NDSU grad

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

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

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.

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. 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.

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?

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.

That's the first thought I had.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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.

"UND recruits". You got to be kidding me. Well, both of those statements are simply lies. I guess the only "local" people on Bohl's staff are Bradley, Laqua, Wash, Vigen, and Essler. I also think it's pretty clear Bohl and Co. have made a commitment to recruit locally. Well, you're out of luck because chances are these kids will do just fine. Kyle Steffes is one of the top 15 or so RB's in I-AA. The best of the best of the local recruits will excel in I-AA.

IMO the only program you would be "sacrificing" is women's basketball. Not trying to be smacky, but the only people I have heard that from is Sioux fans. DI- AA is a higher level that DII, plain and simple. How much higher can be debated. Men's basketball is the sport that has the most to gain. Whether it makes sense or not, local players seem to not want to be associated with the DII tag. There is no way NDSU would have the recruiting classes the last two year if we still DII. We maybe would have gotten one or two out of the nine that did commit.

That argument could be made in basketball, but these football recruits will be eligible for the playoffs when they are sophomores (assuming they redshirt). And of course, NDSU will be competitive in the I-AA football playoffs, as would UND.

Let's see if I can get this right. Grayshirt refers to a guy out of high school that may be on the borderline of being a "star" DI recruit. I think generally they don't enroll at the college of their choice the fall semester. They enroll in the spring and pay their own way, and of course participate in spring football. The next fall they are given a full scholarship. Somebody correct me if I screwed that up.

I think it's a list of schools that have either moved up to I-AA in the last 20 years or so or have added football in that same time frame.

I'm winging this, but I think I'm close. About 120 D-IA football teams, about 120 I-AA football teams, about 150 DII football teams. Hockey, don't really know. I believe there are 334 teams in men's and women's bball competing at the DI level.

I was thinking the same thing. The Gophers and Sioux didn't worry me, but now that Mayville is in the picture I guess the Bison can kiss him good-bye.