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Williston Herald: City-like man-camps approved - over 4500 beds approved in Williams County in total for four man-camps Since many companies rotate people with two weeks on and two weeks off, the man camps may allow for well over 6000 jobs. If even half of those job seek long-term housing, housing and retail will be booming in Williston for years. New York TImes: Tight oil formations could be transformative to US Economy Cheasapeake Energy and EOG both seemed destined to become energy company titans from very modest backgrounds in less than 20 years. "Experts" also tend toward conservative projections , so considering all Williston Basin formations, one million barrels a day from North Dakota in 2020 may be an understatement..

Prayers go out of everyone along the Souris and Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Normally, Montanan's pray for summer rain, but this year we need to pray for a dry June there. The amount of rainfall and snowmelt in Montana and northwest Wyoming is just unreal. A couple of weeks ago, I-90 in Montana north of Sheridan, WYO was blocked due to incredible flooding on the Bighorn River, causing diversions of hundreds of miles to find a bridge over the Bighorn/Wind River system. Roundup, Montana had almost as much precip in one day as they normally get in one year.

Not a peep out of the Big Sky about UND's nickname. As stated numerous times before, the Big Sky - nor almost any other league - doesn't care. The UND nickname was politicized by the Summit League as a ploy by certain parties to delay our membership and harm our transition and DI identity. UND's leadership wanted to gain brownie points among the academic elite and wanted blame directed elsewhere, so they bought into it. Thank you again Big Sky and Doug Fullerton for delivering us from manipulation.

This news might alter the conference picture for the women's WCHA: Wayne St drops women's hockey With Wayne St out of the CHA, that league is down to four schools (Mercyhurst, Syracuse, Robert Morris, Niagara). Since it needs six teams for an autobid, will Ohio State now jump, even if Penn State now joins? Ohio State has already been burned once, and backed out on a CHA move.

The Kibbie Dome and Alerus Center are not even in the same "ballpark" as far as comfort, as the Kibbie Dome is a semi-decrepid wood shed. Most FBS stadiums have bench-type seating, so creature comforts isn't what brings students to a football game. If it was up to the students, they probably not even want the Ralph's cherry and leather seating: as they'd rather stand the whole game.

A growing cottage industry in Missoula is a certain medicinal herb, complements of the Montana legislature. Could understand Forcier's attraction to that city.

If Idaho's Kibbie Dome can seat 15,000, so can the Alerus Center. The Kibbie Dome has bleacher seating with narrow width "seats". One way that the Alerus could be "expanded" is to temporarily replace the student section folding chair seating with bleacher seating - that could add almost 1000 "seats" just by having narrow "butt" width for the students (who have smaller posteriors anyway and often stand anyway). Make the folding seats and bench seating interchangeable for football to concert changeover. Then add risers in the endzones concourses for another 700 to 1000. Include the seating of the suites as part of the capacity, and, voila, more than 15,000 capacity. Ralph originally wanted the REA to seat 15,000 or more, but was talked out of it. The REA is fine as is, as its size maintains high demand. Because of the Ralph's "limited" size, that allows higher pricing power. If and when the indoor practice center is constructed, that should create an athletic "Wellness Center", which is the major need of the athletic department. The venue that is truly undersized is the Betty. Perhaps the Betty could be expanded to the north so the stands are "U" shaped around the court and larger restrooms and concession areas under a north end stands.

In all fairness, NDSU football should be pretty good this year. The key stat to watch is the Fargo Police arrest record: if Bohl can keep suspensions, DUIs, and expulsions under 7 and keep his boys out of Best Buy and underaged girl's beds, they could be in for a very good year.

A nice baseball blog from New York Tech

Denver makes historic run to lacrosse Final Four MIchigan officially announces addition of Men's and Women's lacrosse as sports Potential UND lacrosse conference mates: Denver Air Force Michigan Ohio State

So in a mixed marriage, hoping the kids are getting a proper Sioux upbringing!

Probably one of the most amazing photos in UND athletic history, considering their future careers: ESPN blog: Zen Master Time Line One of a kind person and coach

Stick an "N" inside the "D" or use the interlocking ND to spell out Dakota.

