NoiseInsideMyHead

Now THIS is an appropriate use of this forum. Props!!!!

A quick test for everyone disappointed with today's news. Complete this sentence: If UND had cut the sports I wanted them to, and if those dollars had been redirected to my sport(s) of choice, but those sport(s) still did not see an increase in success or competitiveness after five years, I would be _____ than I am right now. (HINT: the answer is no better off.)

http://www.grandforksherald.com/opinion/letters/4138944-letter-und-should-consider-moving-back-ncaa-division-ii I kind of expect to see similar letters from C. Bass and Mrs. Paul over the next few days.

"Unattainable" is in the eye of the beholder, and for those of us who were not at the table, it's a bit of a reach to draw that conclusion. We're talking about professors and students, not economists and soothsayers. Optimistic, perhaps, but certainly not inept.

Inept? Were they not asked to evaluate and report? Why is it so hard to believe that reasonable minded persons could conclude, upon a fair evaluation, that cutting sports was simply not in UND's best interests? How are any of us to sit in judgment upon the IAC? If a jury returns a verdict you don't like, do you immediately blame the jurors? What about the prosecution, and the defense, and the judge, and the law? The SiouxSports.com blood lust is nothing short of shameful. Few among us could ever wield a knife against our peers so arbitrarily and with such ruthlessness. Professors and students? Come on. Go ahead and give Kennedy his hatchet and your blessing, but unless you were at the table, and at the very least until the members speak publicly, it's pointless to pile on the committee.

Hockey fans aren't going anywhere, and football is on a tremendous upward trajectory performance-wise. I think the market can absorb an increase (maybe not 25%, but that's academic).

Oddly fitting that this takes place on the very night that there is a gentleman on campus singing about "Sundowns" and shipwrecks. http://www.grandforksherald.com/accent/4136040-gordon-lightfoot-brings-his-trademark-folk-music-grand-forks

This reminds me of the scene in "Dave" where Kevin Kline assembles the entire cabinet to trim the budget in order to save a homeless shelter to impress the First Lady.

Why the H-E-double-hockey-sticks are the TV announcers jinxing Cam Johnson with this career goals-against average record nonsense? It's the second week of his sophomore season.

Yeah (someone in the higher ups is reading this forum), but since both teams are birds, its effect may have been limited.

The scores from other games board rotates the same handful of conference matchups, over and over. Many of which haven't even started yet. Can we mix in some FBS and FCS Top 25 and/or national games of interest?

Not this university...I was informed on the other thread that "what doesn't pay or help with awareness for the U goes out the window."

Spoken like a true UND sports fan, rather than a fan of the University of North Dakota. Your compassion is underwhelming, to say the least, as is your appreciation for all that a university entails. And how on earth are layoffs and program terminations "not like the loss of a career"...that is exactly what is happening when employees lose employment and athletes (who do not or cannot transfer) lose playing opportunities. Enjoy your 4-5 sports offerings, if that many make your preferred cut. It's attitudes like yours that will hasten the demise of college athletics, which is most certainly not a business.

Before we celebrate the man's genius, let us remember that his role is being relegated to that of a butcher. He will literally reduce the footprint of UND Athletics in ways unimaginable not long ago. None of the programs deserves to be cut, and none deserves to be spared more than another. Balancing the budget on the backs of innocent programs, coaches, and students. I'm not so sure being "inept" at ruthless, arbitrary decision-making with painful consequences and zero objective guidance is a bad thing. But that's why he's paid the big bucks. A leader will have looked for alternatives, leaving no stone unturned, and assure us there are none. A leader will do whatever can be done for those affected, including generous severance and compassionate transitions, to the point where they are--to a person--assured everything has been done, practically feeling foolish for their own grief. A leader will show up at the sunset matches, games, competitions for each affected sport. (Looking at you, baseball finale no-show administrators.) A leader won't sweep everything under the rug and pop up in luxury suites at sacred cow, money-pit sports waving the University flag as if nothing is wrong. A leader will continue to look for opportunities, will hold the surviving programs accountable, and will not spend money lavishly or foolishly on any athletic endeavor. A leader will recognize the impact of his actions on morale, and the need for healing, and not make stupid, off-the-cuff remarks about how the Department is now poised for greatness. I hope we have a leader.

