UND92,96

Minnesota averaged just under 1400 per game last year. I would assume that's close to the highest, if it's not actually the highest average attendance ever. There's no question that women's hockey has a ways to go before it gets to the level where it could possibly be self-sufficient, but it will probably gain in popularity in those parts of the country where men's hockey is very popular.

According to the latest NCAA dII stats, UND is ranked in the top-5 in both total defense and scoring defense. That's pretty good, especially considering UND has already played arguably the two top offenses on its schedule--Delta St. and SCSU. With the running game doing quite well, if Belmore can get his completion percentage up to a consistent level of about 55%, or if Bowenkamp can come back at something approaching 100%, this team can still do some damage. I'm certainly not predicting a national title, but for anybody who wants to write off the Sioux due to one loss, keep in mind that 9 of the last 13 national champions had at least one regular season loss, obviously including UND in 2001, as well as Grand Valley State last season.

I certainly agree that despite the loss, there were some very encouraging signs for the Sioux. Holding Birkel to under 4 yards per carry is pretty good, and especially the fact that he was almost completely negated in the second half. Also, holding Kaczor to 11-26 passing for a relatively modest 176 yards was also a good effort by the defense. Regardless of many yards the Ferris back had last week, I'd still bet anything that Birkel is the best back the Sioux will face this year by far. I would look for the UND defense to give up less than 100 yards on the ground this week, and win the game by a score of about 24-7.

You will note that I said "IF THE SIOUX RUN THE TABLE," not "WHEN THE SIOUX RUN THE TABLE." What is your problem, anyway? I don't see how you can have so little regard for a program that has accomplished what UND has over the past 10-11 years.

There have been very few games between the top-5 teams in the GLIAC, so within the next few weeks we will start to see them knock each other off. In fact, with Grand Valley State having to go to Saginaw Valley (who already has one loss), it's quite conceivable that no team will get through the league unbeaten. As for Winona St., their one more possible loss will be this week at surprising Bemidji State. Even if Winona loses, they will still have a chance to make the playoffs, but it would likely be as a result of "earned access." Bemidji could run the table and still not get in due to their extremely low SSI as a result of having played two dIII/NAIA opponents. If the Sioux can run the table, they could still get a decent seed, but obviously the margin for error is now essentially zero. There are at least three games for UND that could result in pretty big power points--Ferris St., USD and UNO.

They don't need to care about the sport of hockey itself since obviously that is not and will never be a part of the Big Sky, but they do probably care about the facility (REA) that hockey shares with basketball at least on a part-time basis, the revenue stream that hockey produces that puts UND on pretty sound financial ground (ticket sales alone in the neighborhood of $2.5 million per year), and at least conceivably the national recognition UND has garnered due to its hockey success. One can argue exactly how much the second and third points would help UND, but they certainly won't hurt their cause.

Not that this really has anything to do with the game, but it really seems that St. Cloud has hit the jackpot with some qb/rb/wr recruits who weren't necessarily highly sought-after. It appears that Birkel was an almost complete unknown coming out of high school in Wisconsin. Keith Heckendorf wasn't necessarily an unknown, but neither was he a huge name, either. I don't think the current quarterback, Kaczor, was recruited by any other NCC schools. What's ironic is that when they did sign a kid who UND and nearly everybody else was after, wide receiver Kyle Gearman from Alexandria, he transferred to St. John's after one year in the SCSU program! Despite their seemingly advantageous location, it really seems like St. Cloud is winning with players who may have been overlooked rather than guys who they were able to sign because of their proximity to the Twin Cities.

I've always thought McFeely just disliked everything and everyone. Or at least that's the persona he seems to enjoy cultivating. Geography would seem to dictate that the BSC is really the only viable option at this time. SDSU may be ahead of UND in the process, but having added just two scholarships for football thus far pretty much negates that advantage. Is that really a horse that NDSU wants to hitch its cart to? It would certainly seem that SDSU's move to I-AA football looks suspiciously like certain schools who have moved to dII and then kept their funding at the same level they were in NAIA. As Kolpack said or at least implied in his column today, the Big Sky is a football-first league. As between UND and SDSU, I think we all can agree who would appear more attractive to a conference that puts a high priority on football.

Wow, I'm glad I didn't say anything along the lines of "Bob Eblen is an idiot." Seriously, how would you rate St. Cloud's defense? It would seem that the only legit offense they've played may be Western Washington, who may not really be any better than Central Washington judging by their game last week. And while the Western Washington-SCSU game wasn't ever close, Western did do some damage offensively.

Kolpack has a column on the Big Sky today, in which UND is mentioned as having had discussions with the conference, and that UNC and SDSU have some work to do to get close the the Big Sky unofficial football scholarship minimum of 60. link

Only she can probably answer that. It's possible that she just grew up more of a UND fan. I think UND has been recruiting her from the start and perhaps NDSU got in later and she basically told them that she's either going to a dI school in a major conference, or she's going to UND. It's anyone's guess.

