Benny Baker

No kidding. What fan base immediately gets outraged when their (supposed) favorite athletic team gets a $6,000,000.00 scoreboard?

Yup. Was wondering why his name was included in the list of UND commits.

Ryder Donovan?

**** Looking for White Nike Authentic (any men's size) from 2001-2009 era **** Will buy or trade. PM if interested. Go Sioux.

UND wore 58-59 replicas about 15-20 years ago. They didn't have a Sammy patch then. I suspect it might be the same this time around, unfortunately.

So no one else knew about this...?

60th anniversary

I’ll second that request and add Sammy (the green and white only) along with any of the old Blackhawk style logos. Always wanted to have some custom pucks made with the vintage logos.

Many seem to emphasize that it was McGarry, not UND or Kennedy, that went to the herald first and made this public.

I agree with you there. Those are all fair questions to raise and points to make.

Shell game is exactly right. UND needs to pay for the usage, services, and employees at the Ralph. Ticket revenue is simply the means through which UND pays for that. Take ticket revenue out of the equation, and UND needs to find some other source of money to pay for the usage, services, and employees at the Ralph. I understand you agree the funding for UND football is not tied exclusively to the football teams’ ticket revenue. The athletic department is going to allocate money to the football team regardless of the team’s ticket revenue. Others on here clearly don’t understand how any of this works. They actually portray it as the Ralph taking away money that the athletic department allocates to the football team. Changing the 52/48 breakdown or removing football ticket revenue from the usage agreement would do absolutely nothing to ensure more funding to the football program.

This assumes all sports are funded through their respective ticket revenues. I have not read anything that would support that assumption, however. So why are some so concerned about 52% of football ticket revenue, when other sources of money fund football?

So if football got 100% of ticket revenue, you’d be in favor of firing Bubba and replacing him with a top notch coach? Got it.

So football is funded through other means than ticket sales---just like women's hockey was, which had no ticket sales. Since football is funded through other means than ticket sales, why all the hoopla about the Ralph getting the 52%? Serious question, folks. Please excuse my ignorance.

Does the 48% of football ticket revenue that UND receives go exclusively towards funding the football team?

Yes, I agree that poor performance has led to the football team averaging less than 10k fans per game over the last ten or so years.

Nope. Never insinuated nor implied that at all. Just provided “details” about attendance figures over a longer time period, rather than just one season. Go UND football.

Yes. And thank you for acknowledging that over the past ten years, UND football hasn’t averaged 10k fans a game.

For the 7 seasons from 2009-2015, there were only 2 games that even had attendance reach 10,000. I'll let others decide what details are important . . . .

Although I'll get chastised for this, a key difference between Monte and Hak is that Monte won a national championship as both a player and a coach. Anyone who follows philly sports understands that the philly sports community recognized this from day 1.

Perfect summation. Thank you.

