WeAreNorthDakota

Agreed. I'd take Freund/Dressler/Chappel over Hardin/Miller/Hanson before seeing Hanson in live game action but the depth of this team is far and away better than anything we've ever seen here.

Even in Grand Forks, I hear Minnesota more often refered to as the "U"

Because 2 weeks ago he was just a guy that was walking on. After the all-star game, he got a scholarship offer from NDSU and was being pursued by the Badgers. That's a pretty intriguing development for a guy that was flying under our radar. I think all fans of FCS programs get excited when they get a player who had interest from a BCS school. Generally that kind of talk happens in the fall and around signing day, this just happens to be happening in July and with a guy who is walking on. Like you said, it's an odd situation but it's also one that is worthy of a little preseason excitement.

He accepted a preferred walk on so there was no reason to offer him a scholarship until there was word of other schools trying to swoop in. At that point there were no more scholarships available to give. Although I'm guessing Muss is looking at ways to get him some money if that's what it takes to keep him.

Schobert is listed on the fall roster http://www.fightingsioux.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=58641&SPID=6399&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=13500&SORT_ORDER=1&Q_SEASON=2012&PRINTABLE_PAGE=

Considering new student orientation has already taken place, Joe is registered for classes at UND. I'm gonna say BUY and I really hope I'm not wrong.

Looks like for every school, the darker color was used for the sky. I like the look of ours a lot but I would be interested to see how it would look inverted.

I'm scared to even watch this. There are so many awful Call Me Maybe videos out there. I hope Grand Forks didn't just add to the gag reel.

I didn't notice the first time I watched the video, but wow, you're not kidding. Looks like it takes at least two guys to lift that thing.

No, the Big Sky has their own streaming service called Big Sky TV. From the link provided above: "The Big Sky Conference has teamed with America One (formerly B2 Networks) to bring you this season's action. Fans can enjoy all football, volleyball, men's and women's basketball games played in Big Sky venues for free."

The nice thing about the Big Sky is that every game that is played in a Big Sky venue is available on their webcast. Doesn't include hockey but it shouldn't leave you guessing as to what game's you'll be able to see. Also a great way to keep tabs on our new conference rivals without worrying about what channel's going to broadcast the game. I've been pretty satisfied with the quality of webcasts when I hook my laptop to my flatscreen with an HDMI cable.

Everyone wearing a North Dakota jersey. I could not possibly be more excited for this season.

Thrown by Hanson? Buy Intercepted by our defense? Buy also

I'll buy that as well.

Zeb Miller was #8 on the special teams list. I expect Brenneman and Hanson to be on the top 10 lists at d line and quarterback and possibly Miller at running back. Hardin at receiver is another possibility.

BUY!

Buy. Not only will it be a big draw for our fans, but Montana travels very well. When they came here for men's basketball last season I'd bet there were 50-75 Montana shirts walking around. I imagine they'll bring at least 300 fans for this one.

I think women's hockey should be close to breaking even every year if they can maintain a top 2 or 3 spot in national attendance. They certainly won't be a big drain on a budget. Same goes for volleyball, which I imagine is a much cheaper sport to run. That makes the 5th and 6th biggest sports at UND who are having a minimal impact on the budget. Couple that with a huge revenue sport in hockey, and a potential big revenue sport in football and you have an athletic department that is set up for long term stability. p.s. If anybody has women's hockey or volleyball figures that proves me wrong, please provide them. I'm just going on assumptions and a basic knowledge of how college athletics works from a business standpoint.

If any of the other coaches have the success that Hakstol and the hockey program have had, their salaries will go way up. You can't just pay your coaches more and expect success to follow, it's the other way around.

Best case scenario, they both start and make an impact which would fill a huge void in our defense. If that's the case, our defense could be very good. Worst case scenario, they both back up the current guys and provide some preseason competition but would still leave the safety position and our pass defense suspect.

That's my thinking also. I think some UND fans like to say it was "the hardest schedule in school history" to rationalize the 3-8 record. It probably was the toughest schedule they've played but not a lot harder than this last year's. The truth is that the 2011 team was significantly better than the 2010 version.

That may be true, but I think he deserves to see these last two recruiting classes play out. When this extension is up, the 2 most recent recruiting classes will have just finished their redshirt senior and redshirt junior seasons. They will also be the first two classes to play entirely outside the transition (except any true freshmen from this last season). I think that's a fair point to evaluate his D1 coaching worth. I may be more patient than most fans and even a lot of athletic directors, but I would rather give him his shot than risk hiring a new guy who flops while Mussman has success elsewhere.

The reason I believe UND has a higher "top end" than those schools is the fact that the hockey team already supports the athletic department in the same way that football does at those schools. If you look at each school's "Top 2" sports, I think only Montana can match UND's hockey/football combo with their combo of football and men's basketball. It's a big IF but if UND can get football attendance numbers back to the level of the years leading up to the transition and be a playoff contender every year, they would be considered one of the top 3 or 4 FCS-level athletic departments.

It certainly is an exciting time to be a UND fan. The fact that the hockey program is such a huge revenue source puts the athletic department as a whole at a unique advantage. Most schools rely on football or an outstandingly attended other sport (like basketball at Weber St) to drive athletic budgets. UND is one of maybe a handful of schools whose hockey revenue could support their athletic department if football was removed from the equation. The schools that rival UND in the department (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Boston College, Michigan, etc.) likely couldn't support their athletic budgets in Big 6 conferences without the revenue from football. UND could feasibly grow football to the point where it could support the athletic department without hockey and vice versa. There are very few schools with multiple teams that could support an athletic department (Ohio State, Michigan State, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas are a few that come to mind.) With potentially profitable mens and womens basketball teams and self-sustaining volleyball and womens hockey teams, UND has an opportunity to become a (if not the) premiere FCS-level athletic department.

Totally agree. And it appears that coach Hardee has the team ready to compete right away in the Big Sky. I would not be the least bit surprised to see the volleyball team have the highest finish of all of the new Big Sky sports this year.