johnson

I would have to go back and look but I have been turned away a few times for tickets the past couple of years. I believe their season average is close to the Fieldhouse capacity. You have me curious now I'll have to go and take a look.

I agree that the rivalry will never go away. However, a bit of a rift is forming between NDSU and UNI. It is nowhere near the NDSU v. UND rivalry but I think in a few more years the NDSU v. UNI rivalry will be up there as well. With Chris Klieman leaving UNI for NDSU that only has intesified things. Farley has even mentioned his hate for NDSU this year. Some may laugh at SDSU being a rival but since the move up it has become more important to fans and players. Before the transition the Bunny's were just another game to me and that continued on into the transition. Once SDSU went on three game winning streak against NDSU it changed things for me. I still don't consider it a dog fight type rivalry but it is one of those games that I consider a must win for the program every year now.

NDSU sells out quite a few VB games. The Bentson-Bunker isn't very big.

Mitch Sutton didn't receive an offer from NDSU. Call and ask him yourself.

Quit with the BS stories and I'll quit calling you out. You started in with the John Q. Paulsen story in this thread and I called BS. If you didn't want it you shouldn't have started it. .

You pretend to be an insider with all kinds of contacts when you don't know squat is my point. You make up stories and when you get called on it you have a bad habit of trying to cover one story up with a new and more elaborate story. If you have information like you claim to always have please name a source or provide a link. You can't provide either because they don't exist. Until you can site a source you are nothing but full of hot air. The Chapman story is old news, we now know what he was. It is very easy to cover your story by trying to pull the call Dr. Hanson if you don't believe me card. What shall we ask him? A anonymous person on a message board calling themselves iramurphy has some info that i was wondering if you could verify? Get real, you know nothing but the stories you read in the media and then spin it into something bigger in your head and pass it off as real solid inside information.

you telling us about the deficit my response telling us about the student with the information "My source is a former NDSU student who doesn't disclose any confidential info but knows the details of the problems with Chapman." my response The info on the Big Sky move in 1978 came from Kolpacks book. Didn't verify the info just took it as fact: From Bison Football: Three Decades of Excellence, page 103 (edited for space): The big news in early 1978 was a report that the two North Dakota universities were interested in joining the Big Sky Conference. NDSU and the University of North Dakota got into the conversation after the Big Sky Conference voted to move up from Division II in the NCAA to Division I-AA. The conference created a committee to study future expansion. Talk of the Bison and Sioux leaving the NCC got a boost when Northern Iowa announced that it was dropping out of the NCC to join the Mid-Continent Athletic Association. North Dakota, NDSU, Nevada-Reno and Portland (Ore.) State were interested in Big Sky membership. Reno and Portland were independent. When Norther Iowa left the North Central, the Bison and the Sioux lost an ally for a strong football program. There was some doubt if the NCC was willing to support a program that could challenge for the national Division II championship. "My coaches remind me that all five of our losses in the last two years were to schools with a more liberal scholarship program," said Ade Sponberg, Bison athletic director. North Dakota and North Dakota State were prepared to act together if there was a move to another league. One of the questions facing both schools was the cost of moving up to Division I-AA. ...Officials at North Dakota State and North Dakota let the Big Sky know in early May that they were interested in joinging the Division I-AA conference - if the Big Sky was interested in them. The word came on May 23. Nevada-Reno was asked at a meeting of league presidents to join the Big Sky conference. That shut out the Bison and the Sioux. "They weren't ready to handle a 10-game schedule," said Sponberg, who attended the Big Sky meeting with Fred Walsh, the NDSU institutional representative. "Weber State has a lucrative non-conference basketball schedule and Boise State is sitting the same way in football. They didn't want to give that up. "We're not discouraged because we lost. We gave it our best shot. It's hard to say what the future holds. But it's (expansion in the Big Sky) not a dead issue." You are correct that Baseball has been left out in the cold. Your swimming team is already in a solid conference. I meant all major sports are covered. Sorry for the confusion. edit: I do believe you told us that you were attending Sanford meetings and asking about the potential donation to NDSU's BSA. Your response was that there wasn't going to be any donation. $10,000,000 later I say you were wrong about that one too.

