star2city

By 2008!! Something huge must be up, and very soon. No way can that type of money be raised by 2008 with $100 donations. So is an athletic endowment fund being set up? And to think all these Bison fans are worried about UND athletics going broke!

Wrong: a distribution system is paramount. NDSU and SDSU can build production facilities, but they are going to find distribution of their broadcasts very difficult except over the internet to only hardcore fans, not the general public. Broadcast stations will not routinely preempt network broadcasts except for big games. With MidCon already a business ally of UND, NDSU and /or SDSU would likely have a difficult time getting MidCOn cable to agree to carry their networks. MidContinent has described its relationship with FSSN as "a very tasty piece of programming." MidContinent Cable is in all probablity a key business ally of UND in moving to Division I, as more FSSN broadcast of DI football and basketball would be in the its interest. The effecctive reach of FSSN (with MidContinent) is approximately equivalent to a Sacramento metro area. The Big Sky has a broadcasting pact with Altitude Sports, based in Denver. By associating with FSSN, Altitude could gain more broadcast events and, most importantly, gain distribution rights on Mid-Continent and other cable systems in the Dakota's. By Altitude expanding its distribution, the rights to Big Sky broadcasts become more profitable. By UND going to the Big Sky, everyone wins: Altitude, FSSN, UND, MidContinent, and the Big Sky.

The Gateway is a great IAA conference. But didn't Bohl really want the Big Sky? Didn't most Bison fans want the Big Sky? With a Gateway schedule, a UND game, a IA game, and a DII game, you won't get any games against Montana schools. As far as recruiting, the Gateway might help with kids from Illinois or Wisconsin. But the ability to travel throughout the west has an appeal that others may not resist. UND's alumni base and future students lie more in the west, strategically for UND, the Big Sky is much preferred. UND leadership is not moving to DI based on wishful thinking. In order for this move to even happen, UND had to have had a firm handshake agreement that they would be accepted into a conference. As Hallstrom stated in his blog, UND's faculty athletic rep is confident we are going to the BSC. Schools like N Arizona, Portland State, and Sac St respond to $ signs. UND and the reach of its FSSN in combination with the Altitude/Big SKy network will bring more dollars to the Big Sky coffers, more than offsetting travel costs. That is what matters. NDSU and SDSU would have made the BSC poorer. UNC, with all its deficiencies in other departments, was able to deliver an enhanced media contract, so it was added. And location (travel costs) tranlates into dollars. They care about dollars. As far as hockey, certainly no other Big Sky school plays the sport. But Northern Arizona formerly did field a DI team, and only dropped it because of the lack of a conference. Portland State is often considered an ideal school at which a DI program could flourish and help differentiate its programs from Oregon and OSU.

Interesting info on NDSU/SDSU to the Gateway Conference Bison Media Blog. At my lunch break today, I took a peak at that site and found someone making a sarcastic posting under my screen name. (My prophetic reputation in Bisonville must be greater than I realized. ) As I stated in my realS2C comment, I do believe NDSU/SDSU will likely be added to the Gateway when Western Kentucky goes IA. However, in response, Steve Hallstrom gave this quote: Hallstrom's followup comment seems to have left the bison nation in an uproar. How could UND ever be invited to the BSC when NDSU, even with Chapman pulling all possible strings, couldn't manage it? As stated previously, the combination of the FSSN for media coverage of all the Dakotas as well as the Ralph, UND's championship tradition in Division I, and its academics all make UND an outstanding and compelling addition to the Big Sky Conference that separate it from the rest of the Dakota schools. I would hope, and actually expect, UND to be offered membership prior to our DI playoff eligibility. Still expect sometime early next decade, that UND, Denver, and UBC will all be part of the Big Sky in a likely ten member league.

Even though I've been to Missoula, didn't realize Montana didn't have a med school. For that matter, neither do Idaho or Wyoming. If academics are truly important to Big Sky Presidents, all the more reason for UND to be included in a conference like the Big Sky. We've discussed this before, they had an invite to the WAC.

JBB's jealous obsession with UND is endless. Even after the biggest football win in NDSU history he can't even savor it for a day or two, but rather still frets and fears UND's impending move up. Classic. Moderator: Can you please ban the latest incarnation of JBB? Thank you!!

Duh... The point remains that NDSU is using academic tuition waivers to a far greater extent than UND does. If the board chooses to place restrictions on tuition waivers which is what bison fans seem to be are asking for (and its been in the press that UND uses tuition waivers for women's hockey), NDSU as an institution will be hurt far more than UND.