With the PAC12 getting a huge $ increase from television contracts, it will be interesting if some schools start additional sports like hockey or lacrosse. Utah, for example, will be seeing TV revenues go from less than $1 mill to more than $20 mill by 2014 (they only receive partial allotments from the PAC12 until then). Most of the money probably will go into coaches salaries. Only club lacrosse at UCLA until more western schools sponsor sport Denver lacrosse makes history by gaining first home NCAA playoff game

Glassheim is very much interested in community betterment and ensuring all voices get heard, but his political views make Mike Jacobs out as a tea party fanatic in comparison. NDSU fan threatens Al Carlson over Sioux name The NDSU fan is a familiar one, especially if you have ever read the Forum or Herald comments.

Updated per request with more hockey schools (in italics):

Link: UND to add men's tennis in 2012-13

Snow in May? College baseball just doesn't make sense at either school unless they changed they changed the season to summer. You are rewriting history if you don't think bison fans lusted after the Big Sky. Sour grapes alone have changed your view. And beyond that, your now married to the fat chick (Summit League), and the divorce settlement would delay the SHAC. Sucks not to marry for love!

NDSU just cannot afford to leave, as they would owe both the Summit and the MVFC $1 mill each to leave (and then pay the Big Sky entry fee). Considering that the SHAC still doesn't have full funding, > $2 mill is just not affordable. Paying out that kind of money would delay the SHAC another 10 years. They'd also lose their conference home for baseball and would need to add tennis teams. With Newman Field, it probably would be unacceptable and embarrassing to drop baseball, but since they don't really fund baseball anyway, what's the diff?

Personally, I believe that Allard and Wilmer will be key contributors in the coming year. The rest of them: not so much unless there is major improvement. Was not suggesting that the rest of the players be dropped, as a deep roster is needed in the event of injuries. For their fifth year players that aren't contributing, why should they continue to get a scholarship, when they have had four years to complete degree requirements? We are asking Shane Benton to come on for the first year without a scholarship, and he shows significant promise. What's the difference between that, and having the non-contributing fifth year senior walk on? Benton will sacrifice for the team. Would the fifth-year seniors? By not freeing up more scholarships for big men, Jones would essentially be writing off this team in the Big Sky for the first two years.

The FCS contract expires after this year. With Sioux hockey as a drawing card as well as Big Sky action available in 2012-13, betting on a contract with Fox on multiple networks (FSN, FCS).

Totally agreed. When UND started DI hockey, the league travel was ridiculous - especially in an era without interstates and when train travel was the main transportation. WCHA in 1951was: Denver CC Minnesota Michigan Tech Michigan State Michigan UND They were all kinds of detractors that didn't believe UND could ever flourish in such a far flung league. Other Dakota schools laughed, like UND could never accomplish anything without them. But who is laughing now? The hockey story shows that UND can make it's own path that is not dependent whatsoever on other Dakota schools, and even gain dual allegiance from regional fans from other schools. Same thing with the Big Sky.

The next class absolutely has to include a JC big man or two. The transition is still making it hard to gain JC players that will make an impact. Next year, maybe there is hope in that department. Since next years juniors will have had four years of scholarships, are they really owed a fifth year "free", especially if they are not contributing?

New Alumni Center to begin construction Benedict Gorecki and family are also major benefactors to the College of St. Benedict in Minnesota.

Most people usually associate "niche" with high-end, so that may be properly descriptive considering the salaries of former UND athletes: Jonathon Toews, $6.4 mill Zach Parise, $3.1 mill Travis Zajac, $3.9 mil Matt Greene, $2.75 mil Jason Blake, $3.0 mil Mike Commodore, $3.8 mil Drew Stafford, $2.3 mill Those are definitely "niche" salaries. The fanbase where much of the "niche" talk comes from maybe would have a point in their derision of UND if they had former players making well in excess of that kind of money. But right now, all five of their former football players in the NFL (Ramon Humber, Craig Dahl, Kole Heckendorf, Joe Mays, Nick Schommer) make well under $1 mill. Meanwhile, two graduates of the so-called lesser program, are pulling down huge NFL bucks: Jimmy Kleinsasser, $3 mill Chris Kuper, $ 7 mil linky So in summary, "niche" program = high-end salaries. "You want to work on a farm you go to NDSU; you want to own the farm you go to UND" Defensive Cordinator Dale Lennon in 1995 ...