fightingsioux4life

It should also help the program that the athletic department is promoting the football team about a month before the season starts and not waiting until the week of the first home game. That kind of neglect went on for years and I think it was part of the reason Dale Lennon isn't around anymore. We'll have to keep it up to get attendance to FCS levels. Everyone used to whine and complain that they didn't go to games because "I don't like the teams we are playing". Now that we are an FCS team, we'll get better teams on the schedule and that excuse won't hold water. I also think we need more 7pm games before hockey starts. We did that in the first year in the Alerus Center and it worked out really well. I am not a big fan of these 4pm starts; have them at 7pm when hockey is out of town and then 1pm when hockey is in town. Marketing our "triple header" weekends (Hockey Friday night-Football Saturday afternoon-Hockey Saturday night) as one big event would also help. Once we get into a conference and are playoff eligible, I think our goals of solid and consistent football attendance will be more attainable. But we have to build the foundation now or else we will never get there. And that means people have to get their butts out to the Alerus Center this season whenever possible; not keep coming up with excuses why they can't or don't want to.

I understand your feelings on this issue; I share them. But the President works for the ND SBoHE and the A.D. works for the President. Getting themselves fired by standing up to the Board would not have saved the nickname and logo. All they would have accomplished was losing their jobs and throwing the campus into chaos. There are major challenges in Higher Ed right now and UND needs a solid team of leaders to tackle them. I think President Kelley and Faison are doing the best they can with multiple challenges on multiple fronts and I think this move up to Division I in all sports will turn out good in the long run.

UND is a big draw in both Minneapolis and Madison. St. Cloud and Minnesota are big rivals every year, regardless of record. Rivalries do not always correlate across sports and especially across sports seasons. And it doesn't seem to matter if some of the hockey schools are D-II or III in other sports (St. Cloud, Colorado College), the crowds keep coming anyway. Just because Michigan and Ohio State are big rivals in football does not mean it will work in hockey the same way. And I am willing to bet that UND-Minnesota is a much bigger draw than Ohio State-Minnesota. Big 10 hockey will inflict irreparable damage to hockey at those schools. A six team conference where one or two teams are good cannot match a twelve team conference (WCHA) where all but a handful of teams are good. And the Final Five cannot be matched by some cheesy Big 10 "Final Four" tournament where one or two of the teams might have losing records in conference or even overall. I hope Sid "Grandpa Sports" Hartman gets his long-time wish for a BTHC, because I would love to see the look on his face when it is a disaster. And listening to him try to spin it would be even better!

At this rate, the Women's Hockey program will surpass the Men's Basketball program in overall strength and interest!

Comments like this must drive all the Major Junior boosters crazy! They would love College Hockey to have zero draft picks if it was possible. Sorry boys, not going to happen!

If this icing while shorthanded rule is adopted, you will see powerplay conversion rates of 40 to 50% by teams. I am all for cutting down on obstruction and letting the skill players showcase their skills, but this would change the nature of the game itself. It also would magnify bad officiating calls. But I suppose we shouldn't expect anything less from the NCAA.

I'm not so sure it's that simple. This is one of those chicken and egg questions; which one comes first and nobody can really come up with a 100% bone fide answer. Think about it like this: The media hypes the NBA to the point where you can't ignore it. But the on-court product is absolute garbage. I've tried watching NBA basketball when I wasn't busy watching something else and I had to turn the channel after 10 to 15 minutes because it sucked so bad. The skills of these "professionals" are so bad compared to the players of the 1980's and 90's that the only thing that keeps that league relevant is that ESPN (which should rename SportsCenter "The NBA Tonight" during the basketball season) and the rest of the sports media hypes the league as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The fact that so many francises are in financial trouble (according to numerous media reports I have heard this season) is proof that the national sports fanbase is onto the fact that the product the NBA puts out is not worth spending their hard-earned money on. I am kind of glad that hockey (both college and the NHL) doesn't get hyped like this. It would lead to a trivialization of the sport in general and bring in a whole bunch of novice, no-nothing fans into the equation. I for one like the fact that hockey has a smaller, hard-core group of fans that know the game and follow their team with passion. I would like to have some better viewing options for the hockey fan (especially during NCAA tournament time), but the game is in good shape right now and I don't think getting the ESPN hype machine involved would make it better.

Agree 100%. I think Darby Hendrickson will get it, with Gorg doing the player/coach interviews between periods and after the game.

I agree with you, you have to spend money to make money. And you have to spend money to get results. We have to pump money and other types of resources into these programs or they'll never turn into anything special.

You are correct about the Men's BB program, that program hasn't been relevant for about 15 years and counting. It's almost as irrelevant as Michigan Tech in hockey. I was thinking into the future of the Men's BB program, when we get it out of the deep hole it is in right now and get people excited about it again. Once that happens, we will have to step up marketing efforts or we'll waste a great opportunity. And while the Men's program is in the toilet, the Women's program is in solid shape and will probably compete for a spot in the NCAA tournament once they are tournament eligible in a few years. You are right, football should be marketed on it's own merits. It's the main reason we moved up and we can't keep treating it like a red-headed stepchild like we have for years. It's why Dale Lennon is at Southern Illinois and it's why we'll lose Chris Mussman in the future if we don't start treating football better.

