SiouxVolley

UC Irvine converted recently it's roller hockey club team to ice hockey. Probably too early to go to a higher level in ACHA yet. Here was a story when that rink complex opened earlier this year. https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/tn-wknd-et-great-park-ice-20190103-story.html

CHN doesn't have a story on it. High Point plays in the Greenboro Ice House in a DII ACHA league against mostly ACC schools.

Actually surprised that UC-Irvine didn’t join them using the Anaheim Ducks practice faculty, Great Park Ice and Fivepoint facility in Irvine. UC Irvine has a big endowment for such a young school. That arena has five rinks and the major one holds almost 2500.

There has been little reporting and talk of High Point building a rink and starting DI hockey except here and NC. USCHO and College Hockey News don’t have anything on it. Here’s another Greensboro article on High Point U’s growth and it’s president. https://www.greensboro.com/opinion/editorials/our-opinion-nido-s-golden-touch/article_1cbfe284-3b7d-5174-89d4-fd67b9f7d59d.html

Each successive set, UND has gotten weaker. UND barely won the first set, but after that Omaha has strengthened their advantages with each set. Omaha now leads 20-11, in the 4th set, which will be the final one.

UND tied with Omaha early in the third set. Omaha has a much higher rating in Massey, so thought victory wasn’t possible in a short week with more needed improvement.

Chicago St has four DI non conference home games: Northern Illinois, Oral Roberts, Jacksonville St, and Loyola (MD) Chicago St does not have money to give guarantees, but is a major recruiting center and is convenient for many schools.

As usual, wrong again. In the Facilities Master Plan, had mentioned High Point as being ambitious. Siouxperfan than tore into that saying High Point would go FBS with the WAC and several posters agreed with it sarcastically. NC has three very ambitious private DI schools sub P5 that get most of their student from the Northeast. Davidson moved to the A10. Elon moved to the CAA. High Point starts lacrosse and hockey to attract those potential students. All three have made moves within the last 10 years for student recruitment, with athletic affiliation and sports sposorship.

Never heard of the Nistler’s until this gift. Most big donors have been on the the Foundation Board, so there’s more to come.

The Jimmy John chain, which is based in Champaign, was sold to the owner of Arby’s and BWW, so rumors are out there that Jimmy John will endow a U of Illinois hockey team. Jimmy John hasn’t made any public states in the past about Illini hockey, but the rumor is out there. https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-jimmy-johns-sold-20190925-argxi7nwyjh5ddbc7m6cf4oiwy-story.html

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/rockets-owner-hasnt-given-dream-houston-nhl-team/ Tilman Fertitta still interested in getting an expansion team or relocated team for Houston. He has the money and facility, Toyota Center, for it.

Williston District #1 could effectively force Williston District #8 to build a new high school if this opinion holds up. https://www.willistonherald.com/news/education/can-district-exclude-out-of-district-students-from-williston-high/article_2bb8c618-dbda-11e9-a1a2-6bac32f17015.html If District #1 says their HS is overcrowded, District #1 doesn’t have to accept District #8 HS students. Right now, the HS enrolls more than capacity, and it will get much worse. Both districts have rejected bonds for HS enrollment and building projects.

The vast majority of low level DI schools have large numbers of schools that can be bussed to, greatly reducing cost. A two game series in North Dakota in December is not wanted for several reasons, but a California weekend or Texas weekend is wanted. A Dance appearance goes a long ways to visiting home and because of that, NDSU wasn’t a viable partner this year. When NDSU and UND were in separate conferences, it was a wee bit easier to schedule one team, because they don’t want to schedule two low level schools from the same mid major conference. Besides that, ND isn’t a recruiting center. Pretty simple that for those that understand, unless a major cash incentive is found for the visiting team.

NDSU was a dance team last year and will be the favorite this year. DI schools like an opportunity to win over a dance school. Partnering with UND doesn’t make sense for most visiting DI schools. When NDSU falls, that will change.

Lauren Ware of Bismarck Century signed with Arizona for both WBB and Vb. http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2019/09/s-lauren-ware

UND continues to slide in Massey rankings, now at #267. They have less than a 4% chance against Omaha and under 1% against USD. Almost 100 ranking points lower than NDSU now.

The defense started out poor but came around. The freshman libero should be good. The attack game made way too many errors, including from players have experience. This team hasn’t found a rhythm yet and needs something. No one was offensively dominating. But the EWU win was almost expected based on ratings. Akron should be a bigger test. But a win against NDSU seems doubtful.

UNLV and Utah have access to DI capable rinks. Grand Canyon doesn’t. Wonder how they would move up with facilities. But GCU has bucks at its disposal. With Arizona St, those three teams can form a NCAA league with the Alaska’s.

Earlier had sad High Point was aiming higher in athletics in another thread and got a flack for that. High Point U wants the CAA but doesn’t want football as there are so many teams in N.C. Hockey would set it apart in N.C. and the tuition and room ($51.5 k) isn’t so much to turn off North East students. With M/W lax, M/W soccer and now ice hockey, resembles NE schools like Denver does.

The $300 million expansion includes several other buildings. Doubt the new arena will be even $100 million but lesser then Penn St. High Point U has expanded with high end dorms and taken over a mall and turned it into a pharmacy school. High Point’s downtown is the furniture capital of the USA with a huge many story expo center and has a lot of money around it, even it the city is relatively poor.

Another article on High Point University and its growth. https://www.greensboro.com/news/education/high-point-u-s-plan-for-the-next-decade-more/article_4bbd1832-bb28-5cb7-b480-ad78c243be5a.html#1

High Point U is in the triad cities of Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point, which has Wake Forest, N C A&T and UNC-Greensboro as DI schools too. High Point seems to be positioning itself as a warmer NE school as it has banked on out of state students. It went DI before UND but not many years ago and has been growing and previously added lacrosse. Here’s today’s article that it is investing $1 billion in new facilities and programs. The Carolina Hurricanes played the first year in the Greensboro Coliseum when the new arena in Raleigh was under construction, so hockey isn't unknown there. https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/education/high-point-university-investment-announcement/83-89410bf8-05f2-4b8c-87b4-22ad01213111 Looks like the WCHA knew that a southern League for UAH was developing, as Liberty, Navy, Alabama, Georgia and Louisville and maybe others will start teams.

UND went 3-1 at Carolina teams, but the three victories were sub 300 DI ratings. Campbell U was near rated to UND, but UND was trounced by Campbell and UND lost the second set 25-5. In the last OOC the weekend, UND hosts EWU, Akron, and Lamar. A victory against Akron is probably unlikely, but EWU and Lamar are only slightly rated less than UND. This year could be a tough year if things don’t get straightened out soon.

Remember saying Tommy Schuster should have gotten playing time vs Drake and was criticized for it because they didn’t want to waste a redshirt. All the other QB’s are endorsed by out former Offensive coordinator. Schuster always had Freund’s blessing and we need a QB with more running and draw capabilities and was a lat add under Freund when he surveyed rhe QB situation. Too many college coaches almost automatically eliminate recruits under 6 ft for DI. When a HS qB leads his team to a 6A Michigan title and most of the players and coaches single out Schuster, he must have talent and leadership skills.

No. He just said in a couple years. NDSU is not getting an invite from a G5 conference, so he needs the Summit to sponsor FB with FBS capable schools.