[USD and Augustana to DI highly likely]

At least UND has a budget, according to SDSU fans USD doesn't have a real athletic budget. I guess we just pool together our pocket change to pay the bus driver before we go to road games.

Why have I heard two completely different stories regarding proposed conferences for our grand institutions. The SU's fans are adiment that the MidCon is closed for expansion, yet I hear other news from that conference that further expansion into the Dakotas interests them. Wonder what that is all about?

Seems USD's budget is nearly $3M less than SDSU and getting larger every year. Maybe that is why SDSU fans don't think you have a real budget. UND going DI is one thing. USD is a joke with no hope.

[Fullerton Still Talking Big Sky Expansion]

So will this stipend be in cash, securities, treasuries, or real estate?

Yes, CU and CSU BB are both after thoughts in Colorado as is DU hockey and all other DU sports. That wasn't the point. The point was that no one cares about UND in Colorado and to make a statement that the Big Sky wants UND based on a perceived big hockey rivalry is silly speculation. Again, the Big Sky could care less about UND hockey and will not be expanding east and until Montana decides to move up. When Montana moves up the Big Sky will look to expand out west based on the needs of the Western schools and they won't be looking to either North or South Dakota.

[Fullerton Still Talking Big Sky Expansion]

As a Denver fan, there are lots of permuations here that we need to kind of wait and see where the chips fall.

From DU's perspective, they want out of the Sun Belt, but only if the alternative adds value. DU would love to be in the WCC with other western private schools that are all similar sized, but the WCC said no due to distance - even with DU willing to pay its way in.

Right now, the Big Sky as t is currently arranged has little more interest in Denver than the Sun Belt does. Many Big Sky schools already play Denver in men's hoops, and the crowds for them are the same as they are for Sun Belt schools - high school sized (1,200 -2,500 on average). UNC is the only school with any interest to Denver fans, but it is a marginal interest at best.

But if UND joins the Big Sky, it would hold more alot interest for Denver, and if UND and UBC join the Bg Sky, Denver would be all over it, IMHO.

Not to be too harsh, but Denver hockey (and DU sports in general) is nothing more than an after thought along the Front Range. I would gauge the interest somewhere above Wyoming athletics (football excluded) and below John Elway's son starting at Cherry Creek. The idea that a DU, UND hockey rivalry will get UND into the Big Sky and that this rivalry will increase BB crowds is laughable. The only way DU gets their BB crowds above the high school attendance level is by somehow getting into the West Coast or even better the MWC with AF, CSU and Wyoming. UND needs to hope and pray they can get in the Mid Con for all sports but FB which they can play in the Great West.