UND92,96

I might actually have some sympathy for Manitoba if this were primarily a matter of passing on a flood from one area to another. But based upon what I've read, the volume of water really isn't their beef. Rather, it's some hypothetical threat based upon foreign biota and how that would supposedly affect Lake Winnipeg. Never mind that there seems to be little, if any scientific evidence to back this theory up. If this were, in fact, an issue with the volume of water being transferred from Devils Lake into the Sheyenne, it would seem that we in Grand Forks should be more up in arms than anybody considering what happened in 1997. And yet, there seems to be practically no vocal opposition whatsoever from this part of the state. What little empathy I had for Manitoba's position evaporated once star2city posted the link regarding raw sewage being dumped into the Red in Manitoba. Talk about having mixed-up priorities. Thank God the Red flows north or we would have a heck of a lot more of a legitimate concern compared to what Manitoba currently has.

According to a poster on the minnesotapreps.com message board, Bledsoe will be attending UND. Of course, I can't vouch for this, but hopefully it's true.

star2city: What is the maximum number of schools you would foresee being in the Big Sky at any given time? Would USD be a candidate for a dI move and potential Big Sky membership? I suspect there would be a lot of pressure for them to move if they were the last of the big four Dakota schools to remain in the NCC and dII. For that matter, would UNO ever consider seeking to remain with its traditional NCC rivals in a Big Sky eastern division instead of remaining dII and going to the MIAA, or going dI and trying to get into the Missouri Valley/Gateway conferences?

I had heard through the grapevine that a dI transfer running back was coming, but I didn't know his identity until the Herald article. Had UND signed Brady out of high school in the spring of 2004, it would have been a huge coup as he was definitely one of the top backs in Minnesota. The Sioux may finally have the combination of size and speed that has been lacking at the running back position for quite some time. From what I've heard, Mussman is very excited about this kid's potential.

This column from the Yankton paper says that Winona St., Concordia-St. Paul and St. Thomas have been contacted regarding possible NCC membership, and "haven't said no."

Should they expect it? Probably not since it's not newsworthy 99.99% of the time. The point remains, however, that it can be done, and if one is a high enough profile person, perhaps it would be. Probably not, unless Joseph Chapman or somebody else who would make it newsworthy applied. I'm not condoning this type of thing, but I'll reiterate my point that since Kupchella has been burned before, he should have been more careful with exactly what he wrote. He wasn't. We'll have to see what, if any consequences there will be.

I agree that he should have known the letter might become public. And let's not forget his letter to UND football alums that was obtained by the Forum via open records laws. Kupchella clearly never expected that to be publicized, either. I don't begrudge him for applying for other jobs, but in the process he really shouldn't put anything in writing that he wouldn't be comfortable with if it were printed in the Herald, Forum, etc.

Sure there would be a lot of fans and alums who would be uncomfortable being in the same division as the soon-to-be-former DAC-10. But it's not like those schools are going to be in the NCC. Every division has its members who don't belong, division I included. I think it would be a mistake to focus in on schools joining or potentially joining dII and who really aren't our peers anyway, instead of focusing on how great it is playing the schools that ARE our peers, like UNO, St. Cloud St., USD, Grand Valley St., Pitt St., etc. I don't think anybody would be disappointed with Winona St. joining the NCC, if it ever happens. Concordia-St. Paul has potential. Northern St. has potential. And even if we can't find any other all-sports members, I'd still rather be in a strong seven-team league in dII than go dI and have no conference at all.

I'm afraid you've lost me, Sic. I don't know what Morningside supporters think. I don't know what Augie supporters think (except for the two who have posted on the d2football.com board who apparently want to stay in the NCC), although I have a hard time believing a majority would support a move away from a conference in which they've been a member for over 60 years if the primary reason is the ability to win a few more football games per year (again, I can only speculate as to what role football would play in such a move). I freely admit that I don't want them to leave the NCC for purely selfish reasons. I want UND to remain in dII and the NCC, and I'm not sure that will be possible if more members are lost considering how difficult it's turning out to be to find new ones.

