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Could you get a good one in here that won't be at odds with Bubba's conservative philosophy? Guys that are on the way up the coaching ladder aren't going to want to be hamstrung on their play calling, lest they go backward in their career path.

But he still would have had to score on an even harder goal line conversion. He must have had a prayer that they would turn the ball over, because even if they got the ball back on offense, they would have had to move the ball even further on a punt exchange, based on their field position. Most coaches have plays in their pocket for situations like that, whether they be trick or otherwise.

When I saw Bubba defending his decision to punt, it upset me all the more. If you aren't confident on fourth and two, and a play for that situation, then you haven't done a good job putting your players in a position to win! The fact that you would have had to have an even better play on a short field for a two point conversion if you wanted to tie the game makes it even more puzzling. If you have that little confidence in that situation, you for sure should have gone for it, to give yourself more time if you missed the two point conversion. There is no logic whatsoever in Bubba's defense of his actions.

Not sure how much they make on parking for hockey games, but I think I might do a study whether to just open up those lots for free, to keep more butts in the seats. With the apathy going around all sports, you don't want to give fans one more reason to stay home.

I would say the body language was bad very early in the game as well. Inconceivable. How demoralizing is it when your coach won't go for it on 4th and 2?

But Paul Ralston will tell you we improved from last year and had injuries to our receivers. Wait, we were playing against a team that had nothing to play for and was playing way down the depth chart at critical positions. Same with last game.

We'll see what Chaves has in him!

What waiting list?

If you don't go for it in that circumstance, you have no confidence in your offensive coordinator, so why did you keep him? Maybe Bubba was just setting up the opportunity to fire Rudy, in which case he should be held responsible.

2 Friday tickets in Upper deck where UND shoots twice. $20 each.

Can you imagine the outrage if they lost that game when the results came back favorable to them. Gotta say, that losing 3 in a row this time of year when there are playoff possibilities would have been too much to handle. As it is, splitting with the 2 teams that aren't that special is not something you are looking at with playoffs in sight. Thank goodness for Lenny Nelson.

Never quite understood why when Ralph was initially willing to build a 15,000 seat arena with the extra material costs involved, why they didn't shift those savings to better parking. If they would have dug down a level around the whole arena, they could have had a second level right on site without losing the aesthetic appeal of the building. That certainly would have made it an even more World Class facility. I don't know how many times I found a parking spot, only to have it become off limits. I think the hassle with that, especially in the cold winter has made it more inviting for some people to just stay home, rather than having to get there an hour or so before the game lest you have to walk a country mile to find a parking spot. I know we are spoiled with parking being cheap, but I think you could make a lot more money by charging for a yearly spot right on site, rather than still having to walk a ways while paying what for Grand Forks is a bit for parking. I think the Ralph people need to look into a lot of reasons why attendance is not quite up to par, but parking is certainly one of them.

Yeah, we went the cheap route when we transferred to the new Ralph, picking one of four sections that didn't require a Fighting Sioux club membership. It frustrates me that a year after the transfer, everybody was required to be a FSC member. Thanks a lot, if we would have known that, we would have picked better seats to begin with, as we had a relatively early appointment to pick out seats at the new Ralph. Wish there were more opportunities to move now.

My guess would be no. You would have to be a superstar for UND to enter into a scenario like that.

Pinto signed his NLI, so should be here next year.

My point was that food and gas, two of the big expenditures for coming from out of town would essentially be the same whether you are going to a football game or a hockey game, and if you are eating out in town, is it a must to have concessions at the game as well. You have made it clear that it isn't an every week thing coming for football either, so point understood.

As I said, the majority of the seats that are empty are in those student sections. Also, I have friends that want to get season tickets but told they have to still pay the Champions Club membership just to be on a waiting list for season tickets.

You sure have a knack for being disingenuous when confronted. I get that there are reasons why people can't attend, but the fact that you talk about using cruise control as a contributing factor is just subterfuge. Last I heard hockey games and football games overlap. Everybody has the friend that says they can't afford this or can't afford that, yet when you are out buy the most expensive drink. It kind of reminds me of all the people that say the Ralph is too expensive, yet are complaining that they don't have access to $100 tickets to the Vegas game. There are ways around a lot of things, and the fact that not being able to afford a soda is a deal breaker for attending a sporting event, or that extra $1 for soda compared to the Alerus, says a lot. Like I said, people have different priorities and interests, and I have no problem with that, but the pendulum swings both ways.

For someone who talks about the "hockey only" crowd, you sure come up with a lot of lame reasons for not attending hockey. No big deal if that isn't your thing, but don't get up in arms at other people who have different interests as well.

You just beat me to it. Now I have heard everything!

Season tickets haven't gone up much over the years, and if you truly cared about going, I don't think concessions are a must. By the way, does gas cost the same for going to football games?

I believe they are on Thursday, but when you have a chance to sell them as season tickets and assure the seats will be paid for and used, why not go that direction. I don't know if they sell them for the same price as they do at the door, but perhaps they might want to lower those prices a bit, as they seem kind of high for last second people to change their mind on what they want to do on the weekend.

Not so sure that would be the case if Minnesota, Boston College, or other rivals were in the regional.

The place I see the most sparse at the hockey games is the student section. I would think the Ralph would be interested in selling some of those seats. By the way, I would pay more money to get seats in the lower bowl, as would others, so maybe take away a section from students in the lower bowl and give them more seats up top where the empty seats are, and sell them to those who are willing to be at another Champions Club level.

Yeah, quite the contrast from some of the negativism about him here when he initially committed.