nodakvindy

Canuck, I wasn't responding to your first comment, just clarifying the second which pertained to the college scholarship. The scholarship is really the meat of the education package. Do you really believe that players are making meaningful progress in education while they are playing in a league with a 70 game season and road trips like Portland to Brandon and Everett to Regina? Add to that the possibility a player could be traded, and taking classes while playing is a very difficult task. With regard to the WHL scholarship, the portion you quoted made that seem guaranteed. I simply pointed out that wasn't the case. Once a player signs a contract, the scholarship is forfeited.

Provided the player never signs a pro contract. Another advantage for the NCAA is the certainty of where you will play. A kid can't get shipped off to Union or Merrimack if they get off to a slow start.

Being a second generation J-school grad it really is apalling the neglect shown by the administration over the past 30 years. At one time UND was right there with schools like Kansas, Missouri and Syracuse for journalism and produced the likes of Irv Kupcinet and Chuck Johnson. But while money was going to the business school and CAS, the journalism school was left to die on the vine. Hopefully the current situation can be resolved and the department can right the ship, but I fear that will take quite a long time.

I'd think North Texas would be on the WAC radar before any Big Sky schools. Gets them into the Dallas media market and the fertile texas recruiting grounds. Plus they are already I-A.

I hope that Sparky will be battling WCHA foes to the pain for at least two more years.

An ideal scanario would have the Sioux making a trip and playing BU or BC at Fenway on a Friday night and then taking on Holy Cross at the DCU Center on Saturday night. I think the UND-BC rivalry will help make the Fenway game a reality.

I'd definitely be interested in this.

Nope, these are the purple away jerseys according to forecheck.

No name on the back. HC is old school. Just the number 14.

I'd be interested in #14 if this comes to pass. Let me know how you would like payment.

Defense is certainly a need, but the thought of Toews centering Ovechkin is frightening. Your top line would be set for the next 10 years regardless of who skates with them.

Try ne.cn8.tv Looks like they are showing the Maine-Harvard game right now.

You can try the webcast at www.cn8.com I am pretty sure they will be showing the West Final, especially now that Holy Cross is in it. They have a Mid-Atlantic and a New England feed, so you might have to check both.

It's good because we played SCSU four times and CC only twice, so it helps our RPI, it also hurt Michigan and Maine. That result flipped the Pair Wise comparison against Michigan back in our favor. Crazy night with three road teams grabbing playoff wins.

North Central Pairings 1 UND 8 CSU-Pueblo 4 Northern State 5 Regis 3 St. Cloud 6 Augie 2 Wayne St. 7 Concordia-St. Paul

I think it was a big mistake to delay in starting the program and it may take years to make up the lost ground to the other WCHA programs. UM and UM-D have quickly developed "histories" and have a huge edge in recruiting, and now Wisconsin might be able to step forward and claim a title this year. Had UND gotten in the ground floor conceivably things could be much different. Also I don't think the Ralph is much of an advantage when it is at best 10% full. In fact, I think on some level the success of the men's team may make recruiting more difficult in that the women's program gets scant media attention. UM-D's success has gotten them a foothold and Minnesota has the same "pride on ice" advantage in keeping the best in-state players. One surprising thing is that UND hasn't seemed to be able to grab player's a lot of players from western Canada. This is a little surprising with Rivard being from Canada and UND being the western-most program in the country. I think the key is patience. There was a time when UND women's basketball wasn't very competitive and look at where that program is now.

The NCAA may want neutral sites, but they just don't exist in the west. In the next three years, Wisconsin, Minnesota and CC will all be hosting, so I think a good crowd will be important. And like I said, it's important to have fans in the stands wearing green and white rather than maroon and gold. What good is it to bid on and win the regional, then not pack in your own fans.

In that case, I agree, although I really hope Sioux fans snap up tickets soon. First, to keep away the potential swarm of maroon and gold, and second to not give the NCAA any out to in awarding future events to UND/GF. The Elite 8 hoops debacle combined with the relative difficult in traveling to Grand Forks (we really need another airline) are somewhat legitimate strikes against us.

Like that whopper the USFL got after beating the NFL in court. Courts take a long time to do anything, and going it alone against a Goliath like the NCAA is not without risks. I'd much rather see cooler heads prevail.

Yes, the second round is also best of three, and the tourney format minimizes PWR hits for the top teams.

UND wins the tiebreaker due to league wins 16-15

Alaska Fairbanks defeated Notre Dame, knocking them out from being a TUC. This hurts many of the CCHA teams who had picked up some cheap TUC wins. The updated Pair Wise with bonus now has UND at #8, the final 2 seed. A win tomorrow night and a sweep of St. Cloud would almost certainly lock up a tourney bid. Now it's just up to the team to go out and do it.

I certainly agree that the wins do the talking, but there is also nothing wrong with understanding what they say.

There are several reasons that playing St. Cloud is preferable. 1) It would allow us to tie the head-to-head and flip the individual comparison with them. 2) Their better record would help our RPI more 3) They are definitely a TUC, so our TUC record would increase. 4) It appears that right now they are not playing as well as Mankato. Mankato is barely a TUC with the bonus. They have a better chance of staying a TUC if they are swept by CC than if they were swept by UND. If UND ends up playing Mankato, they would likely be in the position where winning the series in three might be preferable to a sweep. Although the relative gain in TUC record could be wiped out by the RPI hit. That is why it's better to play St. Cloud than Mankato.

The NCAA released a report today on academic performance by member school's athletic teams. The APR index is the first time the NCAA has tied performance to the ability to offer scholarships. A total of 99 teams lost scholarships because of poor scores. Hockey was one of the few men's sports to have no teams affected and had the fourth highest overall score. Two schools did have failing scores, but were grandfathered in under a "squad size factor" that is in place for the first few years as the small data set could produce misleading results. You can read more at www.ncaa.org where this is the lead story right now.