The University of North Dakota Athletics Department announced on Wednesday, following the discontinuance of its men’s baseball and golf programs in the prior fiscal year, that it will discontinue its varsity women’s hockey and men’s & women’s swimming & diving programs, effective at the end of the 2016-17 academic year as part of the University’s ongoing budget restructuring efforts. The continuance of the men’s golf program is contingent upon its successful fundraising efforts. In January 2017, UND President Mark Kennedy announced that the athletics department would need to further reduce its 2017-18 budget by over $1.3 million as its contribution to the university-wide cuts being dictated by the state’s revenue shortfall. Additionally, with UND’s move to the Summit League, additional money will be needed to comply with the Summit League’s minimum scholarship requirements. UND expects that the current changes will enable it to meet those additional scholarship expenses without having to make further cuts next year. UND’s athletics department expects to reinvest any additional savings back into its women’s and men’s teams, with a primary focus on gender equity, internal equity, and championship competitiveness. The decision announced today was reached based upon the University’s budget reduction instruction, conference sport sponsorship requirements for both the Big Sky Conference and Summit League, Title IX compliance, additional Summit League scholarship requirements, and the ability to reinvest in championship-level programs. The University worked with the Baker Donelson law firm as its outside legal counsel. “I have accepted the athletic director’s recommendation with the understanding that it provides for investing in championship teams in a balanced manner for both our women’s and men’s athletics programs,” said Kennedy. “This is a painful step to take for all parties involved, including me, but it is necessary given today’s budget realities. My heart goes out to all those who are disrupted by this change. We are proud of the way they have represented UND.” UND will honor all athletics scholarships for discontinued sports at their present equivalencies for returning student-athletes. Specific details have been provided to the student-athletes regarding their future aid. UND Athletics Director Brian Faison met with the affected coaches, staff and student-athletes on Wednesday afternoon to inform them of the decision. “This was a difficult decision. It’s a sad day when opportunities for student-athletes are reduced,” said Faison. “The University is going through campus-wide, state-mandated budget cuts. As a part of the University, we need to do what is in the long-term, best interests of the University, as well as the best interests of the athletics department.” FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Why was the timing of the Athletics announcement pushed back from the original institutional deadline? This was a very involved and complicated process in which several questions needed to be properly addressed. The deadline for Athletics was extended in order to ensure due diligence. Were there other sports under consideration? Yes, multiple scenarios were explored during the process. Were any scenarios provided to the President that did not involve eliminating sports? No. How will this decision impact UND’s Title IX compliance? Providing gender-equitable participation opportunities weighed heavily in UND’s decision. Following last year’s elimination of baseball, as expected male student-athletes were under-represented within the UND Athletics Department in 2016-17. The current changes will re-balance the UND Athletics Department so that UND will continue to comply in 2017-18 with Title IX’s participation requirements. Additionally, the changes are balanced so that UND will continue to comply with Title IX’s scholarship provisions as UND implements the funding changes required for membership in the Summit League. Is there a possibility of bringing these sports back in the future? No, not in the foreseeable future. Will the affected sports be provided with a window to secure funding to save their respective programs? No. These cuts are effective immediately at the end of this academic year. Will the remaining contracts of the affected coaches be honored? Yes. What will happen to the Hyslop Sports Center Pool? The future use of the pool is under consideration. What becomes of the women’s hockey facilities at REA? The women’s hockey facilities, including locker room and coaches’ offices, will be retained by UND Athletics for utilization by other women’s sports. Will these cuts result in any financial sanctions from the conferences that sponsored these sports? UND is subject to an exit fee with the Western Collegiate Hockey Association but not with the Summit League or Western Athletic Conference. How will scholarships from the affected sports be reallocated? UND Athletics will continue to honor all athletics scholarships for discontinued sports at their present equivalencies for returning student-athletes. In time, scholarships will be reallocated to meet Summit League requirements. Who was involved in this process administratively? Athletics Director Brian Faison, Deputy Athletics Director/Senior Woman Administrator Daniella Irle, President Mark Kennedy, Vice President for Finance & Operations Alice Brekke, Associate Vice President for Finance Karla Stewart, and Director of Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Title IX Coordinator Donna Smith were all involved in the decision-making process. Does today’s announcement impact UND’s men’s golf program? No. The men’s golf program must still meet its originally agreed-upon financial goals by June 2018, by which time the program’s endowment needs to be fully capitalized in order to permanently remain in operation.

It's a travesty that the state of North Dakota will not continue to subsidize the development of European olympic hockey players! -- Brad E Schlossman

Yes, we all know this thread is a joke. People in the business/professional world land jobs through connections and networking all the time, whether its through a father-in-law or by other connections. For example, Hak wouldn't be coaching in Philadelphia had he not coached Ron Hextall's son at UND.

This is a thread implying that Hakstol won't be coaching in Philadelphia. So, in fairness to John, a post about Hakstol not coaching in Philadelphia really isn't that far off topic.