[Potential Head Men's Basketball Coaches]

Miles is offered the job and doesn't make a statement one way or the other and that translates into he turned it down?

Press conference is at 1:30, Kolpack reported he turned the job down on his blog at about 11, and then of course there is this

[Good DI article]

The way I figure the Mid-Con will add 2-4 teams out of IPFW, SDSU, NDSU, Utah Valley State, and UTPA. UND may be in the mix. I don't know if the Mid-Con views Centenary and Southern Utah as being long-term members of the Mid-Con, in which case UTPA and Utah Valley State make little sense. You'd think if they wanted to add IPFW they would have done it by now to get to ten. How do they feel about the Dakota schools? I really don't know; you don't really hear much from the Mid-Con about us. I guess time will tell.

[Potential Head Men's Basketball Coaches]

It looks like Miles has turned down the UNC-Wilmington job. Of course, this relates to UND in that Smith should almost be guaranteed the UND job (IMO).

[Should Rich Glas Resign or be Fired?]

It sounds like Huse is the guy at Montana State, according to Bobcat Nation.

[Should Rich Glas Resign or be Fired?]

What's kind of interesting is that both NDSU and UND may make a play for Smith if Miles gets offerred the UNC-Wilmington job.

[Sago Coal Mine Survivor]

The first thing I thought off when I saw the picture was "why would a guy from WV be wearing a Sioux hat". Then I clicked on the picture to enlarge it (apparently I was that intrigued) and saw it was a Notre Dame hat. At least I wasn't the only one who thought that.

[Should Rich Glas Resign or be Fired?]

Of course I'd love to see a repeat of the 1989-90 season--Vonesh came back from an injury; Guldseth and Burkett transferred in; Jacobson and Robertson were recruited (along with Gardner who red-shirted); and together with holdovers Boschee and Ayinla, a team which was terrible the season before became great. However, I can't help but notice that the two teams that played in the region title game a few weeks ago--Winona State and Northern State--were comprised almost entirely of high school recruits. I guess my point/question is: how realistic is it that a large group of newcomers, no matter how talented they may be, will be molded into a good team? It rarely seems to work (see recent Bemidji State teams as Exhibit A), but anything is possible I suppose. I fully realize that the staff no longer has the time to recruit and develop high school talent. They need to win big next year, and bringing in a bunch of transfers is probably the only way that can happen in such a short period of time. I'm just skeptical because there have been so many talented transfers in recent years (Lolar, Austin, Allen, Swan, Phillips, etc.) who haven't panned out.

Isn't '89 also the year McDermott was hired? I don't think that part of the equation will be replicated.

[Suspense is killing me]

NCAA Division I Manual - 20.9.6.3

20.9.6.3 Football-Attendance Requirements.

[i-A] Once every two years, the institution shall average at least 15,000 in actual or paid attendance for all home football games.

(Revised: 4/25/02 effective 8/1/04, 4/28/05 effective 8/1/05)

Unless it has been revised once again...

As far as I know, you are correct. Although the attendance requirement has never been enforced, and I seriously doubt it ever will.

[Suspense is killing me]

You'll have to get the city to build you a 30,000 seat fb venue. That's the min. seating for full DI fb.

No it's not. DI-A has no minimum stadium size requirement.

[Reason to go DI]

No doubt bouncey-ball is bigger on a national level, but not within the state. Especially not within the Red River Valley. I realize there are some small towns that don't have varsity hockey teams, and bouncey-ball is naturally going to be more popular in those towns. I get that. But most of those towns have a population of less than a thousand. Those people who make up the Class B bouncey-ball following are few and far between. Hockey is king in places like Fargo, Grand Forks, Grafton, Minot, etc... A successful mid-major program at either NDSU or UND would get more attention from ESPN than our hockey program, but the hockey program would still dominate the local headlines and draw more fans. Hockey is simply more popular than bouncey-ball in this part of the country. Take the Gophers and Badgers, for example. ESPN gives their bouncey-ball programs 100 times more exposure than the hockey teams, yet the hockey teams remain the top story in the papers at Minneapolis and Madison on a yearly basis. Bouncey-ball is always going to take a backseat to hockey in places where it gets cold enough to make outdoor ice.

