SiouxVolley

ETSU only had basketball as a revenue sport, but they are restarting football this fall. I live near ETSU, and nearly every business around ETSU sports "Go Bucs" or "Go ETSU" signs for fifty miles around it. That's more people than ND. ETSU has nice facilities on campus, their building a new outdoor football stadium, their President believes in athletics, and it not just a directional school. ETSU has a med school and it wants to be the equivalent of U of Memphis (which used to be WTSU). The other thing is Shay has all the contacts with Tennessee and SE HS coaches. ETSU fans and their admin expect to make the dance often, as they have done in the past. Losing seasons are not an option. Their previous President dropped football, which caused the Southern Conference to kick them out, so they had to join the Atlantic Sun. Same crap that UAB is going through. ETSU is rebuilding what they had.

Boots actually retired in September of 2013, just before the season started. Joey James coached that season. How many Sioux fans would complain if we had Craig Smith right now?

USD finished 12-18 last year, and they get Boots to retire at 57. Craig Smith is scooped up and they promptly have a winning season. We have nearly the worst year is school history, lose promising players to transfer, have a shot at a promising young coach at Moorhead, but UND administrators just sit on their hands. UND needs to at least give their fans hope. But no.

Final RPI ranking: 312 A ranking like that practically destroys the non-conference schedule next season. Top 100 or 50 schools won't want to schedule us. It will take at least two years to even work our way up the rankings, if we win. Meanwhile, other Dakota schools have an RPI ranking in the 90's. Their non-conference schedule will be much stronger, which helps their RPI next year. Becoming one of the dregs in DI really builds a deep hole and a Catch-22 situation.

In bizon eyes, that is treasonous to go to a higher level, only to start hockey. Only about 10% of bisonville likes hockey. The majority claim they hate it.

Gene Taylor may be the man tasked with bringing hockey to Iowa. With a new rink proposed for Coralville, something is up. Just imagine how that will bring down Taylor's legacy on Bville.

What!!? No bragging up a Slummit school on Bisonville that made it to a Final Four? When IPFW made it to a Final Four in men's volleyball, bisonville crowed for days! What gives?!!!!

Don't Frozen Four teams each get about $250 k from the NCAA for participating? Use it to pay off Jones salary, and $70 k will be left to give a new coach a raise. Walthall of MSU Moorhead would almost certainly accept $150 k, now that he's done for the year.

Grand Valley State would be perfect for the Slummit and MVFC, if any of Youngstown, Mo St, I'll St, Ind St, UNI get an FBS invite. Football is big at GVSU, and they can't drop it like Omaha.

The vast majority of them are in ND, Minn, Colo, and Ariz. Wash, Ore, Utah, and Calif have decent numbers too. The Slummit territory like Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma don't have many alumns. I'm not in that vast majority, but I'm not expecting UND to join the Southern Conference to please me.

Alumni are in Minnesota and Big Sky states. Minnesota is covered by hockey, not by the Slummit. If we want an NCC division, make it enticing for them to join. We can be leaders for once.

Google Digi Key Thief River under news. It should be free that way.

Would they buyout the exit fee from the Big Sky? Elgin has no choice but to placate Bradley, Drake, Evansville, Loyola, and Wichita St, which don't give a cr*p about football. Elgin doesn't run the league, he only is the XO, not the CO. The Presidents make the major decisions, not Elgin.

Neither the Horizon nor MVC want IUPUI or IPFW. The Horizon wants Belmont, NKU, and maybe Murray St according to media. Wichita St could leave the MVC, which may cause the MVC and Horizon to battle over Belmont and Murray St. The MVC may also look at UAB. If Wichita St stays, ORU or Denver could get looks from the MVC, as Wichita St is owed closer neighbors. WSU has only increased the MVC coffers by a few mill lately.

Tech alumni are mostly engineers, likely live in the Twin Cities, Wisconsin, and Michigan, are very loyal, and have money to travel, unlike most UP'ers.

In a recent WSJ article, Thief River Falls' job market was highlighted, mainly because Digi Key is growing fast, adding about 500 jobs a year. A graphic showed that Grand Forks jobs have declined since 2009. But why is there such growth in the housing market? Is it all people that are working in the oil patch or in TRF? Even Fargo's job growth is anemic according to the WSJ. http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-job-islands-work-is-plentiful-but-the-workers-are-not-1424977919

Exactly. The Big Sky will announce FBS plans next spring. The other Dakotas will be begging and slobbering to join.

The Summit wasn't about to chance it, so they gave ORU no entrance fee to get to six baseball teams.

So Jones is leaving for NDSU? Hooray!

The WCHA had a great final for attendance: Mankato vs Tech, but only 700 Only Bemidji vs Mankato could possibly top it. Could you imagine a WCHA final four of UAH, BGSU, Ferris, and UAF? The WCHA has to be fearful of that happening one day. Only three WCHA teams draw in St Paul. Likewise, the NCHC has concerns about a FF without UND or Duluth. That would be a nightmare for attendance.

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/you-can-go-home-returnees-to-north-dakota-oil-boom/article_87b6dc1b-2df8-5b0f-81b2-adf08caaa1c3.html One of the great benefits of the oil boom: 20 to 30 yr olds return to the state because their are living wage jobs.

They get $255 k extra, which is included in the $1.75 mill. The Big Sky only gets $1.5 mill, as credit for Montana's win over Nevada has expired.

So is it fair to say that the players are transferring out to DII teams. That way they don't lose eligibility.

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-march-madness-basketball-fund/ The NCAA Basketball financials in a nutshell. A conference like the MVC will earn at least $1.25 mill / yr for the next six years, while the Slummit and Big Sky will divide up $250 k among their teams. With Wichita State going to the Final Four a couple years ago, the MVC divides up around $5 for their past six years. About $1.75 M will be distributed to the Big Sky and Slummit teams as payment for their past six years.

Wichita State to sweet sixteen! Always root for Wichita State. Their coach, Gregg Marshall, is one of the best in the game. When he was at Winthrop, they were a!ways in the tournament. Now, don't hear a peep out of Winthrop.