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USD 1st year transitional opponents - SIU-E, Seattle, UND - have played extensively against established DI teams so limited interplay is not a valid argument. The sampling size of 10 is at least as good of quality as the first BCS computer rankings (with 6 or 7 data points). Futhermore, Sagarin is no doubt a better rating system than RPI.

Partly economics. The HBU men's team can get more guarantees or two-for-ones (why travel north when they aren't required to by conference) - whereas women's scheduling is more about the competition and not the $'s.

A tournament is a crapshoot unless one has an extraordinarily dominant team. SDSU in their transition was so dominant it probably would have been DII champions every year of their transition if the rules allowed. Some of the schools that transitioned right before or with us are doing extremely well in women's basketball. Florida Gulf Coast especially (#88), but also Seattle (178), Cal St- Bakersfield (148), and Kennesaw State (191) all would have very strong DII teams - according to the all Divisions Massey ratings. This year, UND women's (now #210) team seems to be peaking at the right time, as the early season travel has abated and the early difficult schedule has paid off as it seems they've learned a faster rhythm to take their play to another level. Those ratings show Mankato State (#170), Alaska Anchorage (#222) and Seattle Pacific (#230) as current DII favorites.

In theSagarin Ratings, Seattle is at #133, which is remarkable for a first-year Division I team. Seattle would be competitive in the WAC. South Dakota's ratings would make it an average team in the MAC or Sun Belt. College Basketball 2008-2009 Div 71 Nebraska = 80.11 72 Wis.-Green Bay = 80.09 80 North Dakota State = 79.28 81 Northern Iowa = 78.75 113 Oral Roberts = 75.34 114 Oakland-Mich. = 75.29 122 Drake = 74.56 127 Wis.-Milwaukee = 74.16 133 Seattle = 73.86 142 Idaho = 73.21 162 Montana = 72.45 201 Indiana = 69.98 206 Utah Valley State = 69.68 207 Denver = 69.67 211 South Dakota = 69.4 212 Montana State = 69.3 222 Northern Colorado = 68.72 228 IPFW = 68.22 236 Chicago State = 67.59 239 South Dakota State = 67.44 244 Southern Utah = 66.93 280 North Dakota = 64.84 282 Centenary = 64.76 296 UMKC = 63.02 299 SIU-Edwardsville = 62.75 328 Houston Baptist = 59.16 334 Texas-Pan American = 58.04 347 NJIT(New Jersey Tech) = 48.35

The Big Sky really has become a mess and it's problems are compounded by the WAC's likely need for future teams. But where there's instability, there's also potential. Agree that a more northern and mountain Big Sky could allow UND membership. USD has always had it's sights set on the Summit, and a surprise announcement this week during the Summit tournament wouldn't be all that unexpected.

Women – Final Team Rankings 1. Southern Methodist University – 857.5 2. University of Houston – 623 3. Rice University – 595 4. East Carolina University – 532.5 5. University of North Dakota 409 6. Marshall University – 225 7. California State University – Bakersfield – 184 8. University of Northern Colorado - 147 Men – Final Team Rankings 1. Southern Methodist University – 921 2. University of Hawaii – 769 3. East Carolina University – 542 4. University of North Dakota – 442 5. California State University – Bakersfield - 421 UND actually set a CUSA record: Daniel Moraes (Jr., Salvador, Brazil) set a meet record while swimming his way to a first place finish in the 200 freestyle with his winning time of 1:37.26, which also broke the previous conference record as well as the two-day-old UND school record. From Dagny response, would guess a school like Stanford would be at the top of her list: 5.) What are some colleges you are looking at and what's a requirement a school must have for you to seriously consider it? Dagny: I've definitely been thinking about college a lot. For now, I'm keeping my options open. I hope to have more decisions made after this summer, depending on how I swim. What do I look for in a college? Well, academics, first of all. I'm looking for someplace that has a strong swimming and dry-land program. Also, I think I'm a swimmer that needs attention. I want to make sure that I'm getting 100 percent of what I need (laughs) to go faster. Another Minot native, Matt Lowe, is a s potential Olympian swimmer at Texas, so there may be connections elsewhere.

With a few more years of DI recruiting, UND would have the potential to challenge for 2nd in CUSA. CUSA Women - after three days SMU 599.5 points. Houston 419 Rice 's 402 East Carolina 354.5 North Dakota 278 Marshall 142. Cal State Bakersfield 122 Northern Colorado 111 CUSA Men - after three days SMU 619 points Hawai'i 506.5 East Carolina 358 North Dakota 302 Cal State Bakersfield 282.5

South Dakota to play Wisconsin in 2011 UND needs a game at Camp Randall.

