star2city

Moorhead and Minot both supposedly have feelers out to the WCHA - once the gophers and badgers leave. If UND / Denver / CC / Omaha / Notre Dame / Miami form a new superleague, I could see both those two getting in with what's left.

I'm waiting for the day for Moorhead State to go DI in hockey so that kind of talk can be put to bed. That way, UND and Moorhead State can share the winter-time headlines in the Fargo Forum. Maybe your wrestling team can crack the top 20 and give you something to crow about during the long winter.

Without even looking, one can guess at certain UND Bisonville topics, all revealing their deep-seated insecurities, as these topics keep topics get rehashed over and over again: 1. Hockey sucks. No body cares (but they apparently care enough to keep posting that.) - Jealous of national success and ashamed they don't have it 2. The Alerus sucks. Fargodome is awesome. - Jealous of the Ralph and ashamed of the BSA 3. The Big Sky sucks. They repeat how happy they aren't in it. - Jealousy of the Sky and ashamed of the Summit 4. UND's TV media contracts really aren't all that good. Then they whine and complain how they don't have any media except Kopack. - again: Jealousy and shame 5. How UND athletes are always in big trouble, but the media always covers up UND. But then they somehow forget Best Buy - Shame 6. UND's nickname is a millstone, yet the Sioux logo is prominent among their students on campus. Again: jealously and shame. 7. UND's leadership sucks, yet NDSU's leadership gets indictments. Shame 8. UND alumni don't care about UND, and NDSU alumni are passionate about the Bison. But when it comes down to donations, UND alumni do care, while NDSU alumni pitch pennies. Again: Jealousy and shame.

Coaching. Attitude. Almost every Sioux fan believes Roebuck bleeds Green. Roebuck is the one face of Sioux athletics that has stayed in the game for two decades. Fans relate to him and his intense loyalty to UND. Jones on the hand, probably because of his personality, hasn't really endeared himself with the fan base. If he wins, he's gone. Men's basketball had basically a five year gap that more or less was a disgrace to it's tradition. Lennon almost had an iconic quality about him as head coach that gave whoever followed a very difficult task. Even if Mussman has winning seasons the next couple of years, fans just don't sense the confidence and attitude that they want in that program. UND hockey is at a stage where the program overshadows any coach. Granted, no one questions Hak bleeding green. If one looks at women's BB attendance at NDSU, it has basically fallen off a cliff. Without Amy Ruley, NDSU women's BB lost it's identity, and hence now has few followers. The real test of a coach is did they leave a program legacy. With Travis Brewster as heir apparent, UND women's basketball tradition seems much more likely to survive a coaching transition.

Best Buy Boys incident was not epic, or just normal?

If baseball is to remain viable, a conference home will be needed soon. The Great West possibly won't exist beyond the 2012 season. Even if it does exist, it needs to work toward autobid status, which isn't possible unless it has consistent membership. The logical conference to look into is the WAC, as it has lost three schools and only gained two: Current WAC baseball: Hawaii San Jose St Fresno St Sacramento St Nevada N Mex St La Tech New schools added UTSA Texas St Lamar likely gets added to the WAC. The WAC is also looking at non-football schools like Seattle, Utah Valley, and Bakersfield, which all have baseball. Southern Utah and Northern Colorado will also be looking for a baseball-only WAC affiliation. With seven or eight baseball slots filled, the WAC won't be interested in UND. The Southland could end up adding Houston Baptist and UTPA, to back fill the losses of UTSA, Lamar, and Texas St, further depleting Great West baseball. That would leave the Great West baseball with only the following schools: UND No Colo Chicago St NJIT New York Tech Those five could survive as a separate league - named something other then the Great West - if they could add one more independent or if Houston Baptist, UTPA, or UVU don't receive invitations. The only other independents would be Southern Utah, LeMoyne (NY), Longwood (Va), and Dallas Baptist. Dallas Baptist probably wouldn't accept, as that school has made it to the NCAA's playing a strong independent schedule. A northern league would kill Dallas Baptist's chances. Remarkably, the best shot for UND baseball might be the Summit League, but with the mess between Douple and UND, highly doubt that there are good relationships there. The Summit League has 8 teams, but will be losing two: Centenary and Southern Utah. That would leave the Summit with only six teams, meaning if they lose one more (Oral Roberts to the Southland or WAC), the Summit league would lose their autobid. Considering the relationship between UND administrators and the Summit, the Summit probably will choose a school like Northern Colorado - which would be a double blow to UND baseball. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Here's what to expect for annual Big Sky rivals: UND: NC, MSU NC: UND, NAU NAU: NC, SUU SUU: NAU, WSU WSU: SUU, ISU ISU: WSU, PSU PSU: ISU, EWU EWU: PSU, UM UM: EWU, MSU MSU: UM, UND Sac: Poly, UCD UCD: Sac, Poly Poly: Sac, UCD What needs to happen for annual UND-Griz games is one more team, so divisional play can happen. If Idaho would have been forced back (if the MWC had taken Utah St and SJSU), the divisions could have been: North: UND, UM, MSU, IDaho, EWU, NC, ISU South: WSU, SUU, NAU, PSU, Davis, Poly, Sac

With the well already a year old, it certainly doesn't look like a big money-maker yet for Brigham. But with all the variables in oil drilling, Brigham could very well have been tweeking it's fracking formula with this well. In a couple of years, it's also possible that Brigham would rework this well based on knowledge they are gaining. Beyond that, the whole concept of secondary recovery is not even in the play book yet.

