IowaBison

I agree. And there is a lot information that the public isn't/won't be privy to.

Based on the growing market.

Thanks, Bigdog. +3 for mens' bb. none extra for track, I don't think the Bison added one for men's golf yet.

1. Chapman is looking out for NDSU, OMG! 2. NDSU's interests don't align with other institutions, OMG! 3. Other schools feel threatened that NDSU has a leader who is looking for a little fairness, THANK GOD!!! 4. Chapman's missed meetings! OMG. (And since you brought it up Chapman made 10 meetings in '04, Kupchella 5; '05 Chapman 9, Kupchella 7, '06 Chapman 2, Kupchella 1)!!! 5. Chapman flew in a plane, OMG! Anybody ever think that maybe, just maybe, Chapman had something going on in Fargo that night!

So UND is going to add a pro-franchise? That's what the link you provide refers too. My opinion is based on the comments of UND's athletic department, but you're right, what do they know?

Make that move to DI and I'd agree to some degree. Exception 1: There is still room for growth in Fargo-Moorhead with respect to fans and corporate sponsorships. Exception 2: Football is the college 'glory sport'. The Mid-Con Commish has stated that they have special interest in members that sponsor football!?! Doesn't make too much sense as the conference doesn't sponsor the sport, but that's their perogative.

Are you calling Pres. Dennison a liar? I don't blame you too much if think there is home for a North Dakota school in the Big Sky, but as a Bison fan that has heard a lot of talk about the Big Sky in the past five years I don't believe much of what is said.

There are a lot of great athletes in the neighborhood. Think of the great players UND has had in the past decade, most of them are local kids.

Mississippi for some quality juco d-line transfers, although a couple of the guys we worked hard on this year were lost to DI-A schools. Florida and Texas for some speed. Like NDSU, UND should take advantage of their facility-indoors/turf- and get some fast players. The speed difference between DII and DIAA is significant and many of NDSU's young recruits are/will see a lot of playing time early in their careers because of their athleticism. Star2city, I don't agree with your lack of DIAA teams in a geographic area argument. California is a place to recruit as there are a lot of high school footballers and hardly any college football teams. In Michigan, the MAC takes the place of DI-AA. It takes a local connection to get these kids, ie the 'pipeline'. NDSU has one in Houston and UND will have to look further than the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana and Nebraska for theirs.

I agree completely with bincity. I also think that NDSU will be in the Mid-Con by the end of the year, ie they won't be going to the Big Sky. After the Big Sky meeting in May, the President of Montana stated that they were looking at schools that sponsor all sports only, pretty much eliminating the Pioneers from contention.

I stated, "I believe that hockey is a detriment to UND in their move to DI." There is a difference.

yes, a quarter of a million dollars! that is less than 10% of the additional money UND will need to raise year in and year out, and I'd imagine that UND won't make the frozen four each year!

There are limited sports entertainment and scholarship dollars in any market. And based on comments out of Grand Forks it appears those dollars are reaching a plateau. If UND didn't have hockey, which makes up about half of its athletic department's budget, with the same amount of funds they'd likely be able to afford the move.

And I disagree, I believe that hockey is a detriment to UND in their move to DI.

I'll elaborate: NDSU will only reach 63 this year. I'm pretty sure that this year Team Makers will nearly be at their long term goal-ie fully funded. During the transition year '04-'05 almost all new $$$ went to football. Last year the increase went to primarily to women's sports. Where this is room to match the increase for football (about 5 for softball, basketball, and track and field; 4 for volleyball, 3 for soccer, 1 for golf ....22 almost matching the 27 for football). [urlhttp://www.hsbaseballweb.com/scholarships_by_sport.htm]scholies Also, Title IX guidelines may be satisfied by provided sports of interest to students (well, something like that) which is the path I'm pretty sure NDSU took, although I think they'd be okay with the relatively high ratio of male to female students. The interest of NDSU students' mapped well into the sports offered. If necessary another sport, ie equistrian, may be added later if student interests change.

I don't think that anyone debates that men's hockey is money maker. UND still projected a $700,000 budget deficit for '05-'06 with it. That's a pretty faulty parallelism.

1. NDSU had a relatively balanced budget. 2. NDSU has not seen an increase in student fees because of DI. 3. increased giving, operating reveune, and institutional support 4. NDSU has dealt with Title IX with increased giving by Team Makers members and benefits from the high male/female ratio and student interest in the sports it already offers 5. I haven't seen too much on SDSU or NDSU with respect to meeting minutes. If you dig you can find some documents that refer to NDSU's institutional funding.

i don't think anyone should boast about anything. the ralph is a phenomenal facility, no one has ever disputed that. the catch is that it requires a lot of funding to maintain and host events there AND when looking at the books it seems that it isn't cash flowing, that's all that i posted.

Hmmmmmmm...................

Yes UND has a bigger budget currently (unless you believe the task force report which stated that roughly three million of that was in one-time expenses). NDSU has proven that it can fund its own scholarships AND proceed with facility improvements and put decent teams into action as a mid-major DI. UND has not shown that. They were projected to have a $700,000 budget deficit the past year, with 10% cuts across all sports plus the loss of 5 position in the athletic department WITH tuition waivers and repeated comments that the Fighting Sioux club is tapped out AND they were in DII. UND was/is basically in the same position as UNO today except they have gotten no press (however, it's also no secret just check the past minutes from the IAC). And don't forget that the Ralph didn't cover its operating expenses in '04-'05 (even when accounting for over a million dollars in additional gifts) and lost $5 million from depreciation. Iowa Bison's Cash Flow Sheet (REA needs another half million a year in revenue to cover operating-we'll consider that separate) Women's hockey is half million a year short Football needs a half million a year for scholarships Another half million for Title IX Half a million for additional travel Half a million to hire all the people back Half a million to hire the extra people a DI mid-major should have A million to put things over the top A quarter of a million in revenue for hockey Half a million for 2 guarantee games after you start averaging 63 scholies and become a 'counter' So UND's 3-4 million short by my calculations. Not far off the what NDSU has/will be paying 2.5 to 3 million plus the unique expenses. Can UND do it? Before Kupchella's announcement, I would have said no. But he made the move, not with great enthusiasm, so we'll see.

Our strongest asset when it comes to MBB is Tim Miles. I don't know why you boast about the Ralph, how many men's games are going to be played there? A couple? Or are you going to have your men play in an empty Tah Mahal?

I think that Chapman may suffer from "selective" memory. I think that some of your language, Sioux-cia, is a little strong, but not incorrect.

I do. The medical school has a separate line and isn't included in my data. I don't see why state subsidies should be significantly higher for law students than for other graduate students. And that has little to do with the difference, unless you think the state should subsidize law students over 40k each.

The real debate is if we want to have a University System of not. We don't currently, but we like to pretend that we do. As far as funding, all school's but one, VCSU, are 'underfunded' which means they don't receive an allocation from the state large enough to match the funding of their 'peers'. In my opinion, these peer comparisons are completely ridiculous. You know who UNDs #1 peer by a mile is (ie who do they really compete for students with)? NDSU! Big surprise and vice versa. Same for MaSu, VCSU, DSU, and MiSU. There is no need to compare with a school from New England. But the argument works well, you tell the state that EVERYONE is underfunded (some more than others) and that a lot more money is needed. The only problem is that North Dakota is one of the Top 5 states for higher education funding! Don't let that get out! And yes, when according to a FORMULA UND sees an extra $500+ per student than NDSU does each year, there is a big problem.

July 1, 2005 Census estimates, there were out in the last two weeks.