A lot of events to go; so will be interesting to see how UND fares. SMU's seed times make it the class of the field. 2009 C-USA Women's Champs & C-USA Men's Inv - 2/25/2009 to 2/28/2009 Team Rankings - Through Event 5 Women - Team Scores Place School Points ============================================================​======= 1 Southern Methodist University SMU 80 2 Rice University RICE 66 3 University of North Dakota UND 64 4 University of Houston UH 62 5 East Carolina University ECU 56 6 Marshall University MAR 52 7 University Northern Colorado UNCO 48 8 California State U Bakersfield CSUB 22 Men - Team Scores Place School Points ============================================================​======= 1 Southern Methodist University SMU 114 2 University of Hawaii HAW 112 3 University of Dakota UND* 81 4 East Carolina University ECU 72 5 California State U Bakersfield CSUB* 56

For it to be even listed in as a Smack thread shows an intent that is "piling on", whatever the content. Seems there are more than a fair share of Bison posters - that includes you, BisonDan - who take to schoolgirl giggles whenever UND has any kind of adverse situation.

This report, FBS revenues and expenses, doesn't include hockey, but with Bowling Green participating at the FBS level, they almost assuredly must subsidize their football program far more than they spend in hockey. For basketball, just the coaches salaries for a top-level basketball coach ($1 M +) make it an expensive proposition relative to hockey (~$250 K for top coaches). Bowling Green has gone to a few bowl games, but it will never be a national champion in either football (unless it drops to FCS) or basketball. With hockey, it can say it was a champion. One of the issues Bowling Green faces is that the MAC requires its schools to sponsor baseball. Because the MAC commissioner as well as other all-sports conferences don't care about hockey, hockey-playing schools get pressure from their conference to spend less on hockey and more on other sports. Within the MAC, two natural rivals of both Bowling Green and Miami U, Ohio U and Kent State, dropped hockey in part because it wasn't a MAC sponsored sport. With hockey outside the conference mainstream, hockey too often gets neglected at schools with AD's or Presidents that don't love it or where alumni/hockey fans don't demand their attention. When Buffalo joined the MAC, incredibly Buffalo was forced to start a baseball squad from scratch and then build an on-campus baseball field to satisfy the MAC. Buffalo was so much more logically a hockey school, but MAC requirements forced baseball on it. The MAC's mandates tie Buffalo's hands to even consider hockey. Imagine a MAC hockey conference of with the likes of Western Michigan Miami Bowling Green Buffalo Kent State Ohio U Central Michigan / N Illinois as potential additions It might not strike fear in the heart's of hockey fans now, but it's attendance would exceeded Hockey East's, the schools would have traditional rivals, and it could have grown into an elite league. If MAC officials would have embraced hockey - instead of forcing it's schools to waste money on the impossible dream of being a prominent northern baseball conference - the MAC would have gained recognition as a top-flight conference in something rather than being mediocre in everything. With lacrosse basically realigning into all-sports conferences (e.g. the Big East), lacrosse will become a priority non-expendable sport at both the conference level and the AD level. Hockey's never had that benefit except in hockey-centric areas. For lower-ranked basketball conferences like the Summit or even the MAC, there really is no great direct financial benefit unless the conference can annually win NCAA games or place two or more schools in the Dance (the Summit routinely takes a 1/127th share of the NCAA's distribution - which is shared by all the conference schools, while the Big East or ACC routinely take 18-20 out of the 127 shares which is also shared equally among members). The Summits conference schools greatest benefit is the media recognition .

Knew the Yankees had a network, but never had access to it: YES Network With the resources of the REA and FSSN, there's got to be opportunity out there.

Beginning tomorrow, UND's swimming team participates in the CUSA swimming championship. Although UND swimmers are ineligible for participating in the national meet, interesting nevertheless to see where UND swimmers rank among Houston, Rice, SMU, Hawaii, etc. SMU's swim team is ranked like 17th in the nation. In most of the relays, UND's times going into the meet are competitive within the conference (but don't make national qualification times). If the swimming program could stay in a Conference like CUSA for swimming, that would be a great boost for the program and recruiting. The Summit, Valley, and Horizon are not exactly powerhouse swimming conferences. Conference USA Swimming Championships and Invitational

