spirit. They have a lot of other purposes. But big time Division I athletics are not just for the college students. If you want college games that are just for the college students you should go root for a Division III program. How about this for a simplified code of conduct, Use common sense, be an adult, and act like you've been in public before. And remember, it's only a game, it isn't life or death.

It is probably real. Murphy did not approve of the name or logo at that time and I have heard about the letter before. I don't think I have ever read the letter.

It looks like these tickets are sold. Thanks for the interest.

Bump

The Friday tickets are still available. If you don't like the price, make me an offer.

Yelling obscenities is not going to throw the opponents game off. Most people playing in the game don't spend much time listening to the crowd. They will hear and even feel the volume, but they don't pay attention to the words.

I have 3 season tickets for football and 4 for hockey. I haven't missed any of the home football games this year, and there probably aren't a lot of people that can say that. If someone shows an appreciation for the UND program, whether it's an opponent or not, I'm not going to put them down. If a football opponent likes our hockey team, or vice versa, I can appreciate that. There are such things as friendly rivals (nothing like the relationship with the school to the south). They brought up hockey so I just tried to get them switched to our side. I'm pretty sure that little exchange had absolutely nothing to do with the attendance at UND football games this year.

And we appreciate all of you, no matter how ill informed you are.

Saturday tickets are spoken for. Still have a pair available for Friday night.

You are welcome to be a Fighting Sioux hockey fan even if you support another school for other sports. Fighting Sioux hockey has fans around the country.

I have an extra pair of tickets available for each of the St. Cloud games this weekend. The seats are at the top of Section 306, which is end the Sioux shoot twice during the games. I am asking for the Ticketmaster price without the fees, $27.50 each or $55 for the pair each night (prefer to sell them as a pair). The tickets are in Grand Forks and we can either arrange delivery or I can meet you at the game. Send me a PM if you are interested.

I doubt that the plane sat at that airport for a full day without being used. Most airplanes make several flights in a day. An airplane starting in Grand Forks in the morning will go to Minneapolis, then on to 1 or more other destinations that day. The airlines don't have enough planes to have 1 for each flight. I think that airlines are very careful about flying safe aircraft, so even minor mechanical problems can delay or cancel a flight. Even problems that don't affect the flight worthiness of the plane. But there are a lot of other reasons flights are canceled, and sometimes you don't get the whole story. Weather problems can delay flights of course, but it doesn't always mean a weather problem where you are. A weather delay anyplace that airplane flies during the day can cause problems for the rest of the day, and sometimes for multiple days. Crew problems also happen. I was stuck in Minneapolis on New Years Eve for more than 6 hours one year because they couldn't get a crew in Boston to fly the plane to Minneapolis. And when they did finally get the plane to Minneapolis, we still couldn't leave because that crew was at their hour flight limit so they had to find a 2nd replacement crew. The only reason I found out the whole story was because I spent some time talking to the attendant at the gate. So you're right, mechanical problems aren't the only reason flights are delayed or canceled, but I would bet that they make up a majority of the cancellations.

I don't know anything about airplanes, but I know a little bit about machinery and sound equipment. Equipment should be checked out every time it's used because problems often show up when it is first started or turned on. For instance, a sound check needs to be done every time you turn the equipment on. It may have been working perfectly at the end of a performance last night, and no one has touched it since, but that is not a guarantee that it will work correctly when it is turned on this time. I have seen mics not work, processors fry, speaker problems and more develop over night. Electricity will sometimes flow over a bad connection if the flow is continuous, but will not make that jump when it needs to make that initial jump. The stress of starting cold engines will often reveal a weak link and cause a breakdown. If a problem is going to happen on an airplane, I would rather have them find it while we are on the ground than have it happen when we are in the air. But I understand your frustration, I have been on my share of planes that had problems that caused either delays or cancellations.

Can you feel it all over?

If they can't afford to add a penalty clock, they certainly won't be able to afford HD cameras any time soon.

They still do. They leave about 6 on Wednesday evening and drive to Duluth. Then they drive the rest of the way on Thursday and practice in Houghton.

The Pride of the North Marching Band does their own version of the Fifth Quarter show, very few people stay to listen to them. Average attendance has been much larger at the Alerus Center than it was at Memorial Stadium. Weather has been a huge part of the reason for that. November (and even late October) attendance at Memorial was usually weak. Scheduling the Women's hockey game at the same time as the football game was a mistake, but I doubt that it had much of an effect on the football attendance. It probably had a bigger effect on attendance at the hockey game. I was at the hockey game on Friday night along with about 450 other people. I might have gone again on Saturday if they weren't at the same time. But I find it hard to believe that a lot of people chose Women's hockey over football.

If they can make it work, I think it would be a great idea. I would be interested in attending such a game.

There is no guarantee that programs with major support will continue to receive that support. Virginia Tech has only achieved its status in the past couple of decades. If the program fades and they become a losing program, many of those fans could lose interest plus they would not attract new fans. If another program in that area starts to excel, they may take over a large portion of the fan base. Programs like Alabama and Texas have a little more leeway. They have much longer histories, so their fanbase is a little more established. But they could follow the same path if they go into a decade or 2 long losing streak. At one time some of the major football powers included such illustrious programs as Army, Fordham and Minnesota. None of those has been a powerhouse in many years, and none of them has a major fanbase that would attract 70,000 or more fans for each game. Who knows if Boise State will remain a strong program. It wasn't that long ago that Brigham Young was the "small school" taking on the powerhouse programs. You just can't predict who has staying power and who doesn't, or whether other programs will grow into powers or not. There are too many variables to make those predictions.