nodakvindy

If you look at their schedule though they played all the good hockey east teams early and now have been feasting on the likes of UMASS, UCONN Merrimack and Maine. This weekends sweep of Notre Dame looks good, but a loss in the semis and they are probably out.

The Maverik Center in Salt Lake or the 1st Bank Center in Denver would be the two best options for the tourney. Much better for both flights and drivability from a number of league schools. I think the tourney would also benefit from moving earlier so at least get the final on ESPN or ESPN2. Maybe run Thursday through Tuesday.

That was good stuff. This year is a dream scenario for Frozen Faceoff with UND Duluth and St Cloud. Should have pretty solid crowds.

Gotta pull Nehama. Can't leave in a kid who is clearly injured, regardless of whether he wants to stay in.

The Steinbrenners have always done right by police officers, fire fighters and service members and that's goes back many years.

Tough to watch. Offense is looking like something from 30 years ago. Zero imagination. Need some involvement of the passing game. Defense might as well go after Wentz. Hit him as hard and as often as possible and make him wish he was somewhere else.

Based on the figures from the Herald article quoted above, the two new plans that have figures quotes it will be at least 10 percent more expensive to take 15 credits, and 12 to 30 percent more if you have the initiative to take 18 credits. (and no figures are given if you dare to take more than 18 credits under the news system). The student that can graduate in four years will pay substantially more under either of the new plans. This definitely puts the screws to the students. It creates higher tuition for any student taking more than 12 credits per semester. Admittedly, the Herald article uses the flawed logic of the administration and compares someone graduating in five years under the current plan with some graduating in four years to show "savings", while neglecting to mention that the savings are even greater for someone graduating in four years under the current tuition plan.

This is so true. UND was high in the all sports standings nearly every year under Wanless.

Defenders and Hammers

And the secondary market for Frozen Four tickets just tightened a little more.

UND-BU already confirmed as the evening semifinal. Not a huge shock there. Should be a classic. Hope it goes like our previous Frozen Four matchup.

Looks like Miami may have left their mojo in Minneapolis.

Speak for yourself.

There was also the delay in starting a program at all. If UND had started when Duluth did, I think fortunes would be much different.

I'll go a little outside the box and predict that they put the Miami bracket in South Bend for attendance reasons. I think they will also try to avoid the Denver-St.Cloud matchup in the first round. Ideally I would also flip Minnesota and BC to get the three Hockey East teams spread to different regions, but that isn't a priority of the committee unfortunately. Fargo North Dakota Providence Michigan Tech St. Cloud State Providence Minnesota State RIT Nebraska Omaha Harvard South Bend Miami Yale Denver Minnesota Manchester Boston U Quinnipiac Minnesota Duluth Boston College

If you want BC out, pull for Ferris in the WCHA. That is a lynchpin to knocking them out, as is BU not winning Hockey East and St. Cloud winning at least once (3rd Place game is just fine). Here is one of many options that have both Minnesota and BC on the golf course. http://goo.gl/BWTj14

UND - If Sioux fans travel like they claim to, another 5000 fans able to attend the regional REA - Not sure why this matters.

I'm not sure there is a reason to add a 10th school if ASU joins the NCHC. In that case I would set up scheduling with three pods ASU-DU-CC UND-UMD-SCSU UNO-Miami-WMU You play your own pod home and away every year. And with the other pods you play one at home, one away and one home and away. That keeps you at a 24 game league schedule and keeps travel pretty reasonable (Certainly doesn't make things any worse for the two eastern schools). If you add Bowling Green then I think you have to go to a Divisional setup. West - ASU, DU, CC, UND, UNO East - UMD, SCSU, Miami, WMU, Bowling Green That would give you a 26 game league schedule. OK, but not great. Another option for a ten team league would be either a 24 or 26 game schedule with either one or two protected rivalries. One rivalry DU-CC UND-UNO Miami-Bowling Green UMD-SCSU WMU-ASU Two Rivalries ASU - UNO, CC CC - ASU, DU DU - UND, CC UND - DU, UMD UNO - ASU, SCSU UMD - SCSU, UND SCSU - UMD,UNO BGSU - Miami, WMU Miami - WMU, BGSU WMU - BGSU, Miami

