star2city

The UND administration actually considered playing a second game with South Dakota at the Metrodome (with UND as the home team), so I don't think this idea is that far-fetched from UND's perspective. UND wants events in the Twin Cities for which tickets are easily available for UND alumni there (big pool of resources that's untapped relative to Grand Forks area - witness $2 mill donation this past week). But from NDSU's view, they'd never do it: too much to lose in their minds. Technically, if (when ) NDSU doesn't make the playoffs this year, an NDSU-UND game could be played on Nov 29th.

This probably has been reported before, but UND apparently has a contract for two away games in Moscow (Idaho) in 2010 and 2011. Missoulian on the U of Idaho's facility upgrades

Buffalo seeks top amateur hockey tourney

Looks like Hoffman's company was sold for $70 million to a British company, Chemring, that also owns Nobel Energetics. Technical Ordnance sale

And you can't remember going to a Sioux game in GF.

Doubt there would be much of any commitment other than verbal and an annual fee. Most conferences give each school a payout at the end of the year. This conference, which wouldn't be recognized by the NCAA and wouldn't be eligible for NCAA disbursements, would probably require some "pay-in" for officials, etc.

I could see this "conference" allowing SIU-E in, just for travel and scheduling purposes. The OVC won't let them in for basketball for several years. Travel wise, this might be easiest: UND-Chicago St (no 390+ bus ride to USD) USD-SIU-E (Sioux Falls - St Louis connection) UTPA - HBU UVSU - Seattle If SIU-E is not let in, this would probably be the travel partners: UND-USD Chicago St-NJIT (plenty of Chicago - Newark flights) UTPA-HBU UVSU - Seattle

Hadn't seen this posted, but the Sioux people, at least at Standing Rock, do not object to the name Sioux. The tribal council would support spending money for voting on this issue, but wouldn't support a vote on "Sioux" as a UND nickname, when it apparently wouldn't have cost anything with the existing referendum. Standing Rock rejects changing name from Sioux to Oyate in Tribal Vote Comment on the Bismarck Tribune page:

Virginia Tech in the ACC: A Daily Press special report Interesting series on Va Tech into the ACC and it's major effects on Hokie athletics. So this leads to a theoretical question, would Goetz or Hoeven put enough political pressure on Chapman to vote UND into the Summit?, like Warner did on UVa President Casteen.

Lacrosse growth explodes in Saskatchewan Manitoba and out-state Minnesota are next.

Even Syracuse in lacrosse is joining a conference so it has a chance for an auto bid. Dallas Baptist in baseball is no Syracue. Baseball East NY Tech (Core) LeMoyne (Core) NJIT Savannah St (Core) Longwood (eligible) Chicago St (Core) West UTPA (Core) NoCol (eligible) Dallas Baptist (Core) Utah Valley St (eligible by time league forms) N Dakota Houston Baptist No travel between divisions to keep costs down. Top two eligible teams in each division go to tournament. That way, Dallas Baptist can keep a difficult schedule, and have an autobid if they have a poor season. Seattle and CSU-Bakersfied probably wouldn't participate based on distance.

Been traveling today and didn't expect this news. What it does indicate is that the Summit is concerned enough about its future to sponsor a feeder conference. This will ensure schools are available when others (SUU, Centenary etc) leave. The only good thing for UND is some level of actual conference overview, with schedules, officials for games, and player awards. A blurb on Utah Valley State"]A blurb on UVSU in a Nevada paper indicates that the Summit isn't even on their radar. Does that mean that SUU is leaving the Summit soon? If SUU stays in the Summit, UVSU would be an obvious choice as a treavel partner. As far as adding UVSU to the WAC, that's almost absurd. The state of Utah is already represented by Utah State. The WAC needs a school in So Cal, the Sacramento area, Washington (Seattle?), Oregon, Arizona, or Colorado.

Up a Creek: UTPA athletics lacks leadership A highly critical article in UTPA's local paper.

