star2city

So with Inniger $600k short for this year, needing $1 mill next year, Teammakers needing a $400k more next year to meet their goal, and BSA funding (6-10 mill?)still not announced, finances may just be getting tight in NDSUland. All the more reason to have funding, facilities, and a conference lined up before a UND DI move. http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=89097

KVLY was reporting this yesterday: If GFAFB is on the closing list, the Grand Forks community has its work cut out for it over the next two years. Could its hangars attract the Cirrus jet plant to GFAFB? Would a cargo hub locate there? Could it become a maintenance hub for aircraft? Could non-aerspace manufacturing be lured there? Long shot, but would it be a candidate for producing the new Air Force tankers? Could its housing be remade into a middle class housing development? Although it is hard to see this as a positive, if three or more of these options can be realized, economically, it could become approach parity, or even be a blessing in disguise. But if it closes, the ideas, discipline, and worldview of base personal would be irreplaceable to the community.

UTPA will not get an invite. TAMU-CC, even though it has a decent basketball program, a great downtown facility, and a decent media market may also be left out because it doesn't have football. Central Arkansas is practically a sure thing, and Tarleton State may get in rather than TAMU-CC. Of the eight schools looking into that independent conference, NJIT and Longwood probably can get into conferences within two years. UTPA and Utah Valley State have fewer options and less hope than NDSU/SDSU.

This new conference, if it gets running, will have an extremely difficult time sustaining itself. Once all the schools attain full DI membership (IPFW, TxAM-CC, UTPA already have full DI status, Longwood needs two years, NDSU & SDSU need three years for full DI status, Utah Valley needs four more years [it has longer probation because it moved up from junior college ranks], NJIT needs four more years), a seven year clock starts ticking for the Big Dance auto bid. During the seven year wait, any school defecting could cause the seven year clock to reset, but the clock would be restarted only if a new full DI status member could be added. The conference really needs 14-16 founding schools in geographically remote regions, to give it decent odds that the conference could make it to full term. Without a DI midmajor school in Minnesota to provide a window for conferences toward the east, the Big Sky probably is really the only option for either UND or NDSU. The MidCON (which wants basketball schools) might have a slight interest in SDSU, but only after it is fully a DI member.

Would Sac State and Portland State have to leave the conference before it happened (a ten-team BSC), or would it be two 6-team divisions?

Semi-surprised this could happen politically without GF losing the hockey tournament (to the Bismarck Civic Center, for instance.) At some point, it would seem likely that the Ralph would bid on the Class B boys tournament, which occurs on the same weekend as the WCHA Final Five. Since there will be hockey series at the Ralph during the Class A events (M Tech / WCHA playoffs), all the Class A events must be at the Alerus (which can't hurt its bottom line). With the overlap between the Class A and B dates, the Class B regional must be at the Betty. With the UND women's BB teams, it would seem possible that there would be NCC and NCAA tournament action at the Betty the same weekends (but they don't conflict with the Class B events). In the longshot chance that UND BB men ever needed to host a post-season tournament at the same time, it would get interesting. Just as an aside: is the CANAD Inn / waterpark waiting for the BRAC announcement prior to proceeding with construction? With the NCAA hockey regional also in GF next year, March of 2006 would have seemed an ideal target for opening.

It wasn't an exception, it was a clarification. If those schools had so chosen, they could have moved volleyball and wrestling to DI years ago. Now instead of waiting 5 years for postseason eligibility in those sports, it's only 3. The reason joining an extablished conference is so important, is that men's BBall is eligible at 5 years, rather than 13 years if the new DI school is an independent or if it joins a new DI conference. The power conferences got the reclassification rules rewritten so as to practically eliminate the addition of more autobids from conferences with DI newbies. The NCAA would never have been lenient on the NCC (the big schools would not have allowed it as they would have lost big $'s). The last new DI conference was the Mountain West conference (2001 or 2 for an autobid - they had to wait for 2-3 years) after the WAC split in two. The Big South conference got an autobid in the mid-nineties (I think). If the Big East splits in three years (which many consider likely), both halves would get an autobid. The proposed conference of NDSU, SDSU, IPFW, UTPA, TxCC, UVSC and whoever else, would get an autobid in 2017 (or so).

Even if UND had voted with the other 'yes' (UNC, NDSU, SDSU, USD) to make it 5-4 yes, it is a more than a stretch to believe that Augie, UNO, SCSU, and MSU-M would have gone along for the DI ride (and thirteen years of probation that would have resulted with the new DI conference). UND's vote kept the conference alive. Which conference is healthier, ours .... or .. "yours" ?

This would really make a lot of sense for Moorhead. This year, MHD H S hockey probably could have sold out their games in that size arena. In Minnesota, it seems the state is more willing to chip in funding for arenas, especially if a state university benefits . (Are not both Bemidji and Duluth getting new arenas that are at least partiallly paid for from state funds?)

