star2city

Los Angeles Times: North Dakota isn't feeling the slump http://www.latimes.c...0,2405433.story Williston apartments raise rent from $700 to $2000/month, effectively evicting Senior Citizens. http://www.williston...31407080396.txt Williston Herald Editorial: The Tragedy of Williston http://www.williston...3e786685259.txt If Williston wants to stop growth, it needs the state to slow the rate of drilling by slowing down the permit process. Recently, Williams County issued a moratorium on new man camps, because the people in the city were opposed to more people and traffic. So when oil companies were faced with no housing alternatives, they simply approached the apartment owners and offered to pay some ridiculous rate for renting the whole complex. Attempting to stop man camps pushed up the price of existing housing to ridiculous levels: simply supply and demand at work. Stopping the development of man-camps caused even more social problems and caused more relocations.

UVU wins 4th set: 25-16. Wins Match 3-1. Sioux will just need to start another win streak!

Livestats showing 17-10 UVU in 4th. That's almost impossible to overcome in volleyball.

UND making all kinds of errors in the fourth set: behind 8-2. Winning streak could be over soon.

Sioux lose the first two sets to Utah Valley: 14-25 and 24-26. Utah Valley is likely the toughest team left on the schedule. Hardee must have made some adjustments at the break, as UND won the third set 25-15.

That Tebow "situation" in Florida turned out bad, too.

Wall Street Journal: How North Dakota Became the New Saudi Arabia http://online.wsj.co...4023932438.html The degree to which oil will change North Dakota's economy, culture, and educational system in both positive and negative ways is still almost unimaginable IMHO Wall Street Journal: Peak Oil is Dead http://online.wsj.co...DS=North+Dakota Since that WSJ author is none other than Daniel Yergin, few people have more credibility.

"Tony" from Bisonville has absolute contempt for UND and all other NDUS schools. His rants from his Manhattan condo about NDSU's inadequate funding from ND have been going on for years and years. The Chapman situation almost gave him a stroke.

Grand Forks' nomenclature on Bisonville. That forum trashes ever city in North Dakota except Fargo. They still trash Minot, even after the flood.

Hockey at UB should be a Slam Dunk: http://www.buffalone...ticle576160.ece But reports that UB has a donor appear to be premature: Meanwhile, the Bowling Green press is lambasting the idea of BGSU staying in a refurbished CCHA: http://www.sent-trib...-for-bg-9-29-11 A new CCHA with UAH would offer schools in the Ohio Valley an opportunity to sponsor hockey. IMHO, BGSU would be much better off staying with schools closer to itself geographically. A Buffalo blogger disagrees with the Bowling Green opinion piece, too: http://www.ubbullrun...ribune-an-atlas

Mussman's personality is more of being an administrator, not a leader, so I can understand where KBH2010 may be coming from. Lennon was a leader that knew he needed administrators (like Mussman and Bubba). Neilson at UMD is a leader and administrator, IMHO.

None of the east teams are that good. GFRR got rolled by Williston. Football performance seems very much enrollment (as well as coaching) driven. The only schools that seemed to have a chance were the four largest schools: Fargo South, West Fargo, Bismarck, and Minot. Century, Red River, Central, Mandan, Jamestown, North, Dickinson and Williston just don't have the enrollment. If schools with under 1000 10-12 had been in Minnesota, they'd be in a lower division. Now with Fargo South split, and West Fargo splitting soon, Bismarck will be the clear favorite every year (Minot just has too many lanky and slow Norwegians to compete for football.)

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt11.htm In the Sagarin Ratings, there are 18 FCS schools above Minnesota, so NDSU beating Minnesota is equivalent to NDSU beating the 19th ranked FCS team (which is a good victory). Of Minnesota's previous opponents, Miami is ranked #154 (UM barely won), N Mex St is #151 (UM lost), and USC is #23. If Minnesota hadn't gone toe-to-toe with USC, Minnesota's rating would have been much much worse. BTW, NDSU's rating is #83 (second highest in FCS) and UND's is # 161. Five FBS teams are lower than UND: Memphis, UAB, New Mexico, Akron, and Western Kentucky.

Utah Utes just gained $20 mill more in revenue every year from the MWC to the Pac12, a number of hockey venues in the Salt Lake area from the Olympics, no NHL, and a decent number of hockey fans. IMHO, that would be the likeliest Indian nickname candidate, but still wouldn't bet on it..

