nodak651

NCHC could have gotten on ESPN+ if they wanted. Would ESPN+ pay the conferences anything? The NCHC reportedly pays out 80-85% of streaming revenue directly back to the schools, in proportion to the subscription revenue that each school drives (subscribers indicate their fan allegiance when signing up). UND netted 300K from this least year. Given the size of our fan base, this is the best set up UND could have from a revenue standpoint, imo.

I would post this in non-FCS news, but given that UND is looking for a new TV partner, it's interesting to see what schools and leagues are doing around the country. Big Sky just announced a new TV contract that seems really odd... Not sure if Montana and Montana State are getting paid, but we are really lucky with our TV situation. Kinda seems like the Big Sky hijacked Montana's ability to negotiate a TV deal, but I don't know the ins and outs to the the situation out there. https://bigskyconf.com/news/2022/5/18/football-big-sky-conference-games-to-air-on-scripps-television-stations.aspx Big Sky Conference Games to Air on Scripps Television Stations FARMINGTON, Utah (May 18, 2022) – Big Sky Conference games will have a big-time presence on local television stations thanks to a new partnership with The E.W. Scripps Company, Commissioner Tom Wistrcill announced today. Scripps stations in markets with Big Sky schools will broadcast football games and men’s and women’s basketball games beginning in the 2022-23 academic year. “This partnership with Scripps allows Big Sky fans to watch games throughout our entire footprint,” Wistrcill said. “One of the primary objectives with our conference’s media rights is to maximize the number of people who can watch our teams compete, and this deal complements our ESPN relationship by providing extensive television coverage with a renowned media company that has existing relationships across the Big Sky.” The Big Sky Conference will retain rights to digitally distribute and stream programming via the ESPN+ app both within and outside the league’s footprint, and these broadcasts on Scripps will not be subject to any blackout restrictions. “We want to deliver content that is of high interest to our audiences, and we know viewers in this part of the country are passionate about their Big Sky sports,” said Brian Lawlor, president of Local Media for The E.W. Scripps Company. “When it’s important to the community, it’s important to us.” Under the new deal, Scripps will have the rights to broadcast up to 14 conference football games involving Montana and Montana State. Scripps will air the annual “Brawl of the Wild” between the Griz and Bobcats statewide in Montana using Scripps Montana CBS Stations. As part of this agreement, UM and MSU each will have one home and one away conference football game that will air in primetime. The Big Sky Conference will schedule the balance of the Montana and Montana State football games to air in the afternoon which will air on Scripps Montana CBS, NBC and CW TV stations. Also under the contract, Scripps will have the first right to broadcast as many as eight women’s or men’s basketball games involving Montana or Montana State. Additional conference football and men’s and women’s basketball games may be added by mutual agreement between the Big Sky Conference and Scripps. In addition, Scripps will be on-site annually to produce content at the Big Sky’s Football Kickoff, Hall of Fame Ceremony and Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships. With this new agreement, Big Sky contests will not air on ROOT Sports moving forward. Additional television clearances for Big Sky contests will be announced at a later date. Follow the Big Sky Conference (@BigSkyConf) on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok for all the latest news around the league and use the hashtag #ExperienceElevated. About the Big Sky Conference: Founded in 1963, the Big Sky Conference [bigskyconf.com] is a NCAA Division I conference competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. With 165 teams representing 15 institutions in 16 sports (seven men’s, nine women’s), the Big Sky prides itself on its “#ExperienceElevated” platform that emphasizes the unique traits and lifelong benefits that the conference and its member institutions provide to around 4,000 student-athletes each year. The conference has 11 full members (Eastern Washington University; the University of Idaho; Idaho State University; the University of Montana; Montana State University; Northern Arizona University; the University of Northern Colorado; Portland State University; California State University, Sacramento; Southern Utah University; and Weber State University) located in eight states across the western United States, plus two football affiliate members (California Polytechnic State University and the University of California, Davis) and two men’s golf affiliate members (Binghamton University and the University of Hartford). Conference members have won 12 NCAA championships, including seven in football by five different members as well as five of the last six men’s cross country titles by NAU. About Scripps: The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) is a diversified media company focused on creating a better-informed world. As one of the nation’s largest local TV broadcasters, Scripps serves communities with quality, objective local journalism and operates a portfolio of 61 stations in 41 markets. The Scripps Networks reach nearly every American through the national news outlets Court TV and Newsy and popular entertainment brands ION, Bounce, Defy TV, Grit, ION Mystery, Laff and TrueReal. Scripps is the nation’s largest holder of broadcast spectrum. Scripps runs an award-winning investigative reporting newsroom in Washington, D.C., and is the longtime steward of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Founded in 1878, Scripps has held for decades to the motto, “Give light and the people will find their own way.”

