fightingsioux4life

How many of those kids will have Penn State on their list without Paterno in charge of the program? He was the heart and soul of their program and now he's gone.

I agree with you, but it's easy to say that from a distance. Imagine if we were Idaho and NDSU was Boise State. Would you "embrace" being left behind by NDSU? The right thing to do is not always the easy thing. I think if they did drop down to FCS, they would win more games and that would make the move easier to swallow. Losing is just no fun.

I guess I want UND to subject NDSU to this type of marketing. Fire up all the UND alums that live in Fargo; that will serve the duel purpose of annoying the heck out of Bison fans and building our own programs up in the media (both traditional and social). When UND won the Division II Football title in 2001, there wasn't enough fist pumping from our fan base like there was when NDSU won the FCS title last year. Same with the 1997-98-99 women's basketball titles vs. NDSU's women's basketball titles. And I really don't want to hear the usual comebacks to those examples (hockey is all that matters in GF and football doesn't mean anything; Fargo is a bigger media market so they get everything and we get nothing), because if we keep thinking like that, our move up to Division I will not be successful beyond having a winning record every year, having a good won-loss record at home and upsetting a few big-time schools every couple of years. The contract with Midco Sports and the solidifying of the coaching staffs of all our teams are good steps in this direction. But we'll have to have the resolve and determination to see it through to the end.

You didn't read what I wrote all that carefully: I said they make it seem like they are on someone's radar and that can help win recruiting battles and make the whole campus feel like it's going places. Building a successful athletic department is more than bricks and mortar and dollars and cents. It's how you project yourself to current and potential stakeholders.

This attitude is precisely why NDSU has done a much better job of marketing their programs than we have over my lifetime. They always have made it seem like the whole world is watching NDSU and Fargo, ND. The whole world isn't watching them, of course, but this type of marketing and promotion helps draw top-notch recruits, private donors for scholarships and students. In today's hyper-media driven world, how people perceive you is just as important as what you actually are. A vibrant, outgoing media personality like Dan Hammer will help us in this area. So will the investments Midco is making into their sports division. Bottom line: If you come across as backwater, bush league and "local yokel", then that is what you will become.

Compared to the Great West, the BSC is big-time.

So UND hockey should have the "feel" of minor league baseball or Mississippi high school football? I don't think that is the type of "charm" that a world-class program like ours should use to promote itself.

The 2007 settlement does not allow us to remain nameless.

I guess I am just trying to be positive about it. Hammer did some hockey games back in the 1980's and has remained familiar with it since. Getting a big name from another market might not work out like you are thinking it would; that person wouldn't know Jack Squat about the program or what it has accomplished over the years. I say give "The Hammer" a chance before we break out the torches and pitchforks.

Dan Hammer is a big upgrade over Pat "Story Hour" Sweeney.

Yeah baby, it's Hammer Time again!

Hey, you beat me to it! This would be a major upgrade in quality of coverage! Man, things just keep getting better and better for UND sports!

I think I renamed them the Politburo and the Secretary-General during the early years of the fight against the NCAA. But I like your version as well.

I would never want the growth rates of the oil patch (it's impossible to find and afford housing, the roads are jammed with big, heavy trucks that destroy the roads) or of Fargo-Moorhead, Sioux Falls, Omaha, ect. What I get sick and tired of are the obviously flawed census estimates showing that Grand Forks is somehow losing people left and right, while all these new homes and apartments are being built. This gives the world the impression that nobody wants to live here anymore. That can impact what businesses choose to locate here, what type of transportation funding we can get, ect. My only point was (and still is) is that businesses and developers are not going to spend millions of dollars to build in an area that is declining in population and/or quality of life. They obviously have done their marketing research and that research tells them there is a market here that hasn't been served. Most people in Grand Forks (or anywhere else in North Dakota) don't want to live in the urban sprawl that Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo-Dilworth-Horace-Harwood-Casselton has become. The problem is the arrogant attitude of some Fargoans, which rubs the rest of the state the wrong way; this rubbing our noses in the population gains of the Cass-Clay County MSA. The headline in the Fargo Forum in 2010 after the Census numbers came in was "Boom goes the Metro". It might as well have said "Boom goes the Ego". Fargo tries so hard to be “just like Minneapolis” (I think I should just call it Minneapolis, Jr. from now on) when they should just count their blessings and do their best to manage their growth so that it doesn’t poison the quality of life that North Dakotans value so much. This also will make it harder to get downstream residents to support the F-M Diversion Project, which I support and which is needed.

Yeah, but they will NEVER leave their beloved MVFC. They talk like it's the SEC of FCS conferences.

If this happens, it would really tick off the Bison faithful. Their precious Summit League/MVFC arrangement would not look so great anymore.

It didn't, I generally take things with a grain of salt. It just would have helped if you had put a smiley face after it.

I call them as I see them.

Everyone that is left without a viable conference home should just go and join the squeaky-clean, academics first-second-and-third Pioneer League.

Somebody is moving into those apartment buildings and townhomes. Otherwise, they wouldn't be building them. Me and my wife just purchased a townhome on the south side and we were fortunate to snatch it up before someone else did. Houses are being sold almost as soon as they get listed. Bottom line: Grand Forks has recovered from the 1997 flood and is moving forward. Not as fast as The Center of the Known Universe (Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo-Dilworth and whichever other towns they want to add to it), but it is moving forward.

Yeah, I didn't agree with him on that. But I liked a lot of the things he said in the campaign about growing and moving Grand Forks forward. That, and the snotty editorial Mike Jacobs wrote in the Heraldo bashing Grandstrand and endorsing Brown.

This is why I voted for Tyrone Grandstrand in the mayoral race in June. He seemed to grasp the concern that while Grand Forks is doing well, there are things that could be improved. Nothing against Michael Brown, but I hope his eventual successor is a younger, more energetic mayor that takes tnt's approach toward economic and infrastructure development.

But I don't think this is an example of that. Grand Forks is primarily growing on the SOUTH END and that doesn't figure to change much. They are not going to give up a prime location on 32nd Avenue South and leave that area to Super Target, Super One Foods and Columbia Mall. I suppose they could close the southend Wal-Mart and use that space to expand Sam's Club (which is also very, very busy). That would also be a big plus for Grand Forks.

The current Wal-Mart in Grand Forks is NOT a "smaller, older" store. It's a Wal-Mart Supercenter that was extensively renovated and expanded about five or six years ago. It also is located on the biggest, busiest corridor in Grand Forks. I really don't think they are going to close it down anytime soon. You are probably thinking about Target building a Super Target and then vacating the space and leaving it alone for several years. That was an upgrade from a regular Target to a Super Target (with a grocery store and a Starbucks). This is Wal-Mart building another SuperCenter in Grand Forks because of increased demand. I have said it before; Grand Forks IS growing.

The last weekend of August (when UND students come back), I do not set foot in any store in town. It's just too crazy.