SUU will get invited over Montana's departed body. The BSC needs to appease Montana's demands, otherwise both Montana and MSU are gone. If SUU gets an invite, that is a signal the BSC is on its deathbed. If Montana can only pull strings to invite one school (to keep it semi-content in the Big Sky), what would it be? Another research university with a med school and law school just like itself. Idaho and Wyoming are taken. UND is still out there.

The letter-writing campaign on bisonville.com may have yielded fruit: North Dakota tuition waivers to get a review by NDUS But ignorance of NDSU's situation may come back to bite the bisonville backers in the aff. It never seems to sink into them that NDSU makes much higher use of tuition waivers than UND. More than a year ago, Chapman also stated in the Forum that they may have to use waivers for athletics. A comment on the Bismarck Tribune website:

http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?lg=cf#conf Massey Ratings are not all that meaningful for individual teams until at least six or seven games, but for conferences, with a much larger data set, they likely are (20-30 OOC games vs 3 or 4 games for each individual team). Massey Ratings show that the premier DII conference NCC> premier DIAA conference Great West > IA MAC. The 2-0 record the NCC sports against IAA certainly helps in these power ratings. Conference Tms W L Rating Power Off Def Parity 11 Conference USA 12 14 21 1.017 0.81 0.00 0.00 0.7709 12 North Central AC 9 16 4 0.943 0.75 0.00 0.00 0.7881 13 Great West 5 12 7 0.925 0.74 0.00 0.00 0.7426 14 Mid-American 12 10 20 0.912 0.73 0.00 0.00 0.7512

I think everyone would agree that last year NDSU outrecruited us, mainly because of the scholarship levels NDSU could offer. The previous years, we were able to get athletes like Chappell and Dressler that NDSU also went after. Recruiting should more competitve again this year, as UND will be able to offer full scholarship levels for recruits after their redshirt year. For NDSU, they will now be able to claim to recruits that are considering MAC schools (Wisconsin & Chicago area especially): hey, we beat a MAC team at their place - we're at the same level of play. If NDSU is able to play the Gophers tough, that will also be a recruiting plus for them. With NDSU playoff eligible in 2008, they'll use that to differentiate and gain an edge over UND recruiters. If NDSU gets in the Gateway, that would be another recruiting benefit to be in an autobid conference. It is important for UND to have a conference committment soon for recruiting in all sports so we can at least claim that a we'll be playing for a conference championship.

It really should have stated: wrong person (Saigo), wrong time, but great location. By all rights, SCSU could have been a great ally to UND to pair with to go to a Midwestern conference, but Saigo had his own self-righteous agenda. Personality conflicts can change the way conference affiliations come down: if SCSU gets badly bitten by the NCC unraveling, Huskie fans should lay it squarely at the feet of Saigo, who's own agenda could very well irreparably harm SCSU athletics. Saigo's replacement will be stuck with explaining the conference mess Saigo left behind. UMD's chancellor is no better. Unfortunate for their fans. If UND has a need to start a Conference Search Committteee at this late date, we are in huge trouble (especially if I'm on it. ) If UND has done this DI move correctly, the whole DI study issue should basicly be a rubber stamp of what an unofficial conference search committee (Harmeson & others) have already accomplished.

SDSU played a visit to Southern U a few years ago.

NCC School - Which SWC school faced most similar situation? UND

When the likely break up of the NCC is all said and done, it would be interesting if someone could do a series of stories on the NCC, such as this one: The Great Texas Football Rebellion: As with the breakup of the Southwest Conference, the NCC's final decade almost certainly included and will include a number of strategic, serendipitous, or accidental events and unintended consequences. Those events may never come to light until the personnel involved are no longer in their positions and freely able to speak on the subject. [url=http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA081405.2N.SWCmain.1ca3d21.html]Some interesting tidbits from the Southwest Conference

Congratulations to the Bison. They might actually give the Gophers a decent game. Wonder how much this will fuel Bison fans' desires to go IA in football? It may also cause UND alums to dig even deeper, and more quickly.

What are the most significant deficiencies? From this game thread, it sounded like the lines play was not up to par.

