Hammersmith

In the comments section of a recent Forum article, a meteorologist from the NWS-GF office wrote some pretty detailed posts(on his own time/computer). He talked about how the USGS and the NWS feed data to the River Forecast Center(RFC) in Chanhassen, which runs the computer models and sends the results back to NWS-GF for public release. He also talked about what happened the week before the Fargo crest. Apparently, on Thursday(?) before the crest, the RFC-C was predicting 41 feet and was feeling pretty confident in the prediction. In a meeting early that afternoon, the NWS-GF presented that info to Walaker. Later that afternoon, the NWS headquarters in Washington got involved due to the national news coverage and pressed the RFC-C for the worst-case scenario, which was 42 feet with a possibility of 43. The headquarters then contacted NWS-GF and overruled the earlier prediction and instructed them to use the worst-case scenario from RFC-C. The headquarters even required the NWS-GF to send the press releases to them for approval before releasing them to the public and city leaders. This is what caused the forecast to rise to 43 feet just a few hours after the 41 foot prediction given to Walaker and the other city leaders(it's also the one that pissed Walaker off). The meteorologist then went on to say that it was his predictions of a warmer week that threw off the original prediction by 1/4-1/2 foot. The colder temps slowed the melt/runoff which lead to a 40.82 crest, rather than the 41 foot prediction. Regarding the upcoming crest, he said he's talked with the RFC-C and their computer models are "unusually confident" of a crest of over 38 feet. Though he didn't state it in the posts I read, I suspect the NWS headquarters is still forcing the GF office to release the worst-case scenarios, rather than what the models are actually predicting. I'm guessing a 38-39 foot second crest, with the possibility of 39-41 if we get significant precipitation in the basin. Unless some really bad things happen, I seriously doubt we'll see last week's record broken.

I thought I'd throw in this tidbit coming out of the Fargo media(WDAY & The Forum): MSUM exploring possibility of starting Division I hockey program

Here it is. Decent addition except for the date.

How easy it is to make assumptions when you already have a negative view of the target. http://www.canada.com/news/world/Recrimina...9580/story.html Yes, it's obvious that it's all that evil, UND-hating Walaker's fault, and that he and Fargo and those stupid Bisons should have easily funded a $2 billion project completely on their own without state or federal help and do it while leading everyone in a rousing chorus of "Happy Days Are Here Again". I know that very few of you have that attitude, but a few of you do, and it makes me sick. In a horrible sort of way, GF had it easy after 97. With their homes and businesses already destroyed by the flood waters, it was comparatively easy for the city to buy the properties from the owners to create the greenways and other space for dikes and floodwalls. In Fargo, the vast majority of the properties needed to do the same were still in great condition and the owners were reluctant to sell. Just use eminent domain, you say? Well, that's a mighty big stick to be swinging around and communities and voters start getting real nervous when dozens or hundreds(or thousands?) of separate cases of ED are talked about(and not the Bob Dole kind). Each property could result in a separate commission vote with a separate possible court case. That's one hell of a marathon to take on, especially with luke-warm support(at best) from the state and federal governments. Why don't we just ask for free energy and world peace while we're at it? Maybe this is just the cabin fever talking, but some of the passive-aggressive pot-shots taken at Fargo and Walaker have just been getting on my nerves. Between that, the news media trying to make people think Fargo is already half-destroyed and facing total collapse, and the DoHS trying to force an evacuation just so it looks like they're doing something, I've been a bit pissy the last couple days. On a less confrontational note, I think Walaker might be the perfect type of guy to push flood control through in Fargo. I think we all can agree that he will never be a successful politician at any level higher than mayor of Fargo. Can you see him trying to run for governor or US Congress? Other than the unintentional humor factor, I can't see any reason for him to even consider it. But on the local level, he's got a huge amount of clout right now to work with. I could see him being willing to force through a major flood control project even if he knew for a fact that it was complete and total political suicide. Heck, I think he's even said that he doesn't plan to run for reelection more than once(if that), and I believe him. Every once in a while, you get exactly the right person in the right place at the right time. I think we're in that situation right now. Now... How in the world did a thread about the Big Dance end up here? And really in just one page? That's some major drift going on.

The worst part was that they led by double digits around 10 minutes in(21-8), and then the refs decided to take control of the game and got 4 Jacks in foul trouble in just a couple minutes. It was horrible to listen to. Apparently the only thing worse than Summit refs are NCAA women's tourney refs. I feel horrible for the Jack women and AJ. Baylor played a great second half(so did the Jacks), but the calls in the first is what kept Baylor in it and didn't turn the game into a repeat of SDSU/TCU.

