Conference Realignments - Take 2

[Herd]

43 minutes ago, SiouxVolley said:

You have to think, but maybe you are not capable of that.

Fullerton has kept his trap shut lately, because the Belt, fearing a new G5 league, could extend Idaho out of spite.  Then the P5 would not have a charity reason to grant FCS conferences a way to FBS.  It would seem totally selfish for the P5 then, if they weren't helping a victim, Idaho.

As soon as Idaho is released, Fullerton will start talking FBS again.

The guy announced his retirement which takes effect in 3 months.  Of course he's keeping his trap shut, he's leaving and on cruise control.  The Idaho situation will be on someone else's plate, not Fullerton's.

[Gothmog]

1 hour ago, SiouxVolley said:

You have to think, but maybe you are not capable of that.

Fullerton has kept his trap shut lately, because the Belt, fearing a new G5 league, could extend Idaho out of spite.  Then the P5 would not have a charity reason to grant FCS conferences a way to FBS.  It would seem totally selfish for the P5 then, if they weren't helping a victim, Idaho.

As soon as Idaho is released, Fullerton will start talking FBS again.

Again, without evidence, what you're saying is meaningless.

[Gothmog]

59 minutes ago, Herd said:

The guy announced his retirement which takes effect in 3 months.  Of course he's keeping his trap shut, he's leaving and on cruise control.  The Idaho situation will be on someone else's plate, not Fullerton's.

Exactly! Occam's razor ... simpler explanations are preferred.

[SiouxVolley]

2 hours ago, Herd said:

The guy announced his retirement which takes effect in 3 months.  Of course he's keeping his trap shut, he's leaving and on cruise control.  The Idaho situation will be on someone else's plate, not Fullerton's.

Wait until after March 10th, and then Fullerton will be all over the papers talking about FBS.  The Presidents and Foundations are spearheading individual schools prep for FBS, but Fullerton has to get the rules changed.  

The wailing on bisonville will be unheard of when the rules are changed.  It won't be a meltdown, but a volcanic eruption:  UND paving the way for NDSU to go FBS too.  That what you trolls fear most.

[North Dakota]

4 hours ago, SiouxVolley said:

Wait until after March 10th, and then Fullerton will be all over the papers talking about FBS.  The Presidents and Foundations are spearheading individual schools prep for FBS, but Fullerton has to get the rules changed.  

The wailing on bisonville will be unheard of when the rules are changed.  It won't be a meltdown, but a volcanic eruption:  UND paving the way for NDSU to go FBS too.  That what you trolls fear most.

So what's happening at UND? I haven't heard anything about a new stadium or other prep for FBS. Did I miss that somewhere?

[SiouxVolley]

4 minutes ago, North Dakota said:

So what's happening at UND? I haven't heard anything about a new stadium or other prep for FBS. Did I miss that somewhere?

Apparently you are not aware of Phase II of the HPC or the stadium drawings by ICON.  Some very significant clues have been in the Herald in the past decade.

[North Dakota]

Just now, SiouxVolley said:

Apparently you are not aware of Phase II of the HPC or the stadium drawings by ICON.  Some very significant clues have been in the Herald in the past decade.

When are those going to come to fruition? Your theory says we have 3 years to be ready. It's getting to be kind of a tight time frame to become reality. I'd also like to know where the money is going to come from for your big plans.

[SiouxVolley]

21 minutes ago, North Dakota said:

When are those going to come to fruition? Your theory says we have 3 years to be ready. It's getting to be kind of a tight time frame to become reality. I'd also like to know where the money is going to come from for your big plans.

After March 10th the ball will get rolling.

[SWSiouxMN]

Mike Prater ‎@IDS_Prater

Sun Belt making major announcement at 1 p.m. Tuesday, with Commissioner Benson. No official word, but it could be a huge day for Vandals.

Decision Already? Is this a good or bad sign for the Vandals?

[bison73]

6 hours ago, SiouxVolley said:

Wait until after March 10th, and then Fullerton will be all over the papers talking about FBS.  The Presidents and Foundations are spearheading individual schools prep for FBS, but Fullerton has to get the rules changed.  

The wailing on bisonville will be unheard of when the rules are changed.  It won't be a meltdown, but a volcanic eruption:  UND paving the way for NDSU to go FBS too.  That what you trolls fear most.

Why would there be an eruption-meltdown? The rule change would be looked on as favorable.

You wouldnt happen to have any links in regards to this statement???

" The Presidents and Foundations are spearheading individual schools prep for FBS, "  I will hang up and listen.

[GFG]

3 hours ago, North Dakota said:

So what's happening at UND? I haven't heard anything about a new stadium or other prep for FBS. Did I miss that somewhere?

They'll keep it highly secret until some form of announcement is made if something is actually going. 

3 hours ago, SiouxVolley said:

Apparently you are not aware of Phase II of the HPC or the stadium drawings by ICON.  Some very significant clues have been in the Herald in the past decade.

