DI transition articles/info

[star2city]

San Antonio Express-News: Incarnate Word looking at DI option

He's the mastermind, the unquestioned leader of the school's unprecedented growth in recent years. So when University of the Incarnate Word president Louis Agnese, awash in pride over his new football team, suggests taking UIW's athletics programs into NCAA Division I by 2012, it's not a surprise.

[star2city]

FCS title game date could be moved to January

This change would allow fans time to make travel reservations with adequate notice to get decent rates.

Since 1997, the FCS championship game has been held in mid-December in Chattanooga, Tenn., and concluded four consecutive weekends of tournament competition. This proposal would suspend the FCS tournament following mid-December semifinals, allow the championship-game qualifiers to break for the holidays, then meet in a nationally televised game the night before the early-January BCS (Football Bowl Subdivision) championship game.

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

Nice article in the Minot Daily. LINK

[UND Fan]

Nice article in the Minot Daily. LINK

That was a good article - thanks for providing the link!

[SooToo]

Nice article in the Minot Daily. LINK

Refreshing and encouraging to see an acknowledgement of the poor job of outreach and marketing for UND sports. I hope that translates into more aggressive advertising and improved radio/tv coverage next year. We've been standing on the sidelines too long.

Who knows where this kind of thinking could lead: Maybe we'll even start recruiting students for a change.

[star2city]

Can't help but be impressed by the administrative team Faison has been putting together. Hopefully, it converts to wins later.

Scott Herring named CFO for Athletics Department

Herring is no stranger to new opportunities, having worked with the Magic during the expansion process into the NBA, as well as with the start-up of the organization’s Women’s National Basketball Association team (Orlando Miracle) and International Hockey League team (Orlando Solar Bears).

Herring joined the Magic organization as a controller in 1988, one year before the team began play in the NBA the following season. He was elevated to director of finance in 1994, senior director of finance, IT and administration in 1997 and became vice-president of basketball administration in 1999.

From the Orlando Sentinel's basketball blog:

Scott Herring, a fixture with the Magic since their inception, was let go by the club recently after 20 years.

The Magic said Herring's job as VP of basketball administration was eliminated in a restructuring plan.

A CPA, Herring also served as assistant general manager for four years, and VP of finance/administration and information technology.

Herring was an expert in his behind-the-scenes role as the club's "capologist," crunching the numbers for salary-cap purposes and player contracts. Any transactions for trades, free agency or drafting passed through his desk.

Herring helped more than one sportswriter through the salary-cap matrix in his days with the Magic -- and we thank him.

[bincitysioux]

Virg Foss column questioning UND's decision to move to Division I.

[url=http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=99876]Was UND

[GeauxSioux]

Or do you long for the days of the old NCC?

Sorry Virg, the NCC was nice in it's day.

Do you really think that UND should have stayed in the same division with UM-Crookston and Upper Iowa? The more I think about the situation, UND should have gone Division I long ago.

[dlsiouxfan]

Virg Foss column questioning UND's decision to move to Division I.

[url=http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=99876]Was UND

[Bison Dan]

Perhaps Virg should ask himself why UND should care what he and his senile old friends at the old folks home think about our Division I move. This has to be the single biggest piece of garbage he's ever written.

The only thing that Virg cares about at UND is hockey.

[jimdahl]

Sorry Virg, the NCC was nice in it's day.

Do you really think that UND should have stayed in the same division with UM-Crookston and Upper Iowa? The more I think about the situation, UND should have gone Division I long ago.

That's the thing -- I agree with him in that I'm nostalgic for the old days of the NCC. If the NCC of the 1990s (my college era) were available to UND, I'd be sympathetic to the point of view that it's the right place for us. However, the NCC of the 1990s didn't exist anymore when UND moved. Within the ranks of D-II the likes of NDSU, UNC, and UC-Davis had been replaced by Crookston and Upper Iowa.

Also to Virg's credit, though, he's consistent in his viewpoint that the ND's are small schools that should stay regional and have regional opponents. He wrote a similar piece about NDSU's transition. I have a lot more respect for that than if he'd written a hit piece against NDSU, but then ignored all of his own arguments to claim it was the right thing for UND.

[dakotadan]

Florida Enters BCS Title Game With Top-Paid Athletic Director

The 56-year-old Foley is the highest-paid athletic director among public schools in college football

[GeauxSioux]

All against say Nay!

Virg Foss ran a piece not long ago where he asked folks to comment on the Division I move. Today's column is about those against the move to Division I...

Terry Dunphy, Grand Forks:

[Hammersmith]

That article made me want to throw up a little in my mouth when I read it this morning. I can only hope that the comments supporting the move aren't as misinformed when he posts them in a week or two. I still have the draft of the letter I almost wrote to Foss, but I never sent it after I saw that he only wanted brief comments. After Foss' original column appeared two weeks ago, some among the Bison camp of fans claimed he was looking for a way to blame all of UND's ills on Chapman. Most, including myself, disagreed. After this column, I'm having to reevaluate that viewpoint. Chapman and NDSU sure appear in quite a few of the comments Foss chose, don't they?

