star2city

Based on this news blogger from Bemidji, not only are the Gophs and Badgers are opposed to BSU's admittance, but there's turmoil in the WCHA as Minnie and Sconnie may leave, so the WCHA might have to take Bemidji in a few years.

Gonzaga, Santa Clara, San Francisco, and Loyola are all Jesuit schools, which made the WCC's initital rejection of Seattle U (also Jesuit) somewhat (to me anyway) surprising. San Diego, Portland, and St. Mary's are all Catholic affiliated. Pepperdine is Church of Christ-affiliated. Agree that is highly doubtful that a public school would be admitted, even it was a good geographical match.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the REA has never been tasked with marketing UND football: that was a responsibility the UND AD and Alerus had reserved for themselves. The REA's interaction with football was limited to tickets sales. The announcement last month seems to recognize the disconnect between the REA and UND athletic marketing, so a better overall strategy can be implemented and skills of some talented individuals at the REA can be more fully utilitzed: Joint operating unit with REA will manage UND athletics marketing functions.

In many ways, this new streak of continuous REA sell-outs contradicts the above statements about the REA. How can we possibly complain about a sold-out arena possibly for the entire year? Hodgson and Semrau have to be doing some things right and need to be given well-deserved credit. More marketing should be done if the arena wasn't selling out, but with the sell outs, that would be money-spent with little return. With the current REA management's track record, it seems like a good decision to market football and basketball through the REA next year. REA Tickets are Hot

Lennon set to put his mark on SIU football

NCAA's Division II will vote Monday if it will accept Canadian schools as members. UBC, Alberta, and Simon Fraser are all expected to move to DII if the Canadian resolution passes. When DI lifts their moratorium on DI move-ups and DI one-sport exemptions in 2011, as DII members, UBC and Alberta would then be theoretically eligible to move hockey (and likely volleyball) to DI. Vancouver and Edmonton are the kind of markets that the WCHA would be most interested in.

The latest candidate is William Weidner, who seems to have been through a stretch of "bad" luck. After a coaching career, Weidner became an assistant AD at SMU for seven years after their football death penalty. Later moved to DII Ashland as AD for three years, and then moved to UTPA as AD shortly after UTPA was forced out of the Sunbelt. In six years tenure at UTPA, Weidner wasn't able to get UTPA a conference affiliation before he left for Weber State. After six months as Weber State AD, he left to become UCF's associate AD Weidner's tenure at UCF was 13 months. Last year, he has been finalists at Nebraska-Omaha and Cal State-Northridge, but was not chosen at either.

Seitz was AD of Jacksonville U in Florida, and was in charge of the ship when Jacksonville U (Fla) made an unusual move and downgraded its programs from the Sunbelt to the Atlantic Sun (one of the least prestigious conferences in the country with mostly entry level schools). The move was due in part to travel costs as well as UCF -at the time- and Stetson being in the Atlantic Sun. But just a few years later, both FIU and FAU join the Sunbelt. Not exactlly a visionary move, especially after in-city rival North Florida attained the same conference status from DII. His later move to Jacksonville State (Alabama) was at best a lateral move, as JSU is only now (after Seitz leaving) righting their programs in the Ohio Valley. Seitz appears to have been released from the US Water Polo associationleadership in 2006 for financial (management?) reasons, but was contractually paid for two years anyway. Joe Biedron no longer appears to be in the UT-Arlington athletic department. UT-Arlington is one of the few non-football schools in the Southland conference that hasn't gained any traction in restarting football (unlike Lamar, UT-San Antonio, and even TAM-Corpus Christi). As development officer, Biedron probably had some responsibilities for that inaction.

If Lennon had moved on a week or two later, Mussman might already have been the Mankato coach. That could have placed UND's program in a real bind timing wise. Have to wonder if there was any discussion between Lennon and Mussman about Mussman's MSU-M interest relative to UND before Lennon accepted the SIU position.

The whole Urban Plains project seems more and more like a quagmire. As shown here, privately-financed arenas in small market towns become nearly impossible to finance without tax breaks, tax supplementation, or private gifts.

Didn't Ashley work all summer long with the team to make this "the" season? From my understanding, it's difficult to find a more positive person.

For now, Mussman is probably really happy with a substantial (20-30k ?) raise. As we get further in the transition, (and assuming success) a 150k range would probably be very reasonable. It would be great if we can cherry-pick some of the higher rated assistant coaches from out-going NCC teams: now is the time. IMHO, the key thing here is that Mussman was Lennon's clear choice and in some ways Mussman's performance will help determine Lennon's long-term legacy, much as RT's choice of Lennon cemented RT's legacy.

