southpaw

How successful have AZSioux's game threads been this year? I say fire AZSIOUX!

I've been to Greeley several times since I live in Colorado. I'm not sure which is worse... Greeley or Pueblo but neither of them are nice places to live. Probably the tipping point for Greeley is that Fort Collins isn't too far away. That's about the best thing it has going for it.

So based on your posting history that means at least one of them is interested in the job. Good to know!

Fiason doesn't have the dislike for NDSU that previous ADs have. He will hire whomever he feels is the best candidate regardless of what school they come from.

Schuler was not in a position to do well in this game. He was stuck against some guys a lot bigger than him due to only Nash playing well down low. When we're able to match him up against guys his size he will be a lot more successful.

Kotelnicki and Schleusner are the two I wouldn't mind sticking around. Luke has been pretty good recruiting Illinois and Kotelnicki knows what he is doing with special teams.

Lots of positives when we go into Big Sky play. Fortunately, we won't be seeing a lot of 7 footers who can drain the 3 almost as well as he can score inside. Going to be an exciting game Sunday!

Yes, it's about 20% nationally on cable. I don't know the numbers for satellite. As for stumbling to CBSSN, I was referring to that channel on directv. Now that CBSSN is in the low 200s with the other major sports channels it is much easier to stumble upon. When it was in the 600s it was much more difficult for a casual fan to find since it was mixed in with regionals, FCS and other lesser watched.

Yes, all numbers are potential homes. Unfortunately, it's pretty difficult to get actual numbers nation-wide as most cable systems are pretty secretive even about their overall subscription base.

Average NBCSN game last year was 68,000 and that included two games with UND that topped 100k. Even half of that number is still significantly more than people watching a game on FCS. 1/3 of that is likely still more than double what FCS receives. It helps that CBSSN is now in the 200s for DirecTV this year. In the past it was in the 600s and was just as difficult to find as the FCS channels. People are much more likely to stumble upon a college hockey game on CBSSN now than at any time in the past. And really, in college hockey where it's a destination sport for so few people... your national exposure is relying on people stumbling upon it and hoping they stick around for more.

And that stinks because it should be available in more places. People who want to watch the games in areas like those need to call their cable companies and request the channel be added specifically because of Sioux hockey. Bemidji understands the importance and would be more likely to add it because of that reason. But if we're talking about national exposure, 98 > 50.

bigskyvikes for president!

Aren't we talking national exposure? Or is it just Sprig exposure now? FCS is available in 50 million homes. CBSSN (IN HD!) is available in 98 million homes.

Not all national TV is made the same. Just because you're on a national channel like FCS doesn't mean you're getting the same national exposure as an HD channel that is easier to access. There is a massive difference in the number of viewers for a game on CBSSN vs a game on FCS. There is a massive difference in exposure for a university playing on the road versus playing at home. CBSSN isn't going to show WMU's arena if it's a game at the Ralph. They're going to focus more on the home team because that's where the cameras are at. The number of games may be minimal but the national exposure is overwhelmingly better for the 7 schools who magically happen to be the 7 schools that voted yes.

I don't know a lot of specifics on what Notre Dame's demands were, I just know they involved a lot more than just TV rights. And once you start making exceptions for one school, where do you draw the line? Per you second paragraph... UND Broadcasting would have been better with Notre Dame in the league. There is a lot more that goes into happiness in a conference than just TV rights. UND had the TV rights it wanted in the WCHA but left the conference because there were a lot of other issues. Games on FCS has ALWAYS been an added bonus. I agree with you that the games should be on FCS and I'm disappointed they're not. I just understand the reasoning behind the conference (5 original schools, like you said) deciding to go with CBSSN. For total number of games, if you include UND's 17 home conference games plus Notre Dame's 12 home games, it is already more than the CBSSN deal. That's great for UND and Notre Dame but looking at how the NBCSN deal breaks down for Hockey East, you see it's not so great for most of the conference: ND: 12 home BU: 1 home, 3 road Umass: 1 home, 3 road Northeastern: 3 road Maine: 1 home, 2 road BC: 1 home, 0 road Providence: 0 games UMass Lowell: 0 games Merrimack: 0 games Vermont: 0 games The most successful team in NCAA hockey over the past 15 years has one game on national TV.

