nodak651

Fire Chaves

Holy put words in his mouth...

needs to pass that one back!

Wow when BGSU's rink is full I gotta say it's a top 10 arena. Looks a lot like the old ralph.

Anyone catch the end of the Coastal Carolina vs Northern Illinois game? @Midwestern Hawk Reminded me of when the clock ran out on us before halftime during one of our games this year.

Mods please ban him for this.

Could the frozen face off resemble the wcha tourney with st. Thomas and Mankato in the mix? I think it could...

Wow. Huge improvement. That will be a fun one I think. Way better name than Dixie and we should be able to win it. Given it's still December I reserve my right to be optimistic. I like Bubba, but I agree that 6 wins or less = new coach. We have 6 games before our bye week. If we have 3 or more losses at that point, I would pull the trigger then and make Freund Interim - give him the bye week to get things in order and see what he can do with the second half of the season. Being that it's still December, I deserve the right to be optimistic: @Nebraska - L N Iowa - W @NAU - W @SIU - W MSU - W @YSU - L BYE SDSU - W ACU - W @ISU - L USD - W @NDSU - W

Which sucks because he could have called our Utah State game!

Do we typically allocate any scholarships to kickers? If not we should.

Is it a binary option? Both would take a lot of work and convincing to achieve, but I think both would be beneficial. Why are you try to make it a competition when neither strategy really affects the other? In regard to your football example, Summit membership wouldn't change.

Maybe DU and UNO (if they don't get selected by the MVC next week) realize that it is worth it in the long run. By either agreeing to move the NCHC under the Summit banner, it would help to stabilize their current conference, which would make the Summit more desirable, as neither school would have to worry as much about the other leaving. DU would like St. Thomas to stay in the Summit league, as many of their students come from the twin cities and UST has a very similar academic profile to DU. UST is also fairly close to UNO, so UNO wanting UST to remain in the Summit makes sense for cost/geography reasons as well. With hockey under the Summit banner, they would have a commissioner that everyone already seems to like and respect, and he would understand everything there is to know in the operation of a hockey conference - nothing much would really need to change. Bringing UST on board for hockey would help both of these schools by stabilizing the conference (which they may understand they need to live with) and it also allows greater access to the hotbed of the twin cities for player recruitment, both for UNO/DU, and other schools in the NCHC as well. With the conf tourney and UST both located in St. Paul, it would help with tournament attendance ($$$) and marketing also. A Summit league with hockey would be greater than the sum of the current Summit league and NCHC. It would be a hugely important Synergy for the conference, and yes, it would take buy-in from the conference, but that is what it takes if we want a league that's worth a damn. Nothing worth having comes free or easy.

Three of the biggest flight risks are from UST, UNO, and Denver, and none have football. There is no reason the Summit couldn't allow affiliate members to those schools because they either are D3 or D2, or they are in a FBS conference that is out of the footprint. Having associates is a non factor if they have no ability to join the Summit for all sports. All the Summit would have to do in regard to UNO, UST, and DU is make a rule that states existing members can't leave the Summit and remain associates in any sport. Football doesn't do much for keeping the core of the Summit membership together - it would be more beneficial for attracting new schools. The goal of Summit hockey would be to retain schools. Football members of Summit Football are just the Dakotas and WIU, and who really cares about WIU.

Hey I was responding to a hypothetical of UNI vs Mankato. I agree that the departure risk is huge and I think Summit hockey is a must.

A Big East/AAC conference type split in the MVC is inevitable imo. May take a while but at some point I think the football schools will break away.

Is that supposed to help your argument here? I like Mankato for many reasons but I think Northern Colorado to the Big Sky serves as a great example - only send an invite if there is a guarantee of some sort that facilities will be improved, which to me means that shovels should pretty much be in the ground. I would want UNI first, as they wouldn't dilute recruitment and taking a program like that from the mvc would be huge for the imaging and league perception. Dakotas, St. Thomas, Mankato, UNO, Denver would be a great cor of 8.

Not presently. But when the MVC comes calling in a few years Summit hockey could anchor them here long term - same goes for UNO with MVC/Horizon, and DU with western conferences. The Summit could also add hockey and allow them to play in the CCHA for a couple years - this ain't the Big10. This could make a huge difference in stabilizing Summit membership, and combining the leagues would likely give the combined league a better hand to negotiate with for rights packages and for marketing.

No worries! I was just saying... hypothetically, if it did happen.

That would seriously hurt UND. What percentage of attendance at the Ralph is NDSU fans that support UND hockey?

I got laughed off Bisonville for that take. But if NDSU/SDSU are smart, they need to try to leverage football to improve the Summit league as a whole. If the Summit League could poach UNI and, say, Illinois State or Missouri State, the Summit league could legitimately surpass the MVC if that conference is stupid enough to add schools like UMKC and UTA, imo. UNI should even push for this, IMO. UNI would be super close to the basketball tournament in Sioux Falls, travel would be pretty good with St. Thomas, the South Dakota Schools, and UNO nearby, and they would probably have better access to the NCAA tournament, as they would immediately become the best or one of the best programs in the league, and have they ever even been selected as an at-large in the valley? Maybe once?

Milwaukee would be a perfect add IMO. There's a lot to like about that school for the Summit. UIC makes the most sense to me as well.

Perhaps NCHC commissioner Fenton's move to the Summit league is a foreshadowing to the Summit League starting hockey, which is plausible, as DU and UND are both Summit Members and they are also the two schools that kicked off the discussion that later developed into the creation of the NCHC. With St. Thomas having so much potential, which makes them a huge flight risk after their transition, could Fenton be planning to bring them on board in a new Summit hockey conference? St. Thomas cares a lot about their hockey program, so if the Summit can bring the NCHC under it's wing, St. Thomas would have to pull their hockey team out of what would be the best hockey conference in the nation if they want to join a league like the MVC down the road, and that decision would become extremely difficult, instead of a no-brainer. If the Summit needed additional members, Minnesota State also has a legit hockey program in addition to their legit basketball facilities and nearly perfect geographical proximity to other Summit League schools. MN State would likely be on the Summit Leagues short list if they need to add anyone, and in regard to SCSU, they would just be along for the ride in hockey only I think. If the Summit league added hockey and if it were to disallow full members from becoming hockey affiliates upon departure, it would also lock Denver into the summit league long term, as there would be no place to put their hockey program and they wouldn't want to jeopardize it. Remember - the new Summit commissioner is well liked among everyone in the NCHC...

Looks like there's a good chance that UMKC joins the MVC, along with Murray and UTA. MVC may get up to 14th teams and if they decide to do that, the 14th school could potentially be ORU if they don't go the UIC route. It was previously announced that the MVC was looking at ORU but those rumors seem to have died down, but then again, ORU is private so information is harder to come by, as they aren't subject to open records requests. ORU announcing their huge basketball facility expansion recently could potentially have something to do with the MVC, and we just don't know it yet. If UMKC isn't selected, UNO is on their radar as well. https://www.extrapointsmb.com/tag/conference-realignment/ Paywall but worth it. If you sign up for his newsletter I think you get an article for free in your email each week.

I like the Bruns guy and Panoam with his story. That's about it.

I mean if guys can't shoot or dribble they aren't going to learn how as the season progresses. We don't have skill at all, and based on the past few seasons there's no reason to expect that shots are just suddenly going to start dropping. (imo)