star2city

With the building sitting empty, the Browns aren't pulling in anything on that property, and they have to pay UND rent regardless. By leasing, the capital costs go way down, and I would suspect with the building vacant for more than a year, that a very good deal could be had. There had been rumors for some time that a hotel was going next door, and Suite 49 would have been the restaurant partner. But somehow the deal never was closed.

Would suspect that the Pac10 would add Utah and Colorado, which are the only western schools that meet their academic requirements as well help with media and athletic. (UC-Davis, UC-San Diego, US-Irvine, and UC-Santa Barbara meet academic requirements, but wouldn't add much to the PAC10 television contracts.) Keep in mind that this is only rumor and speculation, but it is known that when the SWC broke up, Texas wanted in the PAC10 (rebuked by Stanford) and wanted in the Big 10 (which had a moratorium and considered Texas too far removed). Texas considered the SEC beneath them and still does, but at the time the SEC had a deal to add Houston and Texas A&M to it's ranks if Texas gained Pac10 or Big10 membership. SWC breakup aftermath All just speculation, but the Big Ten adds Syracuse, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma - so the Big Ten is in continuous states from Austin to Syracuse. SEC adds Texas A&M, Oklahoma St, Va Tech, NC State (some school in NC to gain significant exposure in that top-10 population state- East Carolina if they had to). The rest of the conferences would almost implode. The ACC would need to add two: Rutgers and Pittsburgh. The Big 12 would be down to Iowa St, Kansas St, Texas Tech, Baylor, and Nebraska. They add BYU, TCU, Houston, Colorado St, Boise St. Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati, W Va, Connecticut, South Florida, Central Florida, Temple, East Carolina reform the Big East football conference. What's left of the MWC and WAC merge. CUSA becomes another mess. A number of schools move up from FCS to FBS. The rich get richer. The poor get poorer.

Maybe the Big 10 is really considering going to 14 to 16 members. (see previous link in hockey section). Reports are that the SEC is looking a pre-empting the Big Ten on a move. There are really only three conferences that are rock-solid: PAC10, SEC, and Big10. The huge fish might actually eat portions of the large fish, like the ACC and Big 12. Imagine the Big 10 adding the following: Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Syracuse/Rutgers. The western division of the Big 10 would basically be the heart of the Big 12: Texas Okla Kansas Missouri Iowa Minnesota Wisconsin Northwestern With the east being: Illinois Indiana Purdue Michigan Mich St Ohio St Penn St Syracuse All the expansion schools would be AAU (high academics and high level research) except Oklahoma. The Big Ten would gain the key states of NY, Tx, and Mo, and the Big Ten Network would profit handsomely. (The Big Ten Network gains $1/month per cable subscriber in Big Ten states, but only $1/yr in non Big Ten states.) With all the money and power accurued, the Big Ten would then effectively call the shots with the NCAA. To respond to the Big Ten's power grab, or to pre-empt it, the SEC would almost have to be in four additional states (like TX, MO, NC, VA). The SEC would likely want to pre-empt this change by taking four: like Texas A&M, Okla ST, possibly fight for Missouri or Oklahoma, consider Va Tech, or maybe possibly pry NC State away from the shadows of UNC and Duke. Texas does not want to join the SEC because of academic issues (only Vanderbilt, Florida, and Georgia are of Big Ten quality).

ESPN planning major increase in college LAX broadcasts If ESPN is increasing LAX coverage, would follow Fox College Sports would have an interest too. With an indoor facility, a national TV contract, the next ingredient is a league: Denver Air Force SMU (rumored - large interest in Dallas) Stanford (rumored to be 1st men's west coast program) Grand Canyon (Phoenix) is moving to DI and sponsors LAX North Dakota

The WAC will be begging for new FBS schools, practically guaranteed. The Big Sky will have a major shakeup: not only will it consider Southern Utah, but also take in non-football schools like Utah Valley, and later Grand Canyon when it moves to DI. Supposedly, it has has feelers out to Western Washington - WWU couldn't go DI with football. It might also have feelers out to Bakersfield (likely bound to Big West), Seattle, and Denver, although none of them have true interest unless other options are gone.

