nodak651

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.

I'm really hoping that if the Summit gets a streaming deal put together they do it through midco though, similar to espn+. Kind of a hunch, but I feel like there is a good chance of that happening, eventually.

Und sports are on midco streaming all except for hockey. Can't see that changing though because the nchc has streaming rights which allows the nchc conf games to all be on the same platform. And I'm pretty sure und made more money from that last year than the actual TV deal with midco.

Just to clarify, I didn't really intend to imply anything other than that. The combined square footage of the two current plans do not equal 100% of the square footage that was originally planned for in HPC2. I mentioned this because it is a relevant fact, as that 35 million number was based on the the initial plan for hpc2 (more sq ft). At the end of the day it won't really be a meaningful difference, but that context helps to account for why the 35 million number was so high.

I could have swore they were originally looking at another 20-25 mil, but I may be wrong, and most importantly, that number would have included everything that is now going into memorial village, such as coaches offices, general AD offices, meeting rooms, etc. Edit: I was wrong. Original price tag for phase two was much higher. The combined square footage of the current phase two and UND's portion of memorial village is much less that what was originally planned for phase two, however. https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-athletics-focus-shifts-to-second-phase-of-high-performance-center

Article says we are close lol. Perhaps the public phase will be kicked off at the champions ball?

Yeah I was just saying it was a possibility given that UND is small-time, in comparison. Fun fact, I believe Tony interned at the ralph about ten years ago. He did the pa during intermission games and such.

I didn't see anything about that either, which is why I mentioned that also. I'd guess that would be highly unlikely, but I made the post because I believe it's still in the planning phase, so there is still theoretically time for UCO to get involved in the process. The whole thing is a long shot, but this is a college hockey expansion thread and most of the discussions about this are lol. Given that LIU added hockey, who knows how the next program will come about. I'm 100% not saying that this is something that will happen with UCO. Intent was to just say there is potential there. We're on the same page.

A simple solution or something that could help, is that UND could hire the guy who managed UND's account for Learfield. I don't think a whole ton will change though, and it isn't really like Learfield knocked it out of the park when it comes to athletics merchandising deals or sponsorships which we couldn't otherwise get without their help. Pretty sure Learfield only had control of licensing fees for merchandise/apparel, third tier television sales (FSN/bally), and radio sales, and I think it must have made it difficult to work out sponsorship deals if both the ralph and learfield had to be involved with combined radio/arena/game sponsorship packages, with both wanting a % of revenue. If I had to guess, this may have been mutual if UND is happy with where they are at when it comes to their new TV rights deal - learfield may not have wanted to be involved unless they got essentially half of that money, or were in control of the new agreement. Learfield also had zero rights to streaming revenue in any sport. My biggest worry is that UND will not be included in an EA Sports college football game, if/when FCS teams are added, because EA works out an exclusive deal with Learfield or something like that.

Looks like a new arena will be built at the Oklahama Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City. About 20 minutes from the University of Central Oklahoma, which is a ACHA D1 power. Location isn't idea, but the fairgrounds are right next to downtown Oklahoma City, which could help with drawing casual fans. Nothing related to Central Oklahoma or hockey was mentioned in the article I read. Just throwing it out there because it's a new arena that is a good size for a D1 hockey program, and Central Oklahoma could conceivably be interested in NCAA hockey.

They just posted updated info for this season fyi - https://gopherpucklive.com/covid-cools-crowds-until-gophers-heat-up/

Fenton isn't doing anything until the new NCAA rules are released. Some think that the new rules will potentially make single sport conferences less desirable. No reason to upset the apple cart if we don't know what rules we will be playing by not even a year from now.

Did I miss an announcement somewhere? https://twitter.com/S_Aldridge91/status/1514815230127214605/photo/3

Wow. Props to UND for being creative here... looks like they are investigating the potential for a project that could pretty much account for the ideas, thoughts, and concerns that were posted by everyone in this thread. Hopefully UND gets some worthwhile proposals - the idea of a Top Golf-like facility on the driving range is exciting to think about (although probably unlikely). UND’s Ray Richards Golf Course Development RFIUND seeks to enter into a Public Private Partnership (“P3”) with a developer to design, finance, construct, own, and manage a development on University land under a long-term ground lease on RRGC. Some relevant excerpts below:

It makes sense that they would want all sports to align, but ya gotta think that they would have moved to the MVC as long as they found a conference home for football somewhere. They had been wanting to move the MVC for years, and the vibe I got from Murray fans was that they probably would have revolted if they finally got an MVC offer, only to turn it down because of football. Would love to know if Murray had any conversations with the OVC about keeping football there. Either way, Murray does seem to have a fan base that actually cares, which is somewhat hard to come by in the FCS, and I think they have potential. My biggest gripe is that the conference is just so large. Also, given our geography, it's pretty unlikely adding Murray increases our travel budget by much, as we fly to every school that isn't in the Dakotas anyway (UNI too maybe?). UND also doesn't owe the MVC schools anything, as they screwed us over when we were set to join the Big Sky with USD, which likely set the program back a few years. Also, screw Dom Izzo and how he put's words in UND's mouth, as he guesses how UND voted and makes up bs "reasons" for why we voted the way he thinks we did (based on literally zero facts, saying UND wanted easier competition, etc). It will be interesting to see how the NCAA reformats the overall D1 structure in the coming months - this whole thing could potentially become moot if the new rules make sport conferences less desirable, or if they cause further conference realignment for a variety of potential reasons.

Have we been talking to him at all? Curious that he has a Depaul offer but no UND offer (that I'm aware of). Makes me wonder if Bentau is interested in coaching.

Recent offers according to verbal commits: 4/12/2022 - 2022 PF Victor Ndoukou (6-8, 230, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2023 C Ryan Erikson (6-10, -, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2023 SG Anthony Doppler (6-4, 200, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2023 SG Darik Dissette (6-4, -, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2023 SF Dallas Bear (6-7, -, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2022 SG Cale Jacobsen (6-3, 180, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2023 SF Marzouq Abdur-Razaaq (6-7, 195, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota.

Looks like he held 10+ offers according to verbal commits. SUU was the third to offer, after NJIT and NAU.

I posted this announcement in the other thread, in response to your post about the "quiet phase", before I saw that you posted this here. Your post in this thread and your post about the quiet phase in the other thread seem to be contradictory. UND does have an athletics master plan, but it seems to be in a perpetual quiet phase, unlike Boise, which has some of the best athletics marketing in the country.

Compare UND's current strategy and marketing for phase two and other projects in our athletics master plan, like the basketball practice facility, and the softball field, to this: https://www.whatsnextinitiative.com/ https://twitter.com/BroncoSports/media Funding isn't even close to being in place for most of that stuff.

Yet everyone has been saying we are close and we are showing the project to recruits.