jdub27

It will be close (though that was accurate this year). They drew 72K this year for 18 games, which was good for the 19th best average in the nation. I would guess they will go over that by a little bit with what should be a better schedule (more "name" teams) this year.

Considering they had 81K+ for their spring game last year (the most in the nation), that is a pretty safe bet. Not sure what your point is though. UND hockey live chats and likely the spring football game will outdraw basketball games at UND, yet I think most people still expect the basketball team to be competitive in their conference. Just because these aren't the number one sports at those schools and don't have the fan support of those top sports, they can still be successful.

To your point, they get a set number of practices whether they start on time or a week late. The number they have will still be the same. The only difference is the spring game won't be the end of spring practice, they will still have a week after. Is that any better or worse? I don't think there is a difference. As for snow levels, I spent the weekend in Fargo, Grand Forks still has considerably more snow on the ground.

I too would be interested to see a list of players who have much better numbers in college compared to Kristo who are stuck in the ECHL for eternity.

After hearing him talk in interviews and in person multiple times, he was a hard guy to dislike. Very honest, very humble (to a purposely humorous level sometimes), very passionate and very knowledgeable. I think Denver made a big mistake.

You make it sound like he didn't try any other options on that line. None of the seven players that were tried on the top line consistently clicked with Kristo/Knight.

Because they've been forced to do it that way through the threat of anti-trust lawsuits because they aren't including everyone who is "equal" with them. If they break off and do their own "invitational" tournament, I can see them getting around some of those issues. You really think the big conferences want to make it more inclusive? Everything I've seen points in the exact opposite direct. One thing for certain is teams aren't looking for ways to increase the number of schools that are splitting these piles of money unless teams they are adding bring the promise of more money to the table.

I'm not saying they will break off from the NCAA. I'm saying they will form their own postseason tournament, not have to include small schools/conferences and take all the money themselves. They already formed the BCS. How excited do you think the major conferences were to see NIU make it into a BCS game? How exciting was that game for the fans (they were blown out)? Why is it so far-fetched to think they would push it a little farther and make even more money off of it? As GFG pointed out, basketaball is different than football. One, it is already set up. The conferences aren't supid and going to ruin something that is already a golden goose. Two, people tune in to see the upsets in basketball, which are much more prone likely to happen when compared to football. There is a lot more parity and having one star player can affect a game much more than in football.

You know how much money the NCAA makes off TV money for the basketball tournament? The big conferences are going to do the math and realize they can do their own 16-team or so tournament for football and make big bucks as well. And they won't have to share it with the smaller conferences.

I think Oliver was supposed to be good, but that class had 3 good recievers with Golladay and Fletcher and now throw Robertson in as well. Granted Golladay is now a year ahead of him playing-wise. Still stinks to lose guys that have that kind of size. Wish him the best.

Fixed. A few of the many that stick out: If the prospectus is right, it shows that Mollberg has put on 37lbs going from 195 to 232 and it looks to be accurate. Wow. What a tank. Dwayne Brown is up 18lbs Labat and Coyle are both up 20lbs. Meehan is down 12lbs and Walker is down 15lbs.

UND Sports Spring Football Preview Spring Football Prospectus Of note just glancing through the preview, Mackey will be moving to safety, Sparks will have a good shot at seeing increased playing time, Dustin Adams will be competing right away for playing time and surprisingly no mention of Mike Edwards. Haven't looked through the prospectus yet, but Tom Miller tweeted that Oliver (WR), Tuilagi (LB), Jablonski (LB), Andrews (LB), Kennedy (DB) and Hartung (DL) are no longer on the roster.

Glad someone caught it...