There's some other factors in play here: SIU is only about 50 miles from St Louis, and not all that far from Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, and Chicago. Paraphrasing Lennon's statement in his SIU interview: it's a tremendous recruiting area relative to ND/Minn. SIU also routinely recruits Florida and other southern locations. I would hate to think if SIU starts recruiting lineman from Minn/Wisc too (taking away from not only UND, but NDSU and SDSU). SIU gets a substantial payments from the Missouri Valley Conference from their basketball credits from the NCAAs. They seem to be using that money to upgrade football. With a step up in performance seasons, SIU can approach Appalachian State's level with the right coaching and recruiting. SIU's main in-state rival, Illinois State, has been making waves about moving to IA. SIU's new stadium may only be 12,000 seating, but I wouldn't be surprised if it later gets expanded to at least 20,000 so SIU can go IA also. SIU has (arguably) the strongest basketball tradition in the MVC, and they don't want to be left out of the IA game, if that became necessary. Mussman stated in his introduction yesterday that you wasn't all that "excited" about possibly playing SIU (at least in the near term.) When (and if) the new indoor practice field gets completed, UND will have outstanding facilities. What hurts is our distance from major metro areas, four-year probation, and lack of an all-sports conference affiliation like the MVC (and the cash - from TV and NCAA payments - that come with it)

Duluth News Tribune: Minnesota Wild eye Duluth, Grand Forks, and Trencin for training camp

Duluth News Tribune: Minnesota Wild eye Duluth, Grand Forks, and Trencin for training camp

UND was also charted during Dakota Territory days in 1882, but opened in 1883. Agree that USD is older: USD was chartered in 1862, but opened in 1882. Lennon's salary increase was $100k. But considering the increased pay with assistant coaches (Bubba Schweigert and Randy Hedberg for examples) would not come cheaply for SIU (relative to UND). Figure SIU will be spending at least $200K more on salaries than UND on its full football staff, and maybe more than $300k with incentives. That whole package and the staff he could assemble with it, had to appeal to Lennon, not just the $100 k increase. The biggest issue with UND is not the $100k increase in Lennon's pay or even the $300 increase in staff costs, but how it would upset the pay scales of all the other coaches. Men's hockey, which pays the bills (football is not cash positive), only pays its coach $210k (w/o incentives), and that pay would have to be increased just out of fairness based its fan support / bottom line finances. Other sports (W BB and M BB) would also need increases. Giving Lennon an SIU package would end up costing UND $500 - 700k when all the repercussions are figured. SIU which recieves much of its funding from basketball money, is paying its basketball coach $750 k, did not upset it coaches salary structure with the Lennon deal. As a comparison, Kentucky, a basketball school, pays Billy Gillespie $2.3Mill, while their football coach, Rich Brooks, receives $1.0 mill. Most SEC schools have the football/basketball salaries reversed, but they are football schools. Kentucky basketball pays the bills and puts UK on the map (except maybe this year ). If Rich Brooks received a $1 Mill increase, UK would either raise the BB coaches pay (whether it was Gillespie or someone else) or effectively declare that football and basketball are equivalent.

Bismarck Tribune: DRESSLER: Mr. All-American Could Dressler be a Wes Welker-type player?

JackJD: If you would have actually read this thread, you would have been informed that "The Phoenix" is just a Bison fan banned previously from this board who is just here to cause trouble. The number of Bison fans who have posted here under misleading pretenses is incredible. Sioux fans don't do that on Bison boards. So who's causing nastiness?

On the Fighting Sioux websight, Lennon gives a 5 minute video farewell. Some excerpts: An informal endorsement of Mussman:

Although losing Lennon is a huge loss , Lennon will remember his roots. His future success and the legacy he left can only help UND.

SIU's hiring of Lennon recieved a lot of press in a number of markets: Southern Illinois' Southern Chicago Tribune: Salukis bring in another winner St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Salukis select North Dakota's Lennon as their new football coach SIU AD Moccia's gut feeling led him to Lennon

For Blais to even comment as being interested in the UND AD position shows where his heart is. For someone that's been an NHL associate coach to step down into a USHL coaching position can't be the most exciting proposition. Someone like Dane Jackson or Steve Johnson would probably love that job.

Those are good points, but what about the 3-4 defensive coaching? Since Bubba and Tibesar left, the defense has declined. Those two know how to implement that defense well. Bubba seems headed to SIU as def coordinator, which seems much more suited for him than head coaching material. Mussman and Tibesar seem like the only real choices for the program to stay in rhythm. Tibesar, however, seems to have more upside (but more likely to leave quickly, also).

The idea of Blais as AD becomes more and more appealing with the loss of Lennon. Losing Lennon was like taking a cornerstone out of your house. Blais would fill that void: as he would give alumni an assurance that the transition is in good hands, would stabilize the Atheltic Department, appeal to big boosters, and his work ethic and competitiveness would translate into all the sports programs. With an assistant that has DI experience, it would work.

26 pt turnaround, Sioux by 13 with about 1 min left. Sioux win!! 88-74.