SiouxVolley

:lol:

They went to the Gene Taylor School of Situational Ethics? Win at all costs and you can probably get away with it. Junior Gold doesn't have many fans so the attorney general doesn't take notice of votes.

Good article in WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304071004579407140444547268

It's been 325, which is too low for 10-12. But some Class B towns have 20 kids in 10-12. Valley City and Devils Lake have to compete against schools nearly 10 times their size. Minot is the largest Class A school with nearly 3000, but the voters are against a split in Minot. Don't have the numbers, but the smallest Class B team at state is probably Flasher. Many of other Class B school are some of the largest (Beulah, New Town, Oak Grove, Rugby) Linton and Cavalier used to be "big", but they are probably 1/3rd of what they used to be.

50 kids vs 500 kids, which will produce a better team? Only once in a blue moon will a small school produce 6'5" players that can shoot. Bigger schools produce them almost annually.

Cavalier, Beulah, and Rugby all used to be Class A, so they missed out on a number of chances at Class A. Cavalier was Class A for 40 years and hardly went to the Class A tournament. Rugby won the Class A tournament if the 60's.

How many people will show up at the Class B tournament? With Western Michigan facing UND in the Ralph, it won't even be the biggest event in the city. In Bismarck or Minot, it would be by far the biggest even this winter/spring. Even Fargo doesn't have anything to compare. At Alerus Center Thursday 1 p.m. -- Fargo Oak Grove (No. 2 seed) vs. Flasher 2:45 p.m. -- Cavalier (No. 3 seed) vs. Linton-HMB 6:30 p.m. -- Rugby (No. 1 seed) vs. New Town 8:15 p.m. -- Beulah (No. 4 seed) vs. North Star

Now it will never happen, but kind of wish UND will build an on-campus stadium right South of the new med school. Only need a few thousand seats as the med school would break the nasty wind from the NW. Play baseball on the sunnyside. Took a couple of grad school courses at Spring Hill in Mobile, and they had a setup which is pictured. A good way to integrate athletics and academics. Lot of kids just hung out at the promenade studying and watching baseball. Could use a couple thousand seatbacks, but loved the atmosphere.

Been following conference realignments for 40+ years. More sure of an impending Big Sky FBS move then I was UND going Big Sky. People's opinion here don't matter. Presidents do. All the ingredients are here for a conference FBS upgrade. Normally, a school would have a $50 mill stadium upgrade to go FBS and get a conference invite. The Big Sky is planning on doing the whole conference for nearly that much, and grow into it over time. The MVC could have given their left testicle for a shot at FBS. Idaho stopped it.

The Sun Belt was down to six FBS schools had the following goals: Pick and chose FCS schools in its area to go FBS It didn't want an FBS MVC, and FBS CAA, and an all-star FCS roster like Jacksonville St, EKU, C Ark, Sam Houston, Lamar, Liberty, JMU, Coastal Carolina, Tn-Chatanooga to bypass it and go FBS with the WAC. If the WAC had survived, it would have caused holy hell for the Sun Belt. Now the Sun Belt can have a bidding war among schools for its remaining slots. It needed Idaho and NMSU and affiliate members for the short-term, just so it could get Ga So, Ga St, and App St transitioned. It absolutely did not want Idaho long term, as that would make the Sun Belt less desireable long term due to horrible travel. No potential SunBelt member wants to travel to Moscow, Idaho every other year. A trip like that should have a guarantee, not be free to Idaho. So the Sun Belt made a business decision to kill the FBS WAC (by temporarily accepting Idaho and maybe NMSU), and then promising Idaho a spot in a FBS Big Sky conference. Idaho's goal were always: stay FBS, and have a regional FBS conference with Montana, Montana St. If it could do anything to elevate the Big Sky (which was acting as a block), that's what it would do. The Big Sky wasn't ready to go FBS right away, but wanted a couple years to prepare. So a WAC - Big Sky merger was talked through at least twice but Big Sky President's didn't feel they were ready. Montana had a scandal on its hands, and Montana State had financial shortfalls, so even the two most capable of FBS weren't ready two years ago. Denver would not have left an FBS conference. When the WAC agreed to discontinue football (and take low academic and for-profit schools), Denver could no longer tolerate the WAC. Idaho-Big Sky-Sun Belt "won" the negotiations. The other FCS leagues lost. NMSU is in limbo. Idaho had to win, otherwise it would have been the death of them. NMSU still has a shot at CUSA and the MWC. Idaho had to negotiate a way into a FBS Big Sky: there was no other alternative. Staying in the Sun Belt long-term would just cause Idaho to perpetually bleed cash, and going to FCS would have cause the Idaho admistration to be fired in disgrace. If you evaluate each parties decision based on what they want, its all very logical and can be predicted.