The chairman of the search committee has a responsibility for him and the committee to be as objective as possible. If supporters of Rob are approaching him and lobbying for Rob, it would seem to be his responsibility to pour some cold water on that kind of talk. This may especially be the case if Harmeson himself considers Bollinger the best candidate - the last thing he wants is for himself or community pressure to put undue influence on the other search committee members. If this is Harmeson's behavior, it is honorable and he is behaving as an executive should. If Harmeson is airing dirty laundry (which I doubt), that is another issue.

If we reflected back on our own lives, I am sure we would find a few events or words we've spoken that would qualify as stupid, insensitive, and repulsive. Fortunately, we don't have the presss or paparazzi following us around.

You would think that more of the non-BCS type urban commuter type schools would recognize that college hockey is a way to create their own niche in the local fan base. There was no way that UNO would have been able to establish a DI basketball following, like they have for hockey, if they had to compete with Creighton and UNL. As an example, it would seem a hockey fan in Kansas City would much more easily adopt a UMKC hockey team, rather than basketball fan adopting the UMKC basketball team, as there are so many more regional choices (Kansas, K State, Missouri) in basketball that can be seen regularly on TV. Although none of these will add DI hockey any time soon (if ever), here’s a listing of schools that should seriously consider adding DI hockey in my view (not all are commuter schools, however): Moorhead State (department is too much of a mess) Minot State (maybe five years or so after they move to DII) Montana State-Billings (needs Minot State, or another more regional school0 St. Thomas (if they moved to DII) South Dakota (and play in Sioux Falls) Wisconsin-Green Bay Wisconsin-Milwaukee Illinois-Chicago (try it again) Iowa State (close to Des Moines) Missouri-St. Louis UMKC Wichita State IUPUI Wright State Oakland (Mich.) Grand Valley State Toledo Cleveland State Syracuse A true western league just for jollies: Ariz, Ariz State, UNLV, N Ariz, Utah, Weber St, Colo St., Boise St, Wash, Portland St.

Here I always thought I was the only one who faced this. It is amazing at the level of insecurity many bosses have. Giving insecure unprincipled people authority is a scary proposition. In this media and celebrity-driven world, the focus of too many institutions and businesses is on a charismatic leader, rather than the values, principles, and goals that an institution should strive toward. Many of the best, most principled corporations (Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Cisco, Pfizer, HP (up until recently) as examples) or universities (Jesuit colleges, for instance), have leaders that purposefully have low media profiles. Too often, institutions or corporations that are personality-centered fail because of a personal defect in the leadership or flounder after the leadership leaves. Perhaps this concept should be pondered relative to the two flagship universities in North Dakota.

UND Fan: As always after reading your posts, thanks for your information and perspective.

Was anyone else surprised by this signing? http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/s...ta/11429308.htm While Gene has certainly earned the right to sign which players as he sees fit, he may have opened himself up to a lot of criticism. It would be my understanding that there are a number of regional players that are much more individually talented, including Alys Seay, the junior guard on the GFC team, but perhaps not harder working. Parent-coach/child-player relationships can make for difficult "navigating." Perhaps the main redeeming quality is that the player often has coaching abilities him or herself that extend on the court.

UND Fan: Do you have any insight into why Ray Purpur did not apply? Do you see an indoor practice facility/track as the highest priority item in the athletic department? If not, what is: budgetary issues, administrative needs? Did Roger’s lack of hockey background hurt him as A.D.? Lacking any real inside info, I’d be very much surprised if Bollinger is not selected. From a DI-AA football standpoint, Kupchella isn’t going to give it a go unless there is (a) finances and (b) a conference opportunity. What better A.D. to have than a football guy who has fundraising experience and has a reservoir of trust built up? Any alums with DI dreams knows Bollinger will be doing what he can make that dream a reality. If Bollinger says it can’t be done at this time, the alums will take Bollingers word for it.

A lot of good suggestions! Perhaps an orientation meeting should be required attendance for any student wanting to be eligible for lower-bowl season tickets.

My apologies, Bisonguy. Ethically, it certainly wasn't proper even if partially made in jest. But maybe you will agree that some of your posts have made those very same points more than once.

In today's Dakota Student, there was a perspective of Columbus experience that should become required reading for all fans, alumni and students alike, and remembered for next year: Let's hear it for the Sioux hockey fans

From this article, Frozen Four team(s) will collect only expenses, it appears the Big Ten and Sunbelt conferences will be the recipients of Frozen Four money. How those conference divide up the revenue may be up to their conference bylaws.

Not the best publicity for Grand Forks (or Fargo for that matter), but the Fighting Sioux hockey team gets a few plugs from the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Virginia Union sees parallel universe in Grand Forks Incidentally, the columnist was wrong about the championship game attendance in Bakersfield the previous year, as it was only 1653, not 5958, which was the whole tournament's attendance in 2004.

Kind of an interesting article on the cultural changes on campuses with new Wellness Centers