High school bball is quite a bit more popular than hockey in Minot. I don't really follow high school sports in Fargo right now so I can't really attest as to which is more popular here. I think Grand Forks is really the only town in ND that you could call a hockey town.

[Revenues and Expenses of Divisions I and II Intercollegiate Athletics]

They spent $2.5 MM more.

They only 'made' $2.4 MM more. (Ouch.)

Well, I guess I'd consider that a wash, i.e. not statistically significant. So the question is, is having the bottom line stay the same a desirable outcome for moving to DI athletics? I don't think the higher-ups at NDSU ever stated one of their objectives from a move up was an increase in the bottom line (although I could be wrong). So I guess the answer for a lot of people would be yes.

Worse? Where'd most of the $2.4 MM come from?

Furthermore, institutional support to athletics among these schools increased by an average of almost $2 million ...

Institutional support means dollars the universities had available that could have otherwise been spent on research or instructors or academic facilities.

Well, I guess you would have to look at it as an investment. Is the "prestige" of being DI worth $2 MM a year? Is it possible to make up that $2 MM in increased enrollment (from being DI) or alumni giving (in other areas other that athletics)? The study you linked seems to say no, but that's probably an issue up for debate.

[Revenues and Expenses of Divisions I and II Intercollegiate Athletics]

Sic, what's most interesting from the study you linked is that schools that are willing to make an investment are also willing to see a return. The table on page 18 shows that the median revenues and expenses for schools moving up were about equal (about 70,000 in the hole if my math is right). What this exactly means, I don't know, but maybe a conclusion you could draw is that schools who are committed to making a successful move will have more success financially?

[Want to own a newspaper?]

No matter who ends up owning the Herald, at least it will finally get to ditch the "don't be so useful as to interfere with physical newspaper sales" KRD web template.

I'd always wondered about the God-awful web design. I guess I didn't realize it was a corporate-wide policy. The worst part of this deal is that I will no longer get to tease my wife, who thought "Knight Rider" owned the GF Herald. I used to ask her if K.I.T.T. was the managing editor.

[Want to own a newspaper?]

I wonder if ForumComm will take a look at GFH or Duluth NT.

That's the first thought I had.

[UND's DI review committee]

Any TeamMakers want to comment?

I'm not a TeamMaker but I think contributions to that organization has nearly doubled. Also, there is a considerable amount of donations that don't go through TeamMakers. It would probably be a little harder to get accurate numbers on how those contributions have changed.

[DI and NDSBoHE]

Presented by: Senator Clarence Kooistra

Proponents: Jim Marking, self, Brookings

Senator Frank Kloucek

Opponents: Tad Perry, SD Board of Regents

Representative Kent Juhnke

Kooistra has been extremely vocal in his disdain for SDSU's move to DI, and from the pieces I've seen him write to the Argus, is a little off his rocker. I think he also publishes a small left-wing newspaper that expounds on some of his more radical views.

[DI and NDSBoHE]

"NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Senate of the Seventy-ninth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the House of Representatives concurring therein, that the Legislature

encourages

the South Dakota Board of Regents to rescind its support of South Dakota State University's pursuit to move from National Collegiate Athletics Association Division II to Division I."

Wow, that's kind of interesting. Is this pretty recent, and by support do they mean financial or verbal.

[Football Attendance 2005]

Heard that back in 2002, but its still the same story. Has an architect been hired, yet? A decent basketball facility should have been the top priority in attracting conference interest, not the football meeting/locker rooms in the FargoDome. At least UND is getting the facilities upgraded before the move. Still don't understand what NDSU is going to do when their BSA is all torn up during a refurbishment: play and practice in the Fargo Civic or Bentsen Bunker fieldhouse? That would be embarrassing to showcase what will probably be NDSU's best ever men's team in two years.

