NDSU grad

Guys, you're falling for the 1234 trap. Pretty soon you'll be discussing current farm policy and the trajectory of the Hail Mary pass, amongst other mindless topics.

Sic, do you know if the numbers for Eastern Washington were for Joe Albi Stadium or Woodward (sp). I think they've been playing in Spokane for a while while they were renovating their stadium in Cheney. I really don't know the capacities for either one.

Men's tennis.

On your last point, I'm pretty sure the BSC could not play a championship game. Even if it would work logistically, there is really no point to it. The BSC would almost certainly have multiple bids to the playoffs, so nothing would be decided by having a championship game. And I highly doubt there would be a large revenue stream produced with a I-AA conference championship game. If played at a neutral site, it would probably garner enough revenue to offset travel expenses for the schools involved.

The Ralph is irrelevant as a hockey facility, as a bball facility that's another story. Based on your list I'd say it's a tossup. I think both schools need an indoor facility for football (wait until you get 1234 started on this). I really don't know what you mean by the "athletic atmosphere" UND is creating, although I will grant you that both our men's and women's (NDSU's) bball schedules suck, but should be much better next year. In any case, the next few months will be very entertainig. Key dates: January 10th; whenever the Big Sky announces their expansion (or lack thereof) plans By the way, how many of you think that success at the two schools is a zero sum game? Not a rhetorical question, seriously asking. Myself, I really don't know.

I really think that it's in the semantics. I'm 99% positvie that NDSU got 6 points for the loss to Davis last year, even though they were not from a qualifying conference and not eligible for the playoffs. I think it's like RD17 said, if the I-AA school plays at a level above DII, then they count as if they were from a qualifying conference. Some of that stuff the NCAA puts out can be pretty hard to interpret.

I think ND was admitted into the union before SD (even though it was on the same day), so we should get to put our quarter out first, right?

Definitely, although I think there is a better chance in womens' bball to advance farther in the tournament than on the mens' side. SMS made it to the final 4 twice in the 90's (the last one may have been 2000, but I think you get my point). Also, teams like Old Dominon and Louisiana Tech are consisitently pretty good. At any rate, first the Bison have to get into a conference, be competitive in that conference, and then worry about national prominence (if it ever happens). If Amy Ruley can recruit well during the transition period and we're in a conference, I see no reason why the women won't be competing for a tournament in their first year of eligibility.

There's no way you're making it to downtown Minneapolis in an hour unless you're traveling at 2 in the morning/ I've come through the cities about three times in the last month and the fastest I've made it through (I-35 "splitoff" to 494/94 intersection) is about 1 hour and 15 minutes. They've got to get the construction on 494 done. Now, back on topic, can St. Cloud's stadium be expanded easily. It seems like with the layout if they do have overflow there would be plenty of nice standing room.

Alot of Bison fans raised a stink about charging for the internet, but I didn't mind at all. It was horrible last year, buffering about every five minutes and reaching server capacity so you couldn't log on at all. I've only listened to the Valpo game this year but in three quarters of listening it buffered only once, so it seems like they actually did spend money in upgrading the server. I've never seen dataflix, but from reading the posts it sounds pretty worthless, is that correct?

Try telling somebody from Idaho that Idaho State is the flagship university in that state. I guess the SUNY's must be better schools than Cornell by the same reasoning.

I really don't think it was meant to be a comprehensive list of all public flagship universities. Oregon State, the University of Idaho, and the University of Utah were not on the list. They would have to be considered flagship universities (I would think) in their respective states.

Thanks for the wonderful insight . Massey's not a poll, it's a rating system, and I'm just curious as to how it's computed with any sort of precision.

What I've never understood is how people say they use statistics to figure out these ratings. How can you gain any precision in these ratings when the games aren't replicated? Perhaps I know just enough about statistics to ask really stupid questions, I don't know.

If UND said tomorrow they're moving up, they would have to give the NCC 18 months "notice", correct? I guess that means that next year could be the transition year, and 2006 would be the first year as DI?

At most places the school owns the coach's football show. This is actually pretty normal. I really don't know why this is a big deal

Let's say Montana is playing the SU's. They fly to Fargo, play a game, and stay overnight. The next day they bus to Brookings (I don't think the Big Sky plays games on consecutive days so they might have to stay in Brookings), and the day after they play SDSU. Bus to Sioux Falls and fly home. Now let's say they're playing Northern Arizona/Weber St. Fly to Phoenix, bus to Flagstaff, play a game, probably stay overnight in Flagstaff. The next day they fly to Salt Lake City (pretty far to drive), bus to Ogden, stay overnight. The next day they play, bus back to Salt Lake City and fly home. So really, a trip out "east" is in the long run probably easier (certainly not more difficult) than some of the current trips they already make. Also, traditionally NDSU (and probably most of the NCC schools) have had greater attendance figures for conference games than non-conference games. The same may be true of the Big Sky. It's just another thing to consider. The main point I'm trying to get across is there's alot more involved than just miles, and I'm sure these points are what our AD will stress when talking to Big Sky officials.

92, 96, I definitely think NDSU needs a new facility, no argument there. Sicatoka, you've finally figured out; geopgraphy as it relates to cost and travel time. I think you'll find costs and travel time would not be much different for the four schools involved. Especially since only the SU's offer a travel partner package.

The "conference average" rule went away on 08/01/04 when the new 15000 average went into effect. The rule in place now does allow use of a "neutral" field for one game a year by a school and calling it a home game for attendance counting purposes (ala Wyoming playing Tennessee in Nashville and counting it as a home game for attendance). PS - In 2003, Montana averaged over 19000. Everyone else in the BSC was under 10000. BSC #2 in attendance Montana State averaged 48 more fans per home game than North Dakota. (Data from the NCAA stats site.) We're talking a 50% increase in attendence for almost the whole league to be DI-A.

I don't really think we need a detailed analysis of the latitude and longitude of the four schools to know that NDSU and SDSU are farther away from the Big Sky schools than SUU and UNC. As Bisonguy stated, that is one of many criteria. I'm not saying the SU's are a lock for the Big Sky, but it does look brighter than just a few months ago.

I don't usually do this but I have to give that post a WTF. And just for good measure,