Joel Heitkamp had Taylor and Bunning on his radio show to have Bunning tell Taylor UND finally wanted to play again after NDSU was four years into their transition. Bunning expected Taylor to just say OK. Taylor already had been finding eleven games to play and they were selling tickets. If I was sitting in that chair behind that mic I would have said no too. After the way Thomas had handled the move I don't think the first discussion for renewing the rivalry should have been held on Joel Heitkamp's show. Then Faison comes in and decides to call Forum Comm. to tell NDSU "We're ready to play, so lets play." before he even called Taylor discuss the possibility of a game. Now to UND fans that type of negotiating might seem professional. But to me and many other NDSU fans that is bush league negotiating. UND is starting to have attendance issues and up until the BSC announcement the FB scheduling has been a nightmare. Instead of taking an every other year offer to get the game going again Faison refuses and schedules more D2 games and draws 6,000 fans. Taylor schedules an FCS cupcake from the east coast and sells 18,000 tickets. Explain to me why Taylor should give into Faison's demand of an annual game when Taylor wants an FBS, FCS cupcake, and a bigger FCS school (Montana, Montana St., etc.). Taylor has made an offer that is for a home and home and works best for NDSU at this time. Now that UND is in the BSC the annual game might not actually work. The BSC and MVFC set the conference schedules and both schools aren't going to give up a guaranteed FBS money game. Open dates are going to become an issue now and I for one don't want to have the exact same schedule year after year which is exactly what will happen if an annual game is played right now.

Up until UND joined the Big Sky they needed all the help they could get with the FB schedule.

And it could happen two season after Faison leaves. I know UND fans feel Taylor is to blame. Well guess what NDSU fans think Faison is to blame. I guess that means both AD's are to blame. Taylor called to see if a date could work. AD's can move games around sometimes to get an open date that works. That wasn't the case with the 2011 schedule. I guess big bad Gene Taylor shouldn't have called at all. UND has the nickname and logo issue resolved. That was the issue with the Summit and scheduling UND.

With the playoff game tomorrow NDSU will break an all-time season attendance record. I don't think they need it as much as you believe. I think it would be great to see it again soon but it isn't needed by NDSU.

I believe UND and NDSU applied to the Big Sky in 1978 but were turned down. The BSC is a good fit for UND right now. It covers all sports and is in the same region that Mussman has been focusing a lot of his recruiting on lately. I don't believe that John would say something like that at all. Your story reminds me of the time you claimed that you knew a student who had an in with the NDSU administration. I am still waiting for that big story to break about the huge deficit that Hanson was covering up. Taylor made an offer to start up the rivalry again and Faison countered. I think now that UND is in the BSC most will understand why Taylor didn't want a annual game yet. Gene just called Faison last month to see if he could make a game work for next year to fill Georgia Southerns date. Neither one could get a open date to work. The process has started and the game will eventually happen. The legislature won't have to get involved.

The two AD's have been talking. That to me shows signs of progress. Gene Taylor called Faison last month when Georgia Southern bought out of thier contract with NDSU for 2011. UND doesn't share an open date with NDSU so it wasn't scheduled. It will eventually happen just like the other sports that are already scheduled. I don't think this is a good time to force a game on both schools. UND is just getting into the BSC and they need time to figure out what their schedule will look like. It would be pretty foolish to force a game right now.

Bohl had his hands tied as well. Mitch Brekke and Ryan Parsons quit the team after Bohl named Mertens the #1 QB after spring camp in 2008. I will put the blame on Bohl for not recruiting a QB for 2 or 3 years but I don't think NDSU felt that it was going to be an issue. Mertens was the starter with Brekke and Parsons as backups. Mohler was coming in that fall and everything looked to be in order. After Brekke and Parsons left Bohl was left scrambling to find a QB at the beginning of the summer. QB's were few and far between at that point and Troy Jackson was signed from a JUCO in CA. Recruiting wasn't what it should've been and Polasek was named the new recruiting coordinator after the 2008 recruiting class. Mertens struggled and Bohl didn't have another option at QB. They had to protect him because if Mertens would've went down there wasn't anyone ready to take over. Between coaches only puttiing in minimal effort before moving on to something better, kids leaving the program, kids getting into trouble and a lack of leadership it all hit the fan. Bohl is ultimately responsible for his team but Mertens didn't perform to expectations either. Six NDSU seniors from 2008 had a look from the NFL. NDSU was picked to win the conference. The talent was there in 2008 the game just didn't slow down for Mertens. 2009 was a disaster that can't be put solely on one individual. Too many selfish people on the team and they had to be removed. That didn't help Mertens one bit.

