star2city

Faison is new AD at UND

USLax thread on HS Lacrosse in Fargo/Moorhead or Grand Forks? Is Lax becoming a local reality other than UND's club team?

Do Facilities Help Bring Championships? Perhaps facilities don't assure championships, but they do help with winning. Would UND have four straight Frozen Four appearances without the Ralph?

UM-St Louis would be an interesting addition to the Summit, especially if cross-river rival SIU-E joins the Ohio Valley. Part 1 of 5: Can UM-St. Louis athletics achieve Division-I status? Part 2 of 5: The House of Cards: Conferences Can UM-St. Louis athletics achieve Division-I status? Part 3 of 5

In a sense, the Frozen Four was eerily similar and weirdly symmetrical to the Men's Final Four results. The Final Four had three teams with title traditions: UCLA: 12 North Carolina: 4 Kansas: 2 Memphis: 0 The Frozen Four had three teams with title traditions: Michigan: 9 North Dakota: 7 BC: 2 Notre Dame: 0 In basketball, Kansas wipes out North Carolina. Memphis takes out UCLA. Kansas wins its 3rd title by taking out Memphis and prevents Memphis gaining from its first title. In hockey, BC wipes out North Dakota. Notre Dame takes out Michigan. BC wins its 3rd title by taking out Notre Dame and prevents ND from gaining its first title. UCLA = Michigan UNC = UND Kansas = BC Memphis = Notre Dame

Frontier Airlines is still showing some reasonable fares (still) from MSP-DEN ($380) and SUX (Sioux City)-DEN ($238). For fans closer to those cities, it might be reasonable. Was actually able to use frequent flyer miles to get tickets to Denver (coming from the Gulf Coast, seats are more available).

Great Falls Tribune: Forty years later, the Legend of Terry Casey still resonates

Sioux: Embrace Culture

Select this DI Proposal that was accepted: 2003-13 CHAMPIONSHIPS -- AUTOMATIC QUALIFICATION If this proposal would not have been accepted, NDSU and SDSU would have not been eligible for a men's BB autobid, only an at-large bid, until they reached core membership status even if they were in the Summit.

It's by far the fairest, but the attendance in Worcester will be horrendous. The NCAA is about $'s.

The NCAA is going to attempt to maximize attendance. One view of possible brackets: Colorado Springs (two Colorado teams, + UND travels well) #3 UND #16 Air Force (moved to compensate for #3 and #5 seeds) # 5 CC # 9 Mich St (#12 Wisco not available, #11 UMTC avoids WCHA first round, #10 Clarkson needed in Albany) Madison (Mich travels) #1 Michigan #14 Princeton (moved to compensate for higher seed Denver) # 7 Denver (Can't be #5 CC, #6 BC placed in Worcester for attendance) #12 Wisco (one first round WCHA game cant be avoided) Albany (two upstatet NY teams for attendance) #2 Miami #15 Niagara # 8 SCSU #10 Clarkson (key for Albany attendance) Worcester (two HE teams for attendance) #4 UNH #13 Notre Dame #6 BC #11 UMTC Total sum of seeds: CC: 33 (strongest regional by slim margin) Madison: 34 Worcester: 34 Albany: 35 First round games not balanced but regionals are.

One of the problems with an 11th game may be that 50% of games should be against DI counters (although this isn't an absolute requirement until next year). But certainly UND wants to comply with DI requirements the first year. USD doesn't count as a DI team, so we're left with SIU, Idaho St, SE La, UCDavis, and SUU as five DI's. An 11th game should be a DIA or DIAA team. The Great West commissioner reallly screwed us over by cancelling the Cal Poly game. If Lennon hadn't done us what appears to be a huge favor by scheduling us (with other schools backing out and the Poly game cancelled), we would have been limited to possibly nine games, which is the minimum. If another DI team is scheduled, than a 12th game could also be scheduled, like another game vs USD. Intending to meet the 50% DI scheduling rule may help explain why USD wasn't scheduled twice. Next year USD will count.