Those were very nice...here's a post from one of the architects in 2008 on that, though: " My name is Lonnie Laffen and my firm - JLG Architects completed the Athletics Facilities Master Plan for UND. The current plan allots space for a new football stadium back on campus at a future time when the Alerus Center can no longer meet the needs of UND's Football program (20 years?). The plan allows for a new stadium of 25,000 seats with a retractable roof. The recently completed parking facility and a matching counterpart would be directly linked by skywalk. The master plan saves and integrates the existing Memorial Stadium seating section into the new stadium "

http://grandforkslife.blogspot.com/2008/01/forget-all-of-those-pretty-pictures.html

Edit: Looks like the retractable roof stadium is the only major project left on the list according to the master facilities plan. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would have a very hard time being convinced by anyone that their master plan is a 25,000 seat retractable roof stadium with plans to stay in the FCS.

http://grandforkslife.blogspot.com/2007/12/und-is-planning-for-future.html

[The Sicatoka]

The bit of sand that's been in this oyster for a long time is UND's "bridge to nowhere".

 https://www.google.com/maps/@47.9206956,-97.0662554,3a,73.1y,29.69h,97.48t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sDU7MXhXohp72lFMoYXBqww!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DDU7MXhXohp72lFMoYXBqww%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D97.025948%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

The very right edge of that image is old Memorial and the new HPC. 

Strangely enough, that "bridge to nowhere" connects to a new ramp and football facility in the images (Gopher fan) GFG references. 

[The Sicatoka]

10 hours ago, SWSiouxMN said:

Mike Prater ‎@IDS_Prater

Sun Belt making major announcement at 1 p.m. Tuesday, with Commissioner Benson. No official word, but it could be a huge day for Vandals.

Decision Already? Is this a good or bad sign for the Vandals?

Done some snooping on the interwebs about this. I've seen the whole gamut:

- Idaho's gone, NMSU stays
- Idaho and NMSU gone
- Idaho and NMSU both stay
- SBC commish retiring
- scheduling alliance (because today was the day they were supposed to release future conference schedules -- that's been moved back)
- conference championship game (under recently changed rules, which would also affect conf scheduling)

What is consistent is that all the normal sources (leaks) have nothing but speculation. That's interesting. 

[The Sicatoka]

Some interesting reading leading into today's SBC press conference. 

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sportslink/2016/jan/14/idaho-ad-rob-spear-discusses-upcoming-sun-belt-vote/

[UNDBIZ]

12 hours ago, North Dakota said:

When are those going to come to fruition? Your theory says we have 3 years to be ready. It's getting to be kind of a tight time frame to become reality. I'd also like to know where the money is going to come from for your big plans.

[Teeder11]

2 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

I've always gotten that same vibe. Hmmm?

[UND1983]

I just found this on Twitter.  Seems to fall in line with what has been speculated around here.

[The Sicatoka]

59 minutes ago, Teeder11 said:

I've always gotten that same vibe. Hmmm?

Today's word of the day is ... poseur. 

[The Sicatoka]

1 hour ago, UND1983 said:

I just found this on Twitter.  Seems to fall in line with what has been speculated around here.

The quotes above are from this article below. 

1 hour ago, The Sicatoka said:

Some interesting reading leading into today's SBC press conference. 

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sportslink/2016/jan/14/idaho-ad-rob-spear-discusses-upcoming-sun-belt-vote/

In that same article you'll also find:

Quote

Spear showed me a map of all the FBS programs in the country, and pointed to the wide open space in the Montana, Dakota region: "Long term, this map I think this is very revealing. Look at this void right now. Montana, the Dakotas, eventually I think you will see something here and that’s where Idaho strives to be at some points of time, with schools in this region."

 

[The Sicatoka]

University of Idaho Athletics Director Rob Spear:

Quote

"That (going FBS) is one thing the Big Sky should look at … I think they could … What’s interesting is current NCAA rules say you can form an FBS football league with six members. It doesn’t allow you to form a brand new league, but the possibility exists to form an FBS league under the umbrella of the Big Sky." 

That's Rob Spear, UI AD, in January 2016, and it sounds more than a little like a poster from this site. 

Spear's claims about the NCAA rules:
- you can form an FBS football league with six members
- doesn’t allow you to form a brand new league
- possibility exists to form an FBS league under the umbrella of the Big Sky

[SiouxVolley]

Bret McMurphy, ESPN, has tweeted that Idaho and NMSU will not be extended beyond 2017.

The ball is in the NCAA's and Fullerton's court.

[GFG]

So basically they're saying that the Big Sky can cut itself to 6 teams, like UND, Montana, Montana State, Idaho and 2 others and go to FBS as long as they use the Big Sky conference name?

[GFG]

4 minutes ago, SiouxVolley said:

Bret McMurphy, ESPN, has tweeted that Idaho and NMSU will not be extended beyond 2017.

The ball is in the NCAA's and Fullerton's court.

Wow...this could set up for an extremely interesting time for UND football...if they have the opportunity I'd say they have to do it. It will cost more money, but they'll bring in more money with TV deals, P5 games, increased exposure etc. It'll definitely bring more fans to games...worth the risk for UND, IMO.

[SiouxVolley]

2 minutes ago, GFG said:

So basically they're saying that the Big Sky can cut itself to 6 teams, like UND, Montana, Montana State, Idaho and 2 others and go to FBS as long as they use the Big Sky conference name?

An FBS conference needs eight teams, not six.  Perhaps Spears meant with six additional team beyond Idaho and NMSU, they caneed stay FBS.

The Big Sky has talked about FBS and FCS divisions for some time, often called a research division  (FBS) breaking off in admin vernacular.

[Teeder11]

6 minutes ago, GFG said:

So basically they're saying that the Big Sky can cut itself to 6 teams, like UND, Montana, Montana State, Idaho and 2 others and go to FBS as long as they use the Big Sky conference name?

My utopian wish for some day down the road would be an FBS Big Sky Conference with UND, USD, SDSU, MSU, UM, ISU, Idaho, UNC, NDSU, and WYO (coming back to its roots).  And then EWU, Weber, PSU, SAC, Poly, Davis, NAU, SUU and NMSU  could play in their own sandbox.