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U of Florida adds Women's Lacrosse Quite an endorsement for lacrosse - a big-time SEC school starting a lacrosse program without the SEC conference to compete in. In addition, its a big geographic jump since the closest lacrosse schools are in North Carolina. Although Miami is starting a lacrosse team next year, but they would play in the ACC. So Florida will join a "northern" league that has teams in Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. Although Florida in the women's American Lacrosse Conferene would practically eliminate UND from consideration in that same conference, the men's Great Western Lacrosse League still has slots open.

Ohio State and Notre Dame.

Reason #1: Title IX Northwestern added women's lacrosse six years ago and recently became repeat champions. Northwestern didn't add men's lacrosse, BTW. http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/w-lacros/r.../052806aaa.html Reason #2: For men's lacrosse to be added, another men's sport with high participation numbers almost has to be dropped. Few schools adminstrators are willing to go through the political battles of dropping a men's spring sport to add another. Reason #3: Facilities. In the Upper Midwest, one really needs an indoor practice facility and an indoor field for that seats 5 - 15,000 for games. Guess who will have those? A Metrodome-sized facility is just too big for fans to get into lacrosse. An Alerus size is just perfect. Reason #4: Most schools have fans that are either predominantly football or basketball oriented. A school that is hockey oriented would have a fan-base with a higher immediate affinity for lacrosse than the other two types of fan bases. What school does that describe?

For those new to the site, UND hockey fans were polled back in February to determine what, if any interest, they might have in supporting lacrosse. With 57% interested in occasionally going to lacrosse matches and 10% willling to buy season tickets (67% moderate to strong interest), the probablity of getting crowds of at least 2000 and possible 3000 for 6-7 home matches seems rather reasonable. http://siouxsports.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5585&hl=

Thanks for your post, rapidrabbit. With an $80 million Alerus Center sitting mostly empty on spring weekends, whybuild new stadiums when matching sports offered to existing facilities would result in huge capital savings and more revenue?

How about bringing kids in from the Cities (MN has sanctioned lacrosse), or Canada (sound familiar), or the states of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California (states that sanction HS lacrosse but have no men's lacrosse college program). The first sanctioned HS Hockey title was won by Grand Forks Central in 1960 (or was it '61?). UND had been sponsoring men's hockey well before the NDHSAA sanctioned hockey.

So why do Central Washington and Western Washington fly to the Dakotas and Minnesota three times a year now? Because they have no other choice in order to get DII competition, other than playing a double or triple round robin with Humboldt and W Oregon. Davis and Poly are in the same predicament. If St. Cloud wanted into the Great West, Davis, Poly, and SUU would be yes votes because they badly need the guaranteed games: there is no one else. NDSU and SDSU could very well vote against them, just to keep SCSU down a notch below them, like you want.

And everyone of those core schools wants out, now. When any one of those leaves, the MidCon, for all intents and purposes, will be destroyed. The MidCon has to have at least eight core members, and preferably nine, so it can buy time (for 2016-7), when SDSU would qualify as a core member. Remember the transition is really two major periods: five years in transition to become post-season eligible and another eight years before becoming a "Core Division I" member. Therefore, for 13 years, a school in transition from DII to DI is of no value to an established conference for maintaining its basketball autobid. Don't count on USD declaring any exploratory year. SDSU declared two weeks before its exporatory season began, why wouldn't UND declare 2 months before and pay the NCC fine? At this point, mvoing up the DI transition one year is well worth the $25,000 NCC fine.

For football, the conference generally designates the transitional schools is not eligible, so the "conference" champion is the school with the best record among conference schools not in transition. Supposedly the NCAA hammer is coming down on them. There is also an outside chance that the MEAC will invite them later, even though Chicago is far outside its Maryland to Florida geography. The MEAC, which is a conference of Historically Black Schools (as is Chicago St), is possibly considering going to 16 teams, and then splitting five years down the road to get two autobids. Winston-Salem St, North Carolina Central, and Savannah St are some of the other schools that may get an invite.