When the new REA was under construction, we kept hearing the naysayers tell us that Grand Forks in particular and North Dakota in general isn't big enough to fill an 11,500 seat arena. Nine years and a bunch of sellouts later, no one is making that argument anymore. People outside of the immediate Grand Forks area get season hockey tickets and drive in for every home game. This is the model that must be followed for each and every sport UND sponsors. Those triple-header hockey-football weekends we sometimes have in the fall could be marketed to fans outside the immediate GF area. Football will be bringing in better athletes and better opponents and that will give us more marketing tools than ever to elevate that sport to higher levels of interest and success. Basketball could develop a rabid, loyal fan base of it's own by marketing to people that aren't into hockey or can't get tickets because of finances or availability. But all of this will require that the athletic department do a better job of marketing and promotion, two areas that have seriously been lacking at this institution for years. The hockey-only mantra that has driven the athletic department for years must stop now that we are Division 1 in everything. Otherwise, we shouldn't have moved up in the first place. This challenge will determine whether Brian Faison is a success or failure as our AD.

You are right, he was too harsh in his assessment.

I think he was talking about the fact that those players did not bring home an NCAA title to Grand Forks. Which is (like it or not, for better or worse) the gold standard for our program.

Brad Schlossman at the Heraldo would agree with that.

This team will be much better next year with all these players coming back. I don't see us losing a lot of underclassmen and we don't lose a lot to graduation. Next year is the year to make a run at #8! GO SIOUX!!!

I think it's time to establish Pay-Per-View options so that people that want to watch these games can just order them and watch them and not have to worry about all this crap. I would certainly fork over the cash to watch all the games I could in one weekend. As far as I'm concerned, "tape delay" is the same as not showing it at all. This is a live sporting event, not a Brady Bunch rerun.

Nice job calling me out Rick. I guess I should apologize now. Sorry, not happening. Please note that I did NOT call for a coaching change, I simply didn't think this team would be able to make a second half run this year. I really did think they were out of time. I figured that this team would be better next year with a bunch of young guys coming back and possibly Genoway getting a medical redshirt. I am very happy I was wrong and I think we have a decent chance to hang our eighth NCAA banner in a few weeks. If you want "duckies and bunnies", don't look here. You won't find it.

We were sluggish last night and so was UMD; I think it was the impact of playing three games last weekend and then playing just four days later. We'll have to play sharper and better and with more energy to win tonight. I really want some payback on Denver and this is a good place to get it. We have to dig down deep tonight. GO SIOUX!!!

Nice Sioux-cia, but I like this even better! Ed Flanders Final Scene on St. Elsewhere

Section 125, Row 25, Seats 20-21. I've had these seats since 2002.

Everyone knew that Minnesota would come out with more energy and would play harder. The home team did not have that edge that a team needs to have to finish off a sweep and that is why we will have a game on Sunday night instead of packing our bags for St. Paul. The Power Play sucked, the Penalty Kill sucked and we were average 5 x 5 for most of the game. We had a lot of shots from the outside tonight without enough traffic in front and most goaltenders will take that all night long. The Gophers did do a good job of plugging up the slot area and didn't give us too many rebound chances, but again, we should have expected they would tighten things up after last night and we didn't respond like I hoped we would have. And after we gave up two quick goals in the third to lose the lead, we kind of faded away. We must get the lead early on Sunday and then keep pouring it on for 60 minutes or we'll be watching the Final Five on television instead of playing in it. And that will hurt our seeding in the NCAA tournament. I really think that this team's chances to make it to Detroit depend greatly on winning this series. Our season is on the line tomorrow night and we'll have to come out firing on all cylinders. I think we'll get it done, but it won't be easy.

Amen to everything you just said. Some people have tickets and can't make it for a variety of legitimate reasons, but the gold-digging behavior is just plain wrong! We have a huge playoff series against one of our biggest rivals in any sport and we need loyal Fighting Sioux fans there. GO SIOUX!!!

The Gophers have to win the Final Five to get to the NCAA Tournament. If we lose next weekend, we still figure to get an at-large bid. Of course, our seeding will suffer big-time if that happens. And the humiliation of losing in the first round at home to the Rodents would be hard to swallow. We...must...win...next...weekend!

You couldn't hear yourself think! And we had a lot of time to celebrate Jason Blake's game-tying goal because Doug "Woogie" Woog took his timeout one goal too late to make a bit of difference. I miss the Wooger behind the bench, he was fun to torment! I would love to have that type of atmosphere next weekend.

I believe that was the Valentine's Day weekend Saturday-Sunday afternoon series in 1998. That was the Sunday afternoon game where we trailed 3-0 in the third period and scored 5 unanswered goals (including the empty netter) to sweep the Rodents. The live gopher was thrown on the ice after the 2 on 1 goal by the Panzer brothers cut the Gopher lead to 3-2. I still have the game on VHS at home and I will NEVER part with it! I wonder how many students are changing their Spring Break travel plans even as we speak! We need a jam packed Ralph next weekend, I want Rodentia on the golf course while we are winning the Broadmoor Trophy in St. Paul! GO SIOUX!!!