SiouxVolley

Exxon ahd Chevron were big before the shale revolution, and continue to be big. They haven't grown nearly as much as the shale companies. They consider the shale wells to small to piss around with. The way that they will benefit it to buy whole a couple of shale companies. ExxonMobil did buy one the big shale companies in ND: XTO. Apple and Google are almost as big, and you don't hear many people complaining about iPhone or android prices. $100 oil prices is very very good for ND now, just as it has been for Norway, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. If it gets to $60, the economy if GF and ND could go south. Which is better for you? $2.75 gas prices or a massive reduction in property or income taxes and rapidly growing incomes?

Your record with 89rabbit is well documented here. You and 89 (who othertimes posted as aff) used to really ham it up on the SDSU board and laugh about the state of UND athletics. You don't come in peace any more than 90% of NDSU trolls.

So its fine to impugn me but your gonna defend 89rabbit to the end. Got it. Your lawyer training makes it all right? 89rabbit was likely a scam artist through and through that had his wife do the dirty deed and take the fall for him. He gets a Disney cruise and a family vacation on other peoples stolen credit, but he says that he doesn't know where the funds came from? "She" had done it before. http://www.sdsucollegian.com/news/article_6c271eb4-a429-11e3-9d24-0017a43b2370.html Must have been awfully embarrassing to have a couple like 89rabbit with his wife in charge of the SDSU alumni group.

Wichita State will vote with its feet and leave if NDSU and its remodeled BSA get in the MVC. The MVC wouldn't be any better than the Slummit then. What Wichita State wants is a league like the American, or CUSA, but if stays in the MVC, it would go for NMSU, Denver, UTArlington, or Oral Roberts. Schools that have actual BB programs or media markets. Wichita State would have to leave for NDSU or SDSU to get in: as they consider themselves much more than a bottom feeder.

So there is an Forum article on adding seats to the FargoDome, making it seat 23 or 25K. The only question is what FBS league NDSU is planning on: the Sun Belt or the Big Sky. http://www.inforum.com/content/fargodome-officials-consider-adding-seats-bison-games

Look up past posts by 89rabbit. He hated UND, but then got run out of Brookings as Alumni Chief for credit cards scams on his own benefactors. Too often, rabbit fans look to NDSU and since NDSU fans hate UND, SDSU does what big brother says.

Exactly like the NDSU @ USD and NDSU @ WIU games. We don't come to Bville to point out how small time your program is. Lakes does a good job at that.

ISU has to be the favorite to hose as they have only one loss. Not likely to lose many more, only @ NAU and home to Portland St are possibilities. UND on the other hand has three tough games that could be 'Ls': at Idaho, at EWU and home aginst UNC. Have to win all six games and hope ISU loses three. Pioske and Robinson are versatile hitters, but were not designed by their body types to play smash ball at the net. Munkeby and Parlich had the height and build to do that. May Moser and Julia K can grow into the role, as well as Fraase and Spacek.

Big Oil has not been thriving, even with shale oil. The real winners are companies like Continental Resources, Whiting, Pioneer, EOG, Devon, Apache, Noble, Anadarko, Southwestern, and recently Cheasapeake who foresaw what fracking would do to change the country. This country has begun to be a manufacturing powerhouse again because of those companies. Nat gas is the cheaper by a factor of three than Europe, China, and Japan. The US will be energy independent for the first time in 50 years, and we won't be beholding to Saudi sheiks or Russian strong men or to the seven sisters (Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, Total and ConocoPhillips). Those small independents are now challenging for leadership in the oil world. If you had paid attention to the Bakken thread and invested you would have had a tremendous opportunity to increase your wealth in only five years.

Pryor has delivered top 20 VB classes for Baylor in the past. With a full recruiting season, it will be interesting who he can land. A P5 outside hitter would be nice. When we lost Munkeby and Parlich, not many teams could withstand those type losses to graduation. Dooley, Griffin, and Hart make as strong of a core of your players as any in the Big Sky. Pioske would have better opportunities if UND had a power OH to go with her.

Forgot that FSN was losing some Gopher games to the B1G Ten Network. FSN can one stop shop with UND athletics. NDSU, SDSU, and USD don't have digital or satellite capability other than MidCo's. Maybe NDSU can sell a BB game with microwave technology.

John Kerry met with the Saudi's, who wanted to starve out ISIS, Russia, and Iran from oil income. Kerry gladly endorsed it, because the admin is anti-oil but pro-green energy, but green energy needs even higher oil prices. The best of both worlds for Obama before the election. With gas prices down, maybe the Dems can get some more votes in their view, but the public sees incompetence in handling of health care, the IRS, ISIS, Russia, hatchets, and Ebola. Its 2.62 in the VA, TN, NC border regions and dropping 0.05 a week. State and Fed taxes are a big part, so as the oil price goes down, gasoline prices are not proportional.

http://www.thebakken.com/articles/854/badlands-ngl-considering-locations-byproducts-for-new-plant Our own Patrick Miller has written a nice article about where the Polyethylene plant could be located. Apparently, all the water used will be internally recycled, as no wastewater will be generated. The hydrogen generated could be used for a fertilizer plant. The CO2 generated could be recovered as food grade material (soda pop). Looks like Beulah would fit the criteria, as it built a fertilizer addition. Jamestown could also be in the mix. Maybe Morton County. Think the only way Grand Forks will be in the mix is if Hess builds a pipeline to supply propane to the Mentor caverns, and ethane is separated in GF. Probably a very long shot.