Not sure what kind of reading between the lines you had to do to get to that conclusion. Nowhere did I state that schools with current top programs that make hockey their number 1 or 2 priority are going to die off. I do think that some of the smaller schools are going to continue to struggle, as they always have, especially with some of the more successful programs and better draws joining different conferences. You are the one who thinks that athletic departments that have budgets that dwarf those of other schools aren't going to find the resources to keep their programs competitive. They already do that and their budgets keep growing, mainly because of the TV money they bring in. Kids/recruits are very well aware of the reputation of programs and what they are able to offer. Hockey isn't much different from football and basketball in that regard. Kids aren't jumping at a chance to play football at Duke because they have a good basketball team. I'm confused on what kind of attitude change and commitment you think the B1G needs to have? Minnesota has been and will continue to be a powerhouse. Michigan missed its first tournament in 20 some years, were down all year, but still the conference championship game and almost got in. Wisconsin is in the tournament. MSU had a down year but regularly make the tournament. That is 2/3's of the conference that are regularly in the postseason. OSU has been down, who know if they will improve. PSU is a wildcard, but they definitely have the financial backing to be successful. I would guess that each one of those teams spends more on hockey than at minimum half of the NCHC and definitely spend more than anyone left in the WCHA.

What does the athletic department or an AD have to do with a Forum Communications employee?

Last time this happened, Drake went from first line to healthy scratch the next night. Not sure what to make of it, but its how it played out.

Little Orphan Annie? You make it sound like these teams don't already put as much if not more money into their programs than almost everyone else already does. Just because the B1G hockey programs are the 3rd or 4th biggest sport at the majority of their schools doesn't mean there is less money going into their programs than there are at schools where hockey is the 1st or 2nd sport. Their athletic budgets are many multiples of alot of the other schools and the TV revenue you keep dismissing just adds on to the overall amount of money they can spend within their athletic department that the majority of the schools don't get the luxury of having.

My guess is a minimum capacity requirement is so far down the list of things to consider, it is a non-issue, particularly when looking at what the landscape could and will look like over the next few years. I'm not saying there isn't an important conversation to have regarding football facilities and what UND should do, but I am saying that I wouldn't be concerned about that being an issue in what UND does decide to do.

Seems to me both were thinking and looking at the same thing: $$$$$$. At the time, the cost of D-1 was unknown and there was no known conference. The landscape is definitely changing more now so there is a better idea of the costs. On top of that, you can't move up without a conference invite now. Big differences, but both decisions more or less boiled down to the same thing. Money. That being said, with hind-sight being 20/20, UND should have moved up earlier.

I feel dirty sticking up for UM, but to think there is nothing more to the conference power and the realignments than athletics is just delusional. Minnesota is highly regarded across the board. Try and figure out what Maryland and Rutgers added to the B1G. It definitely wasn't based solely on athletic performance. Probably not even in the top 2-3 reasons.

I don't disagree with you on that one bit. But Rocco on the 2nd line gives the opponent more to think about than him on the 1st line. Again, just commenting that the point made was the exact same thing that Hakstol publicly stated was the reason for the move.

This was specifically mentioned by Hak as one of the reasons they were split up. They weren't lighting the world on fire like everyone seems to think they were. One goal in five games gets every other line combination crucified around here. He also alluded to the other team being able to match up in a way to neutralize basically the only scoring line. Putting Grimaldi on the second line gives UND a good option on scoring against what should be a weaker line for the other team. If Grimaldi had a some better puck luck and had buried some of the I-don't-know-how-many chances he's had in the last few months, this likely isn't even a conversation as you have 2-3 lines that are clicking and putting points on the board. Hak sees the players practice day in and day out. Critics see the results and then make comments after the fact. All that being said, if it is crunch time and UND needs a goal, the top scorers will be on the ice regardless of what line they've played on for the beginning of the game. May even be some mixing of lines during the game with the extra timeouts. NCAA tournament hockey is a little bit of a different beast.

I believe that Detroit would have to sign off on Oakland joining the Horizon, which they have not been willing to do in the past. Oakland has made it very clear they would like to join the Horizon. Here's an article from last year that kind of touches on all of it.

YSU going to the CAA hypothetically opens up a spot in the MVFC, though they would be able to go back to each team playing everyone once a year without them. We know that there are always spots open in the Summit. Would the MVFC allow the Summit to pick up a team that also has football? Or does the MVFC stick with 9 to get back to even schedules? Adding a team to both the Summit and the MVFC would give the Summit teams 5 out of 10 votes in the MVFC with the other 5 being in the MVC. Would the MVC teams want to give up that decision making power?

Alot of teeth gnashing going on about how terrible Wolters/SDSU and Montana/Big Sky are. They must have forgot they scored 2 more points against WIU than Montana did against Syracuse (cherry picking games is fun). Barely a peep about Akron though.