jdub27

Is there something out there that would make you bearable?

Yep

Your men's basketball team has had a whopping one confernce title since their transition and your two women's revenue sports are more or less a disaster. Is it true your volleyball team currently has 4 players on their roster? One would think you'd be worried about those instead of the time you spend on UND athletics and judging their programs. And I've seen some of your football players in the newspaper lately but it wasn't in the sports section. I see that Caillou has been all over getting to the bottom of those indiscretions.

Well none of that would have sounded good in the article he wrote.

Interesting article by Kolpack in the Forum today. I believe that two of his main points were the MVFC is better than Big Sky (top to bottom) and being in a big conference is bad, there is too much competition for the autobid. Seems a little contradictory that he argues that NDSU likes the MVFC because the conference in stronger and competition is better and then follow that up with the argument that they are better off in a smaller league (Summit) because there is less competition for the autobid. Also, I believe he has his facts wrong on maintaining the basketball autobid though (SiouxVolley?). He said it takes six schools to maintain that autobid (among other requirements). I believe the six school rule is for sports other than basketball. For basketball, seven sponsoring schools are required. Might not seem like a big deal, but when your conference is flirting with that line, it kind of matters.

At least you can admit it. Just found it kind of humorous that after last year, you were trying to knock down UND. Though hindsight, since we are talking about the Summit, football doesn't apply (which in the grand scheme of things, is actually the reason Summit has a lot of the issues it does).

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.