star2city

The heat is turning up on the Montana football program: Missoulian: UM needs to answer questions

Could there be another IAA coaching job open in Montana this summer? Not that an eGriz poll means anything, but Griz fans apparently do think Hauck should be fired "if he knew and did nothing" http://www.egriz.com/GrizBoard/topic24480.php

The Montana Griz and Idaho Vandal programs are going through some turbulent times: both programs seemingly need a shakedown and Idaho has already experienced 17 players that have either quit or been culled. Idaho could face a big scholarship hit on the next APR round. [url=http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/06/22/news/top/news01.txt]Griz teammate allegedly witnessed murder / Freeman

Interim named until May 31, 2008. UND athletics names Timm Pint interim head baseball coach

KAIT - Jonesboro - Ark St U's Mascot Review Committee To Recommend Changes

Has Ziegler applied for the NDSU job? With weather conditions and lack of depth, isn't it difficult to prevent pitchers from injury and being overused? If you had a son that was a pitching prospect, would you want him groomed in North Dakota or in Florida/Texas/Arizona etc? For the funding and facilities that Ziegler had to work with, seems like he did a good job.

Perhaps we should have read our D2 correspondent's posting more closely. As a side effect of Lennon's MSU "offer", I do wonder if this might not help future recruiting in the West.

The Argus-Leader had a series on USD's move today. Selling USD: SDSU has provided road map for D-I Selling USD: Fundraising presents key challenge as Coyotes begin their journey toward Division I athletics Selling USD: Transitional period could affect recruiting Selling USD: What will qualify as a success? Selling USD: Finding a conference home a top priority Selling USD: When they are building in D-I, will fans come? The number of Division I move ups and independents keep rising. It makes one wonder how much longer DI will keep the doors open. Here's the schools the article must be referring to, as well as other schools that may move up, and the move ups that have accomplished conference membership. Exploratory year 2007-8 SIU-E UND USD Seattle Houston Baptist Bryant Division I move-up without a conference Utah Valley Cal State-Bakersfield Longwood NJIT NC Central Division I core members without a conference UTPA Chicago St Savannah St Move ups within the last five years with a conference (wait time in years) Florida Gulf Coast (0) South Carolina- Upstate (0) Kennesaw St (0) N Florida (0) Presbyterian (0) Central Arkansas (1) Winston-Salem St (1) UC-Davis (0 - but not a full member for 4) NDSU (3) SDSU (3) N Colorado (3) Rumored move-ups British Columbia W Georgia Tarleton St N Kentucky Bellarmine Indiana Pa Wayne St (Mich) Oklahoma City U

Possibly a way to single-handedly destroy a UND football culture built up over the last 20 years.

Many of these have already been discussed on this board, but here's a compilation: Pluses - A new challenge - Montana State is a football school, with football as main sport vs UND being predominantly a hockey school - Big Sky Conference autobid - Top IAA program - Won

It wasn't a competitive interview situation like at Montana State: Wanless basically gave him first dibs on the job.

Providence Journal Another schoools in UND's DI class.

Understandable. But it also should be considered that the LtC came directly from command/obey military environment where opinions didn't necessarily mean much. While I am sure there may be more issues than the UNI game, if that is really the crux of the issue, Buning looks like a genius and IMHO it's genuinely difficult to be sympathetic to Lennon's stance. Players are expected to be blindly obedient to coaching staff's decisions; is it asking too much for coaches to give the benefit of doubt to their own leader? The reference was to MSU playing Texas A&M. MSU is doing it for the money: they can get kids injured, lose all their confidence, and mess up their playoff chances. On the other hand, Bohl was miffed at Taylor when NDSU scheduled the Gophers, as Bohl wanted another year of recruiting/maturity before that game. The REA had no track record so the first few years were difficult for everyone. When the REA and Alerus came on line, the main role of the AD switched dramatically from being a mentor to being an accountant. RT didn't become AD to be an accountant.

Yes, the head coad should have a say in who is going to be scheduled, but he (or she) shouldn't have the final decision. That rests with the AD, who has to weigh an unpopular decision versus the overall health of the department, especially with an impending DI move. What we don't know is if UNI's AD offered this option and gave a short time period to accept it (otherwise UNI would have scheduled someone else). As we go DI, it makes more sense to package football/hockey/basketball scheduling, which isn't popular with any coach. Buning's decision saved $100 k's and potentially gave UND a home game against UNI two or three years from now. With as much as people on this board complain about ticket costs, Fighting Sioux Club membership, etc, those same people should be applauding the decision. Without a doubt, Lennon and Fields had to have had this discussion during Lennon's interview. But if Lennon becomes coach of MSU, will he be pleased with opening up against Texas A&M? How much say did Kramer have in scheduling A&M? IAA schools would never schedule games just for the Benjamins. IMHO, it's no coincidence that the Sioux athletic department hasn't been facing deficits with Buning at the helm. Somebody has to make tough, unpopular decisions when there's a budget that has to be met and future schedules to be filled. Is it possible our coaches were allowed more free rein in scheduling because RT gave them that latitude (and deficit problems) when at other similar schools ADs wouldn't have allowed that practice?

In retrospect, can anyone argue with the decision of playing (and winning) against Northern Iowa. Winning vs UNI did more for recruiting than winning vs Maine.

MSU football coaching search: Lennon has shown perseverance http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/06/0...t/d8pjp2300.txt http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs...PORTS/706070337

Hansel: Thanks for your first-hand report!!

From the Grizzoulian Blog, Montana's AD Jim O'Day had a number of comments that somewhat revealing about Montana's future, Big Sky issues, and possible parallel's to UND's situation? On Montana and DIA football :

Division I men's lacrosse can be a spring-time draw Can there be a springtime college sport draw in the Midwest? Baseball doesn't fit that profile. With an Alerus Center, video boards, weekend and Friday night games, a band, why wouldn't March and April lacrosse draw reasonably well? The Minnesota Swarm can draw reasonably well for an metro area that is just being introduced to lacrosse.

Bozeman Chronicle: Cocaine spreading into community

GVSU didn't exist as a school until 1960: they didn't have any kind of alumni base to help fund their programs in the 1980's. They didn't even move to the NCAA until the 90's (?). By that kind of garbage thought process, USF and UCF, which barely existed during the "glory" days of DII, can't ever be BCS programs, and formerly glory DI programs like Fordham, Southern Methodist, and Tulane are still on top.

On a positive note, there are some very encouraging comments being made about the new and projected assistants: http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?t=46867&page=13

SoDak Cat: How many more FB players have left the MSU roster, which harms the APR even more? Is MSU likely to lose even more scholarships? A number of coments have been made on other boards that MSU player introductions were more akin to Snoop Doggy Dog MTV videos than representative of Montana State. Lennon wouldn't put up with that crap, which could result in even more players released. MSU could actually be in danger of losing the ability to play IA schools if their scholarship levels continue to drop. Losing future Colorado or Texas A&M games would not only harm the budget, but recruiting. Eastern Washington supposedly fired their basketball coach this week because the players grades were atrocious, putting the whole program in jeopardy. Jumping into programs like these are high risk: like having to wade into a cesspool and hoping the depth doesn't get over your head.