Hammersmith

Did you actually read the thread? Half of it was discussing someone's technical problems with the Herald's website, and most of the rest was commiserating that any program is one slip away from that kind of news. I think I only counted two, maybe three, posts that could truly be considered "piling on", and even those were jokes about other areas that used B. Kelley's situation as a tie in(Mr. Burgandy's post).

Jackson is a JUCO that started with the team this last year. The upcoming season will be his final year of eligibility. Effectively, Bohl has suspended him for about 20% of his remaining career. Agree or disagree with Bohl's choice, suspending him for the season would've been the same as kicking him off the team permanently.

Just trying to close off the thread... NDSU football: Backup QB Jackson suspended two games after pleading guilty to marijuana possession

Two year period.

Oh, come on. 1. NDSU women are having a relatively down year with only 7 scholarship players healthy to play + 2. SDSU women are ranked 18th or 22nd in the nation depending on which poll you use + 3. NDSU men were playing Wisconsin-Milwaukee in an ESPNU BracketBuster game at the same time = Expected blowout with hardcore Bison fans staying home to listen to the men's game Perhaps you guys should start supporting your men's team more. Take away the doubleheaders where your women boost the attendance, and your men drew slightly less than our women and our men drew 3 times as many. (UND men sans dh: 1163; NDSU women: 1229 with one game left; NDSU men: 3596) I don't really mean that first sentence(though the second one is true), but sultan trying to suggest that Force games, or the lack thereof, are a major factor in NDSU attendance is just ludicrous.

Pardon me for going into teacher mode, but the Fargodome and hockey is an often misunderstood fact. During the planning stages, it was clear that the most profitable events for the Fargodome were to be large concerts, followed by large trade shows and big football games, and finishing with small concerts, small events and hockey. The target for the Fargodome was to be 100 event-days per year, with as many of those days filled with the first and second categories of events as possible. Hockey was included in the discussion as part public relations and part last resort. When the dome opened, it was managing 115+ event-days per year without hockey. Even at today's 95-100 event-days per year, hockey would be a net money loser for the dome. The time and labor it would take to set up and tear down the ice, and the small crowds any regular hockey would bring, means that the dome is better off bringing in small concerts and trade shows or even leaving the dome empty. Each management company that has operated the dome has run the numbers and they all come out the same: hockey would cost more money than it would bring in. On top of that, the designers of the Fargodome made a pretty bad mistake in regards to hockey. While they installed all the needed piping under the floor, and plumbed and wired locations for compressors, they screwed up on the floor itself. If you are going to have ice, you need somewhere for the ice to go. That means a depression in the floor. They forgot that. The Fargodome floor is flat and there is no lip around the perimeter. To install ice, they would need to erect a temporary barrier around the rink every time, or dig out the area and reconfigure that half of the dome's floor. The first option is cheap up front, but would be costly in labor over the long run. The second option is costly to begin with, but would be much faster and cheaper down the road. Either way, the costs would be $1-3 million up front(this was investigated back around 2000 when NDSU was considering hockey and the city was considering a separate hockey arena). There is a slight possibility that regular hockey will come to the Fargodome in the future, but it depends on two events. First, the basketball addition must be constructed to take some events away from the main floor. The goal of that plan is to increase the number of event-days of the new complex to around 150 combined, while only increasing the operating costs by something like 15-25%. By pulling the small concerts, small trade shows, and basketball events into the arena, it would free up enough days for hockey. The second major requirement would be a hockey program that outgrows the UP Center. Whether that program is the Force(doubtful) or NDSU hockey, an average attendance of 7,000+ would be enough to make an overall profit. Regardless, we're years(decades?) away from these scenarios playing out. One last thing: NDSU hockey requires three events to succeed. An arena, a conference, and the financial resources to compete with the UNDs and Gophers of the hockey world. Those three things have never aligned. When NDSU had the money(just before the DI move), there was no arena or conference. At the moment, there might be a conference and there is an arena, but NDSU is still working through the DI upgrade and doesn't have the excess money to start up a competitive program. By the time NDSU has the money ready, the conference possibilities will have likely closed. I don't have anything against NDSU hockey, per se, but it can't come at the expense of the health of the entire athletic department.