Email this post to the legislators on the committee reviewing that bill.

Land near Parshall? Probably about a 99% shot of getting one or more high flowing wells. Hope your grandfather will be able to enjoy his newfound bounty!

It amazes me that so many on this board want to give Kelley and Faison a free pass. The denials yesterday by Kelley and Faison are just artfully worded denials like those given by any talented politician. Kelley is stridently anti-Sioux nickname and two years ago he believed that the nickname was too big a hurdle for a successive DI transition. For him to scheme with Douple to use conference leverage as a means to get rid of the nickname would have been an entirely rational - but unethical - plan. Conference affiliation was seen as the arrow that would kill the Sioux nickname: the perfect assassination weapon that would not cast blame on any individual. Kelley could have easily convinced himself that such an action was brilliant. Remember, at the time, Spirit Lake approval did not seem possible. Kelley, with his PC mindset, could easily see a Douple agreement as silently heroic. Kelley likely dreamed of the private accolades he would receive from the hallowed grounds of Berkely, Madison, and Boston if he could successfully remove the name. It's very telling that no other conference commissioner anywhere has ever stated that the Sioux name - especially with the NCAA agreement - was ever a hindrance to membership. Patty Viverito never expressed that lie, neither did Fullerton. Douple's line about the nickname actually implicated the NCAA with duplicity, which the NCAA never would have wanted for legal reasons. Douple's story is plausible. There is much more to this story than will ever come to light. Anyone denying that Kelley did not have powerful motivations to make an agreement with Douple is hopelessly naive.

Screwed up by not saying 12 !! Might have jinxed the men's team over the past few years. Back then, couldn't even conceive of the women's team winning. Can now.

There's no denying that Douple is a total scumbag. I've been stating that for years. But if our leadership doesn't have enough sense to avoid making deals with scumbags, that's very revealing about their judgement, limits, and ethics. Every UND fan should be concerned about that.

Looks like you family has one of the poorer producing wells Brigham has drilled. Considering the well is grossing more than $250,000 / month from which your family is gaining royalties, not sure that condolences are due. I follow and have invested in a number of Bakken-oriented oil stocks. Of all of them, Brigham is probably my favorite - although the stock has been ahead of itself recently. They do have great IPs which no doubt decline fast, but from a cash flow standpoint Brigham is able to recoup the cost of their wells faster than any other company: After just a few months Brigham has already effectively paid for their wells, so the rest of the oil is gravy for them.. Brigham is a preferred company for larger leaseholders in the Rough Rider and Ross areas. Brigham's IPs in the Ross area are stratospheric relative to other companies. Technically, Brigham seems to understand the Bakken geology and has a better "formula" than its competitors. Brigham is one of the few companies in the Bakken that use more expansive ceramic proppants rather specialized sand or hard polymer-based proppants, and that's supposedly one of their secrets to high IPs. Have you seen this: BEXP investor presentation

Predictions from five years ago on the additional chapters. Guess I was wrong on the part about the bizon fans deriding the UND Big Sky move as costly and non-sustainable. Also got the bit wrong about bison fans continuing to degrade UND's hockey program.

Interesting posts from 5 years ago:

Never pressured - true Never asked - true Never 'Suggested" with a wink - never denied People at Kelley's level are masters at getting what they want, and not leaving a legal trail. That's how they get to their positions.

I'm finding it increasingly disturbing the wording that is in that press release. Replacing the word "pressured" with the word "suggested" changes the whole meaning of the press release. The word "pressured" totally absolves Faison and Kelley. "Statement by University of North Dakota Brian Faison: "I'm here today to respond to a report that the University of North Dakota "pressured" the Summit League to take stand against the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo." Total wordsmithing and spin reminiscent of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSDAXGXGiEw Depends on the meaning of intercourse.

Faison can't speak for Kelley, who may have had private conversations with Douple. But remember, Kelley just never "pressured" Douple about the topic.

ScottM: Hope you didn't learn all the PR skills from UND law school. No one is arguing Kelley did anything illegal, it's just his ethics that are being questioned. Perhaps we should check with a non-lawyer on those issues. Have we become like bison fans that turn a blind eye to presidential ethic charges?

That statement by Kelley is so full of eloquent weasel words, making Kelley all the more suspicious. The words "pressuring" iand "pressure"are what Kelley is hiding behind: a used-car salemans like Douple doesn't need "pressure" to do a sleazy deal. What the reporter should ask if there was any talk between Kelley and Douple about such a deal, regardless of pressure. Without being a member, Kelley was in no position to pressure anybody.

So was that fate, or Kelley? Doesn't it bother UND fans that these allegations would prove Kelley to be a dishonorable liar?

So if Kelley hadn't agreed to the deception, UND could have been in the Summit two years ago. If that is the case, leadership is the issue and Kelley should be canned. Douple's/Kelley's scam is a major cause of UND's transition problems.

Doufus could never deliver on Summit football, something UND badly needed. Kelley took the better deal: the Big Sky, something that Kelley didn't even anticipate (he should have read this board). UND taking the Big Sky enraged Douple. Douple is taking his revenge on Kelley for backing out on their deal. Kolpack is more than happy to oblige Douple.

You had a con man for an ex-president, a douchbag for an AD, and a charlatan for your conference commish: so yeah, NDSU wins the trifecta there. All three were more than chums with each other: so keep bragging them up there danny boy.