RD17

Someone with a law background please enlighten us... 1. If this goes to court, what kind of time frame are we looking at for a decision(months, years, etc.)? 2. How likely would it be to get a court imposed injunction allowing the use of the name/logo in postseason play and allowing teams to host until this is decided? 3. Is it realistic that UND would win a court case against the NCAA and if so on what grounds specifically? (I have heard all sorts of conflicting opinions on this) Thanks

I will find out for sure on what the withdrawal date is and post it here. If you go back and read the old newspaper articles, SDSU (the last team to announce) was working with a 9/1 deadline. It's entirely possible that it has changed since then, but I haven't heard of it.

I do know that about three weeks UND was talking with at least one fairly prominent D2 school about a game. Apparently, nothing is going to come of that or you would think a contract would have been signed by now. RPI along with overall record and in-region record are going to be the major factors in the playoff selections this year. So, like Jim's calculations point out, playing a bad team for an 11th game is probably a wash because the extra win is offset by a slight hit to the RPI.

You're finally getting it. Essentially the decision must be made by the end of this summer or pushed off into the future.

I don't know if the 18 months is in existence or not. It wasn't when SDSU moved up. The 18 month thing is something someone else brought up earlier in the thread. UND could definitely have 2007-08 be the exploratory year and have plenty of time to decide what to do. I don't think they'll be waiting that long.

I can't believe this can be that difficult to understand. If UND announced tomorrow that it was beginning the process of moving to Division I, 2006-07 would be the exploratory year. In order to withdraw from the NCC at the end of the exploratory year and begin the four year D-I provisional process in 2007-08, UND would need to notify the NCC by 9/1/2006 of its intentions to leave the conference. This is the same time frame that SDSU and UNC had to work with when they left the league (I believe NDSU might have notified the NCC even earlier). Now of course (as others have pointed out) UND could wait until after 9/1/2006 and pay the penalty ($35,000?). But IMO that would not be the right way to handle the situation. If UND is going to start the D-I process now and it is concerned with meeting deadlines set by the NCC, then for all practical purposes the exploratory process ends on 9/1/2006.

I'm beginning to think that this is either going way over your head or you just like to argue. What I'm talking about has nothing to do with whether or not UND gets invited to a D-I conference. The only point I'm trying to make is that if UND is going to withdraw from the NCC, it will need to do so within a reasonable time frame so the rest of the conference can schedule, search for new members, etc. That "reasonable time frame" for withdrawing from the NCC is on an accelerated clock compared to what is required by the NCAA for moving from the exploratory year to officially entering the provisional process. Notifying the NCAA on 6/1/2007 that UND will go ahead and enter the provisional D-I process = cool. Notifying the NCC on 6/1/2007 that UND is withdrawing from the conference immediately = not cool. That is all I'm trying to point out.

It could very well be that it is 18 months... I had the September 1 date in my head but maybe that is not correct or has been changed or whatever. Regardless of what the date is, if UND is going to do this it doesn't want to wait until June 1, 2007 (the end of the exploration year) to notify the NCC that it won't be a member in 07-08. Hmmm... was that "being a good neighbor" to the rest of the NCC or was this done simply because NDSU and SDSU didn't have a conference to call home? I have a very hard time believing that the two schools would have waited the extra year if they had already had an invitation from a D-I conference in hand.

I understand how the whole process works. All I'm trying to point out is the difference it makes having the NCC involved if UND is going to do this the right way. If UND were a D2 independent now, it could declare 2006-07 as the exploratory year and wait until 6/1/2007 until deciding on Division I without having a negative effect on anyone else. But since UND is in the NCC, and since the NCC has a requirement that it be notified 12 months in advance if a school plans to leave, the right thing to do would be to notify the NCC on 9/1/2006 if it intends on following through with a move to Division I. So, in essence, since UND is concerned with mantaining a good relationship with the other NCC schools, it has nine less months to "explore" D-I without a commitment one way or the other. That's all I'm trying to say.

But you'd be burning a lot of bridges. I don't think UND wants to wait until spring 2007 when the fall schedules are set and leave the other NCC schools with scheduling problems, especially considering that the new D-II scheduling rules will make it quite possible to still play a few of the NCC schools during the transition.

Herbst might make a fine head coach for someone somewhere down the line, but in my opinion it is time to clean house and start over with a whole new regime. UND has done well hiring former assistants (Lennon, Hakstol) in the past but the obvious difference is that the basketball program hasn't had much recent success. Sometimes change just for the sake of change can be a good thing.