Do you mean that the garbage facility isn't making them fast enough, or some other shortage? If it's a production issue, things should start improving today/tonight. The third "octopus" machine(borrowed from GF) should have been set up a few hours ago, the facility should have been swamped with NDSU volunteers from late this morning(1500 were waiting for transportation earlier today), and the use of the portable flood walls should allow sandbags to be diverted from those areas to other places where they're needed more. Hopefully, production will improve greatly starting tonight and keeping it up through the weekend. Are we still at the point where we want the temperatures to drop at night so the snow melt slows, or is that now doing more harm than good(stiff/frozen sandbags make bad dikes)?

I'm pretty sure I'm correct about this: You can give a partial scholarship, but only if you are not a fully funded program. In women's basketball, you can give a maximum of 15 scholarships to a maximum of 15 student-athletes. If your program is giving out the 15 full-rides, then it's all or nothing. However, if your program only has the money for, say, 10 scholarships, then those 10 scholarships can be divided among 15 student-athletes. I've searched the sections of the NCAA Division I Manual that deal with scholarship limits, and I've never found anything that says the head-count sports must give full-rides or nothing at all. That all being said, most of the head-count sports do give out full-rides or nothing because the vast majority are fully funded. The head-count sports are FBS football, MBB, WBB, WVB, WGYM, & WTennis. The first three are almost always fully funded in DI, the fourth normally is, and the last two are not often talked about. It's easy to see how the "all or nothing" misinterpretation got started. (assuming I'm right)

Are Sioux fans going to be able to take in both if they want(and vice versa), or will the two games conflict?

Two years in a row that they've faced the defending national champs. Last time it was a 10-point loss to Florida. At least this one's got the letter curse going for us.* *Letter Curse: NDSU + M = Good; Kansas + B = Bad Minneapolis + Metrodome + Bison = NDSU win

Sorry, the autobid rule doesn't work that way. The six core institutions have to compete together for five years in conference play for the autobid. That's why the CAA was able to get the A10's football autobid. The CAA football schools had played together in the A10 for more than two years(rules are different for FCS football) before switching conferences as a group. For example, say six members of the Big East broke away and grabbed a member of the ACC. The BE would keep its autobid because there were still more than six members left. The new conference would also get an autobid because they too satisfy the requirements. The Big East is just about the only conference big enough to do this. The 12-team conferences can technically do it, but they would have to split perfectly down the middle and each add at least one new member. Since FBS requires 8 football playing schools in a conference, splitting most 12-team conferences while keeping the autobids would be a nightmare.

No, Grand Forks never had a chance. There was no way to build temporary dikes strong enough to hold the water back in Grand Forks. Fargo was right on the edge. It could have gone either way here. We got lucky; a foot or two of water more, and we would have lost large parts of the city. But both cities tried to stop the water. It was the right call in both cases and both cities did everything right. In Fargo's case, the battle was winnable. In GF's case, it was not.

New Orleans yes/no, SE Asia no. New Orleans had a system in place to stop the effects of the hurricane, but the people didn't stick around(rightfully so). The levee system failed in multiple points, but the general populous didn't try to stop the hurricane. There can't be failure(or success) if you're not trying to do something. The same goes for SE Asia or Northwood. In those cases, the natural event happened so quickly, there was no way to try to stop it(not that you could in any case). I hate the following phrase so much, I'm going to use it here. This is political correctness run amok. You can't use the correct(by definition) word for the event because it hurts someone's feelings. If the Sioux WBB team travels to UCONN and loses, are you upset if someone says they failed to win? Failure =/= something bad. It simply means you did not succeed in your attempt. Failing because you didn't give it your all is bad. Not learning lessons from your failure is bad. But trying your best for a worthy goal and failing because of a insurmountable obstacle is something to be celebrated. Being afraid to use the correct term for the situation sullies the efforts of those that fought for the city back then.