Mertens is a stand up guy. A perfect storm hit while he was at the helm with arrests, dismissals, coaching changes, etc. etc. Mertens kept his nose clean and worked his butt off in the classroom and on the field. Unfortunately I don't think he was able to showcase all of his talents and what he was limited to wasn't working for him. The kid is a wiz when it comes to academics. As a NDSU fan I have nothing but respect for Mertens and I think that can be said for many fellow fans. Emotions get the best of people at times. I would be willing to bet that a lot of the people who were ripping him the past few years would have a different view of him today.

It was mentioned this spring when all the conference speculation was flying around that in order for NDSU to be relatively competitive in the FBS the school would have to raise approx. $7 million more a year. That didn't include the 22 more scholarships needed to reach the 85 allowed for football. If things really hit the fan I could see NDSU making the move but I believe they want to make the move the right way when the money and support is there. I don't think NDSU is ready to go and ask the state for $7 million more a year for athletics. I think the best thing for UND right now would be to look at the Big Sky if/when some of those schools make the move and then build from there.

I believe NDSU is in the process of getting a network on TV. There has been talks of FSN North possibly picking up some NDSU games and also an odd mention of a few local cable companies interested in working with NDSU. A while back there was also talk of the MVFC looking at larger regional network providers. Haven't heard much lately though. The Fargodome is installing new lighting this summer to be able to broadcast in HD. At the spring game this year the four screens would flash BSN which I assumed stood for Bison Sports Network. The ND NBC network has been a good starting point for NDSU. It is getting their product out to every home in ND. NDSU has a long ways to go and I think that they are very aware of where UND is at right now and they are working hard trying to catch up. Fox College Sports is a good network to be working with and I hope NDSU will soon have a provider with that reach. However, I think that the local market needs the most attention right now. After NDSU can get a solid footing then they can focus on finding a national provider such as FCS.

Nobody can deny that the House at NDSU was grossly over budget. The Chapman's did indeed go overboard but that doesn't minimize the fact that UND was also guilty. There is a good possibility that we wouldn't be having this discussion if things had not become so far out of control but there has been a history of deceit from all corners of the NDUS going as far back as decade. Someone was bound to slip up bad enough to attract attention from the SBoHE. Chapman obviously was arrogant enough to think that this all would go unchecked. Many people refused to believe that the Chapman's would ever do something like this. If you ever walked the campus and saw Joe and talked to him you wouldn't have believed some of the things that were said either. He was a completely different person around the students and donors. Joel Hietkamp was telling everyone he could about Joe's arrogance since day 1 on air. I think denial set in and until this all came to light a lot of people didn't think it was possible. The Sanford deal has been kept very quiet from both sides. We do know that Sanford Health didn't deny that they were talking to NDSU. I believe within the discussion before of whether T. Denny is involved or Sanford alone was donating it was brought up that T. Denny was talking with the U of Minn about donating $35 million to the new football stadium but then pulled the plug after he couldn't get naming rights. As far as the dollar amount NDSU is looking for Hammersmith mentioned the $8 million already raised while they were trying the first time and Dr. Hanson mentioned that $29 million now had been raised during his interview at Bemidji State. I will agree that $30 million doesn't appear to be what is needed. There was a rumor floating around well before Hanson's interview that the money had already been raised for the BSA but were still working on $4-$5 million to fund the new track and BB/SB facility. How much of that is true we do not know because no one is saying a thing. T. Denny has been very generous with his money and has donated to many schools and charities in the area and it would only make sense for him to try to build a relationship with UND as well. A larger donation to NDSU would in theory make more sense right now since Sanford is trying to win over Fargo since they announced the merger. With the news of a possible donation to the Urban Plains Center as well it does appear that this could indeed be what is happening. Many of us were well aware of Marcil's attitude before the Radio FM contract. I was trying to state that the radio move didn't help matters by any means. Some started noticing small things not too long after NDSU started fishing around for a new radio contract three years ago. As far as the financial side goes I have a hard time believing that Hanson wouldn't bring up a $11 million deficit but run to the press about the shortfall. Forgive me if I don't feel that a former student is someone reliable enough. Yes, major red flags were raised about how Chapman was handling NDSU's business and many were in major denial but if a former student has information such as this then I am pretty confident that enough other people who need to know would know also. Something like that would have come to light by now. Dr. Hanson was hoping for the job full time and I have serious doubts that he would try to hide something like this. I would think that Hanson wouldn't want to have been tied to that in anyway just like the shortfall etc. etc.