In spite its relatively low profile, Western Kentucky has one of the most extensive reaches of any college satellite sports network. Most of the cable networks in the South and Atlantic regions broadcast Western Kentucky games. This from a school with modest basketball success, limited national recognition, and which is only now going IA in football. What would prevent UND from getting similar distribution for it's FSSN, which conceivably would be able to distribute not only football, volleyball, M&W basketball, but hockey (and a telegenic spring sport would only make it more attractive)? Hilltopper Satellite Sports Network: WKU's conference, Sun Belt recently signed an agreement with ESPN that may threaten the HSSN:

Rumors are flying about hockey being dropped at Bowling Green, which won an NCAA championship in the 80's and had one of the great game environments until recently. As difficult it is to get college programs started, a loss of program at a mid-major 18,000 student DI university like Bowling Green would be tragic. Bowling Green's program has struggled recently; it's currently in last place in the CCHA. But the hockey program, which actually outdraws their basketball teams, has been allowed to wither while a new basketball arena was built. Letters to the editor have expressed concern: Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com - Bowling Green's message board Renovations (mostly basic maintenance) to their 5000 seat arena have been postponed: link A new president was recently installed who was the President of Kent State when they dropped hockey: Dr Carol Cartwright Their new Stroh Center was built without ice capability: Certainly hope Bowling Green's program can continue.

Probably <1% chance. A lot of college players participate in non-professional summer leagues, so moving the season would limit their playing and development time even while in college. In addition, most kids that sign a pro contract need to immediately go to a rookie league or short-season "A" team, which all start in late June or early July. College baseball would lose a lot of potential players if they adjusted the season into summer. The Southern and Western schools are already irked that the Big Ten and other northern schools were able implement a uniform start date for the third week of February (before that, warm-weather schools were scheduling games in late January). Those schools won't be giving more favors to Northern schools, it they can help it. How the Big Ten Stole Baseball

To be fair to the UND men's team, at the same time in the transition, UND compares very favorably. Without the SDSU and Northern Iowa games, NDSU women would barely be drawing 1000. Both UND and NDSU women have struggled with injuries, have similar records, but NDSU has an actual conference to play in and has had DI games at home. It just seems NDSU's women's team has lost its connection with the community. UND men's team seemingly lost that connection, but it is being rebuilt, slowly but surely. What is surprising is that a Top 25 women's team, the main rival SDSU nonetheless, could only draw 2644. NDSU fans want games against ranked opponents, yet don't turn out. A UND-NDSU women's game could practically double that.

Some UNI fans are claiming that Title IX is the real reason for baseball being cut. When the dust settles, UNI will become the second DI school to sponsor varsity rugby (Eastern Illinois has been the first). UNI's club women's rugby

Some of the stands are movable, so it is possible to have seating directly at the boards and directly behind the goaltenders. Isn't the problem the ice-making capability? (although the Alerus bid on the World Curling Championships too). If somehow junior teams would have territorial rights to local high schools, that would increase interest. On a side note: if UND had to change their name, could one imagine the Herald et. al. uproar if a GF JR team took the name "Fighting Sioux".

No DI men's program in either Michigan or Colorado have a corresponding DI women's program. Title IX doesn't require identical sports, just proportional opportunities. NDSU will not be adding men's hockey anytime soon, but if they theoretically did, women's equestrian would most likely be added simultaneously.

From a cost standpoint, UNO has to be looking at the WCHA (even if they are being coy about it). First, travel would be so much easier in the WCHA, as it becomes essentially a bus league for them. Second, and almost more important, is the revenue the UNO could make from visiting WCHA fans. Because of distance and because few CCHA school grads reside in Omaha, there's not much ticket demand from rival fans. One of the revenue drivers in the WCHA is rival fans buying tickets, keeping demand and prices up. Omaha's city leadership (not just UNO leaders) would love to see a thousand or more visiting fans staying downtown during an UNO WCHA weekends.

Looks as if UND / Alerus are considering it:

Herald: Steve Hyman of the Alerus Would a Jr hockey team, if it played on weekends that the Sioux weren't in town, generate enough attendance? Would the Alerus be a decent venue?

Some of the road games this year are guarantee games, so the cost probably isn't that great this year. Next year, when there is a conference schedule (UNC, UVU, UTPA etc), the costs will mount up. If UND could ever gets an indoor practice facility, that would help with competitiveness (even more than a stadium). The NCAA actually moved back DI baseball's schedule by several weeks this year to help northern schools. What really would need to happen is that the season gets pushed back by another month or more (like the Big Ten was pushing for), so the College World Series would be in early August.

SEC Baseball Arms Race