This would never happen with UND, USD, and UVSC still as transitional members and NDSU and SDSU as non-core NCAA members. For maintaining its autobid, the MidCon will do everything possible to keep every existing core school - that includes Centenary. As far as the MidCon being transformed into a new "NCC", any such transformation would be a 15+ year transformation.

Aff: As with most topics, your hope that SDSU supercedes other area schools is affecting your ability to comprehend some significant issues. (With all those post-graduate degrees you've completed, one would think logic would be a stronger point ) . The Great West is a holding tank for conference-less football schools. Because its down to five schools, every Great West school has had major struggles with scheduling schools. SUU only is playing 10 games because of only four conference guaranteed games and two of those games ware against DII or NAIA schools. UC-Davis and Cal Poly (as well as NDSU and SDSU) had major struggles filling their schedule. With the Southland gaining more football-playing members and DIA taking on more DIAA games, open dates against other DIAA teams are a rare commodity. The Great West will take any and all comers up to at least eight schools.

It is the way it works. UMKC and IUPUI never offered baseball and they got in the MidCOn. The MidCon, even if it was interested in UND, would want a baseball affiliate like Dallas Baptist or UTPA over a UND baseball program. Many years, baseball in April in GF is questionable due to cold wet weather and playing field conditions. Why would Oral Roberts want to fly their baseball team to GF for a weekend series that may never get played? The only teams that NDSU can seem to schedule home games against are ones that are can bus into Fargo. Why risk 30 plane tickets to North Dakota when it is not even guaranteed a game can be played? Beyond that, the wet cold weather could really play havoc with a pitcher's arm. Why would more southerly teams put their pitching staffs at risk with a trip to GF in April? When Seattle U declares its DI intent, you might have a point. The Sun Belt and DU intend to depart amicably, but the Sun Belt is losing patience with DU's indecision. DU's attempts at the WAC, WCC, Horizon, and MoValley have all fallen short. Time is running out. The only two options remaining are the MidCon and the Sky. Absolutely no way would DU ever -ever- join the MidCon. To DU, the Sky is still a poor option, but not nearly as detestable as the MidCOn. Wrong. Money and ticket sales count. DU athletics appreciates the near sell-out conditions of Magness arena during UND-DU series, as UND "travels well". No Sun Belt school increases DU ticket sales nearly as much as UND. Some of that UND-DU ticket sales would carry over into basketball because the high number of UND alumns in the Denver metro.

Agreed, your point above is a major issue for DU. However, its current situation is probably worse. DU doesn't believe it belongs with Sunbelt "redneck" schools either. Which is a better fit for DU: association with La-Monroe, Troy, La-Lafayette, and Arkansas St vs Idaho St, Weber St., E Wash and N. Colorado? Although DU commonality with most of the Big Sky is geography, that's more than it has with most Sun Belt schools.

Understand that UND officials actually think the idea of adding lacrosse is worthy of consideration and isn't something that should be scoffed at. Lacking baseball and/or softball would not hurt UND's chances of getting into any conference. In fact, not having baseball would probably help, as we would hurt the baseball RPI of almost any DI conference. Also, in a strange way, adding lacrosse might help UND (or at least not hurt) gain a major ally with one particular school, Denver. Denver U is unique in that hockey and lacrosse are probably more important to it than basketball. The Big Sky badly wants DU in the league (both as a travel partner for UNC and because DU is a core DI member). DU wants all-sports rivalries and, for it to be enticed into the Big Sky, DU may lobby for UND to also get an offer (either immediately or a few years down the road). DU has the potential to influence the next round of Big Sky expansion. It would behoove UND to be an even tighter DU ally.

Not funded? ND$U athletics is loaded according to most bison posters. The article also stated that soccer upgrades, although planned, would not seek approval. Seems to me softball is the next upgrade after the BSA. Why there is not a bigger push for an indoor track/football practice facility is beyond me. So why are they seeking approval for a $5 million improvement if they're not serious about it? With the California recruits (and more coming) and a softball upgrade, seems like NDSU is looking at making a name for itself in DI softball. Calif. players flock together at NDSU

Were there not several internal meetings last week that all pointed to an affirmative decision on DI? I'd be shocked if the exploratory year is delayed: recruiting issues, especially with football, would get really difficult.

