82SiouxGuy

I sit in Section 216, which used to be right next to the students. I didn't see a big problem with the Alerus staff. Once in a while they may have stepped in a little earlier than I would have. But overall they let the students have fun. And they only removed students out of 215 on rare occasions. As was noted above, public places have rules in place. Students have to learn how to live within those rules. As long as they aren't treated worse than the average fan then they don't have a lot to complain about.

I hate when that happens.

http://emueagles.com/news/2012/6/19/FB_0619120622.aspx http://topcatteamsales.com/files/Product%20News/2011-adidas-compression-football-jersey.pdf

Most of the sports networks on Directv and Dish are just regional cable networks. FSN in Minneapolis is just a regional sports network. NESN out of Boston is just a regional sports network Yet they are available on dishes and on cable systems around the country through sports packages. I think that this is the goal for Midco. They will never be another ESPN or CBS Sports Network. But if they keep their costs low and have interesting programming (UND hockey) they will have a chance to make this happen. It will be interesting to see if they can make it happen, and how long it takes.

Victory was an attempt by the Minnesota Twins to start their own cable network. They weren't satisfied with the fees paid by FSN, so they tried to make more money with their own network. They were following the example set by the New York Yankees and a few other pro sports teams. They were having trouble getting cable systems to pay for their programming. They bought the hockey tournament rights as an added incentive for the various regional cable systems. But the consensus was that they wanted too much per subscriber, so they didn't get very many cable systems to buy the Victory programming. FSN caved and offered a pretty significant increase in rights fees, so the Twins scrapped the Victory project. An interesting side note is that regional television rights for pro baseball have taken a huge jump recently in several markets, which again leaves the Twins near the bottom. Teams like Texas and the Angels have gotten 5 to 10 times increases in rights fees. The Twins get somewhere in the $12-15,000,000 range annually from FSN if my memory is correct. The Rangers, Angels and some other teams have signed deals that will get them $150-180,000,000 per year. Makes it a little easier to sign huge contracts for the star players. But it doesn't guarantee success.

It sounds like they took 20+ hockey games and the UND Sports shows. That's the bulk of what they broadcast before. They may be less interested in college football and basketball, they probably have plenty of options for those, and things like volleyball or women's hockey. I don't think that Fox is going to be too concerned with a newer sports network that shows high school and college sports from the Dakotas. They are more concerned with finding inventory that is different and might have some appeal. My guess is that FCS ratings and total viewership probably rank well below the established sports networks, including most of the regional Fox sports networks.

http://forum.siouxsports.com/topic/17183-undmidco-5-year-contract/#entry566706 This post and the tweet it quotes are from when the Midco deal was announced. It says that Midco will make all games available to FCS this year. FCS would choose which games they wanted to broadcast. That would make me believe that FCS is the one choosing not to broadcast all of the UND football games.

Midco is trying to get the games out in as many places as possible. It only makes sense for them to put the games on as many TVs as they can for advertising purposes. Having games on FCS wouldn't hurt Midco viewership in any way. So I'm sure that Midco didn't just refuse to allow the games. My guess is that either they couldn't work out some kind of deal or FCS didn't have as much interest in those games. Midco is looking into putting non-conference hockey games on FCS or another outlet in future years. The NCHC contract only controls league games. So outside games could possibly be available in future years.

Two more points. One, I don't have cable TV, so Midco's deal doesn't hurt or help me. I am in Grand Forks and go to most of the games, that is my advantage. Two, if Midco is going to send the games to other systems isn't it possible that those games will still show up on FTA? They have to transmit the games in some way and I highly doubt that all the cable systems will have direct cable access. The person that someone contacted at Midco may or may not know that. They may not even know what FTA meant. Or they may not want to publicize that. But if I had FTA I would make some efforts to see if the games show up before I gave up on that method.

It's possible that the Big Sky contract with Roots may have had something to do with that. I have no idea what the contract says or what limits it puts on individual schools, but they do have some national broadcasting rights for Big Sky games. The Montana game will be on Roots.

The games will not be limited to just Midco cable systems. As I said in an earlier post, Midco is trying to put the channel or the games on additional cable systems in the region. For instance, they are working on getting the games available on Twin Cities cable systems. That alone would add a lot of potential viewers since there are so many alumni in that area and many of them did not have FCS. They are negotiating with Cable One in Fargo. They are trying to reach as many potential viewers in the Dakotas, much of Minnesota and part of Wisconsin. In addition, they are negotiating with some national distribution formats, possibly similar to the way things worked with FCS. These talks are in early stages so nothing has been settled. And the list of places games will be available in future years will probably change in future years. THE GAMES WILL NOT BE LIMITED TO THE MIDCO CABLE SYSTEMS. Where did you get that crap? That was never said by Midco. They have always said that they would look for other places to distribute the games. THE FINAL LIST OF WHERE GAMES WILL BE SHOWN IS NOT COMPLETE. There are many different ways to distribute the games and Midco is exploring a lot of different ways. Yes, not everyone that had access to games last year will have access this year. But it is possible that they will open access to others, like maybe a large group of alumni in the Twin Cities. How about we wait until the final list of where games are available is done? Things are changing, and that change might not end up being good for some individuals. But what is really important is what is good for UND in the long run. That is the criteria that UND had to use to make the decision, and I hope that's the criteria they did use.

For you perhaps. But not necessarily for everyone. If more people end up watching games than watched games in the past, then it will be a success. Remember, only a small percentage of people that potentially could watch on FCS actually did watch. If there are more eyeballs watching the games in 3-5 years than there were last year, plus UND gets a check each year, then it will be an overall win for UND.