Well, the expansion project did just get approved by the Board of Higher Education. I don't think that would have happened if the expansion plans weren't imminent. Also, I'm sure many bball games will be played in the Fargodome.

[Football Attendance 2005]

That is what I have been saying! We could take out one of the club lounges and continue the bowl seating around on that end of the rink. It could easily boost capacity up to 13-14,000. This would also allow us to sell more season tickets = more $$$!

If a NDSU grad says it, it must be right!!!

It's about time you guys catch on.

I'm really not uptight about it or anything. It just seems odd (at least to me) that UND would talk about expanding the Alerus right now. For the record, I would also find it odd if NDSU started talking about spending money to expand the Fargodome to accomodate 25,000.

[Football Attendance 2005]

I guess I don't see what you guys think you see in what I'm saying.

I'm not saying building a bigger stadium will automatically increase average attendance**. (Note the 70-75% of house going to 60% in a more seats house.)

I'm saying a bigger building might be useful for "peak" or "high interest" games.

And depending on how "bigger" is done, might it be useful on days other than gameday? Again, who yet knows?

** I'm far from saying it here (because I don't believe it would happen for football at UND), but there is a local case of "build bigger stadium means bigger average attendance": Ralph Engelstad Arena.

But how many fans would you get for a UND-UM hockey game? 16,000-18,000? Wisconsin could even have the potential of bringing 15,000 or so. So why not expand REA to accomodate that potential crowd?

[Football Attendance 2005]

Is that what I said? No, that's not what I said. Nice try however.

My inference was that 25% "excess capacity" in a facility the size of The Al may not be what they want any more. A quick peek at DI-AA numbers from this year show a lot of teams running at an average more like 60% of house. 10000-ish average in a 17000-ish house would be about 60% average (reasonable) and would hold big games.

Does that line of reasoning apply to all sports or just football?

[New Jersey / Dakotas Conference A Reality]

The NDSU bison fans seem to think this is a great option for them!

Really? Actually, Jfr, this is a conference in name only. It is more of a scheduling alliance. Games in Jan. and Feb. are hard to get for an independent because most teams are going through their conference, so this is simply a marriage of convenience. It will slowly dissolve as these teams get accepted into established conferences.

[UND's DI review committee]

How do you think this proposal affects any future UND plans?

[D-II vs. DI-AA level of play]

If I'm not mistaken didn't NDSU finish top twenty something in there first year of DIAA. I believe just a few months earlier they couldn't beat UND or St. Cloud and didn't even make the playoffs in DII. Remember, that was just a few months, yes a few months earlier.. At that point UND would certainly have done just as well as NDSU. It is very obvious that the gap to DIAA is not nearly wide as most all ndsu fans want us to believe. From what I've read here, most UND fans agree that DIAA football is better than DII. UND fans just say that the gap is relatively small. There certainly is not this wide gap that Bison fans want us to believe. Once again you Bison fans should go back to your website where you get away with that kind of dribble

And I seem to recall a 5-6 UND team in 2002 coming back a "few months" later to play in the DII championship game. Look at USD between 2003 and 2004. Believe it or not, teams can get alot better in one year.

[LETS MAKE A DECISION!]

As I stated earlier...I don't know much about all of this. Is there separate play-offs for DI-AA? Who have the previous good teams/champions been? Do they compete against traditional D-I teams and are eligible to play in the traditional bowl games? Does the average person know?

I-AA has their own playoffs, and no, I-AA teams do not participate in the I-A bowls. Many I-AA teams play a DI-A every year. Next year NDSU is playing at Ball State, and in 07 they will play the Gophers. Appalachian State won the national championship this year, and some of the traditionally strong programs include Montana, Delaware, Georgia Southern, Furman, and Appalachian State.