southpaw

Plan on scenario 1 happening but if WMU and Miami are going to leave... that would be the end of the WCHA unless they join that conference. They have to go with other teams, so it would be creating a new conference. By the time they leave (it's not happening soon) there will be other teams in the west that the NCHC can pick up to replace them. The NCHC won't add any of the other WCHA teams and Air Force won't leave AFA.

UNLV is not going D1 anytime soon. This "delay" in announcement is because the athletic directors don't get together until August and the presidents don't get together until early September. The NCHC, just like all of the other conferences can't unilaterally make decisions to add. The membership gets together and discusses those options. They talked about it in Florida but had made no decisions at the time.

Hockey Priority: UND, DU, CC, UNO, Duluth Cost Cutting: Anchorage, Bemidji, Mankato, Tech, SCSU (at the time) If the WCHA was going to add two more teams to replace Minnesota and Wisconsin, they both would have had to be hockey priority schools, or the best case scenario would have been a 6-6 split. That's why the NCHC was formed. They wanted a majority of schools that were making hockey a priority and they got that. Does it mean there won't be some teams that can't spend like the other schools? Absolutely and I think Western and SCSU were examples of that. But you don't want to start a new conference with 6 schools because if one leaves for greener pastures then you're left scrambing.

You literally know nothing about any NCHC conversations. You've thrown a lot of crap at the wall and none of it sticks. WMU was a late add after the NCHC said no to Notre Dame.

Wrong. Western was not an original team. They were added with SCSU.

Where do you get that BG was invited? I've never heard that.

In Mankato's defense, they do have the benefit of being a bus drive from four current schools.

Keep your eyes peeled for a report in September about two new members...

After taking the interlocking ND logo off the ice once... I don't think they'll ever put it back on.

Considering you don't cheer for UND's teams anymore, I doubt there is much of a reason for you to go to GF. But you'd also think there wouldn't be much of a reason for you to post here anymore...

Unofficial, but I'm guessing a lot of shirts and gear for fans will include both the logo and the wordmark.

This is an awesome idea. If I lived in Minnesota, I'd definitely make a trip to a night of games for a good cause: http://m.startribune.com/beautiful-minnesota-based-nhlers-start-4-on-4-league/386364871/ Several former UND players involved, plus Boeser.

Just getting around to this... to be the champion of something, shouldn't you have to beat a team in your same division? That's like saying the Iowa Wild are the AHL champions because they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs.

So to sum it up... humble Iceland and "humble-because-of-ISIS" France both failed to achieve their main goal. Does that mean the WAC football league will happen... but fail like it did before?

Agreed with SF97's take. It was to save money, because flying into Houghton isn't easy, or cheap. Just like travel to a majority of the schools in this "new league." Technically, it would be a bus league, but who wants to ride 9 hours each way on a bus every other weekend?

Didn't you hear? Those crickets mean something big is going to happen.

Agreed. That one year since they made the tournament has been forever .

My "guess" is that the logo will look just like it does now but with different backgrounds, and outlines. Basically the same differences you see with each interlocking ND logo above.

I still ask... just because some other schools use a similar logo, does that mean it's right for UND to do it as well? And don't be naive and think a letter M is anywhere similar to the interlocking ND. If Michigan and Missouri State were the only two schools to use an M logo, in a very similar font do you think there would be any confusion? Absolutely, there would be. Just like there is with the Interlocking ND.

Is there a reason it was cut other than wanting to have a graphics package that was solely UND's and not shared with any other school? Does there need to be another reason?

The conference is meeting with Neulion soon to discuss any changes to the platform for this coming school year.

As of now, no MidcoSN is not on DirecTV. It's highly unlikely they ever will be. Some UND hockey games can be picked up on Fox College Sports, which airs on DTV. We're still waiting to see how many games MIdco will make available to FCS. If it's the same as last year, I say we blame the new hockey announcer some more

Ah yes, that bus-league based around Michigan. Let's take a look a the distances of the closest 10 schools to Miami that have a chance of being in the new league: Notre Dame - Going to the B10, why would they leave to play a bunch of lower schools? Bowling Green - Good fit for the 3 MAC schools to be together. 3 hour drive. Western Michigan - Same as BGSU. 4 1/4 hours. Bobby Mo - AHA now, has a good thing going with a few tournament appearances in a lower league. 5 hours. Mercyhurst - AHA now. Similar to Robert Morris, going from bigger fish to a small one. 5 1/2 hours. Ferris State - Used to be conference mates with Miami, Western, BGSU and Notre Dame. 6 hours. Canisius College - Not a lot of success even in AHA. Would be a bottom feeder and bring PWR down. 7 hours. Niagara - Not a lot of recent success. In fact, they've been pretty horrible in AHA. 7 1/4 hours. RIT - Some trips to the National Tournament as part of AHA, some success once there. 8 hours. LSSU - Bottom feeder for a long time. That might change with other crappy teams. 8 3/4 hours. Unless Miami wants to drive everywhere, they trade flying into places like Denver, Minneapolis, Colorado Springs and Omaha for trying to fly into tiny towns with even smaller airports. With the B10 conference forming, a lot of those "bus schools" that the CCHA did went out the window. No OSU, MSU and UM means the three biggest schools aren't around anymore. I can't tell if this new conference is better or worse than the current WCHA from a competition standpoint. You've got a lot of crappy AHA teams, some not so great WCHA teams and then a few good schools. Similar to the WCHA, this conference would struggle out of conference, pulling their PWR down, meaning it's a one-bid league. Would Miami want that?

What immediate improvements? It's part of a friggen' graphics package. They spent $50k on the entire package. These aren't changes, these are finishing out the initial graphic package. I'm thankful it didn't go to a fan-vote or have significant fan input. Lots of "graphics experts" these days who know little to nothing about any part of the process. The new Vikings stadium had a grand opening where people could tour the stadium. But not every tiny bit of the stadium was done at that point. That doesn't mean they're making changes to the stadium, it means they're finishing the job they were hired to do.

The NCHC is at 8 schools right now. For the conference to want to replace Miami and Western with bigger schools, there would need to be 4 of those bigger fish available. I don't see a bunch of big schools jumping to play D1 hockey for quite a while. The NCHC is not going to kick out two schools in order to add two more to stay at 8. They'll likely max out at 10. Who decides what schools are bigger fish vs smaller fish? Miami and Western are the only 2 schools in the conference to be FBS. Miami has shown a consistent dedication to hockey. Western had some decent years at the end of the CCHA and had hired Andy Murray, showing they were attempting to stay at the top of the college hockey world. If you want to talk about small schools, take a look at CC, Denver, UMD, UNO, Duluth, and UND.