MplsBison

All practicality set aside - on a purely philosophical basis, combusting fossil fuels like natural gas is not the best way to fuel our power plants and cars. Fusion is the grail on the power plant side and not sure what will be the grail on the car side, but for sure it will be electric propulsion based (just a matter of what will store the charge: battery, fuel cell, other?). Back in reality, I'm sorry to say that fossil fuels are the best thing we have -- for now. The most important short-term goal has got to be the US's energy independence. If domestic natural gas from shale can get us there, then I'm onboard. But there's absolutely not reason not to have government oversight and regulation to make sure it's properly harvested.

I've recently seen the award winning documentary "Gasland" and am convinced that we need install tight regulation and oversight on companies trying to harvest natural gas from these shale formations. Naive question: is there any way to harvest these shale bounties without fracking?

What are the odds that Carlson will convince the NCAA executives that UND should continue to use the nickname with just one tribe's approval?

Wrongs of the past are no excuse to commit wrongs in the future.

Wrongs of the past are no excuse to commit wrongs in the future. No lacrosse at UND or NDSU until it's a ND high school sport. That's my $0.02.

University of North Dakota, right? Not until it's offered to ND high school students.

You didn't know that playoff games are bid out by the NCAA? Unless you're one of the top 4 seeded teams in the playoffs (in which case you automatically host), the rest of the games are bid on by the rest of the pool. The schools that bid the most get to host. I believe first round pairs are then chosen based on geography of the hosts and non-hosts. Something like that.

Unless you're seeded, NDSU will outbid you every time for the game. We have more seats and thus more revenue to offer the NCAA.

There won't be a real rivalry again until the teams are in the same conference. Playing every two or three years is not going to cut it. As a simple matter of logistics, I would think that NDSU and UND are destined to be in the same conference. Although, there are plenty of examples of dual flagship states where each is in a different conference (Iowa comes to mind). Hopefully that isn't the case. I'd rather see ND like Michigan.

It's nice that they have a document that details their "wish list". I'm sure any school could make a nice plan for $100+ million in facilities. Getting the Dykhouse facility built is a huge step for them - that's a top level facility for the FCS level. If they can get their indoor practice facility done, that will be huge as well.

Both sets of updates are badly needed. SD's flagship U's badly lag behind ND's. I don't think the SDSU stadium would be new...really just a renovation of CAS. That and the indoor facility have already been drawn up.

Maybe this will work? http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Choice+Financial+&hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=47.874404,-97.045305&spn=0.009298,0.022724&z=16

Reality is...even if you could somehow convince the majority of ND people that this was a sound, reasonable idea...there are too many vested interests and people with power who will be against it. UND and NDSU are powerful, separate entities within the state of ND. You might as well be proposing that the ND house and senate combine into a single entity. It really is the same thing, IMO. It just doesn't matter if you're right or wrong...it won't be allowed to happen. You're not even fighting a losing battle...you plain have no army to begin with.

Youngstown State is building something similar for $11.4 million to what UND proposed: http://www.youtube.com/user/ysusports#p/c/DBECC50AF7C7E7C3/5/YNmsurl4NAE I do like the 300m track surrounding an almost full 120 yard football field (track clips the corners) facility. Penn State and Akron already have them as well.

I for one vote that when UND joins the Summit League, star2 is banned from attending or watching UND's Summit League games. He hates the Summit League so badly for their phantom transgressions that he created from thin air, it shouldn't be a problem!

Tough to imagine 100+ (or however many FCS schools there are) moving to FBS or DII/DIII. How else could FCS "fail"? If anything, they'll just lower scholarship maximums and try to reduce travel as much as possible, to save money.

I didn't think the letter was real, but ODay admitted it was in that link from what I read. I made the point on AGS and it's probably even more valid now that the letter is genuine: FCS football is just DII football with more scholarships. FBS is where the money is. Hopefully it doesn't take NDSU (and UND) another 30 years to follow their peers up to the next level. Ideally, we should be where Utah State is by now.

The only expansion that needs to be going on at NDUS institutions is the expansion of research, partnerships with ND businesses and spin-off companies. That's where the value is.

Sure. But you're the exception. Bringing in 10k additional high school kids a year from Minn, Wisc and other exchange states is not going to result in 10k new ND residents a year. Even 1% of that would be great but probably not reality. New research projects and the spin-off companies that come from those projects are the best thing the state can get from the schools. My $0.02

Yeah that sounds nice...but it also sounds expensive and a long...long way off. I'd almost rather have the indoor facility sooner rather than wait for all those bells and whistles in 15 years.. And there are a few schools that have the 300m/indoor football field thing. Off the top of my head I know Akron built one and Youngstown St is building one or has built one. That's about NDSU's level, I think. When I think of a separate, dedicated indoor football practice field type of building I mostly think of BCS schools or bigger schools. That would be great if NDSU could eventually get one, but like I say it sounds like a long way off...

Too bad we couldn't get enough to build a true indoor practice facility (the ones that have a 300m track with an almost full sized football field in the middle). At $3 million, it will be just enough for a structure and a 200m oval, probably not even banked. In other words, just taking what's in the BSA already and moving it to an out-building. And all that to lose the tennis courts, which are used by the students (not by the athletic dept).

IMO, the answer is no. NDSU and UND are more than aptly serving the mission of educating those ND high school students that want a 4 year or advanced degree. At this point, further expansion of undergraduate enrollment serves only to use ND tax dollars to educate more students from Minn, Wisc. and other state's students from the student exchange programs. It's not particularly helpful as those students just return to their home states anyway. The much better purpose, IMO, is the expansion of the graduate programs and research activities, including partnerships with private companies in ND to conduct research and spin-off companies from research projects. That's the biggest benefit by far to the state. Undergrad students just help pay the bills.I'd rather see the state kick in more dollars than force the schools to expand undergrad size in order to fund research growth.

Someone start a counter-proposal to combine all Mayville, Valley city, Dickenson and Minot into a single school. That would save far more money.

Ah. Now I get it. This whole charade is nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek retort from the small schools to the never ending calls for the NDUS's smallest universities to be closed and resources re-allocated to the research universities, NDSU and UND. Instead, your "how do you like it!" idea on saving money is to combine NDSU and UND to reduce costs. That's cute. Guess what? Too bad. The money and the power in the NDUS is in the red river valley and always will be. If I had it my way, there wouldn't be a single bachelor's degree awarded from any NDUS school, except NDSU and UND. That's how it should be, like Wyoming except two flagships instead of one. Parents from all corners of Minnesota send their kids to be educated at the U of Minnesota in Minneapolis, because that's the state's flagship campus. That's where you go if you want the highest class of post secondary education the state can offer. Same in North Dakota.

Minot, Dickenson, Valley City and Mayville would fight it to the bitter end. They'll play the BS "the big schools are picking on us poor, rural ND" and "the big city ND leaders out east don't care about the small town ND people anymore!" cards. They'll make it a really ugly, PR nightmare. Truth is that even if that's what's best for the system and for the state...they don't care. They don't want to give up anything that they have now. It would take a politician sacrificing his career in order to get this done, and no one wants to do that.