The part I highlighted is what they are working on. Instead of professional sports, they will base the programming on college sports along with some high school sports. UND is their anchor. They have signed deals with USD and SDSU, but they aren't going to show nearly as many sporting events for either school. But they are building a studio and putting staff in Grand Forks because UND will be the crown jewel of their programming. They are dreaming big with this project.

As I said, the details of where things will be shown haven't all been worked out. Midco is still working on a lot of options. They are talking to other cable companies in the region and they are talking to national providers for some options. This is something new for them, a deal much bigger than they have ever had for the sports channel, so they are still figuring out what they can do and where they might be able to go with things. Viewing options will change from year to year, and may even change during the school year as they get things figured out. And while the games may have been available in 54 million homes, the vast majority of those never watched a second of UND sports. What will be important will be actual viewership. By the time that Midco is done trying to expand their network, the actual viewership could go up with this deal. For instance, if they can get the games shown on cable in the Twin Cities you would gain a lot of alumni viewers down there that never had a chance to watch FCS unless they went to a bar. Some people that had access are probably not going to with this new deal, but others will gain access that didn't have it. Don't jump to conclusions about the actual long term outcome until the final details are arranged and announced.

I found out about it on Tuesday, posted on here Tuesday afternoon. I have heard radio ads for it the last few days. The Midco Sports Channel staff located in Grand Forks has just started working the last couple of weeks, so this might have been a last minute addition to the schedule.

There are different ways to skin a cat. If they are working full time they are probably already networking. If they don't plan to move, or if they plan to stay with the same company or industry, that may be all the networking they need. And a lot of people in bricks and mortar schools don't get a lot of networking advantage from attending the school. They basically spend all of their time with a small group of people. There are different levels of education that can be obtained through online classes. Some are poor quality and some are basically the same education that you would get in the classroom. There are online degree programs that now rank with bricks and mortar schools, most of them are from good quality bricks and mortar schools. Online doesn't necessarily have the same stigma that it did even 5 years ago. Sorry that you don't believe it, but online education is becoming an important part of higher education. I highly doubt that it will replace bricks and mortar, but it is becoming an accepted alternative.

Midco is now working on getting HD as soon as next fall. They are working on trying to expand where the sports channel is seen to a larger part of the region (other cable systems such as in the Twin Cities) and possibly to have at least part of the games on some kind of national network like FCS. They will probably not be able to do that with NCHC league games, but hope to do something with the other games. They have also started discussing broadcasting some away games in future years. The television deal is a work in progress yet people are jumping to conclusions as usual. This is a new deal for Midco, so even they don't know what things will look like this year or in future years of the broadcast deal.

And it wouldn't be farfetched to see him start the year as the center of the 3rd line. Hakstol has started talented freshman on the 3rd or 4th line at the beginning of their career if that's what works best. Even later in their career if he wants to shake things up. The thing to remember is that the lines are probably going to change quite a bit over the year. Guys get hurt, guys go into slumps, other guys start playing much better, and Hak will change things up to try and get better results. Most coaches will do that. Last year the lines didn't change as much toward the end of the season because everyone was playing or out hurt. But Hak will have a lot of players available, especially at the beginning of the season. So he will probably throw a lot of different combinations out on the ice to see what works and what doesn't. Trying to predict the lines right now is just an academic exercise, it probably won't have a lot of meaning in the real world.

He's known for developing players because he knows what they need. Getting Grimaldi comfortable and settled in at a familiar position may be what he needs to start. The chances are that Grimaldi isn't going to the NHL after 1 year of college. Chances are pretty good that he will play wing at least part of his college career. But Hak isn't going to start him there just because it may be his eventual position at a higher level. Hak will start him where it is best for his development and for the team, whether that's at center or wing.

Where they may play in the future in a professional league isn't going to factor into where Hakstol plays them at the beginning of their career at UND. He will play them where he thinks they have the best chance to succeed at this level, and where it is best for the team. So Hak will decide where Grimaldi plays based on play during practice and the play of others on the team. That may very well be at center. His position may change in the future depending on the needs of the team and Grimaldi's development and development needs.

Don't forget that Mitch MacMillan isn't eligible until 2nd semester.

Online education will continue to become more and more important. People are trying to find ways to fit education into their lives, not everyone can take 4-6 years out of their life to spend in college. And there is a great deal of difference between online degree mills and legitimate online education courses. Accreditation helps sort out one from the other.

You do realize that I didn't say any of the information was a fact. I used words like "may". I gave a potential explanation that would explain the different things that people had heard. Different people had heard different numbers, I just pointed out that it was possible they all could be in the right ballpark. But I didn't make any declarative statements, which means I didn't make any statements of fact. Is that your NDSU education showing with your lack of reading comprehension? I think the next fact that you post on this site will be the first, so I'm not sure that you are the right person to be spouting anything about facts.

UND has gotten some pretty good national press in the past year for having some of the top online classes, so I think UND and most of us are pretty proud of the system. How has NDSU done in those rankings?

What assumptions? People had heard reports that the payment to play at Texas Tech was in the $300,000-350,000 range. Someone else heard that UND received $225,000. Another poster thought the cost to travel for the team was around $100,000 when they charter. I also have heard that the cost is in the $100,000-125,000 range. Since the higher payment range minus the projected travel expense would equal the $225,000 number, I said that it might have been the net. I didn't say that it actually was. I even qualified it by saying "may". I didn't assume anything other than that you are a troll that shows up to stir the pot, and the fact that you never add any real value to the conversation. That isn't really much of an assumption, it has been proven time after time.