Next year's game will be the most anticipated season opener for the Vandals in a decade. Will be loud and likely sold out in the Kibbie Dome.

That is better attendance than I realized. Is that tickets sold or actual attendees? Guess I just don't sense much excitement in the Fargo media.

Agree NDSU will get a jewel in the rough every now and then (would like to see UND get one soon ) , but getting Woodside, Winkleman and Nelson in the same year was like winning the trifecta. With stars separated by classes by a few years, they don't have the luxury of developing together.

Agree that NDSU has some good prospective recruits, but current seniors like Sussenguth, Vaughn, Pennick, and Flowers were also hyped a lot in the media and they haven't really developed and lived up to hopes. What Woodside, Winkleman and Nelson accomplished and how they continued to develop was impressive, and what they did helped with recruiting, but honestly, a repeat of that type team is something NDSU might not experience again for a generation. More NCAA bids might be possible in a few years, but as a 15 or 16 seed.

The APR system is relatively new, so there isn't a precedent to my knowledge. Centenary isn't eligible this year, but that's only one school out of 10 in the Summit.

Agree with those statements. But ... where's the interest in Bison basketball this year? Attendance is down. In most DII years, there was more attendance than this year. It's almost as if last year didn't happen - fans either don't care or it is forgotten. Attempts to make men's BB into the second cash generator for NDSU is just not happening, and won't happen as long as they are playing in the BSA.

Last spring when the NCAA released it's APR, the Big Sky had some serious issues. If those APR don't improve with the newest ratings, it's theoretically possible that the Big Sky could lose it's men's basketball autobid if two schools get placed on post-season probation. The Big Sky wouldn't have the minimum number of eligible schools needed to qualify. Such a turn of events could make leaving the Big Sky a no-brainer decision for Montana, even though it would mean moving to FBS and the WAC. The leadership at Montana and Montana State probably are already aware of the likely scores. There's a number of existing conference fault lines (Big East, Big Ten, PAC10, MWC, WAC, CUSA), and with the Big Sky having some fissures, it's all the more reason to jump ship. A school like Southern Utah might not even backfill unless it is clear that there an autobid can be regained quickly.

Most of Mangino's former players came out for him too, but it was well-known that Mangino was a first-class a**. Not saying that Leach is at that level, but he was a very difficult person to reason with. Knight and Leach were kind of cut from the same cloth: but the TTU AD wanted that type leadership. Leach got himself into trouble when after the contract extension, as he talked with Washington without an O.K. from the TTU admin. BC fired their coach for that. All that said, can't imagine the James WR staying at TTU. Maybe transfers to SMU?

Different colors, different teams: Ames has the HS cyclones and ISU cyclones. It's workable. More than 50% of UND students are from out of state: they don't care in the least about RRHS. But as far as state nicknames, many states have multiple nicknames that are not apppropriate at all for athletic nicknames.. ND is also the Sioux state. That is the nickname I prefer. UND's nickname is about branding the whole state for a national image, not just merely for local sports fans.

The average student at UND doesn't even know RRHS has roughriders as the nickname, nor do 99.999% of the people outside of ND. Most flagship universities use their state nickname as their own: why should UND be different. There must be a ton of HS's in Wisconsin with the badger name, or a number of Michigan HS's that are wolverines. Sorry, but it would be tragically parochial thinking if UND rejected roughriders because RRHS uses it. A more legitimate reason is if another college or pro team already had the name. Granted, the Saskatchewan Roughriders already use it and have roughly the same colors - but since they're CFL it wouldn't affect much. That said, stay with the green and white, use blue as appropriate, and go with Cavalry if the Sioux name is dropped.

Says danny boy who passionately follows every step the Sioux make. Love when you post, because the bad wishes you hope for us somehow end up going your direction instead.

Willing to bet the vast majority of tribal voters would have no problem with Cavalry: after all, even today, Sioux people sign up in disproportionally high numbers to join the Army. People opposed to the Sioux nickname (of any ethnicity) are the ones likely to be opposed to Cavalry: too "violent" and "warlike" in their view. Cavalry really isn't any different than Roughriders.

