GFG

I agree with the North Dakota one, although UND hockey is very popular the Vikings are without a doubt more supported. Minnesota is a tough one, because the Vikings and Twins are both VERY popular in Minnesota. In fact, IIRC, the Twins are top 5 in MLB TV ratings pretty much every season, and they're always ahead of the Yankees. In reality that's a very tough call, especially to not even give the Twins a close second mention My Favorite: Alaska - University of Alaska-Anchorage Ice Hockey The rest of their sports scene must be pretty fricken empty then

Aww, didn't see that it was $40million to change from a regular to retractable. So it would probably cost somewhere between $60-$80million if they put it on right away since they wouldn't have to pay to take down the closed roof and it wouldn't be as big as the Vikings roof would have been. The retractable roof would definitely be a very large price, but I really think that if UND can prove they're a contender every year in the next decade there will probably be a large movement to build an on-campus stadium again and, although it costs a lot more, a retractable roof would be the best way to go with our environment. You never know, by that time the technology could have advanced much further, making one by todays standards MUCH cheaper. The last 40 years are far different than what the state of North Dakota is going to experience budget wise for at least the next half century. The state is going to have far more money than it will know what to do with. The last 40 years they were smart with their spending and not giving the universities money for athletics because they didn't want to risk ending up with a large budget deficit. Going forward I would expect things to change with all the oil money.

The U of North Texas just built a 32,000+ seat stadium for $78million, so no UND's wouldn't have to be insanely expensive like you're saying. That would be if they want all the bells and whistles with it. A retractable roof isn't $100million, in fact they were looking at getting a $40million retractable roof for the Vikings new stadium at one point. Also, it should be known that the University of Minnesota only paid for 52% of TCF, and the state of Minnesota paid for the other 48%. If UND can get some sort of deal like that they can afford to make a pretty nice stadium (they should be able to get some sort of deal with the amount of money the state of North Dakota will have). The cost of TCF is different than most stadiums as well. It's considered one of the nicest stadiums in college football, despite its small size. It has the largest locker room in college and professional football. The giant video board alone at TCF was over $9million. It was the first football stadium, college or professional, to be LEED certified. There's just a ton of small things like that, that drove the price of TCF much higher than it had to be. Without all the small bells and whistles they could have built a stadium that seats 50,000 people for $150million or less. Using capacity as what you think the cost should be is wrong. Cowboys Stadium only holds 80,000 people but cost $1.3billion. Minnesota EASILY could have built a 80,000 capacity stadium at a VERY small percentage of what that stadium cost. Like I said, it's the bells and whistles and other amenities that drive the price up, not what the capacity of the stadium is.

I dont know if Lambeau has it. TCF has heating coals underneath the field now for cold weather games because of the Vikings. I personally haven't noticed any heaters around the concourse level at TCF when it's cold. I really don't care, though. Outdoor football is 100% better than indoor football, even if it is cold outside. I like UND football, but I can't stand the Alerus Center for a football game. There's something about it that just makes the game boring, and I think the closed roof is a big reason for that. Don't mean to argue, but I have a strong feeling donors would be much more willing to donate for a brand new football stadium vs. an IPF. Not to mention the money UND can recieve for naming rights for a new stadium

Aww, good call. I thought the roofs were a little cheaper but it seems like a roof the university would buy woud probably run anywhere between 20 and 40 million. Even with the roof I see absolutely no reason that construction for a stadium like this should surpass $150 million. I'd actually put it around $120 million. It is a lot, but this would still be at least 10 years off I'm sure. With the absurd budget surplus the state of North Dakota will have by that time because of oil, it wouldn't be wrong to think UND might be able to get a pretty fair chunk of cash towards it if everything is planned right.

A lot, yes. Insane, no. I'd have to guess it would probably be anywhere between the 50-70 million dollars MAX.

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong or if you've heard something different, but I've heard from an architect that he helped design plans for a new UND football stadium a couple years ago and that they're just waiting until the Alerus can't hold the demand for UND football anymore. He said when they made the plans for UND that it was expected they would build the new stadium some time around 2020-2022 but could be sooner if needed. I can't remember specifics but he said they were going to build a stadium where Memorial is right now and that they would incorporate the current west side of Memorial into the new stadium. I believe he also said it would be built for a capacity around 20k-25k and that they actually had plans for a retractable roof on it. Not sure if anyone else has heard this, but this is what I was told by the architect.