FoxNorth Sports must have been in need of fall programming and happened to see UND-Idaho or UND-Portland St and liked it. Don't think it will apply to UND basketball, except maybe UND-UM women's games, as with UM, the Wild, and the Wolves, they have much more programming. Hope Fraase and Spacek can be outside hitters. We need help and height in those positions. NAU and Idaho St just seem to overpower us.

The Big 10 and Pac 12 want to force the SEC to play nine conference games so that they beat up on themselves. The Big 10 and Pac 12 and ACC have enough patsies so playing among themselves gives them a big advantage. The CFB playoffs have a formula to divide the playoff money set in stone until 2025. The G5 conferences are named, so if another G5 conference appears, they would not be eligible for playoff money unless they were written into a new agreement starting in 2026. Even though the G5 receives table scraps from that agreement, it still amounts to $1 mill per team. (up to 12 teams per conference, so CUSA has to divide $12 mill by 14 instead of 12). The P5 conferences are not penalized for having more teams and make 10 x the money. When a Big Sky FBS appears, it might get written in to the agreement that begins in 2026, which should be more $'s and as many as 8 or 16 teams. But in the mean time, Big Sky FBS teams would benefit more by being visiting teams of the PAC12 and Big 10, by getting a real cable contract, and getting bowl games like the one in Boise against the MWC, maybe one in Mpls against the MAC, and maybe one in Seattle or N Calif against the MWC. The Big Sky would not get a bowl game against any of the P5 unless possibly the playoffs would expand to 16. Right now, the SEC has three lower levels beneath it in its region of FBS football. If the SEC is major league, the American is like an AAA league, CUSA is AA, and the Sun Belt is A. For the PAC 12, it only has a AAA league in the MWC. If wants an "A" league for more and cheaper games against FBS. The Big Ten really only has an AAA league in its eastern part, and an A league in Ohio and Michigan (mainly), so it would like an A league for its western teams.

The Big Sky could have refused Idaho unless they brought back FCS football now. They didn't, even though they had the leverage. Been through this before, but Montana and Montana St backed out on the WAC at the last minute. They would have been invited at the same time as Texas St and UTSA. The Montana schools still have FBS aspirations, but with their own league. The MWC conference schools have too big of budgets, too large of stadiums, to ever consider Idaho, Montana, MSU, or even NDSU. It would be athletic suicide for any of those schools to accept an invitation to that league. Sure, they might be competitive for a year or two, but most years they'd be absolutely blasted in every sport. NDSU fans that talk up getting into the MWC or even Big Ten live in a different reality,. A collaboration for NW regional schools is the only way that all can succeed at FBS, except possibly NDSU. The California and Oregon schools all want FBS eventually, but the education cuts in their states were really bad, so FBS wasn't feasible at that time. The triad of Idaho, Montana, and Montana St had to buy time with the west coast schools plus E Wash and UND, who both need an FBS compliant stadium. The delay serves them well to meet FBS standards. If Montana and MSU had joined the WAC in 2011 or 12, they wouldn't have had conference homes for all sports. When Idaho is notified after the 2015 season that they will be kicked out of the Summit after 2017 season, expect a lot of talk of FBS at that time. Idaho has already creased the skids with Emmert that an NCAA rule change is needed. The P5 schools will be in support so it will happen.

No one at BIsonville even mentioned the Sun Belch until I did. They keep talking delusional when the MAC and MWC get brought up. The Sun Belch is a reasonable goal for Bresciani and he knows it. The Sun Belt needs teams that can show up for bowl games, otherwise their bowls go under. The Sun Belt also wants a bowl in Texas. NDSU has proven that it will attract fans to Frisco. The most powerful team in the Sun Belt is Ga Southern, which isn't even out of transition yet. Why would the Sun Belt not like NDSU except for the distance? I thought you lived in Arkansas. Right up your alley.

http://bismarcktribune.com/bakken/company-considers-oil-refinery-at-devils-lake/article_1a1459bc-592c-11e4-a937-0f6129c75014.html Devils Lake may get a refinery (really just a partial distillation plant) for production of diesel. The projected cost is only $200 M, compared to the one in Dickinson that has the same capacity and costs $350 mill. Moving east sure makes a difference in construction costs: $150 mill in this case. Its that kind of capital costs reductions which lead me to believe that GF could be in store for some petrochemical processes, beyond the fertilizer plant. If its not the cracker plant, it would be something else. Fargo doesn't have the industrial land with the diversion N and S. West Fargo doesn't have the water. t