SIU-E close to finding homes for non OVC sports

Agree that Chicago State isn't a HBCU from its founding, but the way state politics works in Illinois, hasn't it effectively become transformed into one? The new arena funded by the state being a prime example of Chicago politics at work.

Hockey is outselling hoops in Fargo

Sure they will, if UND doesn't have a conference first. With the Ohio Valley Conference granting "membership" but delaying real participation, it seems as if the OVC made a pre-emptive strike to ensure that the Summit didn't take them. Recent rumblings started that UM-St Louis is now considering DI, which has to be a target city for the Summit to best fill its geography. UMSL may be long-term Plan B for a St Louis-based team in the Summit, which is constrained in it's decision-making by Centenary's and SUU's plans.

The schedule upgrade for UC-Davis from DII to FCS has been much greater than what NDSU or SDSU experienced in their transitions. UC-Davis largely made the DII playoffs every year because they were the top DII western team, with nother school even close. Much of their schedule was dotted with NAIA and non-schol or low-schol DIAA. Central and Western Washington didn't make real commitments to football until they joined the NCC. NDSU and SDSU (and UNC, ugh) moved from a high D2 league to a high DIAA league, whereas UC-Davis moved from a low D2 schedule to a high DIAA league. UC-Davis's win over Stanford was just as or even more significant than NDSU's over Minnesota, as UC-Davis was still ramping up its scholarship levels. UC-Davis schedule A lot rests on the shoulders of Coach Mussman and the foundation built by Lennon. I like the chances of UND football at the IAA level (ramping up faster than SDSU's successful transiton), but with injuries and intangibles, one never knows.

SIUE joins Ohio Valley Conference, despite no football program But iit appears SIU-E will be playing as an indepdent in most sports for a few more years.: OVC addition open St. Louis market for alumni

Bryant, in its second year of transition, will be viewed as a DII opponent even within the NEC. The rest of the NEC needs to consider this during their scheduling so they don't exceed the allowed non-DI games. Next year, Bryant will be viewed as a DI school and will be an RPI counter.

LeMoyne, NY Tech, and Dallas Baptist would all qualify under the old "core" member rules, even though they are single DI sport schools.

For baseball only, not for all sports. That may well be true, but why would they rumors of three years? That just makes thes situation worse for recruiting. They need at least a year notice and maybe more. If UTSA is also moving up, the Southland could be short. Granted, the time frame is more likely 2010. That's only for men's basketball. For other sportsm the requirements are much less strict. If there are six core members, an auto berth is available in at least three years. NoCol and UVSU have approached the WAC as well. The baseball conference could be structured so that all teams do not have to play each other, but a post-season tournament will determine an autobid. Dallas Baptist could still gain an at-large berth and play tough competition non-conference (just like Oral Roberts). An autobid helps for bad years. If Centenary is leaving (as you state) and Southern Utah is also possible to leave, they'd be foolish not to be looking. Bryant, Seattle, UND, and USD will not be RPI counters. Not sure about HBU. The rest are counters.

Chicago State's Ethnicity Chicago State and Northeastern Illinois State both came out of the Chicago Normal School System. Although not intended to be segregated schools, the racial makeup of Chicago's southside versus northside caused Chicago State to effectively become an historically black university, while Northeastern Illinois is not. It's like saying Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago (Barack's former church) is not a black church because it was started by a white denomination: the United Church of Christ. BTW, Tennessee State is actually a combination of two schools: one HBCU (Tennessee St) and one "white" (UT-Nashville), so technically, it's not a true HBCU.

Shannon Baugh: new Saginaw Valley State's women's basketball coach Ex-UND assistant gets head job.

That is totally ridiculous. The taxes for my whole house (in a pretty decent area) is a little more than $700 (but homeowners insurance (after the hurricanes) is almost $1400!). But for the most part, the school system here really sucks (unless you get your kids in select magnet schools) or live in two or three neighborhoods in the entire county of 500,000 that have decent high schools. A significant fraction of the middle class send their kids here to private (mostly chuch school) for $3000 or more / child. The upper crust sends their kids to elite schools where tuition exceeds $10,000.