]You're correct on that. That's how the Atlantic Sun was able to add two schools immediately after exploratory years. Every conference school played four games against first-year DI's non-counters. Again, you're correct. I misinterpreted the change in 2003, when the Big West petitioned the NCAA to allow UC-Davis to be immediately capable of gaining an Autobid once it became a conference member and a DI active member. Previously, it would have had to wait the 5 years for being an active member, and then eight years for core membership and men's basketball eligibility. Any school once reaching DI active status is eligible only for at-large bid (but, as you stated it really is impossible for an independent.)

Has Ford Motor refused to sponsor the upcoming World Curling Championships at the Ralph because of the Sioux nickname controversy? Last year, the men's world was referred to as the [url=http://www.curling.ca/fan_central/worlds/2007/draw_schedule.asp]Ford Men

Without a doubt, some of the costumes at this party were incredibly distasteful. But if it happened on any other campuses' sorority (Like Minnesota, Iowa, Wisco), would anything be said? This was not a blackface party, which the whole culture views as taboo (see the Clemsonn case). The core of the issue was guys wanting to show off the bodies in front of a bunch of sorority gals. Kids in elementary schools are not allowed to dress in blackface, but they are allowed to dress in Indian and Pilgrim outfits during Thanksgiving plays. What is the cultural line? Is it O.K. for a person with 1/8th or 1/16 Indian blood to wear an Indian custume to any event? Should Navajo or Hopi jewelry sales to non-Indians be outlawed? But agree this is another nail in the coffin of the Sioux nickname.

The transition is technically 13 years: The first year which will be completed this summer, is the exploratory year, when UND can compete for the D2 titles. Theoretically, a school can decide not to continue with the transition during this first year, but with the NCC no longer existing next year, that is not an option. During year two, UND is in limbo between DI and DII. For basketball to count against other DI's RPIs, it needs to play a DI schedule (lesss than 4 non-DI games, which will be difficult). DI conference membership is possible during year two, but it's already apparent that it won't be in the offing at this late date. For years three to five, UND must play an official DI schedule (3 or less games against non DI opponents). Although UND would be included with RPI calculations, UND would not be eligible for either the NCAA tournament or men's NIT, but they would be eligible for the women's NIT or the men's CBI. SDSU and NDSU will complete this segment of their reclassification this summer. At year six, UND would be eligible for all post-season NCAA-sponsored post-season tournaments, BUT in men's basketball, ONLY IF ITS IN AN AUTOBID conference. At that point, UND would become an "active" member of DI, but not a core member (which counts toward conference requirements for an autobid). Northern Colorado and UC-Davis became active DI members this fall and were eligible in all sports (Even men's basketball because of their Big Sky and Big West affilitions). A school like Longwood, which also is in year six, was not eligible for men's basketball post-season because of no conference affiliation, and won't be until year 13 unless a conference takes them in. However, all its other sports are post-season eligible (including women's basketball) even as an independent, although the lack of an autobid makes it very difficult in most sports. At year thirteen, UND would be a core DI member, allowing it to count toward a conference's men's basketball autobid requirements. The transition time was only three years in the 1990's, but the existing DI schools created the "core" membership criteria to make it nearly impossible for DII conferences to move up "en masse" and create their own autobid (and take away at-large bid from more powerful conferences). Talk of the NCC moving up as a whole five years ago was a farce, as the most attractive schools would have been picked off one-by-one over the years by other conferences. Maintaining seven teams together, with six core teams together for 13 years (five years for core status, eight years for a new conference), would have been virtually impossible. That's enough rambling of mine.

NLL Box Lacrosse in Winnipeg at True North Center? With the Minnesota Swarm continuing to draw well at the Excel (more than 11,000 average), will Winnipeg be next?

