Dustin

Don't be surprised. It should be a great showcase of college volleyball to, what I hope will be, a great homecoming crowd. These ladies deserve our support.

Agreed about being sharper. Some, but not all, was the fact that Hardee used several reserves tonight. I'm sure he'll stick with his main 8or9 girls on Saturday, but they will have to be on their game. Should be a great showcase of college volleyball on Saturday.

Let's give the girls a nice welcome home party this Thursday night, and again Saturday afternoon! If I remember correctly, UND did not beat UNC last season, so this was sweet on multiple levels.

Just wanted to point out, that game is Oct. 12. It will be against Portland State, who also is currently 4-0 in Big Sky play. Hopefully a homecoming crowd makes for a nice turn-out, in what will likely be a very significent match for the regular season.

Hardee did a very cool thing and let every native North Dakotan (with the exception of Kellie Schmidt, who I'm suspecting is red shirting this season) play at least one serve.

I was surprised too that South Dakota beat them, but I think USD is the team to beat in the Summit League this year.

Very nice way to start the conference season. The girls looked like they had it together tonight, even after being on the road for nearly a month. Very excited to have them at home next week! Could be a rewarding season

Yes, same channel. Wonder if UND can do themselves a big favor and win that game on national television?

Exactly. You'd at least think that we could get a home game with Northern Iowa every other year.

Nice! Not sure what kind of team Fla. A&M is, but a road win is always good.

Getting back to your original post: Choice of conference was easy - Big Sky offered, Missouri Valley didn't. UND was being courted by the Summit League for non-football sports, but MVFC was not part of that deal. After UND accepted Big Sky offer, it looked as though South Dakota would too, and then MVFC made it a package deal with the Summit, and USD went there with the xDSU's. Overall, I think most UND fans are happy with the Big Sky over the Summit/MVFC. Live video of all football, basketball, and volleyball games is great, and at no cost to the fans. We also are happy with the conference stability over the Summit. I think Doug Fullerton has done a good job positioning the Big Sky for when the inevitable 3-tier D-1 football system happens. Adding the other Dakota schools to the Big Sky would be looked at favorably by UND, but I think the other Dakota schools love the MVFC. As for conference aspirations, I know full membership in the Missouri Valley would a dream come true for NDSU, although UND people are convinced that would never happen. As for the nickname, that saga is long and drawn out. Long story short - Fighting Sioux was on the NCAA list of offensive names back in 2005. UND and various nickname supporters tried (how hard depends on who you ask) to keep the name without sanctions from the NCAA, but to no avail. After 7 years of oftentimes ugly disagreement, the issue was finally put to rest in 2012 when 2/3 of North Dakotans voted to retire the name. Most are sad that it is gone. Most are content with no nickname being better than a new nickname (at least for right now.) UND overall is a proud athletics school with 11 national championship in 3 sports, including 1 in D-II football. I can assure you that contending for a national championship in FCS football is a high priority of the athletic department.

So this brings about an interesting discussion: If UND still has a contract with FCS, why would select non-hockey events be broadcast while hockey games not broadcast. I would think viewership would be highest for hockey games. Now, I know that CBSSN has NCHC national rights, but there are non-conference games that would apply. Anyway, it's good for the non-hockey sports that they will get some national coverage, as well as good regional coverage. I'm anxious to see what MidcoSN broadcast schedule for the season is.

NDSU at home this year, too, right? Any other OOC games known?

UND won the game that was on Root Sports last year (over Montana), but there weren't many other games that would turn heads of Root Sports programming directors and say "We need more games with North Dakota." Win a Big Sky title, and that will change. (I hope). On a related note, was a Midco subscriber able to watch that game last year? I was in Bismarck watching on satellite.

The same could be said for basketball, but everyone likes a Cinderella story, right? So let the Bemidji States of the college hockey world be a Cinderella. All the reasons you state benefit the dozen or so perennial NCAA hockey powers, but don't do much to create additional interest in the game.

Not sure why so many people think best-of-three series are needed for the tournament. If you're the better team, you shouldn't need three games to prove it - go out there and win the damn game! If you can't get geared up to win one game when it counts the most, then you deserve to lose. I think the 16-team single-elimination format is the right way to go - just let the #1 seeds host the regionals and the attendance problems are solved.

Someone who knows more about this site should start a new topic for 2013 Volleyball.

Weber State playing for the CIT championship right now on CBS Sports Network.

I'd actually rather play the first game. Get the win outta the way, and then relax while watching the next game, knowing you've already advanced.

That would be awesome if he actually did that!

Anybody else flip over to the Minnesota HS basketball tourney to watch Park Center, and more specifically, Quinten Hooker? He had a pretty decent game, and looks like a great addition to the roster next year.

So how does one go about raising their RPI if teams that would boost RPI if beaten won't schedule games? I suppose beating Weber St. and Montana would help.

Loved the article with Oakland's coach. Oakland has the advantage of being close to several major BB programs (think Big 10, Big East, etc), while UND does not. I like scheduling some Summit League teams as a gauge for how we stack up with that conference, but Summit League teams can't be our only non-conference schedule. I wonder, do big D-I programs not like playing the small D-I programs, kind of like us not wanting to play D-II or D-III? It may get harder and harder to get the big-name opponent. Just think, the Big 10 is already not scheduling FCS opponents in football. Are big-time basketball programs next? The plus side, is that there are tons of great mid-major basketball programs who would be more than enough competition to keep our feet wet.

Doing this is not uncommon even amongst the most highly paid, seasoned network sports announcers. It's called "garbage time" and just meant to be a filler to the unimportant happenings of a blowout game in its late stages.

Just random thinking here, so don't rag on me too hard: Is the CIT a NCAA-sanctioned event? If not, do NCAA rules apply, such as transfers, red-shirts, etc.? I'm guessing they still would, but not sure why. Just wondering if we'd be legal to play some of the guys we've been waiting to see.