I think everyone at NDSU has known for quite some time that Mercil isn't happy. That isn't breaking news. I'm sure NDSU leaving WDAY for Radio FM didn't help either. However, last time I checked UND also went over budget on their mansion that Mercil donated money to build. The Chapman's obviously let their project get way out of control and made a mess of things but both Universities fouled up Mercil's $1 million dollar donation for new houses not just NDSU. I have to ask if you can direct me to a link or source about the $11 million deficit and depleted reserves because I haven't been able to find any info out there other than what you have been repeating. I haven't been able to locate any info about the Athletic Department either. All I have been able to find is the info about the foundation and the BSA. I think if any of this were to be true Dr. Hanson would've brought it to the table with everything else he found. I would also like to ask what response was given at the Sanford meeting in regards to the possible donation to NDSU?

It is unclear if Sanford Health is going to be the sole donor or if Denny Sanford himself will be donating or both. We do know thanks to Dick Hanson at his Bemidji interview that NDSU has $29 million already raised. I am interested in what response you get at the meetings. Please let us know what info you can get if any.

I haven't read too much about the guy. I hope for NDSU's sake there isn't a problem.

The donation that Sanford is going to "plunk" down is about $30 million. It is not just for basketball. There is talk of an addition onto the west side of the building to house NDSU's training facilities with Sanford Health and of course the indoor track/softball/baseball facility to be built where the tennis courts currently sit. It first started as a BSA renovation but has evolved into much more. NDSU is looking at a $34-$35 million dollar total upgrade of facilities. When NDSU was first looking at adding onto the Fargodome the city agreed to spending $15 million of money that is in the dome's reserve fund and NDSU had to pony up the other $15 million. Yes, those reserves came from a sales tax to help pay for the dome and that was taken off the table after the Chapman fiasco. Like I said before when all the details are released it will make more sense. The complete project details have been kept pretty quiet so far. The public doesn't know exactly what is being discussed. Innovis can't offer the kind of money that Sanford is willing to fund. Sanford is willing to come in and spend money in the community to show they are not just coming in to take over Meritcare. Sanford is talking with the Urban Plains Center also to help move their arena to the next stage of construction. This isn't about a greedy AD as much as it is about getting NDSU where it needs to be for the future and Innovis can't help them.

The Sanford deal is further along than most people think. NDSU/Sanford are doing a good job at keeping tight lipped on this deal until everything has been covered and discussed. What Sanford has proposed for NDSU and their athletic training facility has left Innovis out in the cold. Innovis would like to still be working with NDSU but can't compete with what is being proposed. Times have changed and NDSU's needs are different than what they were a decade ago as well as UND's. I believe that once all of the plans are released many will understand the reasoning behind the new direction they are going to take. 50 years is a long time and it is a shame it had to end the way it did. Taylor was on the Innovis board and I would be willing to bet that they were approached when NDSU was looking for a corporate donor for the new arena right away. I doubt Innovis was left in the dark as to what was happening. Innovis saw the writing on the wall and chose to end their relationship with NDSU before the news of the Sanford deal is released.

Hyslop was very nice in its day. The Municipal Auditorium in Minot was a great venue also. I remember quite a few class B tournaments there. It wasn't quite what Hyslop was but when you come from a small town with a gym just big enough to fit a court inside of it both of those venues were amazing to play in.

It will also be hard finding a conference for your football team if you can't find a conference that sponsors all sports. The MVFC wouldn't even consider the XDSU's until they were in a conference for all other sports. Independents have a hard time making ends meet minus Notre Dame. Without a conference your athletic teams could struggle and money could become extremely tight. But like it has been stated before teams are constantly on the move. UND is stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. Either drop the name and risk upsetting donors or keep the name and wait for this to play out and hope that a conference is looking for a member when the dust settles. I think a low major conference like the Summit will always be looking. You just might have to wait a few years for something to come around and if you think that the athletic department can afford to continue on as an independant for a few years then maybe the nickname fight should continue. Mega dollars have already been spent on keeping the nickname it would make sense to continue on until the final deadline.