Hadn't seen this posted yet: Canada Post: Dayn Belfour even sounds like his father, Ed

Hopefully there could be a UND/USA game at Ladd-Peeples Stadium (home of the GMAC and Senior Bowls) down the road (although the stadium is not in the greatest neighborhood). BTW, the downtown Pensacola area IMHO is not just historic, but quite impressive and liveable for its size. Much of Pensacola south of I-10 (Warrington, Brownsville) not so much it seems , except the Perdido area. Heard that the UWF area north of I-10 is very nice, but never been there. Pensacola has just been hammered by too many hurricane direct hits, while Mobile city has largedly been spared (except for storm surges in mostly rural south Mobile county - Forrest Gump country.)

Within a mile or so of the South Alabama campus. With USA starting football and being a IAA independent until at least 2011, hopefully UND can schedule USA for a home/home. Bay Minette? The "Eastern Shore" has been growing like crazy - Spanish Fort/Daphne especially, although condo development at Orange Beach and Gulf Shores has slowed considerably. With the Airbus/EADS/Northrup Grumman victory over Boeing and tanker assembly to begin in Mobile, a number of shipbuilding projects awarded to Austal (an Australian compnay), and the worlds largest steel plant just starting construction in north Mobile county by the the German company Thyssen Krupp,(28,,000 workers needed for construction), the area is expecting a serious "boom".

It seems Northwestern St, Stony Brook, and Morehead St (Ky) all have openings Occt 4 or Oct 11th.

160 miles due east. (Unless I get transferred first.)

SDSU was a stronger team last year, but lost their star Vogel (who went in the WNBA draft). This year they did not play the strength of schedule nor did they win against highly ranked teams like they did last year. SDSU also lost to some very weak teams (W Ill and Valpo). The Summit is a very weak women's league (only SDSU and Oakland are in the top half of DI), with bottom dwellers like Centenary, Southern Utah, and UMKC playing at levels less than the NCC. Massey Ratings actually indicate that the NCC is stronger than the Summit in women's basketball and that both UND and USD exceed SDSU's power ratings. 72 South Dakota 26 1 1.687 2.67 ( 325) II 81 North Dakota 25 2 1.631 2.68 ( 323) II 88 S Dakota St 22 6 1.602 3.82 ( 166) I 144 Oakland 18 9 1.351 3.42 ( 226) I 182 N Dakota St 16 11 1.253 3.48 ( 218) I 196 MN Mankato 20 7 1.217 2.66 ( 326) II 219 Oral Roberts 16 12 1.157 3.40 ( 229) I 222 Augustana SD 21 8 1.149 2.63 ( 330) II 224 IUPUI 15 15 1.145 3.60 ( 202) I 241 W Illinois 14 15 1.086 3.50 ( 212) I 289 IUPU Ft Wayne 11 17 0.987 3.46 ( 222) I 347 Missouri KC 10 18 0.863 3.28 ( 245) I 356 NE Omaha 17 11 0.844 2.04 ( 404) II 392 St Cloud 12 17 0.772 2.74 ( 318) II 411 Southern Utah 6 22 0.742 3.53 ( 209) I 615 Centenary 4 23 0.407 2.90 ( 299) I 648 MN Duluth 4 22 0.361 2.75 ( 316) II Average NCC power rating: 1.09 Average Summit power rating: 0.93

The Idaho games are not until 2010 and 2011. That said, even with Idaho on the schedule, I don't see that as preventing us from scheduling additional FBS games those years, as we won't be playoff eligible anyway and, except for depth, we are probably nearlly on par with Idaho's program already. Idaho can only afford low guarantees, so they were more than happy to find an FCS program (even one that could beat them) that would play at their place two years straight. A Wisconsin game could still happen, but I'm not sure it would be best for the program at this stage (unlike other schools like Minn, Iowa St, Wyoming, Colo St.) Doesn't UND also have an 2009 option to play UNI at Grand Forks as a followup to the 2006 game? UND should follow the Cal Polyy-Montana five-year agreement plan with either Montana or Montana State. Cal Poly's getting two home games with Montana (with the first in SLO), with three in Missoula. Those type games would further liven up the schedule.