To me it is different circumstances. Minnesota and North Dakota have just about always been powers in hockey, no matter who the coach was. Penn State football, however, basically has no claim to a storied history anymore because Paterno was their entire history. Before he came along that program had never done anything that mattered. They still have their 2 national titles, but those were both won with Paterno at the helm. History wise, they're starting a whole new program. Their new head coach realizes this too and there's many rumors circulating that they could be debuting new jersey's to get away from the historical look they had throughout the Paterno era to move away from that time as quick as they can

The scholarships ban + the 4 year bowl ban and black eye that was left by Sandusky absolutely decimates their football program. They can only have 65 players on scholarship for four years instead of 85 and they can only bring 15 new scholarship players every year during those four years. That's going to completely cripple their program. Recruiting will be a nightmare for them because they have nothing special about them anymore. Joe Paterno was the Penn State football program, and with him and all of his accomplishments gone, they literally have nothing. Their program will be destroyed for at least a decade, and that's a guarantee. I'll go as far as to saying it will be well over a decade from now before they get back to the level they were at, maybe a couple decades. They just got lucky they didn't get the 4 year death penalty that was almost given to them. They'll have a VERY tough time even competing with a team like Indiana, guaranteed.

Haha it's from the movie Team America World Police I actually don't mind the Wild's uniforms, although I will admit it could be better with a different color scheme. I personally think they have one of the best, if not the best logo in the NHL

No problem with legalizing visors in my book. They just need to keep the rule open so that if a player wants to wear a full cage as an option they can, which from some of the stuff I saw a month or so ago they will not allow. It seemed as if they were saying mandatory visors for everyone and no cages allowed.

Awesome get for the Wild! So excited. As for the former Sioux/Badger thing, once players reach the NHL that stuff doesn't bother me at all, it's all in the past and means nothing once they reach the NHL, IMO. I support pretty much any former college player in the NHL, unless they're Canadian. 'Merica or nothin'! The Wild signing two elite Americans on the 4th of July just makes this even better!

So does this mean we as Gopher fans are correct when we call UND team Canada? Honestly...I don't understand those reasons. For every reason that was given UND was the better choice IMO. Especially when it comes to academics. Unless they're trying to say a UND education isn't worth much. I kid, I kid.

That's what I was saying. It seems the US is producing a higher number of quality players than ever before and Canadian MJ teams are taking notice to it and recruiting more and more US born players. There's really nothing you can do about it, but I really do believe we're "seeing more" go that route just because we're producing more hockey players now than we used to.

I don't understand. Nobody on here thinks what I said earlier is even plausible or what?

Do I get a congratulations for finishing my Associates degree today

I think part of the reason we're seeing more American players go into the CHL is that our country is starting to develop more and more talent every year. Its been showing at the international level the past decade. Especially the last 3 or 4 years when we've been consistently beating Canada and winning world championships at the 15-20 year old age group. It's no doubt the CHL is taking notice to all the talent rising in the US and you can bet that they'll be recruiting a lot heavier than ever before. As the US keeps producing more and more hockey talent expect more to start going to Major Juniors

Can't deny that.

They know how much alumni UND has in the TC area. They don't want to lose out on those thousands that attend every year in st paul right now. Target Center may not be the best venue, but as far as money goes it is their best bet.

Never said he got outrun or caught up to from behind (Which really should never happen to any halfway decent HS runningback). Most of the defenders have about the same speed as him when they chase after him. Seems like most of the time the defense just wasn't ready for him because of how hard he hit the holes (Which is understandable in high school) and by the time they respond he's going by them. Once they turn and start running after him, though, it seems like he's about the same speed as most of the people chasing him. He's got good vision and hits the hole hard, but just doesn't have breakaway speed IMO.

He hits the hole very hard but he doesn't seem very fast. Looks like an average high school runningback when it comes to speed. He doesn't necessarily out run anybody in that video. Doesn't look quick or shifty either. He would definitely be a third down back IMO

Another hard part is getting fans to actually wear the color. Minnesota has been trying to do gold outs for the past 5 years now and half the crowd will wear gold and the other half still shows up in maroon, gray, white, etc.

Gotta agree, it's nice to have talent of that level in college hockey (even if it is UND with it ) but he handed this the way it should be handled. Kudos and good luck to him.

Seth Jones has officially signed with Portland, not that it's much of a surprise anymore. http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=133643012834602900

After seeing some of the non-conference games Minnesota is picking up when they join the B1G conference, it seems to me that they usually make a lighter non-conference schedule in the WCHA because it is usually the top conference in college hockey. If you're playing top teams almost night in and night out I assume their logic is "we don't need top teams to boost us up in the rankings for non-conference games." If you look at their non-conference games once they go to the B1G it's almost ridiculous, which makes sense because it's a small conference and you're going to need to play some big teams in non-conference games to get a bump in the rankings. They have non-conference series against BC, ND, possibly DU and CC or UND (still hasn't been clarified for that), UMD just about every year and the other Minnesota schools (granted not all of those schools will help a lot). They're kicking it up a notch, which leads me to assume it's because they know their future conference won't be as strong as the current WCHA and they know they need the boost with non-conference games now. Just my 2 cents, chime in if you see another reason.