I wouldn't overstate that 7 of 8. Almost All were short swing passes and everything good came on a rollout. It's not like he was picking apart the PSU seconday. In three possessions, only one could be considered marching down the field. The others were a three and out that included a sack when Mollberg didn't get rid of the ball and another was a drive where his lone incompletion came on a third down that killed that drive and hadn't got past midfield. Hardly what one could call "complete control". Mollberg just doesn't look comfortable in the pocket and seems to have no sense of when pressure is coming and he needs to avoid a sack. Bartels appeared much more confident once he got rolling despite what one would assume has been minimal practice time with the 1s. I think Bartels has to be the choice going forward. And for those saying that Bartels was only successful against a weak Portland State defense, remember that UND didn't exactly light it up offensively against Stony Brook or Robert Morris.

What about Atlanta's collapse? They were pushing the Nationals most of the season and definitely were in the Wild Card race, but just went off a cliff the last month. Milwaukee seemed like smoke and mirrors and it only seemed a matter of time before they would be reeled in. They were just able to ride an unbelievably hot start for a long time. St. Louis had at least tied them on multiple occasions. Playoffs should be wide open this year.

District 21 (going north to south, more or less) Max Cossacks Garrison Troopers Riverdale Knights Underwood Comets Turtle-Lake Mercer Trojans Washburn Cardinals Wilton Miners Tourneys rotated between Garrison and Washburn for the most part. All seven schools were also within McLean County (and all but Riverdale are still fielding their own teams, amazing in these times), so there were a ton of pretty heated rivalries. In addition to the District, the County Tournament was a big deal for bragging rights. Other teams in the county were the Butte Spartans (I think played in Region 4 in a district with towns like Drake and Anamoose) and the White Shield Warriors who played in Region 7 with schools like New Town, Parshall and North Shore. Also, the Region 6 tournament was at the Minot Auditorium and that was a great place to see a game. Very old school facility, even now it feels like you are in Hoosiers or something similar when watching a game there. One of my favorite venues in the state.

Agree with this. I actually would have taken Huntsville over St. Cloud, as it would have given more legitimacy to the league's name, it would be a nice trip in the winter time and it would have given the conference a cellar dwellar. The parity of the NCHC is going to be a problem come NCAA tourney time every year unless the league is lights out in non-conference play. I'm not sure I actually want to see expansion, but if it comes I think it will be in a way that cuts travel for Miami and Western. I'd guess MAC-mate Bowling Green will eventually move over, If that happened I would probably make a run at Air Force for the 10th team. I'd then split into Divisions (26 game schedule, 4 games vs Division foes, 2 versus opposite division) West UND-DU-CC-UNO-AFA East UMD-SCSU-Miami-WMU-BGSU NCHC playoff would provide Division Champs byes to the Target Center, while first round would have the twos vs the fives and the threes vs the fours. Frozen faceoff would then have Thursday quarters of 2E-3W (winner facing 1W) and 2W-3E (winner facing 1E)

This superdivision would have to be all sports. There's no way you could only offer those benefits to football players (read: males) and not unleash legal hell on the Title IX front, which not even the BCS schools are immune from. Everything championship wise will remain the same, all schools will be equal, the super 5 will just be more equal. Could be an interesting thing in Hockey, with the Big 10 schools being able to potentially offer more benefits to players than any other hockey schools. Would think Hockey East might be able to prevent BC and Notre Dame from doing so by passing league rules.

I'd love to see this and just rotate it between the four schools home rinks. That way UND could host in both Grand Forks and Denver. Seriously though, I like the idea of it being on campus just for fairness and it keeps the students in play usually creating a better atmosphere. Definitely wouldn't be down with it always in the Cities, although a Denver/Cities rotation would be fine.

I'll be the contrarian. I think baseball can be respectable in the WAC, probably more successful that track or cross country will be competing in a Big Sky where we are the only school not at altitude or in a warm climate. Baseball is popular in North Dakota, and has a pretty rich history. The state has produced more MLB athletes than any other major pro sport in recent years, and several have performed at a high profile level. It's also actually got a small number of scholarship equivalencies, so cutting it isn't going to create a huge windfall. It also has a pretty supportive alumni base as well.