Assumption: The endowment scholarships were created by the individual(s) named. The memorial scholarships were created by others in honor of a deceased individual.

Obama chooses UND's Mary Wakefield as Health Resources and Services Administration leader Congrats to the good doctor.

Won't happen for the primary reason that we need the home game as much as you do. We both have four home games and six away games scheduled. Neither school will agree to seven away games, so... stalemate.

The 2008-09 manual doesn't show anything coming up next year, and that sort of thing would have to be planned several years in advance to give students time to alter their schedules(last year's changes were approved in 2003). I think all the changes planned for the time being happened last year(+1 math, +2 foreign language or other core classes).

Correct. He can use the training facilities and get instruction from the strength and conditioning coaches, but he can't participate in practices or work with the basketball staff. (I'm assuming my info is correct about the type of ineligible he is, but I'm pretty confident in it.)

He's a nonqualifier this year. He got caught by surprise by the change in DI entrance requirements and didn't have some of the credits he needed(probably bad advising by a school counselor). If he's keeping up with his studies(which he most likely is) he should be a full member of the team this fall.

Stuff that didn't make it into the above article: (from "The City Beat" - Tran's blog) Nickname vote coming up? Part 2

Full committee and chairman named. Chairman: Grant Shaft, State Board of Higher Ed, attorney, former state legislator Committee: Ryan Bernstein, Hoeven

I assume the Northern Iowa times 2 is a typo?

You're okay either way. With an 11-game schedule, you need 6 of them to be DI(>50%); you have 8 as of now. I think NDSU and UND are both courting Sac State. Morgan State is probably the fall-back position for both. I don't know if Wanless is a plus or minus for UND, but NDSU can probably offer more money for the game if it comes to that.

Well, HB1507 went down in flames. The final tally was 90-3 against. This means it falls into the small category of bills that ended with fewer yes votes than sponsors. Rep. Scot Kelsh from Fargo co-sponsored the bill but voted against it. The only other yes votes came from the other three sponsors; all from Grand Forks.

I could have gotten InSU mixed up with WIU, but so what? InSU is conference game; it's not going anywhere. The only games UND could have replaced last year were CCSU & Austin Peay at 18,701 and 18,868. All this fuss over a couple hundred more seats filled(but no additional tickets sold) for one game? Face it, adding UND to NDSU's schedule at this point would be a financial wash unless the ticket price for that game is raised. You tried this same trick(bringing up the worst attended game) with SUU back when we were in the GWFC. It didn't work then and it doesn't now. There are valid reasons for NDSU renewing the rivalry, but increased ticket sales is not one of them.

No kidding. There would be a political and media feeding frenzy down here if that were to be brought up. I don't know what Mpls has against the UP. Sure it's a distance from campus, but it's the perfect size for the first several years of DI hockey(not going to happen, but if it were) and it's designed principally for hockey. I guess he just doesn't understand that combo BB/hockey facilities under 10,000 seats just don't work. You either end up with a facility that's good for one and crappy for the other, or a facility that's lousy for both. Even the REA at 11,000 isn't a great BB facility; it works, but it's not a first choice. The NBA/NHL arenas work because of their size. The best combo college facility I can think of is Wisconsin's Kohl Center and it's much bigger(X+) than anything NDSU would need and they also dumped a ton of money into it to make it good for both(hydraulically adjustable lower stands). Adding ice capabilities to the FD Arena project is one of the dumbest things Mpls has latched onto so far in 2009.