It is true that officially entering the exploratory year doesn't force UND to make any sort of D-I commitment until the first year is complete. But the problem is with the NCC. I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that UND would have to notify the conference by September 1, 2006 if it plans on not being a member in the 2007-08 school year. So if UND were to announce its intent to move to Division I in May, the exploratory "year" would in essence only last three months because of the need to officially notify the NCC by 9/1.

I agree with much of what Sioux27 said. Another factor to consider is that I don't think the NCC as a whole will be as strong this year. USD, UNO, and SCSU all had some major personnel losses and while those teams will all still be good, I don't know if they'll be as strong as the last couple of seasons. To me the ultimate success of this year's team will come down to two things: 1) The health/effectiveness of the offensive line. The article in today's Herald sure sounds promising and if all of these guys come together, stay healthy and play well UND will be a very good offensive team, maybe the best of the Lennon era. This is the first time since 1999 that there should be a healthy senior quarterback in the lineup all season and the depth at WR and RB looks outstanding, particularly if some of the talented young guys continue to develop (Brady, Chappell, Caufield, etc.). Even with UND's conservative nature I think production of over 400 yards and 35-40 points per game is attainable. 2) The development of a few guys in the front seven on defense. With ZBJ's status unknown, Matt Bodoh needs to become a player, Sam Schmitz needs to have a big senior year and a few of the young guys (Stroup, Dombrovski?) need to make an impact at linebacker and be able to provide depth. The starting D-line looks very strong, but some young guys are going to have to step up in that second group as well. That's it. I think everything else is in place to have a national championship caliber team. GVSU is also looking very strong this year so I think it will likely come down to a (final?) playoff battle between GVSU and UND.

I agree with IowaBison... I think Bismarck State would pretty easily have 4,000+ students if it became a 4-year school. With the demographics in ND and the trends in online and distance learning I think it only makes sense to have universities in the four major cities, with a couple of 2-year schools and everything else shut down. But like I said before, changing the state constitution to get this done might be next to impossible.

Here's also a column on Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne's struggles as a DI independent.

This article appeared in the Indianapolis Star today and it shows how many Division I schools fund their athletic programs. A few of the more interesting points:

The interesting thing about Florida Gulf Coast is that they attempted to join the D2 Sunshine State Conference (headed by former NCC commissioner Mike Marcil) but were rejected. They then decided to move to DI when the Atlantic Sun was the only conference that would take them. Quite the opposite of the situation around here.

It's frustrating to watch Belmore because he has the physical ability to be an outstanding quarterback at this level and, like others have said, he's shown flashes in the past. But the meltdown at the end of last year doesn't leave me with much confidence in him. The thing that Manke really needs to improve is his accuracy in throwing the deeper passes. He seems to have the mental makeup of a good quarterback though and could lead the team to big things if he continues to improve.

There was an interesting article in Sunday's Bismarck Tribune about the possibility of BSC becoming a 4-year school in the near future. This is certainly interesting in light of the current strains on higher ed. funding in ND. The only way I can see this being feasible is to shut down Mayville and Valley City (which I know is easier said than done) and then allow BSC to become a 4-year institution. Thoughts?

I did hear earlier that ZBJ was not returning for his senior year and that an all-conference lineman from SDSU was joining the team. Other than that does anyone know of other defections or incoming transfers?

I believe there are some negotiations going on but that is all I know at this time.

Yes, it's going to change. The national column is going to make a return again next year and I am going to handle that. It will be fun for me in the sense that I can write about whatever I want from week to week without feeling obligated to cover all the teams in a region. I also think the change to conference writers is going to be a good thing because it's very difficult (and time consuming) for one person to cover an entire region. I would have loved to have covered the NCC this year, but I just moved out of the area in January and I didn't think it was fair for me to write on the league when I won't get to see many games. I have been helping Brandon Misener sift through the new applicants and there are some good ones, so I don't think we'll have much trouble coming up with a decent NCC columnist.

If UND is going to play, I'm pretty sure they'd require that it be a home game since the first two as it stands now are on the road. SVSU has turned down virtually everyone (including UND as I understand it) that has wanted to play them the past couple of years. It would no doubt be an attractive matchup but I don't think it is incredibly likely. Someone has just told me about another very good possibility: Central Missouri State They have a very solid team year after year.