Kupchella must know of the nickname that some Sioux fans and student sometimes refer to him with. IMO, he used that concept as a metaphor to show what the NCAA is made of, and to show he's more "solid" than what he is typically credited.

Just saw this AP story: Not sure how long the link will last: http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D8I4CMHO2

That is a great point. The only North Dakota network broadcast channels Winnipeg cable picks up is WDAZ for ABC and KGFE for PBS. Otherwise, Winnipeg cable picks up Minneapolis stations, KARE for NBC and WCCO for CBS. But Sioux hockey is also what could force Winnipeg cable to switch broadcasts. Imagine what it would be worth to the Fox (KVRR) or NBC (KVLY) local stations if Winnipeg cable switched their feeds (to get Sioux hockey)? That might be worth substantial advertising revenue for those stations.

Interesting that NDSU is planning on a $4.5 million upgrade to its softball field, while UND is only looking at spending $1.5 million on an on-campus softball field: [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=129313

Believe it or nor, there were some rather serious reasons: - The time to post-season eligibility for a UND DI men's basketball team has been reduce from 13 years to 5* years since NDSU declared. (*- if UND is an autobid conference member) - UND hosted the DII men's basketball championship in 2005 and formerly had hopes of hosting other events - like the DII football championship at the Alerus. The attendance at the DII championship was "not favorable". - The name issue - what better time to resolve a lack of home field issues if you don't have post-season eligibility? - The future of GFAFB was highly in doubt. No way were local boosters going to pony up more money if GF unemployment became 20%. - GF was still in post-flood recovery. Not an ideal time whatsover. Now, does the F-L-*-*-* word even come up? - UND had no idea what the financials would look like with the REA and Alerus. It now has five years of knowledge. My own Monday-morning quarterbacking is why didn't we, or NDSU, or SDSU, go DI in 1980 or 1990 or 2000? The rules then were much more lenient. Very few fans have a clue of how much the new DI transition rules punish (enacted in 2002) new DI schools. Schools that moved pre-2002 are already core DI schools. NDSU will not be a core DI school until 2016. UND not until 2019 at the earliest. Core DI schools are the only type schools that help conferences maintain their autobids.

Agreed. The next few years offer a window of opportunity. It's time to be proactive instead of reactive. The demographics of the lacrosse crowd are much younger than football, basketball, baseball, or possibly even hockey. Adding lacrosse would be viewed by younger people as a highly progressive move. With North Dakota's college age population, UND must be viewed as progressive school in order to attract out-of-state students. Adding lacrosse would do just that, attract students from the Twin Cities, Denver, the West Coast, and Canada.

Cal St- Bakersfield announced last week that they were moving to DI. Found it rather interesting, that instead of cutting sports with their move up (they meet DI requirements), they are adding one sport, baseball, that the school and community believes can be successful at the DI level. Roadrunner DI announcement With an existing venue available (for the minor league Class A California league), baseball makes strategic sense for Bakersfield. UND needs to be sponsoring DI programs which make strategic sense for our situation.

Interesting that a northern school like Notre Dame is complaining about the anti-northern bias in the baseball world. A smaller northern school like UND would just be cannon fodder in the NCAA baseball world. Irish baseball coach says NCAA biased

Because of Title IX issues, about 80 schools sponsor women's lacrosse but only 52 sponsor men's. For men's lacrosse, the only midwestern/western conference is the Great Western Lacrosse League, which includes the following schools: Ohio State Notre Dame Denver Air Force Butler Quinnipiac (will probably leave) Bellarmine (Louisville DII school adding DI lacrosse) It would probably be much harder for UND to get into a women's lax league, as the only "midwest" league is a power conference and the western league has a number of other prospective west coast schools that will probably add women's lax. Neither would likely be interested in traveling to GF. American Lacrosse Conference (women