southpaw

Cue Darrel's "I'm just moving coach discussions into one spot" Fire Pryor thread.

I'll preface this... I in no way want football cut. I don't think women's hockey should be cut, but I won't be surprised if it is. However, if we're looking at financials, Women's hockey isn't the worst program to keep around. When was the last time football was in the black? Are another 3,000 people a game going to cover the 2.5 million dollar deficit each year? And since none of these sports are in a vacuum thanks to Title 9, you also have to add in the women's sports that must counter-act the 63 scholarships football gives out. That's 126 (Great math, right?) total scholarships just because of football. Cut football and you save at least three times the amount cutting women's hockey would.

But UND football is allowed to lose even more until they bring in more than 10,000 fans a game? Maybe at that point, season tickets will sell for more than $90.

I don't really see any bias in the article. Yes, he supports hockey as that's what he covers the most. However, are any of his statements untrue? The big paragraph is actually pretty factual. There's no doubt some of this will happen if it isn't already: There already are people saying WHockey holds basketball and volleyball back. There's probably more saying it's still holding football back too.

Think how good men's basketball would be if we cut both.

Where does Air Force stick their sports now that they're going to be a finalist for a FB-only spot in the Big12? After turning the B12 down five years ago, it's looking like they'll be headed there. Does that open the door for AF to the BigSky as a travel partner for UNC? Summit with Denver as a travel partner? Where does that leave UND?

You also must not have read the article because even Schlossman didn't say that. But look at this... I just had to go back a few pages and a few people were advocating moving the WH budget to the football or basketball programs:

We had both in the early 2000's when I was a student and it was great. I don't want to start a hockey vs football thread as I attend games for both teams despite living 1,000 miles away but with the current setup neither program is going to bring the national recognition. NDSU has won five straight FCS titles and ESPN still ignores them on a consistent basis. I think it comes down to who brings in the most money to help fund the other sports in the athletic department. Hockey may have hit its max but it still seems like it is bigger than football ever will be as far as funding.

Be honest. "Addressing" the elephant in the room isn't what you want. Just use the word cut. I'd imagine you'll be sadly disappointed if the committee comes out and says "We addressed women's hockey and decided it's going to stay." You had me up until the bolded portion. At many schools, this is true but right now that's not the case at UND. And as long as hockey sells out an 11,000 seat arena double-digit times a year while football attempts to fill a 12,000 seat stadium 6-9 times a year that will continue to be the case.

You only have about 15 seconds MAX to play a song as it has to be down when the opposing team breaks the huddle. If they don't huddle, then you have about 5-10 seconds worth of song to play. It has to be impactful in the first few seconds or it won't work.

You realize the football team also gets FCOA? That expense is significantly higher than "paying the hockey team."

That is something the NCHC pushed aggressively during negotiations on extending the CBSSN contract.

Currently, the NCHC collects money from each of the schools to pay for the costs of the refs. That is something the NCHC wants to eventually take in-house so it's less of a burden on the schools. I'd imagine the money would go towards that. Additionally, there is the potential to create a new full-time position that focuses on marketing and sales. That would allow Fenton to add some new projects instead of being so focused on negotiation those contracts himself.

Your knowledge of Schlossman's knowledge outside of hockey is extremely limited.

I feel bad for everyone but SiouxVolley and Cratter. If only the rest of us could be more enlightened like these two. We should feel honored they're lowering themselves to our level to give us these facts.

Technically the gap in this picture is green. That's the tough part of this design.

Looking for four lower-bowl tickets for the Friday/Saturday series January 20 & 21st. My girlfriend and one of my friends will be joining me and a friend for their first trip to the Ralph and good 'ol Grand Forks.

What will he accomplish by December 31st? Does a solid OOC record really mean that much? UND's only chance to be legit this year is to win the BigSky tournament, which unfortunately doesn't start before December 31st.

Agreed, let's cut all sports and positions started after 2004. Goodbye women's hockey. See you later Matt Schill, the digital content director, we don't need no stinking highlights, UND Insider or Through These Doors. Plus several other important positions. What's that? We were able to increase pay after the oil boom? Get those raises out of here. Time to go back to salary levels of 2004.

It's a university-wide rebrand. Outside of the Midwest more people recognize the name Omaha vs UNO.

So you have a lot of dislike for the interim president because of the logo but none towards the new president? Plan executed perfectly.

Why does everyone have this love fest with talking about WMU and Miami leaving? Please show me one article that has any sort of official, even an anonymous one, saying those two schools are unhappy in the NCHC? Or that they're looking to leave because of travel. Not a blog post without any quotes, but something even semi-substantial. WMU's hockey budget is 1.6 million. If they announce right now they're leaving, they'll owe 1.5 million. With the NCHC's operating budget going up every year, by the end of the year WMU would have to pay more than its annual hockey budget just to leave the conference. And that doesn't eliminate the travel costs. Unless they decided to bus to every opponent under 10 hours, they're flying the exact same amount as they do now when its combined with their non-conference schedule. The benefit of being out-of-conference with the WCHA schools is the ability to schedule them in non-conference. Look at WMU's schedule... they have a home and home with BGSU and Ferris. If they join the WCHA, they now only have Miami close-by to schedule OOC, whereas they have LSSU, MTU, Ferris, Northern and Bowling Green. If we were talking an all-sport conference, then having really close schools is a great budget saving opportunity. But when you still have five non-conference weekends to schedule then it's not that big of a deal.

I don't believe they think something was imminent, but apparently they do think there was more to talk about than just the email. Tom listed off a couple of questions but there likely were more, which would lead to follow-up questions. Sure every answer could be "Right now, we don't have that info but we'll get it to you as soon as we can," but at least it's an answer. Why release it when you're out of town and can't just set aside an hour to talk to the Herald? And you don't email your questions. That's going to get a canned "PR" response every time and it's not how the media works. Show me one story where it says "we emailed him asking for comment, but he was unavailable."

That's the point of the article... Everyone is left in a wait and see mode instead of Kennedy being available and willing to comment.

I think Tom makes some fair points. Why drop this on a Tuesday when the bus tour is scheduled beforehand? Why not send it out when you're actually in town and then take an hour to answer questions with the media? It was a chance for Kennedy to be public about it. Instead he hides behind an email, a bus and Peter Johnson.