As for rebuttals:

Terry Dunphy, Grand Forks:

[MplsBison]

Not to mention that North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska were the only states left whose flagship public universities were not DI.

[fightingsioux4life]

Virg's original column has brought the anti-athletic crowd out of the woodwork. If these people were in charge (and thank God they are not), we would adopt a non-scholarship athletic program across the board (including hockey) and would never win anything of significance again. I hope his collection of Division I supporting comments are as strongly worded, but I don't think they will be.

[Matt]

Dan Funk, Eden Prairie, Minn.:

[JackJD]

Just a few additional comments, building on Hammersmith's points:

Gail Groth, Hatton, N.D.:

[star2city]

That article made me want to throw up a little in my mouth when I read it this morning. I can only hope that the comments supporting the move aren't as misinformed when he posts them in a week or two. I still have the draft of the letter I almost wrote to Foss, but I never sent it after I saw that he only wanted brief comments. After Foss' original column appeared two weeks ago, some among the Bison camp of fans claimed he was looking for a way to blame all of UND's ills on Chapman. Most, including myself, disagreed. After this column, I'm having to reevaluate that viewpoint. Chapman and NDSU sure appear in quite a few of the comments Foss chose, don't they?

As for rebuttals:

Terry Dunphy, Grand Forks: “Chapman sold academicians on the move by indicating in order to attract research money the move was necessary. Is research money based on division status or production? I believe Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is Division III. Does it have a problem attracting money?”

Yes, because medium-sized, regionally-known, general purpose, state-run universities are exactly the same as smaller, highly-elite, globally-known, specialty schools. The rest of the comment is just as much BS; Chapman did not do what Dunphy claims. What Chapman did is say that a move to DI in athletics AND an increase in research were two parts of a larger plan to strengthen and improve the university. And it worked.

Gail Groth, Hatton, N.D.: “What does moving to D-I have to do with the quality of education? Zero. Nothing.” <and several comments like this one>

WRONG. Athletics are an effective way to keep alumni involved with their alma mater. In the case of NDSU, the university started a major fund raising campaign at the same time as the DI move. With an original goal of $75 million, the campaign eventually brought in a bit over $108 million. NDSU Development Foundation officials noted significant donation increases after the two Gopher football games and the Wisconsin and Marquette basketball wins. It's likely the campaign would have had a hard time reaching the $75 million goal without the DI move exciting the alumni base, much less the final amount. And how much of that $108 million ended up in the hands of the athletic department? About $8 million for the BSA renovation. The remaining $100 million went to academic areas, including over $40 million for student scholarships and over $12 million for teaching endowments.

Dan Funk, Eden Prairie, Minn.: “I do not believe it was visionary of NDSU to make a singular decision to move (to Division I). Visionary would have been to move up as a conference at one time so everyone wins, rivals thrive and competition improves.”

This one would've had me spitting orange juice out through my nose had I been drinking at the time. It's amazing how some can conveniently forget that NDSU and UNC almost begged the NCC to move as a group, even to the point of waiting a year in NDSU's case to try and convince the others. Revisionist history strikes again.

Many of the other comments include valid concerns that will only be proven right or wrong with time. It's possible that UND will have fewer local athletes on their rosters in the years to come, but NDSU's rosters have changed little in the last decade and Aaron Johnston down at SDSU has put together a top-25 WBB team using regional recruits(SD:6, MN:5, WI:2, IA:1). Like I said at the top, I can only hope next week's comments are more intelligent.

Used to amaze me when NDSU fans routinely became irate about Ryan Bakken's articles because they couldn't discern that the Ryan was actually writing a humor / satire column, and was no longer was a sports columnist. Virg has never been a sports columnist and has always been writing humor / satire columns, he just never realized it.

[star2city]

Mega-Conferences causing Travel budget headaches.

For everyone's info, Terry Holland is actually a UND plant, attempting to force NDSU to play UND; the only DI school within 100 miles of Fargo.

Terry Holland has more radical solutions. The East Carolina athletic director feels that, in the current environment, sports departments have "an overarching moral and patriotic obligation to reduce the consumption of oil and other limited resources."

"If intercollegiate athletics sends a message of 'business as usual' while American citizens are losing their jobs, homes and even more precious possessions, then we will deserve any dire consequences that are visited upon us," Holland, who is not attending the convention, wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Holland, whose school has to play teams from as far away as Texas in Conference USA, supports having all competitions, except those within a 100-mile radius, scheduled for Saturdays and Sundays. Sports in which teams play twice in a season would play both competitions at the same site over one weekend, with the home team alternating every year.

