jimdahl

You can't fault their senses of humor on the subject

To play devil's advocate -- REA is now also going to be multipurpose hockey/basketball Your points, however, were quite valid -- I definitely agree that REA has a lot of little niceties which no government could ever justify buying.

There really are a couple different types of users to this type of site. The vast majority (>80% on this site) are casual readers who enter via the front page and dig into one or two more pages in that visit (a schedule, a game result, etc...). I surmise that those who jump directly into the forums, bypassing the front page, are the hardcore posters who follow the team closely so have the most to say in discussions, but who don't need the extra info. Though USCHO has vastly more original content than we're able to produce here, I suspect they have similar distinct groups of users. Back to INCH -- right now ESPN has up their power poll, cocktail napkin of important games, and preseason All-American picks. On those areas, I'd say INCH's picks are as good as anyone's. ESPN never really included USCHO's recaps anyway, just the poll and the infrequent feature article.

Sorry if this has been noted elsewhere (I don't keep up with USCHO boards very well), but I was browsing the ESPN College Sports page and couldn't help but notice that they now get their hockey news from INCH (a position that USCHO has held in the past). Sure enough, the INCH home page now has the ESPN associate logo, whereas USCHO does not. Quite a coup for INCH, which steadily seems to be carving out its niche.

Hey, I did alright! UNO over NDSU, Winona over Concordia. Even my sleeper that I didn't quite dare pick, Emporia over UNO/NDSU. Of course, I did transpose Concordia/Northern State; and though I understand making CMSU #7, I don't see how CMSU is #7 when Emporia is #2. Oh, well. Tony -- thanks for the info. I guess that's why I've been baffled, I assumed it was a "plug in the numbers" system, but have never been able to pin down the exact numbers. The subjectivity explains why I've had troubles getting a definitive answer.

That's a great example of the benefit of mathematical systems. My quick eyeballing favored Winona because they lost to a tougher team, but I certainly agree that the overall SOS certainly is a much more meaningful number.

That's about the one thing I did know about it With all the talk about replacing the regional selection criteria with a new point system, I was wondering if this was now just a calculation of those points rather than an actual poll.

First, to demonstrate that I have no clue what I'm talking about, thereby rendering my predictions nearly meaningless, is this actually a poll or is it that crazy new ranking with all the SOS, in-region play, etc... stuff (which I clearly don't yet understand)? I'll proceed assuming a poll, because otherwise we could have just calculated the rankings. So, without further ado... I would expect Winona to stay ahead of Concordia despite the H2H result because that loss for Winona was to a good team, whereas Concordia lost to USD (a team that bafflingly oscillates between looking good and not). I'd go with BisonMav's NSIC order of Winona, Northern St, Concordia. I do like UND92,96's idea that SCSU would be ahead of the NSIC teams because their losses were on the road to more highly ranked opponents and because of the general strength of the NCC vs. NSIC (I don't think the perception of relative strength of the conferences is affected much by the Jackrabbits loss to Winona, and Mankato's loss to UMD is essentially meaningless right now). I could even construct arguments that SCSU should be ahead of UND, but the difference in number of losses and the fresh H2H result make that an unlikely actual poll result. I'd agree with UNO over NDSU, but it all depends how they value certain things (the two have played very different schedules). I was tempted to give undefeated Emporia the nod over NDSU/UNO but chickened out just as I hit submit (again, it's tough to rank teams with such dramatically different schedules), though DEFINITELY agree they're ahead of UND.

Oops -- he did say "package". I missed that distinction. It's not my night for details, apparently. I didn't want to buy a package unseen, so bought an individual game. It make sense that since the archives are essentially new products, they're not available to single-item purchasers; but they can easily add the new archive product to the package, making it available to those people.

I could be wrong, but after the free football trial didn't work well for me, I purchased the Augustana game to check it out again (item #709). When I hit "watch" on that product page I get nothing. When I go to the Augustana archive page (product #242), there's no "watch" link, but rather a "buy for $2.95" link. Could be an isolated error, but that's what happened to me.

