Shawn-O

Now the story will ratchet up to a national level, which I think bodes well for UND. We are seeing a story unfold that is on the front lines in the battle against political correctness. As others have stated, it isn't just about keeping the nickname and logo anymore.

Forney and Okposo won't be too shabby, either.

AZSIOUX, Love, love, l-o-v-e the new signature line.

Great post. And the hosting of D-2 post-season events is out the window with the NCAA nickname fight, so there goes what minimal revenue upside that existed. Lacrosse is starting to taking off here in the Twin Cities, so that could be a solid recruiting base that UND would have to themselves. Hangin' with schools like Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Johns Hopkins ain't so bad either. I'm sold on the men's side, the jury is out on women's lacrosse, in my opinion. Agreed. Longer term, add in a small piece of the March Madness TV pie (<$50K is my guess, it isn't huge for the lower-tier DI's). Sandwich a Gopher women's game into a Saturday afternoon during a Sioux-Gopher hockey weekend, that would be good fun. Irrelevant. Sames goes true in D2. We'll continue to get the aspiring doctors, lawyers, etc. It's the battleground programs like business and engineering where I think there is truly future students at stake.

Ditto.

***Biting....tongue.....*** I can't give you a pass on this one. Let's be honest, the national publicity of the Fighting Sioux Frozen Four and championship teams eclipses by tenfold any of NDSU's title teams in football. With that said, I'll be the first to admit that if NDSU, god forbid, were to get into the Big Dance, the attention would blow away anything we've seen on the hockey front. Let's get a grip, here.

Looks like the admin pulled the pin on him.

Know your audience. I highly doubt anyone here will engage you in this discussion. Take this crap to GPL where it belongs.

You're an MBA, right? The value of the future tuition stream of 12 kids sitting in todays kindergarden classes would cover this deficit. That's assuming zero donations post-grad. Enjoy your vacation!

Hockey will be just fine, and we could share in the Frozen Four dough that Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maine, New Hampshire, Denver, (the list goes on and on) are getting. I'm not saying it's big bucks, but it's money we are now leaving on the table.

I agree, DI in Fargo. I applauded Chapman for pulling the trigger. He was right then, and he's still right. (The old threads got zapped, so I can't prove it, but I was on record) A vast majority of university presidents would have gone with 'SU at that point, but Kupchella didn't have the stomach for it for whatever reason. Hell, we should have all gone when Montana and Montana State moved up. I was less vocal about it then....I was only 12 years old, and Gore hadn't invented the internet yet... I've never understood the defeatist attitudes. If they can make this fly in Bozeman and Missoula, we sure as hell can do this in Fargo and GF.

Agreed. Dump baseball and golf too. I'm serious. Edit: If you can avoid the cap-ex by doing it.

Your company spends money on R&D and marketing to generate revenue, right? That's all this is about.

I forgot to thank you for the response. It's very interesting to me as well, perhaps the most interesting time in the history of UND athletics, and the most pivotal time. You're bang-on in terms of the big dance scenario. If that were to happen while UND was wallowing in D-II, it would be a PR disaster, and yes, the alumni would go ballistic, as they should. I won't, and can't, speak for the alumni base, but I'm not looking for instant gratification. I'm looking to preserve UND's position as the flagship institution of the state. There's a lot of talk about deficits and impending disaster. Everyone says that college sports is a business. You know what? Institutions like UND and NDSU are businesses, athletics are only a means to an end. It's a competitive world. Corporations competing for customers, cities competing for corporate headquarters, and yes, universities competing for the best and the brightest young people that they can attract. They become the future donors and benefactors, and the flywheel keeps spinning from there.

Subsidizing athletics for the greater good of the university. It's quite simple. Step into a Cub Foods store, they're probably running a special on Diet Coke. They might even be losing money on it, but it's generating foot traffic. Think of athletics as a loss leader for say, hundreds of schools across the country. No, we are not U of I or U of M. It's a different model.

Do you live in the Twin Cities or in greater Minnesota? If so, I bet you were against the Twins new ballpark, huh. I have a point, I promise. Just wondering. If you'd like to take the discussion to e-mail, that would be fine too.

Wow. I guess there just isn't any middle ground is there? Either stay in the NCC, or have a realistic opportunity to square off with Texas in January for the whole bag of marbles. What is the upside to beating up on tomato cans in Division II? Yes, I know we're getting beat up by the said cans in hoops, but with the resources available, that will get fixed. By the way, where's that UND student-athlete mission statement?

True or False: Increased short-term investment in athletics is in the long-term best interest of the University of North Dakota. Don't think about it too hard, after all you don't have a dog in this fight......

This just in. Mid-major D-I athletics is not profitable. It's a breakeven enterprise at best, and that's after getting established. If you want to make a business case out of it, I challenge anyone to look at the finances of NDSU, SDSU, Northern Colorado, the list goes on and on, and find where the financials made any business sense for the first three to five years. It's about MARKETING AND P.R! Athletics is a cost center....the question is how to best spend those dollars in the best interest of the university.

I'll ask again, what parts of the Carr Report findings did NDSU have "it's house in order" before making the move. I'm not trying to put anyone in a box, I'm genuinely curious. My understanding is the recommendations of this "unbiased, professional group" fell on deaf ears, or the implementation was deferred until later.

Then I guess US News and World Report is off their rocker. UND, 3rd Tier. NDSU, 4th Tier. Princeton Review must be cracked, too. And yes, they are both fine schools.

Where is this mission statement? This is all I could find. I would not call this a mission statement for UND athletics.

Buning, not Kupchella. It sounds like you have dealt with Kupchella more than I have. My take from being at a few of the same events as him is that he is standoffish and introverted.

That's a good bingo. Sicatoka, do you have anyone's ear at UND about this? I've thought it was a good idea from the get-go.

How many of the Carr Report recommendations did NDSU implement before announcing their move?