The plan would slash travel costs as well as substantially reduce the number of classes missed by students, but Holland realizes it's a tough sell.

"My feeling is that if you are afraid of change," Holland wrote, "then you are in the wrong business."

Hey, Terry, no one is forcing ECU to be in CUSA and travel to El Paso, Dallas, Tulsa and Houston.

Utah Valley's complaining, and the Great West doesn't start until next year:

It's a long way from Orem to Newark. Just ask the Wolverines of Utah Valley University.

Utah Valley is a member of the Great West Conference, one of those geography-gone-nuts NCAA Division I leagues with two California schools at one end and the New Jersey Institute of Technology at the other. Every road conference game for Utah Valley athletic director Mike Jacobsen's teams involves a long plane flight, and this year his travel costs are up 10 to 12 percent due of the twists of turns of the slumping economy.

..

"It's a huge burden," Jacobsen said. "It's what we have to do right now to be in a conference. We've got the Big West, the Big Sky, we've got several that are regional conferences, it's just that at this point we've not been able to get into one of those conferences."

From the "How can Grand Valley be good in everything" department?

Grand Valley State associate AD Lisa Sweany said her Division II school frequently asks the athletes to pay for flights themselves.

[Hammersmith]

Here's the final installment in Virg Foss' column. I don't think there can be any doubt now that Foss is against UND's move. Using Stanford as a reason why the move is a bad idea was truly idiotic. Stanford is almost unique in collegiate athletics and is also uniquely vulnerable to drops in the stock market. They have built up such a massive athletic endowment, that they fund all their scholarships from it and generally only need to raise new money for facilities. The endowment was so large, it allowed Stanford to fund 35 sports; that's unheard of in Division I where the average is 20-22 sports. Of course they're having to make cuts now; they based too much of their revenue off of a single source. None of that applies to UND(or NDSU, for that matter). While UND has some athletic endowments that were hit hard by the economy, they represent only a small fraction of the annual budget. Also, UND only has to fund a much smaller pool of sports; 20 to Stanford's 35. Using Stanford's situation in a column discussing UND's move can only be viewed as fear-mongering.

I'll leave it to the rest of you to discuss the types of letters he chose to "advocate" the move.

Mixed views on UND's D-I move

[jimdahl]

I'll leave it to the rest of you to discuss the types of letters he chose to "advocate" the move.

I had the same thought -- these were the letters he got IN FAVOR of UND's move? JBB!?! I clearly have my own (self-serving?) bias, but reading that left me very pleased that fans can now get and share info without it being filtered and vetted. If the Forum/Herald were to be believed, all Sioux fans strongly oppose the move to D-I and the Fighting Sioux nickname.

[Bison Dan]

I had the same thought -- these were the best letters he got IN FAVOR of UND's move? JBB I clearly have my own (self-serving?) bias, but reading that left me very pleased that fans can now get and share info without it being filtered and vetted. If the Forum/Herald were to be believed, all Sioux fans strongly oppose the move to D-I and the Fighting Sioux nickname.

Foss is a die hard UND hockey fan and sees the move as a financial threath to the hockey program. His article is the worst kind of journalism, big time bias..

[star2city]

Foss is a die hard UND hockey fan and sees the move as a financial threath to the hockey program. His article is the worst kind of journalism, big time bias..

Good Lord, actually almost agree with Bison Dan. Don't think Foss actually see's DI as a financial threat to hockey, but somehow he doesn't see DI as something that will even further benefit UND hockey.

It's amazing that Foss quotes John Bjornson (JBB) of Wilmar (the infamous JBB), who along with Lakes and a few other Bisonbackers, spend their full days populating message boards and media blogs with anti-UND venom - often times masquerading as UND fans bashing UND. For the sake of Minnesota and the Department of Transportation, hope JBB actually has time for his job.

[SooToo]

That article made me want to throw up a little in my mouth when I read it this morning. I can only hope that the comments supporting the move aren't as misinformed when he posts them in a week or two. I still have the draft of the letter I almost wrote to Foss, but I never sent it after I saw that he only wanted brief comments. After Foss' original column appeared two weeks ago, some among the Bison camp of fans claimed he was looking for a way to blame all of UND's ills on Chapman. Most, including myself, disagreed. After this column, I'm having to reevaluate that viewpoint. Chapman and NDSU sure appear in quite a few of the comments Foss chose, don't they?

I hope Virg's latest installment, replete with the standard vitriol from some AC faithful, helps quell this outbreak of paranoia in Bisonland.

As for the letters "supporting the move," well, I'll leave it to you to decide whether they "aren't as misinformed' as those printed in chapter one.

Finally, I too have to admit I agree with Bison Dan on this one. And now I've thrown up im my mouth a little after confessing.