Why not just demolish that wing and move on? With all the engineering studies required prior to occupation, wouldn't that be more cost effective? But then again, if they do stabilize it, remodel it into the new President's home. What's one more money pit? Really strange how the pillars of NDSU (Chapman's legacy, football, budgeting, enrollment waivers) all seem to be literally collapsing simultaneously.

With the move to DI, the goal is now conference championships, not national championships. The fan base has to adjust to that and it won't be easy. Even SDSU, which is a basketball-mad school, has trouble marketing it's men's BB team. Considering how well their women's team does, it doesn't draw all that well either. An upcoming USD-SDSU women's game seems to be galvanizing their fan base even more than their national success. As far as post-season events, would hope that GF and the Alerus Center would bid on Summit post-season tournament: four schools would surely bring fans. Until Sioux Falls gets a new arena, the Alerus would have a shot. What is questionable is how sports like golf, baseball, softball, in which we were marginal at the DII level, can ever expect to be half-way competitive in DI. DI, at least for a school like UND, is about being the best in can be in niches that best fit UND's strengths. Denver U has a hodge-podge mix of sports, but DU excels in most of them. That in my view should be UND's goal.

What's increasingly apparent is that the former NCC schools need each other in basketball. Attendance helps gain better recruiting, recruiting gains wins, wins mean attendance. Right now, all the NCC schools are in a negative feedback cycle (NDSU's "glory" was short-lived and soon forgotten by the general public - their current RPI only 50 pts higher than UND's). A 10,000 person turnout for UND-NDSU in the Ralph would do wonders for recruiting. Add in games vs USD and SDSU for 5000 each in the Ralph. Get one or two games annually vs N Iowa or Montana for another 5000. With all four + UMKC in an I-29 corridor division (+ perhaps Denver), the recruiting aspirations can be higher. All four schools need to compete against the Horizon and MVC for recruits. Attendance and game excitement is what is needed to turn the cycle positive. NDSU and USD also badly need new venues.

The REA tour is probably the most popular "tourist" attractions in the area. The tour guides take you into the locker (if not occupied) and training, weight, study rooms and other spaces that a normal game fan doesn't get to see. The tour includes the Suite level and the upper level bar.

With new QB could easily see USD going 2-9. A 5-6 record is almost best case. It may be a good home schedule, but the overall schedule is a killer. There's not even a weekend off during the whole season. Almost every team except NW OK St and Lamar will have more talent. For UND, it's almost perfect that they schedule NDSU the weekend before: otherwise it would have been USD's week off. Also, they'll spend a lot of emotion at the Fargodome before meeting UND. The USD-NDSU game is absolutely key for their whole season.l Two FBS schools in Central Florida and Minnesota to start off with a new QB? For recruiting and media both make sense, but not in the same year and not right after each other.

Used to link to some new incarceration facility in downtown Fargo: (but that went overbudget too!)

What's really sad is that UND is rated 5-10 points less than half the Summit League, which is horrible at the bottom this year. Centenary lost a bunch of players because it's going DIII, yet it would be a five point favorite to UND. NDSU has dropped about 200 spots on the ratings (so much for their perpetual power in Men's BB theory - gone the way of their football power) , to about where we were last year. Yet we dropped 60-70 spots ourselves. 263 UMKC = 65.25 4 4 66.94( 336) 277 IPFW = 64.36 2 6 76.08( 55) 279 North Dakota State = 64.29 2 6 71.29( 219) 288 Centenary = 63.78 3 6 70.17( 261) 311 Southern Utah = 60.86 1 8 73.27( 144) 319 Western Illinois = 59.32

This is ridiculous. Chapman's mansion building affected UND, but this is worse. Chapman's accounting games and corruption will now likely how UND budgets internally. If the Board is going to slap some hands, it needs to be the perpetrators of any deficit (i.e. NDSU), and not hinder those organizations that have shown the capacity and competence to remain in budget (all the other schools).