NDSU sold out every game last year(meaning every ticket was sold, though not necessarily redeemed). The only times the attendance dropped below the official sellout numbers were when the students didn't show. Other than concessions(most of which goes to the Fargodome), the student section doesn't add anything to the bottom line. As far as TV coverage goes, all but one home game has been televised during each of the past two seasons. Adding UND to the schedule doesn't mean another game would be televised, it just means it would replace one of the other televised home games. There would be no net change. Now, UND, SDSU & USD are all in different situations. SDSU is the school that could benefit most from renewing its rivalry with USD as long as the game is held late in the season. The Jacks draw great crowds early in the season, so a USD game there wouldn't help much, but their attendance drops off sharply after Hobo Day. If they could alternate between NDSU and USD as their final home game, it would give them a really nice boost. UND is drawing reasonably close to the Alerus' capacity, so an NDSU game would help, but not be earth shaking. It's hard to tell how much effect an SDSU game would help USD, since they've been padding their figures worse than NDSU in the 70's and 80's. It would probably have an effect somewhere between SDSU's and UND's. This opinion is limited to ticket sales and does not take into account any of the other factors, pro or con. As for the rest of his post, it's become standard practice for Mpls to accuse posters of lying and telling them to shut up when they provide facts and reasoned opinions that he disagrees with. It's quite sad, and it's made him a joke on every messageboard he posts on.

That was bisonguy that had my back. I don't understand why Mpls would even question it; he's participated in dozens of threads on multiple sites where that section of the selection manual was posted. The seven-win requirement/instruction is brought up(either directly or indirectly) every year on AGS(since it was enacted) in at least a hundred different threads. What was he trying to accomplish by challenging it? He had to know better. (I need the ?? smiley from BV; the one here just doesn't cut it.)

Up to 5 non-DI teams in an 11-game schedule or 4 in a 10-game schedule. You might be confusing it with basketball, which only allows two non-DI games as part of the regular season. As for playoff eligibility(I know it doesn't matter), there's a very hard suggestion to the selection committee to only consider teams with seven DI wins. This only applies to at-large selections, not the autobid winners. Theoretically, you could have a 3-8 or 3-9 team in the playoffs(depending on the year).

If (and this is an if so large it blots out the sun) NDSU were to add hockey in the near future, it would start by putting a couple million into the Fargo Colosseum to make it an adequate DI practice facility, play games there for one or two years until the program gets on its feet, and then move the games down to the Urban Plains Arena(practices still at the Colosseum). NDSU would also probably pay a modest chunk of money to the UPC to help get the four sheets of practice ice finished as stated in the original UP proposal. If attendance were to ever push the UP's capacity(say in 7-10 years), then NDSU and the city would invest a couple million into the north end of the Fargodome to allow for quick ice turnarounds. That would give NDSU hockey a possible 10,000-12,000 attendance in the long term and have all the facilities on or near campus. All put together, that's like a 5% chance of a 5% chance of a 5% chance. In other words, not bloody likely. What's even less likely? The Fargodome arena ending up with ice capabilities. All that being said, I think this would be a terrible time for NDSU to add hockey. It's taken the best team in NDSU men's basketball history and a chance at March Madness to start getting our fanbase thinking football/basketball rather than just football. Throwing hockey into the mix before that attitude can set could be disastrous to the long term health of the men's basketball program. Personally, I don't see NDSU ready for hockey until we exceed 16,000 enrollment, sellout almost every MBB game, and have a reasonable waiting list(>500-1000) for season tickets. None of that will happen for at least 7-10 years. I'm not even sure it could happen while NDSU is part of the Summit; I think we'd have to be in a better basketball conference(like the Valley) before adding hockey wouldn't hurt the MBB program to any significant degree.

They did something drastic to the heating this year. In the past, the BSA was an icebox on cold winter nights. Apparently the thermostat has two settings: 1 and 11. (Either that. or they installed some new air handlers or something.) MBB will probably average between 3300-3500 this season. A renovated BSA with new seating would add an immediate 500-1000 to that, and a new facility would add 1000-1500. It would be nice if the numbers were growing faster on their own, but it takes a long time to change the culture of a fanbase. Once the change gets going, however, it snowballs into capacity crowds(or sellouts at least) very quickly. I think this season has been the tipping point. Unless we absolutely flop without the fab-four, the attendance growth should continue as NDSU completes its transition from a football school to a football/basketball school.

D'oh. I never though to look at the M/W breakdown of sports, just the total number. At the FCS level, you need a minimum of 14 sports; either 7 men's / 7 women's or 6 men's / 8 women's. NAU currently has 6 men's teams and 9 women's.