McFeely says UND's rights were available in 2017 and that nobody besides Midco was interested. UND signed its extension with Midco in the summer of 2016, a year before rights were set to expire in summer 2017, so I don't understand how his statement could be accurate. Did he legitimately just make that up? I emailed the Forum to request a correction. Schlossman also seems to be implying that the only reason the tv rights are out for bid now is because of state law, and this contradicts McFeely's statement that relates to why UND is seeking bids now, vs 5 years ago (when competitive bids were not required by state law). Doubt anything comes of it, but their reporting on this and the Learfield contract are complete busch league at best. McFeely's Learfield article literally states that "the hockey and basketball arenas are owned by the Engelstad Family Foundation"...

Lindenwood and Southern Indiana joining Summit as affiliates for soccer and swimmming/diving.

The Ralph could pay enough to get big name teams to come here and if fans show up it could be an annual thing. Didn't we sell out the Kansas game? What percent of that was because of the ND kid playing. Also how does the Sanford Center get such good games set up and how much do they pay for them? I understand Kansas came because they had a local kid from ND but my point stands.

OK. At this point, someone should just start a petition asking to get the bison named. A bunch of white people steal the natives land and decimate the native bison population in order to force the tribes onto reservations, and then NDSU names themselves the bison? Pretty offensive... More so than that dgf mess at least.

You're right! The Geothermal experts at the EERC can install it, with funding from some sort of green energy grant, and they can research that.

I'm sure Armacost could have a great conversation with him about space, as well. Could technology from the Boring company be used in an underground flood diversion system? Better research that.

Could be worthwhile to look into installing some sort of geothermal heating system beneath the playing surface.

With the track in there I don't think it would work. They utilize it for practices, however. I'm pretty sure I remember Chaves saying on his podcast, a year or so ago, that he want's to utilize the Alerus for early season games or a tournament of some sort. It may have also been about socker, though. I mainly remember him talking about how smart it was that they installed small, permenant, patches of yellow turf in in the field (that look like flags). We played a series with Montana there a few years ago as well, I believe.

Literally discussed about 20 pages ago in this thread.

So did he decide not to do a public phase to help get it done sooner or to make it better?

I can believe that. They did a lot of nice work. If correct, this highlights my point about confusion and a lack of quality information though - newspaper reported 3 mil.

We need to make a wiki for this. Kinda feels like this sometimes... edit: actually, doing that is literally required if looking at the rea 990's lol

Is that research grants or just grants in general? I didn't see a total number for research but I may have missed it while skimming the article. I think total research for 2020 was $111,663,000 so are we looking at 200 million plus?

ooops this is long. sorry... I think there is general confusion on REA funds vs. Engelstad Foundation funds. This is partly caused by Kris Engelstad taking credit for the Betty when it was really just financed by them and the REA had to pay off the loan with money generated by UND athletics. Scoreboard was 4 million Engelstad Foundation funds and 2 million REA funds. The 3 million dollar locker room reno and this 5 million dollar reno are reportedly all from the Engelstad Foundation, and if that is the case, I'm very thankful. I just think a lot of people don't really understand the dynamics between how UND and the REA operate, and that there is a difference between the Engelstad Foundation money and REA money and UND money. Some people think Engelstad Foundation funds are really the REA's funds, and some people think the REA's funds are some type of donation from the Engelstad foundation. My biggest issue is that there is a lack of transparency in regard to how and why the REA's funds get spent and allocated, especially in light of the very public fiasco about how the basketball floor was redone. The REA puts a minimum of 500k into that fund annually, with no cap. The REA is also supposed to give the remaining net income (after whatever is allocated) to UND. It's not clear how the 2-3 million annual depreciation expense is considered. In addition, there is no minimum allocation due to UND each year, and the REA allocated 0$ to UND each of the past two years - the two years prior to that combined to about 1.65 million. UND is also supposed to sign off and agree to the purpose of any of the improvement/maintenance funds before they can be used. I think the lack of transparency and the negative publicity between UND and the REA raises some fair questions about how and why money at the Ralph is spent, and it's unfair to lambast people for doing so if the questions concern the REA's funds, rather than funds donated by the Engelstad foundation. I think most of the complaining about this stuff was after the scoreboard announcement, because a portion (2m) of the funding came from the REA improvement fund. It's fair and appropriate to ask questions about this, because the REA's non-profit status is based on their mission, which is to benefit UND Athletics (as a whole), and also because they collect 52% of football ticket revenue, which they fought to keep during the usage agreement negotiations, despite those games being held at a different venue. UND has also had a basketball practice facility on their master plan for years now, and being attached to the Engelstad complex, it would make sense that at least a portion of REA improvement funds could be used there. So, how much say does UND get in strategizing the use of REA improvement/maintenance funds? Did UND want the funds to be spent on the scoreboard rather than elsewhere, or did UND know that the money wouldn't be spent anywhere, if not on the scoreboard? Was the 4 million dollar donation for the scoreboard dependent on UND approving the 2 million in REA improvement funds? Were they deciding between no scoreboard, a 4 million dollar scoreboard, or a 6 million dollar scoreboard when they granted approval for the use of those funds? When asking that question, it would also be interesting to know how the video board improvements that were done to the Betty, at that time, were factored into the equation. Again, if this 5 million dollar weight room improvement is entirely a donation, more power to the Engelstad Foundation, great, thank you! But given the history, and a lack of more in-depth reporting, I think it is fair to ask if any of the REA's funds are included in that number. It would also be nice if Brad specifically cited his source about the 5 million dollars coming from the Engelstad Foundation. Brad also mentions that the equipment may be used elsewhere on campus, as if they don't know for certain, so I would be really curious to know the follow up question, which would be about where it could potentially be used, and if it is in the pollard center, will it be donated or paid for? Also, in regard to the usage agreement stuff, I believe the Grand Forks Herald incorrectly reported that the REA aims to allocating a minimum of 500k to UND each year, as the usage agreement states that the REA aims to allocate a minimum of 500k to the improvement fund, annually. I believe the Herald misinterpreted the language when that part about the usage agreement was initially reported, and I've contacted Brad about it - he said that he will look into it to see if a correction is needed, as the sentence about this in the usage agreement is a little ambiguous. It's just odd that our AD doesn't express to fans a clear plan and strategy for the improvement of the athletic department, and given that UND has struggled so much to raise money for the HPC, it's odd that there just seems to randomly be a 5 million dollar investment in the REA weight room, which I don't think UND even thanked the Engelstad foundation for publicly?? Did UND announce anything about this whatsoever? Why not? The whole UND/REA/Engelstad Foundation situation is just bizarre. Like did Chaves even know about this? There are plenty of questions worth asking, because there is both a lack of in-depth and accurate reporting, and because UND Athletics do a terrible job of communicating vision to fans. Also, I always am going to have a lot of questions, and it doesn't always mean that I'm upset about the particular issue I'm asking questions about, such as this weight room improvement, but if I can't read a press release or read the newspaper or listen about it on the radio, to find the answers, I don't see how it is bad to ask about it and discuss it on a message board, and it doesn't mean I'm telling people how to spend their money.

