MplsBison

Sued for taking three teams? Come on....

Is UND football still housed in the memorial stadium grand stand? Or did they move operations to the Alerus?

Maybe the students are delinquent in getting certain forms filled out that the banks need first before they send the tuition payment into NDSU? I don't know..and I'm not really that interested in it. It's a very small issue and it doesn't deserve the attention it's getting, like a lot of things covered by the media.

What part about students borrowing money from banks to pay their tuition payments confuses you? If the banks haven't sent those tuition payments to NDSU yet, then it would appear as a budget shortfall. Why don't we wait until all the money is in before jumping to conclusions?

Right. Yet another minor issue is way overblown in order to sell media. That's what they have to do these days to survive...rile people up to get attention.

In the long run they'll be fine. I can't see this being the cause of a major downturn in the university.

I'm not arguing that it is fiscally prudent. I'm arguing that it's a non-issue, that it will be corrected and that having a major research program will benefit NDSU in the long run far more than the short run cost of 1.8 million.

How are you in a position to quantify what the benefit of attracting those grad students to the university is? 1.8 million may be peanuts in the long run. Once NDSU's research spending hits the $200 million mark, we'll let you know.

It's what has to be done to attract grad students to NDSU. You do realize how cold and windy it is in Fargo, right? And that NDSU is not yet a major recognized graduate program to international students, like the U of Minn and U of Wisc are, right? I'm not saying any debt is excusable if it's used to attract grad students. They will address the issue and correct it. But once again, like with Chapman's house, this very minor non-issue is being blown WAY out of scope here by a few because they want to pretend that it somehow tarnishes NDSU. I just don't get such petty, bitter bickering behavior.

I've already told you the importantence: expanding the grad programs and research. You have to have (good) grad students to make it work. And, as sad as it may be, most US grad students these days come from the Asian continent. Do you realize how many Chinese and Indian students come to the U of Minn every year? That's what you have to do if you want to spend hundreds of millions on research...the white, American undergrads want their 4-year degrees and then they want jobs.

What football facility improvements has UND stated a need for and completed since the start of the transition...period? None. Because you guys already had top-notch facilities at the end of your DII run. You don't really need anything else right now. Indoor facility is icing on the cake. It's nice to have, but other successful programs (UNI, Montana, CAA schools) don't even have those. NDSU, on the other hand, had fairly bad facilities at the end of their DII run, save the Fargodome. Everything else (including the BSA) was pretty bad. They have done a major improvement with the Fargodome football facilities and the new turf. A dedicated indoor facility and a new weight room would be nice and with bball upgrades and a new arena.

What do those things have to do with it? If they display a specific ability that the university finds valuable, then a tuition waiver may very well be in order.

3066 waivers could mean 2000 students have 25% waivers, 533 have 50% waivers and 533 have 100% waivers. In other words, one "waver" represents one student with some percentage of his/her tuition waived. One waiver does not represent 100% of tuition being waived.

First of all...why the need for that comment? Second of all...which facility upgrades related to football have we stated a need for but have yet to complete? New facility in the Fargodome and new turf at Dacotah are done.

If NDSU and UND are going to join their peers at the U of MN, Wisc, etc. and have competing graduate/research programs, then they can't have it both ways. There aren't enough Ph.D to go 'round if they've got to be in the classroom 20 hrs/week! We need those guys in the labs. Having a Ph.D teaching algebra and english 110 is not going to fly anymore.

It would be wrong to assume that 3066 waivers means 3066 students had 100% of their tuition waived.

That number could be a bit misleading. A lot of times a university will grant a tuition waiver to a graduate student IF he works for the university (say as a research or teaching assistant), say 20 hr/week for a full tuition waver, 10 hr/week for 50% waiver. So it's not like the university is just giving tuition away for nothing. If you want to grow your graduate program and your research, which NDSU does, then you've got to have grad students. And a lot of times grad students, especially good ones, are going to want some kind of financial help.

So what was all this stuff about Nov 2010 that everyone and their mother on this site has been so vocal about? Or is it that agreement has to be had by Feb 2010 and that the name has to be retired by Nov 2010?

98% is pretty specific...so I'm assuming you have some sort of poll or something to back that up, right?

When UND makes the NCAA tournament using the Summit auto bid and plays a first round game against a big name bball school in Mpls, then you'll understand. Giving up a legitimate, auto-bid conference so the hockey team can keep the nickname is not worth it, IMO. It's a selfish attitude and people who believe that need to grow up!

Depends on what kind of mouths are coming to the party. If USC, Florida and Texas wanted to join the Big Ten, I think they would make it work.

The Schools in the Great West will not stay in the conference that long. And the NCAA does not automatically have to grant the GW an auto-bid.

The benefit is money, as always. Potentially, adding 3 vs. 1 would allow the various contracts (TV, merchandise, whatever) to grow by such an amount that each school would get more money that they are currently getting. I have no idea if that would actually happen, but you never know. Who ever thought that conferences would grow to be 12 members before they did?

They shouldn't get to deny the rest of the sports a conference just for a nickname. How ridiculous.

If the Big Ten could get 3 teams, would they consider going to 14? Minnesota Wisconsin Iowa Illinois Northwestern Notre Dame Indiana Purdue Michigan Michigan State Ohio State Pitt Penn State Rutgers