I think one of the big differences between the situations is that when NDSU announced their move, we all kind of knew that dII football scholarships would be cut at some point, but we really didn't know exactly when or to what extent. One school of thought was that it makes sense to stay in dII as long as possible because it would allow for at least the possibility of another title, something that presumably will be tougher in I-AA. I'm not saying that this school of thought is necessarily definitely right or definitely wrong, but it makes a certain amount of sense depending on your point of view. Now, with the football scholarship cut highly likely to occur within the next 3-4 months, it makes a potential move to dI/I-AA more pressing and arguably an easier sell to the public. It may not make a difference to a faculty member who doesn't care for or understand athletics, but for many of us who do, it certainly makes the decision easier to make.

I can't deny that Iowa St. draws well, plays in a very good conference, and did very well during the glory days of Taylor, Welle, et al. But over the past two years, Iowa St. is a combined 30 wins, 31 losses. To me, that's mediocre. It obviously remains to be seen whether they can regain their form from 3 or 4 years ago, or whether their success was based on hitting the jackpot with a few recruits who were overlooked by some of the traditional powers. For example, if Minnesota had had a decent coach back then, they would have been all over Taylor and Welle. That could have entirely changed the fortunes of Iowa St.

It looks like the d2football.com NW Region columnist has jumped off the UND bandwagon after last week's game. He dropped the Sioux from 1 to 3 in his unofficial regional power poll, predicted that Birkel can run against the Sioux defense, and that without Bowenkamp the Sioux can't throw well enough to win. If you're interested, read the entire column here.

Obviously the Sioux defense needs to keep Birkel under control. Two years ago, against a Sioux defense nowhere near what it is now, he ran wild. Last year, before he got hurt, he only had 37 yards on 10 carries. He reminds me a little of Josh Ranek. I think the run probably sets up the pass for them because I'm not convinced that their quarterback can win games like Heckendorf did. If the run isn't successful and the pressure falls on Kaczor (the quarterback) to carry the offense, I think he'll struggle. What I'm encouraged about is that the last time UND played outside on grass against a team with a pretty high-powered offense was Grand Valley State in the championship game and we only gave up 10 points and under 300 yards. I think this year's UND defense is at least as good, and probably better than last year's, so clearly we have a chance to hold them under 20 points. If Belmore can play somewhat effectively and not throw picks, I think the Sioux have a pretty good chance.

It's too big for most basketball games since it seats about 12,000, but as for whether it's any good for basketball, the NCAA must have been pretty impressed since the men's Elite 8 is there this year.

At least for track, the BSA is adequate. When I ran track in high school, and I believe it's still the case, we had three meets per year there, including the EDC and the unofficial state indoor. We didn't run at all at Hyslop after my junior year, and it has been many, many years since a college meet has been held there. In short, Hyslop is a terribly inadequate indoor track. I think that NDSU's track success compared to UND is a combination of UND having essentially no indoor track compared to an adequate one at NDSU, and NDSU likely spending a lot more money on their programs compared to UND. Until UND has an indoor track, it's probably pointless to consider offering the maximum number of scholarships, at least on the men's side.

Lennon and Bowenkamp were interviewed in a segment on the WDAZ sports last night. It definitely sounded like Bowenkamp would not play. He said something about having aggravated the injury last week by trying to come back too soon. I'm starting to wonder if he'll return at all. I did think it was interesting that Lennon specifically also mentioned Manke's name. We'll probably know a little more after Lennon's radio show tonight, but I wouldn't be surprised if Belmore has a fairly short leash if he struggles early on Saturday. Perhaps the backup quarterback will the hero for the second year in a row against St. Cloud.

SDSU has a good basketball program by dII standards, but in case you haven't been paying attention lately that success hasn't translated into post-season success in recent years. In terms of overall accomplishments as a basketball program, UND and SDSU are very comparable. UND and SDSU both have 8 region titles (men's). NDSU has none. In terms of the women's programs, SDSU won one title, but are well behind UND and NDSU in that regard and in conference titles. In terms of hockey, it's significant due to the revenue stream in produces and the fact that basketball is also played at REA so the arena itself would likely be very interesting to a potential conference.

A reference? No. Just that the theory is not necessarily limited to a few people on this board. Why do you seem so threatened by the fact that perhaps it's possible to seek and obtain a conference affiliation BEFORE moving to dI, just as Carr recommended? Between Harmeson's quotes in McFeely's column and RT's comments in the Dakota Student article, you don't have to read too far between the lines to see what may be going on behind the scenes.

I guess I don't see how what I wrote can be construed as a slam at SDSU. Among the schools mentioned as interested in the Big Sky, plus UND if they have also expressed interest, I just think it's not a stretch to speculate that UND and NDSU would be the two top choices. That doesn't mean SDSU wouldn't get in as well, if three schools were added, but if you think that SDSU would get in OVER UND, I would vehemently disagree.