mg2009

i think the rock died around 2006, right around when JB's opened and the uptown/downtown reopened and orealys and level10. I think grandforks nightlife, at least for the college age crowd, is pretty solidified downtown now.

jesus, one derelict mostly abandoned building being demolished and replaced hardly means grand forks is a boomtown, but I'm not going to go after that one today. anyway, thrilled to see that dump get leveled. I've lived nearby for 3 years, went to the dunder all of twice, and actually forgot campus liquors existed. win win win for all involved.

'great programs' and you list idaho and two football only members. the bigsky is an absolutely awful basketball conference, and the only reason its stable is because none of the schools in it can do any better. What does it tell you that denver chose the awful, terrible, unstable summit over the big sky? the only reason the bigsky is stable is that there is nowhere better for those schools to go. Unless you are in the big10, sec, or pac-12, everyone is always looking for something better. The atlantic 10 sees turnover of its members, this is not a bad thing. The rest of the UND fanbase appears to be satisfied with remaining at the bottom indefinitely and competing for an annual 15 seed in the tourney once a decade. I guess i shouldn't be surprised, this is the same fanbase that needed the jaws of life to pry it from division 2. Aside from NDSU potential joining the MAC or MWC or some such fantasy 10+ years down the road, where would any of those schools go? The MWC and MAC won't accept a non-football school, the MVC is probably out of reach for any of them aside from maybe denver, and the OVC is pretty stable and trending south (geographically). The only strike against the summit ever posed here is that it's unstable, which is basically a perception problem. The league I laid out would be pretty competitive, roughly on par with the ovc for instance, and be fairly stable because all those schools are pretty isolated, even the wisconsin schools. Basically the big sky except with the addition of competitive athletics. What happens if Montana gets an invite to the MWC (about as likely as NDSU to the MAC imo), would you really want to stay in the big sky? After all, every argument in favor of the bigsky seems to come down to buttStability and buttMontana.

thanks for your contribution to this discussion. It's nice having little stalkers who get butthurt because my opinion deviates from the groupthink. UND deserves better than the big sky. You are allowed to think otherwise, and i won't accuse you of not being a fan of UND because you think so low of UND that you think the bigsky is appropriate. I actually have standards for my school, I'm sorry that you don't.

i think the idea is that if the horizon loses YSU to the CAA and detroit and lets say cleveland state to the A10, how fast are the other schools going to head for the exits? Thats why I said that if the horizon dies, it will die fast. If it lingers, they will just backfill with summit schools until there is noone left. I have no interest in being in a conference with the montana or idaho schools. Give me the 5 I-29 schools, western illinois, the UW's and whoever is interested/remaining out of UNC+ Denver, Oakland, and whatever is left for the Chicago and Indiana schools.

either the horizon or summit or both is going to die. possibly both. The horizon could collapse in a hurry, the summit on the other hand will likely die a slow, slow death.

NDSU and UND (as well as both SD's and montanas) are academic peers. Both (all) are only passable schools, and none of them have anyroom to talk trash.

much like your post.

NDSU is still a ways away from being a realistic target for a moveup, and thats with being a dynastic lower division football superpower at their apex with all the benefits that come from their location. I would hesitate to even put UND among the top 20 targets for a 1-a conference. we've been a full fcs school for a year with a 4-6 record ignoring mines. This isn't to say that we can't get there, but at this point it's pretty ludicrous

becasue they've been consistantly going in the direction of making it easier for non-major schools to get there for one thing. NIU got there because the rules were made easier for non-majors. Considering the legal issues involved, why would they walk it back? they aren't, and won't, and they will make it even more inclusive.

we haven't seen the big conferences break off in basketball to keep the money, why would they do it in football? especially considering the brazen legal and political risks? The big schools and conferences already get massively more money and will continue to do so, and the little bit more they could theoretically get from excluding the MWC, mac, etc just is not going to be worth it. Once the big ten gets it's new deal in place in 2 years, each school will be making more than the entire MWC. Clearly they will exclude the MWC so they can up their take 5%. its nonsense. never going to happen.

why is the bsc going to break off again? whats the motivation? on the contrary money is about to flood into every level of FBS college football.

http://kfgo.com/on-air-details.php?ID=2408

rumor is that when WKU moves to cusa, JMU will get a sunbelt invite. If so, winners of 8 of the last 15 titles will no longer be in the division. I can definitely see some of the other east coast school getting trigger happy, and Delaware will be a team to watch as they are already being named as a potential realignment target in basketball. UMASS GSU x2 WKY JMU ASU x3

ysu would probably be target #1 should the caa look for a football school. Furman or wofford or both could lobby hard, especially if davidson leaves the socon, though i think their lack of hoops cred would be a big problem. The caa could go after a basketball only school to replace the george mason, though i don't think that would happen. Really hard to see how this works out.

app state and GSU appear to be officially sunbelt bound.

I took physics as an elective while getting my BA in econ, wound up taking the calculus courses (which i should have anyways, contra my advisors) now i'm almost done with an engineering degree which had never even crossed my mind before my junior year in college. I didn't even know that engineering was a thing coming out of high school. Taking an extra year or two really isn't a big deal, I don't think college is something you should rush, although my route has been far longer than i would wish on anyone who wants to remain sane. what does concern me are the laughably low admissions standards for the school. I know of at least half a dozen people who have gotten into UND with sub-18's on their act. We let these people in, pack them into giant lecture halls, take their money and kick them out a year and 20 grand poorer. It does a huge disservice to those people and in my opinion detracts from the academic and intellectual culture of the school.

i heard from a player in my class that they might be delayed for a week, and use the alerus otherwise. also the locker rooms are apparently closed for remodel or something along those lines.

i agree with watchmaker. pointing out that a piece of legislation is being pushed by a particular is no more political than ignoring it in order to be 'not-political'

this will be their BB arena as well i presume? Nice looking facility, hopefully it will allow them to bring back at least wrestling in the near future.

regarding previous posters, i agree that any signal saying denver isn't interested should be taken with a grain of salt. nothing says intellectual honesty like comparing the closest school to DU to the not nearly closest school to NDSU, or including a school that is allegedly leaving as evidence to support that most schools have direct service to denver. The 30 minute flight to chicago or msp and hour layover to fargo is hardly a big deal compared to the cost of a plane ticket over a short bus ride. The travel situation between fargo and mvc schools is little different in practice than denver to mvc schools. Both will require a flight in a bus-league. 490 miles fargo to cedar falls.

have you ever actually looked at a map? Denver is about 450 miles from witchita, which in itself will now be on the outskirts of the MVC. Once you're in an airport your in an airport, and there isn't much difference between peoria to chicago to fargo than there is from peoria to chicago to denver. Anyway this conversation is moot as apparently denver wishes to remain i the summit, for whatever reason. edit: another point against denver. Its absolutely not in the interest of the MVC football schools to raid and potentially demolish the summit. As the USD situation made clear, there is a degree mutual dependence between the summit and the MVC.

denver is about as far out of the footprint as NDSU, and geography seemed to be a big deal.

as far as FBS goes, no, we don't have the facilities, location, or fan and institutional support to even talk about it in a serious manner. while adding the IPF is great for recruiting and training, its small beans in the big picture. there is no reason why UND, NDSU, SDSU or USD can't compete at an elite level in basketball. The main problems are fan support and institutional commitment, neither of which we have, though we are far closer in fan support than commitment.

wyoming and utep have titles.