Yote 53

Over the course of this season I have been to the Ralph, Mariucci, Compton Family Arena, and Lawson Arena on the WMU campus in Kalamazoo. My first thoughts on entering the arena at WMU was that it had that old time hockey feel to it, that this would make a great Junior hockey arena. Then I saw all the school logos hanging up and the NCHC banner. At that point it hit me that WMU was in the NCHC. How could that be possible? No way this hockey program with this dumpy arena is in the NCHC. My other take away from being there is that in order to start a D1 program it does not take a Taj Mahal of a facility. A 3,000 to 5,000 seat hockey barn will work for D1 hockey. Not all programs are the same and there are probably more D1 programs that play in hockey barns than in state of the art facilities like UND. I imagine The Den at USD having an ice rink and that venue, as a hockey venue, would vault right to the top 1/4 of D1 hockey facilities in the country. No ability to make ice there, done by design, so the issue never arises.

When I was in high school I played on a Midwest All-Star team that went to national type showcase tournaments. On weekends we would get together for practices and would scrimmage the ISU club team. We played a game against them at Hilton Coliseum circa 1990 or 1991. I was recruited to go to ISU and play club hockey, a lot of guys I knew did go there to play. The fact a bunch of high school kids were playing against and hanging with a college club team was enough to turn me off on the idea, just wasn't the level of hockey I aspired to. Back then the internets did not exist and there was literally zero idea of what the pathway would be to college hockey when you grew up in Iowa. I had the opportunity to play juniors but that idea was foreign enough to me that I opted to go to USD for football instead. Long way of saying I played a game at Hilton back when it had ice.

Since Hollywood has run out of good movie ideas I should head west and pitch them the movie idea I have. It's a hockey movie and the best way to describe it is part All the Right Moves wrapped up in the world of junior hockey while defining a parent's love for their kid using the sport as a backdrop. There will be love and loss and the main character's navigation through the hockey world will reflect their personal growth and what is important in life. It would be a throwback movie set in the 80's because I couldn't possibly have the setting be current day what with hockey mom's driving their luxury SUV's and drinking Starbuck's, spending the day harassing the youth hockey board about how little Timmy should be on the AA team and running the power play. I want a movie that has some grit and some real obstacles in life to overcome. I'm thinking a guy like Alec Baldwin would be perfect to play the old prick of a hockey coach and I'd be willing to go to the casting couch with Jennifer Aniston to secure her in the role of the struggling hockey mom doing everything she can to keep the household running.

So, let's get back to talking about schools that have serious money and can afford D1 hockey programs. The biggest hurdle for any school adding a hockey program is an arena, that hurdle is being overcome in Iowa City. No matter how many times the Iowa AD says that Iowa has no intention of adding hockey, I don't believe him. Illinois is studying it. Nebraska has long been rumored. Iowa is a natural fit with those schools and now will have an arena for it. Smack dab in the middle of USHL country and just to the south of MN and WI, and just west of Chicago. Right in the middle of fertile recruiting grounds even if Iowa itself is not a hotbed of recruits. http://daily-iowan.com/2017/10/02/coralville-moves-forward-with-new-iowa-arena-project/

Barstool Sports put up the video. USD had nothing to do with it. Still, it's tongue-in-cheek. We can laugh a little.

Bantams? I've heard speeches like that before. In fact, I've heard the exact same "puppet" phrase before. People have no idea the things that get said in a locker room. Do they actually think it's all "cheerio and go get 'em sport"?

That was not us, but we have been up in GF 5 times over the past couple of years for hockey games, tournaments, camps. Regular enough I know the town pretty well now!

No. We have not. Watch them on Midco all the time though.

I hope he does too. I would be thrilled.

I was in Grand Forks over the weekend for my kid's hockey. Went to Red Pepper for the first time ever for a grinder. Excellent. Wished I would have went there in my previous numerous trips to GF. On Sunday we got some subs from Fat Albert's before heading out of town. Love the Atomic from Fat Albert's, always try to hit that place when we are in town.

You realize that's a penalty. Should have been 15 yards and a game ejection for making contact with the head. Strev was sliding and gave himself up on the play. Jeez. But like the Energizer Bunny Strev popped up and kept going & going. Austin Simmons is the backup and last year I thought he was actually better than Strev. So I think the team would be in good hands if Strev went down.

You been to Illinois? They charge you drive on the roads there. Had to get me an I-Pass cause I got tired of having to pull over to the cash section of the toll booth. The roads are about the only thing that is paid for in that state.

I've seen more UA stuff in hockey recently. Hockey socks, hockey apparel, etc. No protective equipment or anything like that, but that's not their business either, they are more apparel.

