nodakvindy

Gonzaga to the Mountain West might make some sense at that point. Would counter Hawaii's football only membership and put the conference at 14 football and 14 non-football. Gonzaga to the Big 12 never seemed legit, as they are at a far lower standing in the Olympic sports and travel would have been brutal, but Mountain West travel would be solid and the basketball league is quite good as well. I think if they moved to 16 you might see Idaho get the call, reignite rivalry with Boise as well as the Battle of the Palouse, and UTEP to at least dip a toe into the Texas recruiting grounds. Not a ton of other appealing options. Maybe New Mexico St. over Idaho since it wouldn't require a transition to FBS. If Davis or Poly were interested in moving to FBS they might be viable candidates as well. Don't see anyone else getting a serious look.

Replace Mankato with Lindenwood and you've got something that makes sense. Mankato has seen a sizable enrollment drop, not as bad as St. Cloud, but they are not a bastion of stabilty either, and I don't see them ever going D1, so they bring very little to the table. Their recent success is a product of being the big fish in a small pond, and I'd want to see if it can withstand the coaching change before I'd think of adding them.

If 10 happens, it's St. Thomas and a likely Summit rebrand with Fenton taking it in. (again synergy) The Summit needs a team sport with other numbers shaky follow Western Illinois departure. I like a LIndenwood addition for both as well as that shores up the Summit on a number of fronts and makes Summit football possible, bringing everything under a single TV package.

It's almost like he may already have a pre-existing relationship with CBS Sports.

I think Miami leaves for travel reasons before St. Cloud shuts down. But I could see a scenario where St. Cloud closes, we lose the 2 eastern teams and pick up Lindenwood and St. Thomas. Boom, Summit hockey and probably football as well. That would definitely add stability for the league. Then add a further academic alliance with the Big Sky and I'd be happy. FBS is a fool's errand at this point, not a smart investment at all.

What has ASU done in football? That's all this is about. And you can't divorce Phil Knight from the Ducks, Oregon being NIke U is a huge part of their brand and brings eyeballs. ASU is in Phoenix, but that's about all they bring to the table. I think ASU is in the NCHC for the long haul now. The Big 10 won't act any further until the ACC implodes or Stanford (and maybe Cal) offers to come for practically nothing. If I was Minnesota, I'd be praying PJ Fleck gets some 10 win seasons or they might not be sitting so pretty after the next round of realignment.

What was really tough for UND in the Big Sky was no United flight to Denver. That would likely have cut a lot of costs, certainly shortened flight times and just been generally more convenient. I remember a couple of times being on flights out of Devils Lake with UND athletes for that very reason. USD backing out certainly didn't help as it cut out a longtime rival and it made UND an island for the other Big Sky teams.

Why go FBS at this point? To spend even more on football and let other programs languish. What has happened in the past 10 days that leads you to think we are headed to anything other than a college football premier league that will command near pro like tv deal and leave all other programs in the wake. Today its Oregon St and Washington St, tomorrow its Vandy, Indiana, Mizzou,Minnesota etc.

I'll take the over as I think the extra content probably allows the Big Ten to take some of that Apple cash for a mini package, with each west coast team getting 3 late night games. Perfect place to stash those USC Rutgers and Oregon Minnesota type games. Maybe a basketball game of the week al a the Apple MLB games.

I think there is a real possibility of Cal and Stanford going Indy in Football and the true shocker of the Ivy League for other sports. They are schools first, and the Ivy brand is even stronger than the Big 10.

After finding the Knight data, agree with you, have difficulty believing that SDSU is fully funding grants for COA. It was accepting that assumption along with the cost that caused me to pause. I would guess all four Dakotas are relatively close in the all-in attendance cost, so if they were all fully funded, then approx 200 athlete-students would put them in the ballpark of the $6 million. Unfortunately, the accounting is college athletics is too opaque across the board to draw truly meaningful conclusions unless you are a forensic accountant.

I think this is all really solid analysis but these numbers jump out at me. I have diffuse believing a grant to SDSU is only valued at 60 percent of that of UND. I wonder if the same figure is being is being used. I checked on US News college rankings and the 29.6K figure quoted matches the all in total (tuition, room, board, etc ), but the 18.5K figure for SDSU matches the cost after federal aid, so don't think those was apples to apples. The All in figure for SDSU is 28K which seems reasonable. So I would guess they would be OK on the 6 million and if they aren't and the other figure is what should be used then UND is only at 16.7K so they would be well short. I believe the former is likely the correct figure. That said if the 4 4 2 result occurs, and that's seeming more likely, I feel like the door has probably closed for move ups as current leagues will be full and have zero motivation to let anyone else into the party.

Blame SCOTUS for opening this pandora's box. And California to a lesser extent.

Maybe if he'd apologized that would have helped. Or shown an ounce of remorse or contrition. Sorry but Miller is no victim.

I think guys need to play both ways, just DHing is tough and failure at the plate sticks in your head if you aren't going out to the field. Feel the same way about Giancarlo Stanton, and he's as injury prone as Buxton. I'd only let those two do yoga in the off season. Don't lift a weight, and don't spend too much time in the cage.

Glad to see UND is focusing on the academic side and particularly that there is a benefit for loyalty. NIL collectives are just a pandora's box, and while the NCAA may not be regulating them well, you can bet the IRS will be. I fully expect in a couple of years, "student-athletes" being bankrupt from tax fines and penalties, much like pro athletes are with terrible investments. Don't know what kind of requirements the U has, but it wouldn't be a terrible idea for all incoming athletes to get a boot camp in finance, media training and social media much like the pro sports leagues do with incoming rookies.

Don't sleep on Lindenwood. They check a lot of boxes for both Summit and NCHC.

No active movie theater in Grand Forks. Wow

Agree, there is explosive growth on the south end of town, it just seems impossible that GF has lost population.

And after the gutting of the UND School of Journalism, most aren't from ND anymore, so good luck having any local knowledge.

So essentially tickets sales reps just like pro teams have. If this company can tailor there efforts to a smaller market, it could be a success. I have definitely appreciated my Twins ticket reps. will be interested to see how this plays out.

To what? Maybe the Big Ten would take them, but they haven't so far, and there is definitely some bad blood after the poaching of USC-UCLA. The NCHC is obviously a better geographic fit. I think it you can grab them you do, especially if Miami is departing. Would be interesting to see if Western would stay then. I think they would, as they seem serious about hockey. I think a decrease of the exit fee could be done, say down to $250,000, or take it down to zero with 2 years notice. I agree a flat out waiver would be a bad precedent, but keeping a team that is a drag on the conference doesn't make sense either. Even going down to 7 teams wouldn't be terrible. Would be like the Big 10, and would also allow a true round robin schedule while staying at 24 conference games. Would also prove the opportunity to revamp the conference tourney setup. What Wodon doesn't mention is the clear need for a broader realignment of probably all the Eastern conferences. Could an Eastern NCHC of the most committed program form? Could the Ivies split off? Several new programs in the offings. A lot of possible scenarios.

I find it interesting that they said "all divisions except Division III" rather than "Divisions I and II", but I prefer simplicity.

You can actually now play an exhibition game against an NCAA team. I'd be all for a UND Augie game in Rapid City as a poor man's exhibition destination game to help promote hockey in the Dakotas. If Minot of Bismarck had a large enough facility I'd suggest a game there would make sense as well. I do hope we get augie on the schedule soon, helping a new program that has ties to UND much like Lindenwood.

All the home ends on contracts along with hosting the icebreak does skew it a little bit. 10 home non-con games is pretty rare. 19-16 is more common, with usually 1 exempt game (HOF) rather than 2 (Ice Breaker).