I think Idaho included the clause to ensure that UND, Montana, and Montana St didn't move to an FBS MVC, and double-cross Idaho. Idaho is smarter than it looks! Trust but verify!

Ha-ha. I bet mplsbison that he would quit posting if UND got in the Big Sky. I was so sure of it and he thought it absurd. He hasn't posted since, since he was so sure UND was Summit-bound. At least Mplsbison was honorable, living up to his word, unlike the multitudes to bison trolls on here. When the Big Sky goes FBS, your out of here, if you have any guts.

You assume Idaho has a real media. Boise St does, but U Idaho doesn't. The media listens to the AD and believes the AD is giving the facts, but he lsn't necessary being totally truthful. The Big Sky agreement clearly stated Idaho football will be returning in the "near future" "presumably" as an FCS team. Idaho was in the Sun Belt once before for football and that was disastrous for both parties. The Sun Belt needs teams to help schedule Appy St, Ga So, and Ga St transition, but once that is done there is no need or desire for Idaho (or NMSU for that matter). Idaho just needs teams to fill out its schedule and the Sun Belt provides that. Idaho has no real future in FBS unless it has regional opponents to get the juices and wallets flowing of Idaho and Spokane area residents. The Big Sky needs a few years to get its act together. Personally think that there is a contract between the Sun Belt office and Big Sky office, but that would take a whole lot of wrangling and legal manuevers and cost to obtain. I don't want to "out" the plan for the NCAA to stop it. Bison fans reading this don't believe it anyway, so there's no risk they start a letter writing campaign to stop it. I looked at the Sun Belt agreement again: 2015-6 is an option year with an extension to 2017-18 if warranted.

A Freedom of Information request to Idaho. Idaho has an exit agreement that specifically states that the 2017-18 season is the last, if the two year option is exercised. Curiously, Idaho has 4 FBS game in 2018 and 2 scheduled in 2019, Two years is needed as that is it takes to transition to FBS. The Sun Belt gets paid 100Gs a year for each year Idaho is in. Presumably, each Big Sky team would pay the Sun Belt, so they get nearly $2 mill for granting us FBS privileges, but mainly they dont have another competitor league poaching their teams (like the WAC was threatening to invite the CAA or the MVC). The Big Sky is no threat to the Sun Belt, but a potential ally. UCDavis is certain to have 16,000 seats. Cal Poly would be questionable, but then Weber or NAU could be substituted. Idaho pulled out all stops for this in the WAC. The Big Sky could not move to FBS right away like the WAC tried to make them do. The 2017 season is critical, not 2016. FIU and FAU didn't even had FBS stadiums until their last year of transition. When Phase II of the IPF is announced, I wonder if a remodeled Memorial could be announced with 18k seats. Late season games in the Alerus. That could get us to 15K average.

A nuclear reaction induced meltdown from the rage of bisonville. Fargo won't be liveable for years, especially the north side. Better plan on moving in two years.

I should add that the California schools feel that football is FBS or bust. Urban areas just don't take to FCS. Only small towns do like Fargo and Boone and Statesboro and the like. Even Boone and Statesboro are moving up. If the California schools can't afford move to FBS, they are better suited to dropping football and replacing it with lacrosse. The stadiums are good for soccer and lacrosse, as well as football.

Idaho did a huge favor for us by blocking a MVC - WAC merger, although it was obviously in Idaho's self interest. NDSU would have been on the FBS track and we would be perenially frozen out of FBS by Taylor and Bresciani. By not playing us, Taylor and Bresciani had no politcal compulsion to invite us. Now the shoe will be on the other foot. Idaho will move to the Big Sky only when the WAC can no longer invite teams for FBS, so their continued presence in the WAC until June 30th is essential. (The WAC loses FBS status on June 30th). Their sole requirement is that UND, Montana, and MSU be in the Sky when they return. The four schools are joined at the hip and want to be FBS together.

Sacramento St already has a FBS compatible stadium. They are working on a basketball arena. Ditto for Portland St. UCDavis has a 10,000 seat new stadium that is designed to seat at least 30,000. If they add 6000, they are good to go. UCDavis has an $800mill endownment and is one of the highest rated public U's. Cal Poly has an 11,000 seat stadium. Expansion is more difficult because a railroad track runs along one side, so stands have to be elevated. Expansion to 22,000 seats is planned. E Wash has a planned expansion to 18,000. Roos Field would be decked on one site and lounge and loge seating added. https://sites.ewu.ed...ateway-project/ Those are the five schools besides UND and the Montanas that would needed, although four would be a possible go. Technically, Weber St and Northern Arizona have FBS stadiums, as they are over 15,000 capacity. But would have real issues if they could support FBS, even for their Foundations paid for 1/3rd price tickets. Seems like Idaho State is a basket case financially, and UNC isn't much better. SUU is just too young.

