UND92,96

It was nice to see that Jacobson finally had something of a breakout game, scoring 18 in last night's win at Augie. Also, Stoute has had three strong performances in a row. With his combination of size, strength and athletic ability, it sounds like he is just starting to scratch the surface of his potential. It's easy to see why the coaches wanted to red-shirt him. The fact that he's apparently improved this much in a short period of time shows what an extra year might have done for him. Fortunately, he will still have next season to give the Sioux hopefully a pretty lethal three-person rotation at the 4 and 5 positions, along with Lindahl and Ryp.

It looks like Freund has committed to UND, according to this link. He is a great get, and I believe he was UND's number one quarterback target. Hopefully this bodes well in the recruitment of Heckendorf, as well. The link also confirms Rohde's commitment. Freund is 6'1", 190. He was named first team all-state in Wisconsin by the A.P., and second team by the Journal Sentinel. He threw for 3438 yards and 40 td's as a senior, and ran for 5 td's. An opposing coach had this to say about him:

UND's last two home crowds of 2002 were 8786 and 7328. If memory serves me correctly, NDSU's last two were both in the 6600 range.

Yes, womens hockey was going to happen anyway due to Title IX and the threats of a lawsuit. But I firmly believe that the added hockey revenue due to REA makes it a lot less painful than it would otherwise have been. Bottom line: where do you think all this REA money ends up? If the contract is as one-sided as you are apparently saying, why did UND sign off on it? Something here doesn't add up.

There is no debt to pay back from the construction of REA. Ralph's $100 million-plus built it. As for the new facility, my understanding is that the profits from REA will pay for it over time. The state had to O.K. its construction, and I think it's safe to say that they would never have given permission unless it was clear that the money would be there, and that nothing would have to come from the state.

I'm not trying to argue with you. I'll be the first to admit that I have no inside information regarding the finances of either REA or the UND athletic department. Whether or not you do, again I don't know. As for womens hockey costs being picked by the FSC, we're both essentially saying the same thing. Most people give money to the FSC to get hockey tickets. The fact that REA seats 11,500 allows far more hockey tickets to be sold than at the old Ralph. However one wants to phrase it, the fact that REA exists is the only reason womens hockey can exist at UND without some serious cuts to other sports. Maybe those cuts will eventually happen anyway, but they probably would have happened already but for the existence of REA.

Maybe I'm naive, but I believe that all profits that REA realizes go towards the direct benefit of the athletic department one way or another. The key word there is "profits." Certainly, the running of the arena creates significant costs, as well, and those presumably are paid for in large part through ticket sales, concessions, etc. But at least two things lead me to believe that UND has, indeed, benefited financially by the REA to a large extent. First, the addition of womens hockey. This is a sport which has significant costs, yet which produces practically no revenue. Despite the apparent hardship this should mean to the athletic department, no mens non-revenue-producing sports have been cut, nor are there any cuts on the horizon as far as I know. I think this speaks volumes. Secondly is the construction of the basketball/volleyball facility. If UND athletics does, indeed, operate at a loss of roughly $400,000, then of course it would seem to be virtually impossible to construct this facility with no state money at all. Yet, that seems to be the case. Again, this is apparently possible due only to the profits turned by REA.

From today's Herald:

I would say that's probably about right. It's hard to know exactly how many of the average of 10,700 people (average hockey attendance this year) are non-students, but if we conservatively estimate 7500, and a season ticket price of $345.00 (not including the FSC fee), that's about $2.6 million right there. Concessions at REA have got to bring in huge $$$, as well. I would think anywhere from $3 million to $5 million is realistic.

UND hockey generates more revenue through ticket sales and concessions than all NDSU sports combined. Evidently somebody must care.

I found this in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel regarding Mike Rohde:

I don't believe anybody is trying to say that hockey is more popular than basketball in the United States. Obviously, that's not the case. The point, in my opinion, is that no matter what NCAA division UND is in, or NDSU is in for that matter, college basketball in the state of North Dakota will never approach the attendance levels or national success that UND has enjoyed in hockey. And I say that despite the fact that I am far more of a basketball fan than a hockey fan. We're talking about an average of somewhere between 10,500 and 11,500 per game for approximately a 22-game home schedule. To put it in perspective, UND's hockey average per-game attendance would put it approximately 35th in the country in basketball attendance. That's ahead of schools like Michigan, Duke, UCLA, Purdue, Florida and countless others. Sure, that has a lot to do with the size of the venues, but who cares? Hockey is a cash cow at UND, and regardless of whether you are interested in it, or whether it's as popular as basketball on a national level, it is a huge asset for UND. Any school would be quite happy to have a sport which allows it to sell something in excess of 230,000 tickets per year at roughly $20 a pop in a world-class arena which was gifted to it, and which allows it to play several nationally known schools every year.

