jdub27

How did your team do last year?

The whole state of SD has a delusion of grandeur about the Summit and Douple. I would guess a large portion of this is related to the basketball tournaments being put in Sioux Falls and what seems to be more of an emphasis on basketball than football.

Not buying it. Brekke is just as well known to those familiar with UND athletics. And if they aren't, why wouldn't that be who I was referencing?

Interesting. I never said which one I thought would be a good leader for the Alumni Association. Now I'm curious why you assumed what you did and why you came to the quick defense of the other.

It doesn't take long for some of those projects to be approved and for work to start. Maybe not be the case with this one though since I assume it will be considered a "state" project and the bidding will have to be done in a certain way. I don't know the specifics on that, someone else can probably fill in the blanks.

Who knows what DU's plan is, with their AD I wouldn't rule much out.

I would only agree with one of those.

I doubt he would be able top what was done in the Spirit campaign, good time to leave if he thought it was time. Will be interesting to see if they bring in an outsider or someone with UND ties.

To the best of my knowledge, it was just one newspaper guy as well. Their AD is Terry Wanless, former UND AD. I don't think he was against UND joining.

Both the SD schools are fans of the Summit since the MBB and WBB conference tournament have more or less been permanently placed in Sioux Falls.

Game story from UNDsports.com:

He's an SDSU fan. Though criticizing UND with this comment after Douple's action's with UND baseball are pretty rich. While not exactly the same, Douple is employed at the will of multiple public institutions, so it is close enough.

When did the Summit add football? And the leagues have been back and forth on who is the better basketball league, but the point has already been made: Both are one bid leagues so it doesn't really matter. Regarding the MVFC, the eastern schools got travel concessions when USD was added. Doubt they'd be jumping for joy at adding UND. And do you see Douple going to bat for UND convincing the MVFC to add them?

Varner seems to have the attention of the coaches as well. I think we see a crowded backfield going into the fall. Knowing that, hopefully that makes them all hungry and gives some motivation to work hard this summer to create separation.

I was thinking along the lines that the baseball clock running out (due to time or further drop in membership) would start the basketball clock, but wasn't 100% sure if that was the case. It appears it is, thanks for clearing it up.

Are they not already in their two year grace period for this? Or are you talking a separate grace period that would effect their basketball autobid?

What benefit did Douple have for being swayed by an outside force? And I know for a fact that there are some overexagerations in your first sentence.

I'm going to disagree with the baseball part. I think that if the Summit offered UND a baseball home, they would have taken it regardless of Douple being the commissioner. Dodson more or less said that is where they wanted to be. And I doubt that Faison and Kelley thought they would have that amount of pull to request something like that. UND wasn't working from a position of leverage (not that the Summit was either). I think pride got in the way and the Summit blew a chance to help stabilize their baseball conference. I also think the WAC helped out UND with its baseball invite and would understand if they would have chosen the Summit had it been offered. Then again, with all the magical power that Kelley supposedly has over the Summit, maybe you're right.

Well, if you want to take Douple's side, you give Kelley a lot of credit for holding that much power over the commissioner of a conference that UND was not a member of. I wonder what Douple's actual bosses think of an outsider holding that kind of sway.

Are you sure that one sport losing its autobid defuncts a conference? I haven't saw the NCAA rule that explains that part, just what is needed to keep an autobid.

ESPN/Grantland's Katie Baker gives UND fans a mention in her latest mailbag:

Pretty bold statement. What is defined as a solid season and who is defining it? And how can you judge a recruiting class? Especially since a)they aren't signed until February and b)most of them won't see the field for 2-3 years. I think it would take a pretty big disaster of a year (winning a handful of games at most) for Mussman to get fired.

I thought you were joking around with that quote. Turns out not.

WR is a tough position when making transition from level to level and Golladay was at a pretty big disadvantage playing as a true freshman last year in that sense. At the spring game he looked a lot thicker than he did last year. Spring prospectus shows he put on 10lbs, I would have actually guessed a little bit more. I agree expectations should be held back, particularly the NFL stuff, but with him being so young and with what he showed last year as a raw freshman, adding in some experience along with the strength and speed he put on over the offseason he has the potential to be a special player. Hopefully he keeps working hard and fulfills that.

They just joined the Summit and are likely looking for a new home anyway. UNC has always been mentioned as a possibility, long before Denver was on the Summit's radar.