star2city

Isn't Dr Brown Catholic? Is it not against Catholic Church policy (not Catholic myself) to allow sterilization? Many Catholic hospitals won't allow it. It may be that he's just following through on his beliefs.

There may be two answers: First, UTPA Men's Track and Field Joins Ohio Valley Conference The OVC needs a sixth men's T&F team to remain qualifed (SIE-E doesn't count). With them joining the OVC in men's t&F only, it would'nt appear that an invite from the Southland or the Summit is imminent, as both those conferences sponsor outdoor T&F Second, there may be some type of baseball independent league undergoing formation to gain an automatic qualifing spot. All these schools will be meeting NCAA requirement for post-season play with a couple of exceptions: Dallas Baptist (at large selection this year) UTPA No Colo Utah Valley St NY Tech (DI in baseball only) NJIT LeMoyne (Di in baseball only) Longwood Chicago St Savannah St (doubtful) North Dakota* Seattle* Houston Baptist* * - ineligible for post-season Hawaii-Hilo dropped DI baseball back to DII

The OVC had an 11/10 arrangement, then with Samford leaving it goes to a 10/9. With SIU-E, it goes to 11/9, but Jacksonville State is also slated to leave if the go IA in football. That would make a 10/8 arrangement. One school that the OVC may want is East Tennnesssee State, who were forced out the the Southern when ETSU dropped football. There is still talk of ETSU bringing back football: ETSU Buc Football Not Dead; It's Just Sleeping Other schools that are possible are North Alabama (w football), Northern Kentucky, either Lipscomb or Belmont from Nashville, and possibly Chicago St (Tennessee St would like another HBC in the OVC). Chicago State left some major impediments in their relationship with the Summit. Maybe they can be repaired.

St Lous Post confirmation: SIUE: A league of their own

Southeast Missourian Sources: OVC to add SIU Edwardsville

That's great news! Wasn't Brewster also helpful in moderating some of Roebuck's emotional outbursts? Brewster's experience at SDSU and Illinois-Chicago (or was it Loyola) should have given him more insight into what it takes at the DI level.

Not quite the correct topic, but will post it anyway. Here are the superregional series: ARIZONA (41-17) at MIAMI (50-8) NORTH CAROLINA STATE (41-20) at GEORGIA (39-22-1) STANFORD (37-22-2) at CAL STATE FULLERTON (41-20) WICHITA STATE (47-15) at FLORIDA STATE (52-11) COASTAL CAROLINA (50-12) at NORTH CAROLINA (49-12) UC IRVINE (41-16) at LSU (46-16-1) TEXAS A&M (46-17) at RICE (45-13) FRESNO STATE (40-28) at ARIZONA STATE (48-11) Perhaps one northern school: traditional power Wichita State. ACC 4 Pac10 3 SEC 2 Big West 2 WAC 1 B12 1 CUSA 1 MVC 1 Big South 1

Facilities, facilities, facilities, .... Baseball: A climate for change

For some of us, it's just a 100 or so miles west (unless I'm transferred this summer)! With the Lion paws/tracks painted into the roadways leading to the campus, it was easy to find from I-12. Looked like your stadium is undergoing some refurbishment - adding suites and a new pressbox? The stadium was surrounded by campus buildings. I liked the potential atmosphere. Lord, let us hope not. For ND residents, was going to suggest flying Frontier out of Fargo and then into Baton Rouge, but Frontier just dropped Baton Rouge as a destination. Otherwise, to avoid two hubs, the best options are probably GFK to New Orleans via NW or FAR to New Orleans via United. From MSP, AirTran would probably offer the best rates, and it flies into New Orleans, Gulfport (gambling), and Pensacola (beaches).

UTPA conference news So is Centenary annoucing a DIII move, and UTPA is the core member replacement? The Summit would need to act immediately if this happens. Would the Summit go to 12 members for 2009-2010? The Southland is at 12 and may have a need to go to 13 if Texas St or UTSA leave in a few years. But with 11 core members, there shouldn't be any rush. Is UTPA announcing some kind of independent league?

Wrong again MSPBison. It wasn't in the forefront of message board discussions or even in the media, but those discussions took place at the President's level. Maybe now you'll accuse Fullerton of being a liar?

Any potential candidates with UND-ties out there? This is a position that probably needs to have a built-in understanding of UND alumni and UND tradition, so that Faisson gets quality counsel.

Herd is right. NDSU needs to do what is best for it, just as UND need to do what's best for its interests.