But it was a failure. The city tried to keep the water back, but couldn't. They failed in their efforts. It was a heroic failure. It was a Charge of the Light Brigade/Last Stand of the 300/Remember the Alamo failure, but still a failure. Noting that takes nothing away from the efforts of those who tried to save the city back in '97. I was on the lines in Fargo in '97, and it's frustrating that we're facing the same thing now, while Grand Forks and Wahpeton are sitting safely behind their flood walls. (and I grew up in Wahp and parents and friends still live there) What Walaker says is true, if mainly being said out of the same sort of frustration. Fargo waited patiently for our turn because city leaders realized that the state couldn't fund more than one major flood control project at a time. These projects are so expensive that funding must come from the city, state, AND the feds. Without the state's share, Fargo can't afford it. (Neither could GF or Wahp.) Most of the frustration is of the "nothing could be done/railing against the fates" type, but some of it comes from the thought that the state could have funded the three projects more quickly than they did. If that had happened, Fargo might have had flood control in place a year or two ago instead of two or three years in the future with a potential massive flood looming on the horizon.

A conference gets money from a particular tournament for six years. NDSU and the others agreed to get no money for three, the first of which was last year. Effectively, NDSU will get a two-thirds share of whatever happens in this year's tourney(four years out of six). If the choice is two-thirds or nothing, I'll take the two-thirds any day. Besides, unless the Bison manage to get one or more victories in the tourney, it would be wrong to think of this year's share as NDSU's; it's the Summit's share. The Summit is going to get that first share no matter who wins the conference tourney. Only shares that come from a win in the Dance can be attributed to a particular team(except in the case of at-large bids, which the Summit won't get for a long time, if ever).

We're discussing this on Bisonville right now. Because of the agreement we signed to get into the Summit, NDSU(and SDSU & IPFW) will not receive any part of the basketball pie for another two years(three years in total). We have started receiving money from the NCAA this year for the other payout programs, just not for basketball. Eventually, our share of the basketball payment will be around $125,000/year; more if us or another Summit team manages to eek out a win.

This is the only possible scenario where I could see NDSU & SDSU voting against UND and/or USD getting into the Summit. If there is currently a rule stating that if a certain number of conference members sponsor a sport, the conference must sponsor it, that rule would have to be amended to exclude football before the xDSUs and WIU would vote to include the UxDs. There is no way NDSU, SDSU & WIU will allow themselves to be dragged out of the MVFC.

Oh heck no! You keep him. We had to put up with several years of this crap. It's your turn. You know those weapons of mass destruction we couldn't find? Yep, been hiding here all along. Maybe in five or six years we'll consider taking him back. You can hold out for that long, right?

When Huggins took over at Kansas State, he really wanted to buy out the return game. One of his demands that finally got him to see it through was using officials he approved. I don't know if he approved them by name or just insisted they come from the Big 12 pool. It was a close-fought game and those refs probably were the difference. Oh well, it's not like we were eligible for anything back then. One thing to think about: Losing a home game seriously hurts your RPI. Conferences will be looking at that number to see if you will help or hurt the prestige of the conference. It's a tossup; schedule beatable teams at home that won't draw all that well to help your RPI, or try for high-majors at home to help attendance and excitement but take a big RPI knock when you lose. I could have put an if in the end of that last sentence, but you can't count on that when playing one of the big boys(or even one of the upper-middleweights).

We started at #2, but got bumped down to #3 in the next SportsCenter. I was so sad. Watching the replay right now on ESPNU in between snow shoveling.

That's funny. Rep points to you if the board had them.

Coach Sampaio resigned today. UND swimming coach resigns

Matchups released: First Round - Saturday USD vs. Seattle - 1pm UND vs. HBU - 5pm Second Round - Sunday Consolation game - 1pm Championship game - 5pm

Matchups released: First Round - Saturday Seattle vs. SIUE - 3pm UND vs. USD - 7pm Second Round - Sunday Consolation game - 3pm Championship game - 7pm

Adding a thought: Scheduling Big Ten/MAC schools results in easier trips for your fans. That can raise interest in your program which leads to higher attendance, better season ticket sales, and more donations. Money games in far off locations give you money once, money games close to home can give you money twice. Choose winnable FBS games(Minnesota/Wyoming/Iowa State/Ball State/Central Michigan) and you've got a chance for the Daily Double. I'm pretty sure this is NDSU's FBS scheduling philosophy. I like it, but what works for us may or may not work best for you.

Tiny clarification: With a one-game lead going into tonight's game, NDSU has already claimed a share of the regular season crown. The game tonight will determine if NDSU wins it outright or shares it with ORU. More importantly, the game will determine who gets the top seed in the conference tournament and who will likely have to face both Oakland AND the winner of tonight's game in the tourney. I was leaning toward an ORU victory tonight, but the last minute change the Summit made to take the tiebreaker away from NDSU makes me think the Bison will be out for blood. Regardless, it should be a great game with two fairly evenly matched teams and over 9,000 in attendance.