I don't disagree with you. My comments regarding St. Cloud's quarterback situation were more in reference to the fact that they really haven't brought in a blue-chip qb prospect since Keith Heckendorf back in 1999. I still wonder to this day how heavily recruited he was coming out of high school since that was in the midst of a terrible period for SCSU football and you have to wonder whether he'd have gone there had he had many other offers. For all I know, perhaps he would have gone there anyway, it just seems like they probably weren't in a position to be winning many recruiting battles back then considering the lack of success, facilities, fan support, media coverage, etc.

Not that it's any surprise since several posters had already shared this information, but the Herald confirmed today that both Ross Brennan and Carney are back:

I also have heard that UNC isn't interested in the Big Sky, which further supports my opinion that their administration is out of their collective minds. Any school that goes division I despite poor attendance overall and a horrible basketball program in a horrible facility, and then thumbs their noses at the ONLY conference that makes any geographic sense for them, has to be nuts.

I'm almost positive that Danny Freund is UND's number one quarterback target. There was an article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel last fall in which he stated that UND, among others, was talking to him. His father is his high school coach, also. Freund was named first team all-state by the A.P. and sounds a lot like Keith Heckendorf in terms of size, mobility and production. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he and Kole Heckendorf end up at the same school, which would probably narrow it down to us and St. Cloud. The main strike against UND would be the opportunity to play sooner at St. Cloud since I believe their quarterback situation is pretty unsettled. Also, St. Cloud is obviously closer to home for those guys. Of course, UND has one or two things going for it, also. If we could land both of those guys, along with the players already committed and the ten or so others who are likely to sign, this could be one of the better classes I can remember, at least on paper.

A brief summary of the verbal commitments: Weston Dressler Bismarck, 5'7", 150 lbs., rb/wr/returns, 2139 yards rushing, 405 yards receiving and 40 td's as a senior; all state. Jake Caufield Minot, 6'2", 190 lbs., wr, 1074 yards and 9 td's as a senior; all state. Rory Manke Detroit Lakes, 6'1", 195 lbs., qr/wr/db, 1011 yards rushing and 16 td's, 1160 yards passing and 10 td's as a senior; 62 career td's; 12 career int's; 2nd team A.P. all-state as a quarterback; Fargo Forum player of the year. Mike Rohde D.C. Everest of Schofield, WI, 5'8", 178 lbs., rb, 883 yards rushing and 12 td's as a senior despite missing much of the season with an injury; 2nd team all-state by both A.P. and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; team won state title in Wisconsin's largest class and he was named player of the game. Reece Henrickson Stephen-Argyle, 5'11", 185 lbs., rb/wr/returns, 966 yards rushing and 18 td's; 800 yards receiving and 13 td's as a senior; 2nd team A.P. all-state as a returner. Mike Yilek Eden Prairie, 6'3", 265, ol, all-metro and 2nd team all-state by Pioneer Press; also excellent wrestler. Erik Moe International Falls, 6'4", 265 lbs., ol, 4th in discus at MN state track meet in 2003.

Those are the ones that I'm aware of so far. I suspect there are probably more we don't know about yet.

Pat Sweeney just confirmed that Rory Manke has committed to UND! Great news! Also, Reese Hendrickson of state MN 9-man champion Stephen-Argyle has committed. He was a second team A.P. all-state selection (all classes combined) as a returner, and was a good running back and defensive back also. Erik Moe, a 6'4", 260 pound offensive lineman from International Falls also committed.

That would be a fun series. I still remember when TAMUK (then Texas A & I) came to Grand Forks back in 1986, led by Johnny Bailey. UND was at the start of a rebuilding process back then and TAMUK won handily, although it was an entertaining game with something like 110 points scored. I will be interested to see the NCC schedule next year. According to the UND media guide, UNO comes here again next year. However, according the UNO site, we go there. I am assuming the schedule for all NCC teams will have three home and three road games. I'm pretty sure we'll be going to St. Cloud and Augie. I'm also pretty sure USD and Mankato will be coming here. The questions are Omaha and UMD. I'm hoping we get Omaha at home again, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the other way around.

huskies679- How much of an impact do you think this will have on SCSU football attendance? It seems that low attendance has plagued the Huskies for a long time--even during the past couple of years when you guys have been good. The thing that drives me crazy about St. Cloud is the fact that there doesn't seem to be any local network tv stations, which means that when you watch the local sportscast, there are no NCC scores given. Everything is out of the cities. My sister lives in St. Cloud and whenever I visit, I have to wait for the morning paper to find out who won any of the NCC games. It's really frustrating.

According to allcanadagridiron.com, Mike Stadnyk is visiting Boise St. this weekend.

I agree. I half expected to see USD ranked too despite their long NCC losing streak which now stands at nine. Has Boots lost it? They returned virtually their entire team and were picked high in the national polls, but they are really struggling. If the NCAA hadn't gifted King another semester of eligibility, they would be even worse.

Eight teams make the regional. No more bye's in the first round for the top two seeds.