Travel wasn't the main issue. In an intervew, Fullerton gave another view: the West Coast schools were concerned that the Montana schools, with their close affinity to four possible Dakota schools, would eventually tire of the Pacific schools and split off and form their own "Great Northern" conference. With NDSU and SDSU out of the picture and committed to the Gateway and Summit, that's no longer a realistic possiblity. Travel was an issue, but concerns of a later internal split were significant.

Here's a link to the DII Track results. UND men finished 13th, while the women finished 26th.

Not what I heard from Bison fans a few years back. BTW, I do now think Summit affiliation is more likely for UND than Big Sky. Yeah right. Those two schools have practically the only fan bases in the conference that travel well. With the small media market of MT, the WAC wouldn't take both. IMHO, Montana/MSU will try to patch together another western IA conference (using Fullerton and the Big Sky as a platform and the SunBelt as a pattern) and offer affilate football membership to IA wannabes like UC-Davis and Cal Poly (after they get their stadiums to 15,000+). According to Bison fans, NDSU and SDSU are going to the MVC, so the same logic applies there too.

If Denver dropped to DIII, they would no longer be able to offer hockey scholarships, which would practically destroy their program. CC's scholarship rights (as well as Clarkson, RPI, etc and Johns Hopkins in lacrosse) have been grandfathered into the DIII constitution. No other schools automatically get this privilege unless DIII votes on it. Besides, what about Denver's top 10 DI lacrosse program.

With the two-year grace period, the Summit is probably O.K. Even if Centenary drops to DII, it has to give a year notice. Because schools in the Big Sky could move to IA/WAC in 2012, the ones potentially left behind have an incentive to add more schools now to keep the conference viable. Only SUU and Denver (which are practically mutually incompatible) help with core membership. BYU and Utah are kind of the academic snobs of the MWC and look down at BSU's community college roots of 40+ years ago. BYU especially has a big fan base in Southern (mostly SE) Idaho and they don't want to help out Boise State. The MWC added TCU because of Texas recruiting grounds (and DFW media), and TCU has an expectation that another Texas school will be added. If Boiise St gets in, the MWC would almost have to go to 12 schools to keep TCU from leaving.

I agree that UTPA's best shot is with the Southland when/if Texas St or UT-San Antonio go IA in football. But if worst comes to worst (SUU and Centenary leave), UTPA and Chicago State are the onlly ones out there .

For alumni and student recruiting purposes, I like this 12 basketball/10 football arrangement better (gives football the same rivalries as other sports): Denver/UNC (easy drive) Weber St/Idaho State (not difficult drive) UND/Montana State (requires flight through MSP) Montana/EWash (not difficult drive) Seattle/Portland St (not difficult drive) Sac St/NAU (more difficult than UND/MSU connection) All the Sky would be pleased with Denver, the West Coast schools and Denver would love Seattle (and its academics), and Montana/Colorado schools would be pleased with UND. Basketball could actually play 22 conference games, helping minimizing scheduling issues. Football would still be one division of ten teams. The conference basketball tournament could be in Denver, Ogden, Seattle (Supersonics likely leaving), or even Phoenix. It would hellp reconnect UND alumni in Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, and California and help with recruiting substantially. It wouldn't be great for locals or for travel, but DI is mostly plane trips anywhere. USD, SDSU, and NDSU could be played non-conference.

UTPA AD resigns The UTPA AD wasn't even a finalist for the UND AD position. Why would someone with Brian Faisson's experience accept the UND AD job if conference affiliation for UND wasn't likely? Is the Summit going to take in UTPA?

If both leave, the Summit loses an autobid based on lack of core membership continuity. Didn't you and other Bison fans say they'd never leave the Sun Belt?

Centenary Basketball close to post-season ban ... ... or even banishment from DI men's basketball competition Centenary did hire a DI assistant coach (who happens to be from Louisiana) after interviewing NAIA and high school coaches. They also just signed their first two recruits (JUCO) and need more players after one transferred to LSU-Shreveport. A DIII decision may still be possible.

Following Katrina, the NCAA gave Tulane and New Orleans multi-year exemptions to get back to the required number of sports.

La Tech leaving the Sun Belt caused a lot of bad blood (Sun Belt football was in its infancy). When CUSA chose Rice, SMU, and Tulsa from the WAC and then UTEP over La Tech for it's 12th member, La Tech was left as an island in the east. La Tech is holding out for CUSA, hoping that one or more of Memphis, ECU, and UCF go to the Big East. The SunBelt is likely actively discussing membership with schools like Georgia State, Georgia Southern, UT-San Antonio, and Texas State, all who have ambitions of IA football.