The Big Sky normally doesn't take any school unless it brings with it football. Idaho will bring it, but it will be the Big Sky's ticket to FBS. That's why the Big Sky is patient because some schools are not ready for FBS, including UND. If Idaho was going to drop to FCS, why didn't they do it this year? Idaho would never bring 10,000 to any of the SunBelt bowl games. The Vandals would be lucky to get 2000 in New Orleans or Mobile or Montgomery. That is unacceptable to the Sun Belt. But Idaho would bring 20K to Boise and maybe 10K to Seattle. Meanwhile, bizon fans have shown they can travel to a "bowl" game down south: what's the difference as far as Frisco or New Orleans or Mobile? The Sun Belt expects their teams to bring at least 10K fans to their bowl games, otherwise the bowls would be forced to drop to conference. The Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise would love a Big Sky team instead of a MAC team, which doesn't contribute more that a few hundred fans. The Potato Bowl puts up with the MAC because its all they can get, Ideally, they want a MWC vs a Big Sky matchup. The Sun Belt was desperate when Idaho and NMSU were added, as it was down to six members and three in transition. As I said earlier, NDSU isn't the ideal candidate and they want some schools first that would say no, but NDSU has traveling fans for bowls and a championship game, and that serves the Sun Belt well. Idaho doesn't help in either category. If NDSU and the Sun Belt came to some agreement, it would be with a substantial exit fee for NDSU with the first eight to ten years, and then would go down. A Dallas or Frisco bowl is also possible for the Belt if they can choose from Texas St, NMSU, and NDSU. A Sun Belt bowl in Frisco or Dallas isn't assured that a 'local' team would qualify. The other Sun Belt bowls are practically assured of a reasonably local team or one that travels well (Ark St and La-La travel very well).

When Idaho accepted a bid to the Big Sky in 2012, that was a sure sign that at least part of the Big Sky signaled it would go FBS. Idaho is not giving up its precious FBS status and would have stayed in the WAC as an FBS independent or affiliate if the BIg Sky had no FBS plans. The Big Sky called off a merger with the WAC because most of the Big Sky schools that had FBS goals were not ready, but they agreed to be ready be late in the decade. NDSU, SDSU, and probably USD have all been contacted about going FBS with the Big Sky, so its not like NDSU is operating in a vacuum. In the Sun Belt, NDSU will have to be content with that conferences bowl tie-ins, which are the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, the GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile, and the New Orleans Bowl. The BIg Sky would have the Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, and probably two new bowls in Seattle and in Vikings Stadium in Mpls. Idaho wouldn't attract many fans to the Sun Belt bowl locations, so an FBS Big Sky is the best of all worlds. NDSU could choose the Sun Belt in part out of spite and in part to be the first mover. The Big Sky can't begin the FBS transition until 2018 when Idaho football comes aboard.

Plenty weird that the two teams that abandoned LA the same year, Rams and the Raiders, may both end up back in LA the same year. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24758737/rams-raiders-would-be-los-angeles-found----if-not-for-the-nfl The Jacksonville Jaguars may fill the Rams void by moving to St Louis, as the Jags owner is from there.

If Avianax gets funding from the DoD for ebola, that could lead to venture capitalists funding the company for other viruses or bacteria. Could be huge for Grand Forks and UND to have a biotech company with funding. Their goose antibodies have proven to work for parvo in puppies, but its a huge financial step to get funding for human trials. http://www.prairiebizmag.com/event/article/id/21343/

Would think west of the new WalMart would be a good location. On the south end, there isn't room for a big box store except on 42nd St or west of I29 on 32nd Ave. HoE has done really well in the oil patch, so they should have money for an upgrade in location. Would kind of make sense to be the lead store for an implement "mall".

I said that NDSU has about a 10% chance of being accepted to the Sun Belt. That league would much prefer teams in states like Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, or Virginina, but will take a 12th team as an associate in football as it would mean a championship game for them on ESPN or network TV. The Sun Belt has never been a launching pad for any school, unless you include La Tech, FIU, FAU, Middle Tenn, or Western Ky which are now in CUSA. The days of an interloper like Boise State making waves are probably dead. Why did Chris Petersen go to Washington rather than stay with his beloved Boise? IMHO, he saw the writing on the wall. The PAC12 schools are seeing a huge increase in TV revenue, which they will use to build better facilities and staff, Boise St won some battles but lost the war to be a P5 school. The Big 12 would take SDSU, Fresno, Colo St, or UNM before Boise St, and its highly doubtful that the Big 12 will take any of them. The sole purpose of this thread is for UND fans to understand the ramifications if the Big Sky won't go or can't obtain FBS status.

An interesting article on ethane crackers from a Pittsburgh paper, Four separate cracker plants may be built in the Pittburgh area to handle much of the ethane from the Marcellus and Utica formations. The article implies that tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs could result from one cracker plant, if related infrastructure in other industries is built. But North Dakota has a history of exporting raw materials like polyethylene pellets, so that's a huge task in a lightly populated area. http://triblive.com/business/headlines/6957378-74/gas-crackers-industry#axzz3Gf1cIDaG