To save a little navigating through other pages: Direct link to UND's audio (also on the front hockey page all the time ) Direct link to Duluth's audio (KDAL)

Touch

To save a little navigating through other pages: Direct link to UND's audio (also on the front hockey page ) Direct link to Duluth's audio (KDAL) I stayed home intentionally to see this preview, too (otherwise wouldn't have bothered for the audio of an exhibition game).

WOW!!!! When we were down 3-28 and the announcers said "just hold them scoreless and create at least one turnover to win," I was skeptical. When we lined up for a 52-yd field goal with 8 seconds remaining, I was skeptical. The Sioux showed what they can do! WAY TO GO SIOUX!!!!

Don't know if all the Sioux fans have seen this place, it's amazing. It is multipurpose (also the home of Creighton basketball), seats about 14.7k for hockey, has attached convention space/Hilton hotel, total cost: $291 million. UNO has really been putting together a good hockey program with great fan support and now has the facility to complement it. Check out MavRick's new photos of Qwest Center Omaha (the first I've seen with ice down) So when are the Sioux going to Omaha so I have an excuse?

The REA rep, Christopher Lee, confirmed previously that 300 is the number of free demos they're willing to give away, but the actual capacity is higher and additional viewers can purchase it for $8.95

Hmmm.... the comparisons used by that article to bolster Brandt remind me of something.

As promised, the whole enchilda

A few of the SiouxSports.com contributing staff collaborated to summarize the WCHA pre-season press conference this morning. Complete notes will be posted in an hour or two, but to whet your appetites, here's the Sioux portion. Notes on Blais' talk Please don't disseminate this URL beyond this site, as the full article will posted within hours -- this is just a sneak preview for our loyal readers.

Because of the injuries to Snyder he was charged with "serious injury by vehicle", a felony. He was also charged with reckless driving, driving too fast for conditions, driving on the wrong side of the road and striking a fixed object. Though the national press is claiming that the final BAC tests won't be available for weeks, the press here in Madison is reporting that the on-the-spot testing was very low so it's quite unlikely that alcohol was a factor or that any alcohol-related charges could be brought in the future.

So, I may be the only Sioux fan who finds UNC's basketball schedule impressive-- Colorado Colorado State Denver NDSU (or UND) would kill for such non-conference opponents. It's clearly not a revenue generating schedule, since all good games are road games, but it's better than I thought they could get. Clearly geography played a big part; their home schedule is another matter.

The good: Well, we asked for the Sioux to start finishing these close games strongly and put them away, and they heard us. A win is a win. For the first 3 quarters, Lueck WAS the offense. Great special teams play. Great defense all game. Defense saved this game. The offensive line really owned Augie in the 4th. Are we stronger, better conditioned, or was it just a side effect of everything else going our way? The little bit we were successful passing, we managed to spread the ball around. No turnovers Offense? UND only had one good sustained drive that included grinding the ball down the field over time, at the very end of the game. The TD, which occurred on the drive before that, was really on the back of one big play. Penalties, penalties, penalties. We have to get this into the single digits to stand a prayer against SCSU. The ugly: [*]Our bubble screen failed miserably, but we fell for it when Augie pulled it

Unfortunately I didn't get to see the Newberry game, but I'm nervous about this one for the same reasons. Everyone says that Newberry has more talented receivers than Augustana, but I'm under the impression that their passing games was significantly simpler (Augustana's has certainly give us fits in the past). The Herald's scouting article mentioned that Augustana specifically trains against our blitz but that their O-line is weaker than past years. A little more pressure on the QB can make all the difference in the world. On the other side of the ball-- Bowenkamp tore apart the Newberry secondary, but I have no idea how much of a test that was. Big passes over inferior secondaries (Newberry/Crookston) don't prove much. I hate to sound like a cliche, but will the Sioux put out enough of a running threat to keep the pass viable against a stronger defense? Mesa State reported (in the article quoted by star2city) that the Sioux offense was predictable based on personnel and formations -- don't think NCC opponents didn't notice. Fortunately, from what I've read, UND used a lot of different weapons in the Newberry game. I honestly don't know what to think of this game so you're definitely not getting a prediction out of me