It's annoying how so many schools are perfectly fine with operating at a large loss or going into debt for literally every other sport, but when it comes to hockey everything needs to be funded up front, including operating costs and endowment, despite it being one of the only sports that can actually generate legit revenue. It's also annoying that schools are only willing to build Taj Mahall arenas now days instead of classic designs like Cornell's rink, for like 1/4th the cost. Illinois Athletics is over 300 million in debt! Where were the penny pinchers when it came to literally everything up until the hockey plan was shut down?

Can't disagree with that. What about radio?

Looks like UND officially posted the RFP's - 1 for radio and 1 for tv. Very thorough and well thought out requests, imo. I'd be surprised if WDAY/Inforum put in a bid, because all sports seem to be grouped together. However, is it true that they just bought a new TV station in the area (which could help with conflicting games)?

It will help to determine the motive if we can find plans for what the facilities will actually look like for the Georgia club team, in comparison to the ECHL team. If Georgia has legit D1 locker rooms, medical areas, player lounges, coaching offices, etc, the Georgia will eventually look to go D1, right? If Georgia doesn't have much more than a dedicated locker room, that might mean there aren't any plans for a D1 program. Follow the money they say.

That's literally what every auto bid does though. Don't you want to grow the game? Schools in the South and West aren't going to add hockey if the don't have a viable path to the NCAA tourney, and with the NCHC and CCHA being unwilling to invite new schools, there is no viable path for new programs to join a conference. This would encourage the growth of the game which could eventually lead to new conferences in the South/West. It would also help schools like UAA and Fairbanks, who are SOL due to no fault of their own. When enough schools add hockey, the tournament will eventually expand anyway.

Or it could help to increase interest in college hockey among casual fans in South Dakota. Those who become interested in College Hockey as a result of Augi adding hockey will now be more likely to tune into UND as well. More college hockey exposure in SD could increase total viewership for UND games, and Augi hockey will probably never be popular enough to match the viewership/demand of UND hockey. Midco will still needs UND Hockey to help build and maintain market share in ND, as they will still need to compete with other cable providers in ND, AND they no longer have NDSU basketball to fall back on. UND is now their only exposure to D1 athletics in North Dakota, so UND may have a little bit more leverage with the rights to NDSU locked up for 10 years.

UAH Update.... One of the guys funding UAH hockey was on the radio yesterday and it's an interesting listen. He says UAH currently has $17 million lined up and the program would have an annual budget of 1.8 million, and they still plan to restart hockey if they can get into or create a conference. Sounds like the coaches of all of the independent schools got together on a conference call to discuss the potential of a new D1 conference, and UAH was included as well. He doesn't say that anything is imminent, but it is proof of actual discussions in regard to the creation of a new conference. https://977espn.com/assets/podcaster/176...mp3#t=1765

Looks like UND is also playing at Iowa State on Nov 30th.