Football drives the bus on conference re-alignment at the FBS level. At the FCS level it is basketball and the NCAA tournament access that drives re-alignment. The Summit and MVC or the Summit and BSC or the Summit and WAC are not going to merge because that would result in the loss of an autobid to the NCAA BB tournament. The Summit is going to become one of two things, a strong conference with the Dakota 4 as the backbone leading the conference, or a group of cast-offs that limps along with the Dakota 4 stuck in the middle of the crapfest. I don't see the Summit surviving without the Dakota 4.

SDSU fans are very protective of their "precious", the SLT in Sioux Falls. Fact is if we could ever manage to put together a conference with the Montanas, etc. the SLT in SF would be gone on an annual basis. It would either become a rotating tournament or we would have to settle on one central destination, hence my suggestion of Rapid City. The Rushmore Plaza can hold 10,000, it would serve just fine as a tournament home.

One could say that right now the process of trimming the fat is happening. Take the 4 Dakotas and Denver (Summit) and join them with the Montanas, Idaho, EWU, and one more (UNC?) and it would be the perfect conference. Then the debate will be where to hold the Summit League Tournament. Sioux Falls will be seen as too favorable to SDSU and USD, but it would still get tremendous support. Simple answer is to move it a little further west and make it more centrally located. Rapid City would make a great host city and provide a lot of other entertainment options too. Now that we have this all figured out for Douple, etc. it's up to them to make it happen.

On sale to Howling Pack members only. General public sales are still a couple of weeks out. Not sure how many tickets will be left for general sale because I heard HP members were buying chunks of seats up.

Not now, but eventually, yeah, that should probably happen.

Perusing this thread. From an outsider's perspective, whatever new name you chose was going to receive resistance, however, choosing something as stale and generic as "Hawks" was like adding fuel to the fire. I don't think this debate would still be raging the way it is and people would have opened up more to the new nickname if the original key attributes for choosing the new nickname were followed: Representative of state/region Honor past/look to future Promote pride, strength, fierceness, passion Sense of community/connectedness Intimidation to competitors Unique, recognizable, distinctly UND The administration started with these attributes and ended up with a generic "Fighting Hawks". How does that happen? The name does none of those things. Perhaps if the nickname met the original criteria there would be more acceptance. My advice, save whatever money you were going to spend on any major marketing campaign to promote and sell the new logo and start over, pick something new. After people see how bad it CAN get...Fighting Hawks...they will be much more receptive to something else.

That's why they get paid the big bucks. If a bunch of keyboard jockeys on some message boards can put together an outline for conference realignment that makes sense, I wonder how they cannot see this picture as well. We don't even have the major complications of having to deal with million/billion dollar TV contracts or Grant-of-Rights or any of those trickier legal contract hurdles.

Honestly, I think our futures lay to the west. I just don't see how there is any other way. The first phase was getting the Dakota 4 together to stabilize our relationships and also to show other conferences/schools just how committed we all are to athletics, show them the rivalries and the atmospheres that are created when our teams get together. Look at the Summit League Tournament in Sioux Falls, look at the great crowds at our football games. Now the second phase will begin. Some would say that we could create the NCC 2.0 at the D1 level. Problem is to do that we need more schools, and Mankato, Augie, etc. aren't moving up. So maybe UNC joins us along with WIU. Problem is what is in it for UNC, they've got a good setup in the BSC. Besides, we'd need more than just WIU and UNC, 6 isn't enough. The MVC side of the MVFC is not going to join up with us for an all sports conference, or ever let us in the MVC, so forget about that. So what are the remaining options? I believe it is with the Montanas, EWU, and Idaho. The reason is that conference with those schools, the Dakotas, and DU would instantly be the best FCS conference in the country and a high major conference in basketball. The schools share the same ideals. It's just a good fit. But what would make those Sky schools want to do such a thing? Well, I see the current BSC as having become diluted with some weaker schools. It's not the same BSC as when Boise State and Nevada were there. Joining with the Dakota 4 would hit the reset button on that for the Montanas, etc. One of 2 things is going to happen, NCC 2.0 or the Big North Conference.

He didn't say that. He said what every AD at every other school in the conference would say. He said they are a good fit for their current conferences but have to mindful of the ever changing landscape. That's a fair assessment. The only AD's in the country who can say they are rock solid with where they are at and will never leave are those AD's in the Big Ten and SEC. For everybody else, money talks, and you can never say never.

You serious? Had to be looking for an excuse to break them off. Pretty severe penalty for circumstantial evidence.

Key phrase from the article: "In the end, money speaks louder than anything else." So a bunch of 3rd and 4th liners of Russian heritage are defecting to the KHL so they can play in the Olympics, big deal. That just frees up more NHL spots for North American born players to fill, and there won't be any drop-off in quality either. The big stars are going to stay in the NHL no matter what, because of the money.

I need to know more. Where can I find this concoction? I have not seen it anywhere down by Vermillion. Here it is Premium and Nordeast, not even Premium Light. I'll be heading to the Cities in early August though.