It is possible that UND doesn't plan on converting right away. Leave it to the eight: MSU, Montana, Idaho, EWU, Portland St and the Calif schools. But that leaves zero room for error if one the those seven can't pass the transition. The plan has to be for at least nine schools, so if one fails the others don't fail. That would leave UND being a minor partner with little sky teammates: NAU, UNC, Weber, ISU, SUU. That's unacceptable.

The NCAA will allow it because the rules allow it. It is an end-around and it is legal. If the NCAA doesn't want it to happen, they should legislate prior to the move. Ruling after it is done would have legal issues. Some times the little guy has to perform an end around to have a shotl No chance Idaho ever gets in the MWC. Montana would be picked before Idaho. UC Davis would have the inside track if it stayed west. The MWC has shown it like Texas schools: Rice, UTSA, UTEP, UNT could all get shots. Eight of the 14 Big Sky schools have to be FBS before the conference can be FBS. The others could be FCS. Nothing prevents a conference from sponsoring both. Seattle and Denver wanted to get in but the BSC wanted them to start football. From a market and TV standpoint, either Seattle or Denver would be much greater than Idaho without football. Denver has better academics than Idaho, but Denver couldn't get a look. The BSC is a football conference, but they took in Idaho without its most valuable team. That isn't logical. Why not wait til Idaho was forced to FCS? The only answer is that the Big Sky sees Idaho as an opening to FBS. Cal Poly, UCDavis, Portland St, and Sac St have to convert to FBS to have any shot at their football programs being relevant to their areas. FCS is a losers game for them and they know it and they plan on changing the game.

A poster on the csnbbs realignment board found these FCS schools were most likely to be successful with a crack at FBS. They are most like other FBS schools. Thought UC Davis, Portland St, Montana, and Sac St should be listed too. An eight or nine team Big Sky looks like an FBS conference. Stony Brook Illinois State New Hampshire [gap] Towson North Dakota State Cal Poly SUNY - Albany Montana State North Dakota

Nicest thing you've ever said here.

When Idaho and NMSU were left in the WAC, the WAC could have merged with the MVC or the WAC could have added teams from the southeast. Both options were hated by the Sun Belt. The Sun Belt added NMSU and Idaho as affiliate members to rid itself of a competing league: Idaho is only a temporary add. Idaho insisted that it wanted to stay FBS but wanted a regional league of its own. The Sun Belt wants to shed Idaho and leave the relationship gracefully and is willing to grant the Big Sky FBS status, as it wouldn't have another rival league in its footprint. Idaho itself is planning to expand the Kibbie Dome to 26k with cantilevered sections. Idaho football is contracted through the 2015-16 season to the Sun Belt. There is a two year extension to 2017-18 available. Idaho has contracted FBS games well beyond 2018, indicating that it will stay FBS even though the Big Sky is FCS. To fulfill its contract with Idaho, I believe the Sun Belt will temporarily absorb Big Sky football for two years to allow it to transition to FBS, and then release all the Big Sky teams after they have finished the 2018 seasons and then the Big Sky will be an FBS conference. So by the spring of 2016, stadium additions are needed at UC Davis, Cal Poly, EWU, and UND. Extra sports are needed at Montana, Montana State, Portland St, and EWU by that date. If those expansions are not under construction by 2016, the Sun Belt isn't required to temporarily add any Big Sky squad, and Idaho will return to FCS and an FCS Big Sky. Having NAU, Idaho St, UNC, Weber St and SUU ready isn't likely and isn't needed. The Big Sky doesn't normally allow a school to join without adding football. Idaho was an allowed exception because the promise of FBS and the relationship with the Sun Belt. I have shown that NDSU with the MVFC almost certainly was involved with the WAC and an FBS project. If that WAC / MVC merger had happened, NDSU would have entered last year as an FBS transition school, and would not have been a part of the FCS playoffs. Instead, UND will be the first and likely only school from the Dakotas to play FBS

In three years when the Big Sky begins its transition to FBS, the Big Sky will be a huge step up. What's NDSU going to do: turn down a FBS UND offering an FCS team a home and home? Taylor will never agree to a UND game. With UND FBS, the bi-sons can no longer offer the excuse that they need to schedule FBS teams, not UND.

Theres alot of dissolved ethane and methane is Bakken oil, so when the oil is heated, the ethane and methane form a vapor cap which explodes in a fireball if it reaches a spark source. Stripping out ethane and methane with nitrogen before loading would eliminate much of the volatility, but that costs.