Especially since the goal of all 7 schools is to screw over UND as much as possible! I bet all of the schools voted to take UND's cut of the CBSSN contract.

Thank you for proving my point. All but UNO have at least the same number of games with the contract. Games on CBSSN are better produced, HD broadcasts available on an easier channel for people to get. They also aren't all road games for the 7 schools. You can assume conspiracy against UND but your own numbers show the contract is beneficial to a majority of schools in the conference. This also doesn't include the three playoff games that would not be aired on FCS.

Any sport will take a backseat to one playing in a $100 million arena but that doesn't mean there isn't support for the program. Has Mussman been paid similar to other FCS programs? No but he didn't start as an FCS coach. Faison has shown he is willing to pay someone when they start as a D1/FCS coach. See Brewster vs Jones for that comparison. Or see how much Idalski makes, although part of that has to do with Title IX. A new IPF, an indoor stadium, new football offices, new jerseys, etc tells me that UND is willing to give football the support it needs, especially in hiring a new coach. I hope they pay someone in the $175k range with bonuses based on accomplishments and ticket sales.

I think that's one of the reasons UND isn't in the Summit. They get conference games against the Big Sky schools and scheduling non-conference games is pretty simple with NDSU, SDSU, USD and UNO just down the road. It's actually a pretty nice benefit for UND to not be in the same league.

I believe they've lost 4 of their 5 Saturday night games by one goal. They haven't showed up well in the first game of a series all year but Coach Corbett has them making adjustments.

I'm surprised you know anything about something with the world English in it

They did. Compared to Mankato, Tech and Anchorage UND was considered one of the big schools. Compared to Minnesota, it was clear UND was considered lower. In the NCHC, UND isn't a big school or a little school. They are on similar footing as all of the other schools.

There are three tiers of sports broadcasting rights. Tier one is usually for national networks or conference networks like the Big Ten or NBC sports network. Once the tier one rights have either been taken or passed over then it goes on to tier 2 rights. Those go to regional networks like Fox Sports north. Tier 3 rights are usually the Internet feed which is sold to Neulion for Und. The NCHC deal states that all tier one rights go to CBS sports network. The Big Ten network chooses which tier 1 rights it wants to keep and allows the schools to sign contracts for any available games.

It's generally 20% of a market at most. Some sports-crazed cities, like Boston, are obviously going to be higher. But overall it is about 20%. With HD exploding and FCS only offering a limited HD channel it makes FCS even less-watched than before. People don't accidentally turn to an SD FCS channel anymore. UND is much more likely to get a casual viewer and expand national presence via CBSSN than FCS because of number of viewers. I do know the numbers for Colorado Springs. There are 78,000 Comcast subscribers in town and only 12,000 homes have the sports package. This is in a town of 450,000 people. FCS can sell ad space over UND games (and any other games) that they air. They actually do sell ad space for some of the Big12 football games they carry. FCS is a subsidiary of Fox Sports and they have an agreement to show Big12 and PAC-10 football and basketball. FCS picks up some games and they advertise because there are enough viewers to justify it.

The way cable and satellite agreements are setup. Cable can't carry out-of-region regional networks. For example: Comcast is a cable company that covers much of the U.S. However, every city that has Comcast has an intergovernmental agreement with the LOCAL Comcast office. In the FCC's eyes, there is no national cable company. It's all local cable companies. While that may be bad for some viewers, it's a very, very good thing for the cities themselves. They receive significantly more funding from the cable companies from those franchise agreements than they would if it was a national cable company. Part of that local agreement is that they only carry in-region channels. Satellite only has to pay cities for using their phone lines, which is significantly cheaper than cable wiring throughout the city. Satellite is considered a national company in the FCC's eyes, just like Sirius/XM is different than local radio stations. Satellite is able to carry all of the channels because it doesn't have to abide by the local cable company rules. The cities don't get as much money but the viewers get more options. Realize TV is really only 60 years old and the sports boom has only happened over the last 15 years. Things are evolving but there are a lot of rules in place that are there for a reason, although they may be outdated. Regardless, the FCC isn't going to change things soon.