jimdahl

Thanks, I was just going by this statement (above): After this weekend's games, I'll try the new formula with last year's SSI in place of QWI and see how it looks. Thanks!

OK, great, no doubt RPI is better than the former SSI. My complaint really isn't the annual changes, it's that they're known in June but they don't tell us anything until the first rankings are released, and often don't tell us everything until November. Undaunted, I'll try to throw together a calculation based on the new system. SOS is trivial to calculate, no problem. However, I guess I have to wait until the 2005 championship handbook is released to find out the new QWI formula, so for now will just the old SSI.

Well, it was nice of the NCAA to finally give us the regional rankings criteria: Regional Rankings Worksheet Guide Unfortunately, it still just leaves us scratching our heads wondering what an SOS is. It's starting to smell a little more like RPI, but it would be nice if they'd just come out and tell us.

Obviously not; the the best rookie on the ice on Wednesday night was clearly Ovechkin Of course, I have to enjoy our single victory while I can because it's the Caps only meeting with the Blue Jackets this year. Not that I'm predicing a one-win season, high single digits are easily within reach...

Two things to note -- this is the only thread I see about Kessel in the first few pages of threads, and about half the posts in it are from Gopher fans. Discussions about other teams, players, and other items of general interest are ok as long as they remain somewhat self-contained and don't dominate the forum (a guideline applied to all quasi-off-topic threads). If it ever even neared the Zach-mania-POI point where people launched dozens of Kessel threads, through which you would have to sift to find UND-related content, suspensions would come down quick and long.

Despite some nice transparency last year, the smoke-filled room returns somewhat this year as the NCAA hasn't yet published the DII regional rankings criteria. I know some changes were made at the June meeting, so this will be wrong, but here's my guess of what they should look like based on last year's criteria: 1 North Dakota 2 Saginaw Valley St 3 South Dakota 4 Nebraska-Omaha 5 Grand Valley St 6 Michigan Tech Though I think I weighed it properly, UNO, with a loss, is an interesting case and most obviously likely to be wrong.

The only places that I know have Sioux games weekly / whenever available are Minneapolis and Mesa, AZ. The UND feed comes on a somewhat unusual satellite that few bars have (lots of discussion about it in the hockey forum). For football getting on national networks, you're generally out of luck until deep into the playoffs. Quite a few hockey games make national networks that are on DirecTV and so forth (ESPNU, CSTV, Fox Sports North) so can often be seen at bars across the country.

Hate to be the reminder of bad news, but Fedorov did mention last Spring that new adult duties may limit Sioux fan / SiouxSports.com time.

I wonder how different this poll would look 14 months from now if all appeals have been exhausted, lawsuits lost/deemed impractical, and the undefeated UND football team loses a close second round playoff game on the road at GVSU (that should have been in the Alerus)? I support the Sioux nickname and agree with Kupchella that those of us who do can't stand idly by while being accused of being hostile and abusive. Pursue all appeals and any viable political, organizational, or legal remedies. However, if the punishments stand once all is said and done, I'm going to have a hard time favoring a historical nickname for UND's teams over a big playoff advantage for those teams.

From the release... (emphasis mine)

Sorry to get snappy, it was starting to get a little... frustrating. I decided to make this new "accuse UND fans of recruiting violations" thread in which everyone is welcome to beat the topic to a bloody pulp.

I said write a letter, then you quoted the portion related to in-person contacts and phone calls. You conveniently omitted the next sentence when quoting the manual:

Her parents could have told all their friend and neighbors, she could have told all her friends, she could have sent one of us an email, one of us could have written her a letter asking -- there are many permissible contacts and she lives in a small town in a small state. No one is forcing you to believe the "rumor", however the ongoing attempt to distract from it by attacking our having found out and fishing for recruiting violations (bait, it is now obvious, no one will take) is getting old.

Why does Augie always give UND such trouble? The Augie game always sends me down (bad) memory lane, so I've been reading old Augie game threads (better than newspaper clippings!) and it's really just crazy: Sep 25 2004 Miserable offense, two interceptions, lots of penalties (incl. an inadvertant whistle!) D holds us in the game. Sioux win 13-7. Sep 27, 2003 This season barely counts as the Sioux swept NCC play with half the games ending within 3 or going into OT. Every week opponents proclaimed that UND's "lucky" streak would come to an end. However, true to form, UND eeks out a 13-3 win over Augie. The board didn't really have football talk yet in 2002, and that was hardly a banner year anyway, but the loss to Augie squashed any hope of a late-season turnaround. I read Augustana's not very good this year, have already lost to Concordia-St.Paul AND the game is at UND, but if we win 45-10 I'll be feeling very good about this season.

Dressler is the new... Zach Parise? (Bismarck Tribune)

Statement Regarding Licensing Criteria for Division I-A Postseason Football

I'll kick this off with the obligatory opponent's audio link.

Cool, thanks for pointing it out. I've been wanting to grab that and throw it on a DVD forever but it's never on the schedule when I search for it.

Just as an FYI, I'll repeat my explanation to GK. SiouxSports.com is completely private, subject to no influence from the NCAA or UND. Under NCAA guidelines, we're actually a "booster" organization, meaning that what we do can harm UND (e.g. if we were to inappropriately make payments to recruits, etc...), but they don't have any formal authority over our actions. Even if UND changed the logo and name, we probably wouldn't ban its use by individual members unless a court actually ruled it "hostile and abusive" such that its use wasn't protected under the 1st Amendment. The site itself, of course, will refer to UND using its current and factual nickname; if UND changes their nickname to Cherokee, the site will start referring to them as the Cherokee, and so forth.

Well, now you see my caveat from that thread is still true -- these guys hate all announcers Tough first half for WSU, I'd probably be going for a drink too. I have to admit this is going much better for UND than I feared it might. Of course, we've seen a team far behind dramatically swing back in this matchup before.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/win.html I wonder if the announcer on the videocast is this guy? I still kind of like him, nice mellow style.

If you can't get it working, it uses quicktime so make sure you have that installed. It's a pretty decent feed, I find it easier to watch than Dataflix (doesn't have that weird pixel thing going on). Best of all, it's free. Q of the day: Why does Winona have better Internet game coverage than UND?

No kidding. Was the URL published in this month's journal of some sort of idiot club (an anti-MENSA, of sorts)? It's been an ugly week, I guess it's just school starting...