jimdahl

Not much talk here about the Great West, the conference most likely to first accept UND after it's move to D-I. Do people think it's just such a slam dunk that there's nothing to talk about? An outlook on their current membership situation: Great West -- Already at the crossroads

Not smack at all -- for UNI we're a bodybag game pure and simple, paid to come in and get beat up in front of the home crowd. For a group usually accustomed to displaying bravado, I haven't seen a single Sioux fan call for a win, rather everyone seems to be hoping for goals like "competing" or "having a good game". Back to CWU vs. UND, there's a pretty insane amount of media coverage of the game on the football page.

Hey Chris's mom, welcome to SiouxSports.com!

Woah -- reread his post and then this diatribe. You accuse him of being "pissed off", yet his post contained none of the vitriol yours did and made some good non-contradictory points. You didn't address the substance at all, but spent half a page railing on him as a "homer" for saying he was interested in discussions about potential conference scenarios for UND. The people here who seem to be getting upset when they read something they don't like are those who have reacted so violently against any discussion of factors that could make UND attractive to Big Sky.

Though perhaps Big Sky could care less, they still don't care very much about UND hockey. Rather, some people are just noting that UND already has an existing athletic relationship with Denver and sends a ridiculous number of grads to the Denver area. While not statistically relevant, the fact that a Denver fan showed up on the board to say it would be nice to see UND in more sports is significantly more relevant than *SU fans wishing it weren't so. Another theory people have floated is that those "Western schools" could include Western Canada if potential NCAA rule changes occurred. No one thinks Big Sky cares about hockey; rather, if BSC were interested in expanding into Canadian markets, it wouldn't escape their attention that UND is a better known brand in Canada than most BSC schools. No one is claiming that UND has a secret invite to BSC in their pocket (like Bison fans were claiming when NDSU was at this point), we're just tossing around possible conference moves and realignments that could create slots for UND. It's interesting how some people (who frequent a UND message board) are so anxious to refute any UND fans' speculation about potential scenarios that could land UND in Big Sky.

Let me start you out with: Visiting Grand Forks for games Visiting Grand Forks, UND/UMD

Al Pearson put together a bus trip, see this post for some details.

Thanks for pointing that out. I've definitely been slow in getting ramped up for football this year. I wonder if the changed link (from a UND address to high bandwidth Internet provider, Akamai) also suggests a serious increase in reliability?

I was in such a hurry to post the files the band sent me that of course I messed up the other link. Try again, should be fixed. I have them as MIDI (.mid) files, which can be set as ring tones for my Sprint phone. If you have Sprint or know how to make a MIDI file a ring tone for your phone, I can point you to them. Those are the versions I actually keyed in from the sheet music like 10 years ago, so while accurate, sound like a piano rendition. If you search the hockey forum, people have also pointed out pay ring tone services in the past that have different versions (multi-instrument) that you may prefer, despite costing a few bucks.

You mock... UND School Songs Special thanks to the Pride of the North for sending these recordings and granting us permission to post them, so quickly.

You need a WSJ subscription to read it, but here are some quotes: The Great Plains

Congrats Bison! Way to mess up my prediction, though, I was off by exactly one year: (Start putting in good words for us, I still believe my other prediction that UND financially needs to rejoin some old NCC members...)

Oh, I've always independently believed that the point of a convention center is not to generate a profit through its operations, but to spur economic activity. I'm just happy to see it in G.F. newsprint, as I think it is shared by most city leaders throughout the country. That North Dakotans expect their convention centers to operate in the black, I think, demonstrates a significant risk aversion. No doubt that the decline in the small market concert industry is a huge problem; unfortunately it's somewhat outside the Alerus' control. Given that externality, what should they do? This is one of the things they chose to do -- pursuing other opportunities to leverage their infrastructure to generate revenue. It's a logical response for an organization that the public demands run itself like a for-profit business. I would prefer the public be more willing to accept the "losses" so the Alerus didn't have to compete in such peripheral markets, but that would draw even more local criticism. Criticizing known and admitted problems is easy. Here's a more interesting one (open to all) -- what should the Alerus do that would earn your praise as a good move (given that it exists and given its somewhat immutable operating environment).