What is missing is the concept of different TV Tiers or rights by conferences. Tier 1: National network chooses games of its choice within conference (CBS College Sports, Versus) - limited to a certain number of each school's home games, generally produced by that network Tier 2: Regional networks chooses games of its choice within conference (Fox regional networks) - limited to a certain number of each school's home games, generally produced by that network Tier 3: All unassigned conference games and non-conference games are owned by host school. (i.e. FSSN / Fox College Sports, or Denver can assign rights to unassigned conference and non-conference games to Fox Sports Rocky Mountain - or whatever it is called now) The WCHA didn't have a contract for Tier 1 or Tier 2, mainly because Minnesota didn't want to turn over its rights to the WCHA, so all WCHA games are Tier 3 property (owned by the schools). McLeod always did what Minnesota wanted, as it was in Minnesota's best interest not to have a conference contract for the regular season (otherwise much of what FSN paid UMinn would have gone to the WCHA's pockets instead, where it would be divided). Fox Sports North paid Minnesota (and once in a while lower rates to other schools when FSN wanted Minnesota's games in Grand Forks or St Cloud, etc) If Notre Dame chooses to have it's own Tier 2 network and the NCHC has no rights to any Irish home games, essentially the NCHC would be back to a WCHA situation again - like with Minnesota and Fox Sports North, which is much more unfair than anything that Texas does to the Big 12 (and caused the Texas A&M to leave). For UND, Fox College Sports is not a money-maker (UND/WDAZ are providers that benefit from advertising nationally), so that comparison isn't valid. The NCHC is essentially requiring itself to work as a team in negotiating broadcasts, which Notre Dame (and Minnesota in the WCHA) wanted no part of. Denver can still have games on Fox Rocky Mountain. UND can still have games on FSSN. But some of those games will be moved to a national network.

Yet it's all bisonville, Kolpack, and Bohl talk about, even in the face of a TCF win.

St Cloud St: Stabbing your buddies in the back? http://mankatofreepr...eave-MSU-behind

So Notre Dame is insisting on its own TV deal that no one else in the conference gets a part of. What two major conferences have similar deals? None other than the Big East and the Big 12: both of which are on the verge of falling apart. In the long term, as the Big 12 and Big East examples show, its probably best for the NCHC to reject the special deal that Notre Dame is demanding.

Back in the day when the NCC was looking for new schools to fill the voids left by NDSU and SDSU, St Thomas was approached by the NCC and strongly encourage by all NCC schools to move up. St Thomas was steadfast in its refusal, preferring the company of its DIII MIAC schools. Totally agree that St Thomas would have been an ideal NCHC candidate, much moreso than St Cloud St. But St Thomas would have to at least been DII so they could offer scholarships.

After Thumping of UNLV, SUU is on the Rise http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700182949/SUU-football-After-thumping-UNLV-Thunderbirds-are-on-the-rise.html?pg=1 Sounds like their fans are more enthused than ever:

So RIT probably back fills RPI's spot in the ECAC, which also explains why RIT wasn't interested in joining the AHA-4 in going to a new CCHA. Bowling Green may soon be the last member of the CCHA, so it and the AHA-4 may end up as owners of the CCHA name and autobid. Hopefully that happens - but Buffalo needs to start hockey and UAH needs to accept, too.

UND sweeps SDSU 3-0. Record is now 12-3. Next up: Utah Valley. As stated after the Santa Barbara loss, UND volleyball has a shot of running the rest of the schedule unbeaten, and they are well on their way toward that goal. Coach Hardee, your signature is needed on that new contract!

Rumor is that RPI will be their partner in Hockey East. HE will probably set up a bit differently, with Friday/Sunday or Saturday/Monday games at ND and RPI to accommodate travel. Sunday and Monday games would also help provide extra broadcast days.

By the NCHC going to eight teams, that seemed a clue, as nine teams doesn't work well for playoffs or near the end of the season. Also can't see Notre Dame joining a league with St Cloud St, although stranger things have happened. (UMass-Lowell is probably close to being a St Cloud academically, but BC, BU, Providence, and even Merrimack have much more affinity to the Irish brand.)

Tonight's game against SDSU and Friday's game against Utah Valley should be by far the strongest opponents UND see at home for the remainder of the season (although UND will likely face Utah Valley in the finals of the Great West tournament in GF.)