biff

I know what you were trying to say. I was just pointing out that enrollment and city size is a poor relationship to market size. I should have picked a better example than ND, there are several.

Bob, Why isn't Notre Dame a bigger school than UND since it has a bigger market than NDSU and UND combined? By your 'logic' it should be.

This still offers no support for your claims of tuition waivers used for either school. There is no source cited for the quote you post. For all we know, it could be a post from someone with facts, the president, or Barney the purple dinosaur. The same poster talks later about the benefit of the NDSU tuition waivers on the state's economy. This is not related at all to athletics.

It's years too early to make this judgement. They'll do better than UNC in the long run in BBall for sure, and UNC was wanted.

University of Sioux Falls gets more love in SF than Augustana. In athletics even being in Sioux Falls, Auggie's got nothing on USD or SDSU. The writer of this article is out of touch.

Just a few points... Before some of you get so hostile to Bison people about financials and accuse them of being jealous or scared of UND in DI or whatever, I think there's 3 stances of Bison fans on this issue: 1. Those that hate UND and want failure at all costs 2. Those who are interested in financials or just what happens 3. Those who are worried that their tax dollars are being spent wisely Most (although many) don't fall in to category #1. Some just are interested in what's going on since one of us is in the middle of this right now. I'd be quite interested in seeing the details of NDSU's last minute donor and what's up at UND. Until there are numbers, everything is speculation. NDSU was fortunate to have the full support of the president in athletics. Kupchella, for understandable reasons given past history, was very responsible in hiring a very capable AD in Mr. Buning. He's been good at reacting well to major issues. I've never read anywhere that NDSU was using tuition waivers for athletics. I have read UND was. If this is incorrect, please produce the evidence. Carry on.

Valley City and Mayville would likely be the first targets of closure. Dickinson State should remain open to serve the western edge, they also draw a lot of Montana students.

Not that it matters, but here's Bismarck/Mandan with a few adjustments. The 5-10 range are debatable...depending on where you hang out. Wizards and Bobcats draw pretty well. I wish there was more interest in the big U's out east.

What USD does regarding the DI decision is probably becomming more obvious for them.

Man, I think I called this one Awsome game.

Nice job Sioux, making ND look good. Montana State lost to DII Chradron state after thumping CU last week so anything is possible in these last minutes....

The good thing about Lennon, he generally brings a team that shows up. Throw the conservative game plan out the window and the Sioux might be in this one in the 4th quarter. If not, it could be a long day in Cedar Falls.

I can't even imagine what kind of garbage they'll dream up next. Something needs to happen.

Yes it would. I thought it I-A would remain BCS and I-AA would be PCS (playoff championship series). That would sound better.

I'd be careful about starting rumors like this. It's on the same level as the tabloid type news reporting the media has already done with this story. It's been an embarassment to the state.

Facilities movement may have been a factor, but there's more obvious history than that alone.

I can't argue with inside information. Won't buy the facilities comment (based on the PR at the time), although facilities issues would have been a much better PR strategy than they used. Back on topic, does your inside info tell you anything about Fullerton that's believable? Or is that top secret?

You might try it. It's quite relaxing. One would assume they have, but it's not public (unless I missed it). That's also an assumption. We'll have to wait a few years to see. PartTime suggests a possible outcome. Beating a dead horse. A wise man who goes by 'UND Fan' said, "Lets talk about sports!" I have to agree.

Well it's about time they figured it out. In another 2 years, you'll have the road map for the whole process

The harder route is the better route, although it will be interesting to see how it turns out in a few years. It's good to set the standard high. It also would be interesting to know if NDSU had the same plan when they started.

Along with having an administration that was proactive and positive rather than just reacting, there's strength in numbers. NDSU tried getting the support of the NCC and ended up with only SDSU. They also had conversations and advisors with UNC and UC Davis going through the transition. Had UND leaders had the vision at the time to see what was going to happen (as they have now) they'd have gone at the same time. Instead they're going it alone and after debating for the last 3 years and hoping South Dakota will come along too. As far as the not following the consultant's recommendation argument, haven't you guys beat that one enough? Do you still think a far away DI conference is going to want to add a DII school in North Dakota? The consultant was wrong. I think Mr. Buning would agree.

How do you figure? UND's president doesn't have any enthusiasm over the move and has pretty much stated they're only doing it because they have to. He's spent more time planning how to avoid the enevitable. No vison or leadership there. UND is lucky Buning was hired and Lennon is around.

Well, I guess this is better than giving money to drugged up deadbeats that Minnesota's welfare system supports so well. Where's the money coming from? Is an election year near?

Man, rather than tearing down the Mid-Con, you guys should be looking at it as an opportunity. For NDSU it's a conferene where they can compete and have a shot at autobids and national tournaments. For UND, they'd have 2 votes of support if the league decided to expand (assuming the SU's are admitted). I think in time the Dakota schools would have success and be prominent members. It's your ticket to not getting run over in DI, and face it, without major changes in the Big Sky, they're not going to come calling. If you're taking the plunge in DI you've gotta start somewhere.

This whole situation is missing facts. Until some journalist does their job (not publishing gossip) there's no reason to get worked up over this and start jumping to conclusions.