Apples and oranges...BCS vs FCS is hardly a valid comparison, and no Big XII state had ND's embarrassment of riches. The difference in FB coach salaries alone would fund a handful of minor sports. Now if you want to pin this on someone as poor planning, it belongs squarely on the administration that put D1 in motion, not the one that got on the ride after it was underway.

You mean, why didn't Kelley read the owner's manual? Yeah, the one that comes with a mid-sized public flagship in flyover country making the move to D1? That Best Selling masterpiece that explains exactly, step-by-step, how to manage a University athletic budget during a period of unprecedented state wealth and largesse? Yeah, the Weekly Reader paint-by-numbers of how to manage a budget that was growing by leaps and bounds, year over year, and during which everything thing the state's oily fingers touched turned to black gold. So easy an idiot could do it, right? The Kelley-bashing is ridiculous, and the outspoken critics on here are saying something about themselves. If you have facts, or data, please dish. Otherwise, please go on about how Faison must never have pulled a Groenewold and painted a rosier-than-accurate picture and assured Twamley that things were just fine. Because if Schaefer and Kennedy were both 'surprised' by the situation in Athletics, it must have been brutally obvious to Kelley, right?

One more thought... It has finally dawned on me that conference minimums and "core sports" are only partially related to competitive balance...their far more lofty purpose is to save campus administrators from themselves. If the Olympic sports and other non-revenue programs had been on the chopping block every time there was financial exigency at a member institution, there would be nothing left to cut.

Cutting fringe, non-revenue sports to save money is stupid. News flash...they don't cost all that much to begin with, and the savings will be minimal. These are high-caliber student athletes who go about it the right way and who graduate and who play for school pride in front of maybe, tens of fans. If you support in any way the noble premise advanced for the existence of college sports, these programs are essential. They are like your children and to pick among them is impossible. There is no good way to do it, and the harm to morale and perception is immense. If you're serious about re-shaping the department's finances, either cut a major sport (I suddenly have a newfound respect for Trev Alberts at UNO, although giving wrestling the axe still puzzles me) or look for more revenue somewhere else. Where is the fundraising? Where is the Champions Club? If you're willing to cut a program, the inconvenient reality is that you never should have started it. You're simply making others (namely, current participants and coaches) pay for your mistake. The next public spectacle should be the University hosting a public reading of all the jubilant media conference transcripts, press releases, Presidential speeches, AD statements, etc. issued at the time each of these sports were adopted. I would love to have the current budget situation and threatened program cuts juxtaposed against all of the supposedly valid and moving and compelling stories about why UND started playing X in the first place. The vision, the promises, the potential! UND owes each program at least this much, if only as a token means for validation as the noose tightens. Instead of minimizing embarrassment to the University, which now appears futile, I want to double down and expose how ridiculous this entire fiasco is.

Speaking of retail and commercial real estate, I noticed a wooden sign at 32nd/Columbia (RIP Pepperjax) advertising a 30k sq ft "outlot" space coming available in (I think) early 2018...only thing I can think of in that area would be PetSmart...is something going on there?

The "old mall" is a bit of an enigma and a survivor. Parking lot is crap and nobody wants to develop the outlots (Ponderosa, anyone?), yet Poppler's recently invested $$$, Play it Again downsized but alive, new kids play area going in...the next "shoe" to ultimately drop for Grand Forks retail will be Sears/Kmart. I can't see the parent corp. keeping both open, even in the medium term; one will almost certainly be gone. In fact, every time a list of store closings for either chain is published, I scan it as if fully expecting to see GF on this list.

You may want to review the Forum Guidelines:

Jake Brandt: "Happy coaches; Sioux sweep." When your color guy wears colored glasses...

That's the motto of a porn addict who has to enter a case-sensitive password.

Going to be lots of holes in the crowd tonight...has anybody seen the number of tix popping up on that thread? Why the exodus of UND fans? Does nobody appreciate Canisius or what?

Kelley's very Kennedy-esque statement re: Gamma Phi Beta It was the national chapter and not UND that imposed the training.