From a competitive standpoint, they've actually done quite well since leaving for NAIA link. To this day, I still don't entirely understand their motives for leaving aside from the fact that they were very poor in football. They were very good in men's basketball, and apparently their women's basketball program is far better now than it used to be. If you could simply eliminate football from the equation, I'd love to see them back in the NCC, although admittedly that's highly unlikely to ever happen.

Rob Bollinger named new associate a.d. at UND! link I'd say that's a great choice by Mr. Buning on his first hire, and many thanks to Rob for again showing his tremendous loyalty to UND.

I am surprised UNO apparently has a larger budget than UND considering UNO offers four fewer sports.

I would think that living in EGF (or Crookston, or Fisher, or Warren...) has its good and bad points. You can buy property for less, but you also sell it for less. You pay lower property taxes, but you're also constantly dealing with under-funded public schools which seems to mean yearly staff and program cuts in a lot of local Minnesota school districts. Which is the better situation is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.

Thanks for the info. He would be a big pickup, particularly this late. I know he's played AAU ball for Howard Pulley in the past, and one of the Pulley coaches is none other than Bo Powell which should help UND's cause.

Somebody on the minnesotapreps.com board posted that Minneapolis DeLaSalle point guard Travis Bledoe is visiting UND in the near future. Bledsoe was a finalist for MN Mr. Basketball this past season. Has anybody heard whether this is true or whether UND is even still recruiting for next year?

I am involved in the real estate business in GF, and I honestly don't see the base's realignment as having a huge effect on property values in GF. In Grand Forks itself there aren't a lot of active Air Force personnel who own property, and most people live on base. It's a little tougher to predict what will happen with the civilians who will lose their jobs, but probably a lot of them will be able to find another job locally depending on what field they're in. I would have been afraid of losing many of the retired Air Force personnel had the base closed, since presumably they no longer would have had easy access to medical care, etc. that they currently have by virtue of the base being here, and therefore may have been more likely to move. Certainly losing the number of people that has been speculated is going to hurt the overall economy (particularly in places like Emerado and Larimore), and I would expect sales tax numbers to take a big hit once the realignment commences, but it could have been worse. I certainly wouldn't want to be a business owner or even property owner in or near Rapid City these days.

I certainly can't vouch for the accuracy of this, but the number I heard in terms of new personnel should GFAFB get the Global Hawk mission is roughly 800-900. I guess I would assume that that would be subtracted from the roughly 2200 who would be transferring as a result of losing the tankers.

I guess I've never followed the logic of that argument when tony has used it in the past, and I don't follow it now. The last cut was, if I'm not mistaken, over a decade ago. That was a completely different era for UND football. For one thing, UND was not a national power, or at best was only just beginning to become a perennial playoff contender, and frankly I don't even know if we were fully-funded. A cut from 40-something to 36 probably didn't seem like that big of a deal at the time. Now, UND is one of the top programs in dII football, easily funds the maximum of 36, and would be tremendously harmed by a cut of anywhere close to the magnitude proposed last year. I fail to see how not moving to dI in response to a football scholarship cut in the early 90's--or whenever the last cut was--means that a program like UND has to just shut up and take whatever is dished out in terms of scholarship cuts in the future. I've been pretty vocal in my opinion that I don't feel like going dI without a conference for the majority of sports makes sense. However, a football scholarship cut--particularly one as large as the one just proposed--is the one thing that would make me change my mind.

My understanding is that only the past ten years were considered in making the determination as to which school had the best overall athletic program. As far as Fargo South is concerned, you certainly could make a case for them, as well as Bismarck High. However, just as Red River has its weak sports, most notably football, South has its shortcomings, as well, particularly in girls' sports. Plus, an argument could be made that South should win even more titles than it does considering its huge enrollment. I couldn't find a link for overall enrollments, but this would suggest than South's male enrollment is nearly double that of either Grand Forks Central or Red River.