Claiming they think UND is Michigan is a little unfair, no one targeted 100,000+ in attendance. Nor is he looking for 30k/game average (in the neighborhood of Boise St., Colorado St., Wake Forest). He's saying having a big game at 30k+ could put UND above 15k/game (in the neighborhood of Nevada, Tennessee St., just 1000 more than NDSU). Not to mention that we're talking over 20 years from now. A Sioux/Bison game in Fargo has drawn 19000 (or whatever a FargoDome sellout is). I don't see why averaging 15k+/game (with a 30k+ game) in 30 years would therefore be impossible. The biggest obstacle is that the N.D.'s population seems to be moving the wrong direction.

I'll copy my comment from a thread I started on the Alerus budget (before seeing this one): Also nice to see some long-term thinking out of UND on the athletics front. Though the increased attendance goals will undoubtedly draw some criticism, it won't happen if you don't try and when long-term means 30 years and when "important games" could mean a I-A foe instead of Minn.-Crookston, who knows.

Or make a recording and send it to me...

A favorite topic of Sioux detractors: Alerus Center: Council hears budget; officials project deficit It's nice to see the Alerus defending its economic impact -- the notion that an events center needs to independently run in the black is a little silly. The whole point of such a thing is to generate economic impact in the city (which is then taxed, which pays the budget "shortfall"). Also nice to see some long-term thinking out of UND on the athletics front. Though the increased attendance goals will undoubtedly draw some criticism, it won't happen if you don't try and when long-term means 30 years and when "important games" could mean a I-A foe instead of Minn.-Crookston, who knows. (See Football may need bigger arena thread in football forum, where this aspect is already being discussed).

Youmans was New Mexico's leading scorer in high school at Hobbs (a little info on Hobbs' basketball history here -- 93% home win% since 1950, higher attendance than Sioux games, 15 state titles) He was a walk-on Freshman at Texas El-Paso until January of '05. He went to EAC "to increase his stock" until this Spring, when he was recruited by and signed with Mercer. Apparently, that fell through late. Thanks unique name + yahoo + google, but I don't understand why all Herald stories aren't online. They all must be in a computer for typesetting... maybe that will get better as the Forum takes over.

Another article on "guarantee games" with some interesting anecdotes: Check please

Though that's undoubtedly true here, it's not the goal. What I think actually happens is that I unconsciously develop a "signal-to-noise" ratio for frequent posters. Someone who makes 100 good posts might get away with a useless smacky post, whereas a person who only makes useless smacky posts will be warned or suspended. While a guy like PCM can, as expected, sneak in a bad post; so can a guy like Tony or IowaBison. Getting away with some smack is not about if you're pro-Sioux or not, it's about if you're generally here to participate in legitimate discussions or ONLY come here to cause trouble. On the original topic, these two scenarios are very different in my mind: Fan of team X notes high tickets sales, fan of team Y taunts with the level of ticket promotions needed to achieve that Fan of team X wonders when his tickets will arrive, fan of team Y taunts team X's "low" ticket sales While both responses are somewhat meant as digs, the former is on topic, the latter not.

I'm not sure what I'll be able to pull in at work, either. I'm not sure I've ever had to try, as I don't think a regular season Sioux hockey or football game has been on a weekday afternoon in a long time.

Direct link to Fargo Sioux Boosters.

Anyone interested in whether Bison fans should get to post smack and whether Sioux fans who respond should be treated differently should go here.

I disagree. I expect Sioux fans to be able to have a discussion on a UND message board about when season tickets will arrive without having to endure irrelevant attendance smack from Bison fans who are only here to try to "stir the pot".

When I read the title, I thought this was going to be a pool. I'll take October 17.