jdub27

No it wasn't. And even if it was (and again, it wasn't), having input from everyone sure worked out well for choosing the new nickname didn't it.

While I get what you were going for, this isn't true at all.

Games like that made me glad the CanadInn is connected to the Alerus and had bars and gaming.

I think that's a stretch. Games start at 11am and run through the evening. There are plenty of big time games that start between 11am and 2:30 pm.

If it was a kid who was at a camp and then got an offer, then I have zero concern about what other offers the kid has. They are seeing those kids first hand against lots of other kids that UND (and other schools) has offers out to or is considering offering. Their judgement has been pretty good with kids from camps.

It's because Eversport and which ever developer they worked with failed to deliver what they had promised. Pluto TV bought Eversport and already had the infrastructure developed, all they had to do was add the Big Sky channel.

If true, surprised they haven't made a little more mention of it. Also curious if it has to be a full endowment or if a partial ones are included.

From last month: Fighting Hawk duo earns preseason All-America nod

Five Fighting Hawks earn Preseason All-Big Sky honors Cole Reyes - S and Preseason Defensive Player John Santiago - RB and KR Brady Oliveira - RB Demon Taylor - OG Deion Harris - CB

NORTH DAKOTA CAPTURES FIRST BIG SKY PRESIDENTS' CUP Schools are awarded points based on five criteria: - Individual Team Grade Point Averages - APRs. - Number of All-Conference performers with a grade point average above 3.0- - Women’s All-Sports Trophy Points - Men’s All-Sports Trophy Points

Pretty sure summer school is separate from normal scholarships. I'd guess there are some funds available, but no clue how much. I know that a focus of all sports, not just football, is increasing funds available for summer scholarships to keep kids around. Summer school is a pretty huge deal as it allows different access between players and staff that they wouldn't get if they weren't enrolled.

I'm comfortable with the people I talked with having the right info. I'm curious how publicly spurning the Summit, spending years in the Big Sky and then working back channels for multiple years to get into Summit, which ended up requiring a bunch of things happening that were well out of UND's control, was all part of a decade long plan.

I'd love to hear what exactly was planned out, because there is no chance in hell it was. And that's coming from many conversations over that frame with people within UND and the athletic department.

This is nothing new, it was announced and figured into the budget process/realignment months ago. UND has been so far behind on its marketing/advertising the last decade that it is nice to see it is finally being addressed.

Minus the 4 year wait until they're eligible. I'm sure Douple still has the request for eligibility extension form somewhere in his desk though.

DU joined the the Summit because they weren't requiring them to add any sports like the MVC was and there was no way they were going to stay in the disaster known as the WAC. If Douple isn't out looking for new members, then he isn't doing his job. I don't buy into the notion that things are on tilt quite yet, but you're being completely naive by ignoring the fact that the two required men's team sports (baseball and soccer) are at the bare minimum to qualify. On top of that, the now most eastern-isolated member, who may very well be looking to join the Horizon League at the drop of a hat, happens to sponsor both of those sports and them leaving would put the Summit League on the clock for not one, but both team sports. A D-2 move-up has no chance of helping at this point and there isn't a lot of attractive options that are pounding at the Summit's door. Maybe he has a rabbit up his sleeve. Last time the big reveal was ORU came back from the Southland and saved the baseball autobid. We'll see what it is this time.

Follow along: He had a .500% career record (38-38) before last season. His current career record is equivalent to a 10-8 season (~55%). Unless of course you referring to 50% being an average season, which is a pretty sad goal to shoot for with the resources UND has (despite not giving MBB the attention it deserves).

Jones' winning percentage by year in the Big Sky: 2012-2013 12-8 60.0% 2013-2014 12-8 60.0% 2014-2015 4-14 22.2% 2015-2016 10-8 55.6% 2016-2017 14-4 77.8% Total 52-42 55.3% I'd say he's had one good, one bad and 3 average years. His career Big Sky winning percentage is equivalent to a 10-8 season, which is average and should be the absolute minimum expectation along with a semi-final appearance in the conference tournament at least 3 out of 4 years. He had a .500 career record before last season, I'm not so sure what screams extension about that.

Guessing the 4th year was the compromise for a lower salary (or at least slightly lower than I expected), which wouldn't be the first time that trade-off has been made. Wondering if there are any bonus clauses for league championships or NCAA tournament appearances or any buyout clauses for either Jones or UND. Hopefully the increase in the assistant salary pool was a meaningful bump. Some stability there, especially with current staff, would be a welcome change.

I actually thought about them, but they are full-fledged members of the WAC, so doubt they would be able to pull their baseball team out of there to be an affiliate elsewhere. I mean, he managed to get Oral Roberts to come back, why stray from a strategy that worked last time?

I'm not certain they do, but at one point they were interested (desperate?) for an affiliate home in the Summit before they ended up in the WAC. There just aren't a lot of great options.

You actually need 7 full D-1 schools for a multi-sport conference. I agree, the Summit will do whatever it needs to do to maintain the autobids, even though it may involve taking steps that no one wants to through invites or affiliates that aren't exactly desirable. However at this point in time, UND restarting baseball is an absolutely non-starter. They would undoubtedly have to bring back another women's sports and those two things aren't happening after they just got done revamping the budget to a place they can operate efficiently and effectively at. The only thing that would even remotely change it would be if the OCR's report came back stating that men's athletics were being under-represented to the point that another sport should be offered and I don't see that being the case. I really hope Douple is on the phone with UNC finally asking if they would like to be affiliates for baseball. I don't know enough about soccer programs in the Midwest to know who would be a good choice for an affiliate. Convince SIU-E to change its affiliation from the MAC to the Summit? See if the Air Force Academy is interested in being the same conference as Denver rather than that WAC?

There has been rumblings about NMSU looking at the Summit (and Big Sky) for well over a year now. They aren't exactly thrilled with who they are associated with in the WAC. They help with the baseball problem, but not the soccer problem and are out of the geographic footprint. On the other hand, they are a land and space grant school, which is a positive.