Chapman was just posturing NDSU to make a claim at BSC membership and Bison fans fell for it hook, line, and sinker. It was never ever a lock or ever even close to reality. Chapman failed. UND, through its FSSN on MidContinent Cable, can deliver practically all of the Dakotas and western Minnesota, nearly a 1.5 million people. Even an NDSU/SDSU duo could not deliver that. TV sets count, and UND has that well in hand over NDSU/SDSU. When the FSSN system was established, UND became by far the most enticing addition. I don't mind getting tons of grief on this and other boards for my prediction of UND, UBC, and DU to the Big Sky. It may not happen all at once (i.e. the BSC may not go to 12 teams), but the likelihood of all three being in the BSC early next decade as a ten team conference is very high. Just for the record, let's review some predictions of mine: 1. The formation of the Great West Conference - well before any bison fan considered it, because they were so sure of BSC membership. 2. UNC and DU to the BSC. Didn't get the DU part right (yet), but the chastisement given for that prediction was unreal. I stated that the Altitude Network/UNC TV deal was the clincher. There was no way that the BSC would have chosen NDSU/SDSU with UNC having the Altitude deal. (The BSC later added its own Altitude deal, which probably wouldn't have happened without UNC in the BSC.) Don't be surprised if there is a deal between FSSN/Altitude and MidContinent Cable that will seal UND to the BSC. I certainly don't have inside information on that, but it would make business sense, and DI sports are all about business. It is not a coincidence that NDSU/SDSU, which have not built up their own media networks, get stuck with the MidContinent Conference, which is practically the lowest media exposure conference in DI. Birds of a feather, flock together. With ORU and Centenary being private schools, the MidCon voting records are not available by open records laws. With Chapman's history of undermining the NDUS, he can easily say he is backing a UND bid, when in fact is could very well work to undermine it in private. UND knows it has to have an option outside the MidCon.

IMHO, there is a fantastic likelihood that you will be saying that, if you are man enough, without any sarcasm in a few years. Near certainty: La Tech will leave the WAC within the next few years because of high travel bills, the drop in the WAC's revenue sharing from the NCAA bball tournament, and the state of Louisiana's limited capability to fund college athletics in the wake of Katrina. High probability: Sac St will move from the BSC to the WAC. Sac St is a core member of DI, and that's what the WAC needs. If Sac St leaves, the BSC wil immediately expand. It would need a core member (Denver) and another football-playing school. The only options out there for a football schools are UND, UBC and SUU (unless Cal Poly and/or UC Davis get desparate ). It doesn't take much thought to see how the delayed timing can work out great for UND.

If Sioux Falls gets a new arena, and Augie somehow gets in a conference, IMHO, Augi actually stands a chance of making a go of it. USD, with scholarship football, faces a very difficult task. In case you missed it, UNO has every intent of gaining admission to the MIAA. DI seems to be off the board for them: http://www.unogateway.com/vnews/display.v/...5/450cdf11edddb

Actually, many people know the difficulty of a DI transition: it is very well documented. It was Taylor's job to know it. IMHO, Taylor was fed false expectations by Chapman, who was overly confident that his own Big Sky connections would buy him and SDSU membership. Chapman's chutzpah blew up on him: the BSC rejections caused NDSU more than a few embarassing moments and was redeemed by NDSU's win over Wisconsin and, to a lesser extent, the Montana win. The biggest mistake NDSU (and many UND) people make is to underestimate what UND leadership and alumni are capable in turns of strategy and implementation.

There could have been an entirely different reason: convenient alibi to gain a competitive advantage. Just a thought. With the MidCon accepting SDSU, I highly doubt SDSU's financial situation is "dire."

It is interesting, johnnyR, that Kupchella and Buning have not speculated in the press whatsoever about a conference. Contrast this with Chapman and Taylor, who publicly lobbied in the press at seemingly every opportunity that NDSU was an ideal Big Sky match when the move was announced. Obtaining a conference invite is not accomplished by running a media campaign. Contrast NDSU and SDSU's remarks to Northern Colorado, whose leadership never whatsoever insinuated that UNC was heading for the Big Sky and remained mumb about interest until after the Sky had made the announcement. Three years ago, Bison fans assumed Northern Colorado really wanted the MidCon because of baseball and softball Whether you want to believe it or not, there are schools that have a informal conference bid practically wrapped up even prior to a conference invitation even if its not revealed for a couple of years. In the last ten years, these are the schools that did not have a conference invitation in hand (formal or not) prior to moving up: Savannah State IPFW TxAM-Corpus Christi NDSU SDSU Longwood NJ Inst Tech Utah Valley St Morris Brown These definitely did: UC Davis Central Arkansas Florida Gulf Coast Presbyterian Kennesaw St North Florida SC Upstate Winston Salem State IUPUI Oakland UC Riverside Albany These schools very well could have: N Colorado Cal State Bakersfield (TBD) North Carolina Central (TBD) North Dakota (TBD)

So it does apparently irritate you to no end that USD's President has already been talking with the MidCon, at a meeting precipitated by SDSU no less, and may have been gathering state political support to accomplish USD's entry. I can see you have the best interests of the State of South Dakota in your heart.

On the Say Anything blog, there's been discussions about the prayer camp. One comment that I thought was especially enlightening: http://sayanythingblog.com/2006/09/21/rethinking_jesus_camp/