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Big Sky Athlete Stipends


nodak651

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That's what I am thinking.  Of course, Kelley and Faison don't exactly have a track record of being out in front of issues like this.

 

The athletic department is well aware of the FCOA issues and how they will impact the athletic department despite what you might think or want to claim.  I had a conversation months ago with them about it, well before any final details were ironed out at the NCAA level and there is a large issue on how it will be paid for (and this is with all of UND's peer schools, not just UND).  This isn't like a scholarship which can be written off as a paper transaction if necessary, this is actual cash that will have to be paid out to student-athletes.

 

I actually agree with gfhockey on not giving it to women's hockey, I don't think they need it as there are very few schools UND will be recruiting against that will offer it and the competitive advantage for spending it on women's hockey isn't there.  They still have an advantage over the rest of the schools with facilities and shouldn't need the FCOA to put them over the top with the majority of recruits.  I don't think UND will be seeing much of it from their competition in WBB or VB, but NDSU is going to have to offer it in wrestling before they do football and will need to offset it somewhere on the women's side.  The ROI on WBB or VB would be more significant if used there.  Guessing there have been some pretty interesting discussions as Idalski, Brewster and Pryor are all aware that money will need to be spent on the women's side and all want the money.

 

UND doesn't end up going against a lot of Big Sky teams recruiting-wise in FB or MBB so even if UM or MSU or Weber start to partially offer it, I don't see it impacting UND, at least right away.  If at this level (UND and its peers included) could do it that easily, they would in a heartbeat.  No one has a clue how its going to be paid for because its an actual cash outlay and is a nightmare for AD's and athletic departments across the nation (outside of the P5 schools of course).

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The reason that UND will do full cost of attendance in Men's Hockey is because the competition is going to do it.  The Big Ten schools will do it, and so will other hockey programs.  UND needs to do it so that they can maintain their position in college hockey.  Then they have to do something similar to maintain their Title IX status.  I'm sure that UND will hesitate spending those dollars on Big Sky sports because that will cause problems at other schools and within the conference.  It is easier to do it in women's hockey or in swimming, sports that aren't covered by the Big Sky.  The Big Ten schools will probably also do it in women's hockey, so UND would again be keeping up with the competition in that sport.

 

For those that keep talking about eliminating women's hockey and spending the dollars on football or any other men's sport, that can't happen because of Title IX.  UND could possibly cut women's hockey only if they then add a different women's sport and a similar number of scholarships, etc., or cut men's sports totaling a similar number of scholarships, etc.  Even then it could cause a problem.  Part of Title IX calls for supplying sports that are of interest to the student body, and hockey fits that requirement better than anything that could replace it.  But cutting women's sports and spending those dollars on men's sports would result in a lawsuit against UND.

 

I fully am on board and realize we should be doing this for men's hockey. My points were that because of title IX there needs to be 18 women's COA scholarships and they should go to womens BB first in my opinion and that UND needs to offer this to MBB and football if other area schools do.

 

I am not on board with UND eliminating womens hockey, but I stand by my statement that it looses a ton of money and UND would get much better return on it's investment if it invested less in that and more elsewhere. I also believe UND is well within Title 9 compliance numbers. Much better than most of our competitors. 

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The athletic department is well aware of the FCOA issues and how they will impact the athletic department despite what you might think or want to claim.  I had a conversation months ago with them about it, well before any final details were ironed out at the NCAA level and there is a large issue on how it will be paid for (and this is with all of UND's peer schools, not just UND).  This isn't like a scholarship which can be written off as a paper transaction if necessary, this is actual cash that will have to be paid out to student-athletes.

 

I actually agree with gfhockey on not giving it to women's hockey, I don't think they need it as there are very few schools UND will be recruiting against that will offer it and the competitive advantage for spending it on women's hockey isn't there.  They still have an advantage over the rest of the schools with facilities and shouldn't need the FCOA to put them over the top with the majority of recruits.  I don't think UND will be seeing much of it from their competition in WBB or VB, but NDSU is going to have to offer it in wrestling before they do football and will need to offset it somewhere on the women's side.  The ROI on WBB or VB would be more significant if used there.  Guessing there have been some pretty interesting discussions as Idalski, Brewster and Pryor are all aware that money will need to be spent on the women's side and all want the money.

 

UND doesn't end up going against a lot of Big Sky teams recruiting-wise in FB or MBB so even if UM or MSU or Weber start to partially offer it, I don't see it impacting UND, at least right away.  If at this level (UND and its peers included) could do it that easily, they would in a heartbeat.  No one has a clue how its going to be paid for because its an actual cash outlay and is a nightmare for AD's and athletic departments across the nation (outside of the P5 schools of course).

Whatever happens, I don't want us to be permanent doormats and/or also-rans.  You think Brewster and Bubba are going to stick around under those conditions?  Like I said before, if the UND Alumni Association can raise $300+ million for an endowment, then there has to be a way to fund the FCOA requirements.  I would be willing to pay more in season tickets, Champions Club, merchandise, concessions, whatever.  I think everyone is going to have to step up and deliver to make this happen.

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Give it to women's vball and bball first

If idalski can't win with the twins he's never going to win it

Heck he can't even get to the tourney most years

 

They can't get in the NCAA tournament because of balanced scheduling. The WCHA needs to have unbalanced scheduling or they will only see 2 teams in the NCAA tournament.

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They can't get in the NCAA tournament because of balanced scheduling. The WCHA needs to have unbalanced scheduling or they will only see 2 teams in the NCAA tournament.

The Women's Hockey team is getting really close to breaking out and winning us a "natty".  And the sooner we can shut up the Gophers, the better.

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IMO- this shouldn't be that difficult for Faison.  He needs to sit down and priortize each sport and what the best return on his investment will be. 

 

Mens

Hockey- remaining competitive will fund other sports

Football- who cares about the conference, the regional schools will offer it and we need to be competitive to start selling the 4,500 tickets not being sold on gamedays

Basketball- this money may be tied up in buying out a year of Jone's contract

 

Womens

WBB- Fans pay to come to these games and enjoy them.  Don't let the momentum slip from thats been built the past two seasons.

Volleyball- see above

Hockey- selling tickets for $1 doesn't drive revenue.  Have the facilities to get top women's players without the additional money.

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Whatever happens, I don't want us to be permanent doormats and/or also-rans.  You think Brewster and Bubba are going to stick around under those conditions?  Like I said before, if the UND Alumni Association can raise $300+ million for an endowment, then there has to be a way to fund the FCOA requirements.  I would be willing to pay more in season tickets, Champions Club, merchandise, concessions, whatever.  I think everyone is going to have to step up and deliver to make this happen.

 

Sponsor blackjack tables at the Canad Inn, similar to Teammakers in Fargo.  That would easily raise the neccessary funds.

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Whatever happens, I don't want us to be permanent doormats and/or also-rans.  You think Brewster and Bubba are going to stick around under those conditions?  Like I said before, if the UND Alumni Association can raise $300+ million for an endowment, then there has to be a way to fund the FCOA requirements.  I would be willing to pay more in season tickets, Champions Club, merchandise, concessions, whatever.  I think everyone is going to have to step up and deliver to make this happen.

 

From what I hear, you'll be getting your wish on paying more for you Champions Club membership this year, not sure what ticket prices will be doing but should be finding out in the next few weeks when the renewal letters come out.  Like I said, they are well aware of it but they can't just make money appear out of thin air.  Its being worked on but the money needs to be there.  Remember that UND's athletic department is already funded at something like 45% or so by school and state funds.  It will need to come from a handful of sources and hopefully people respond to the challenge.

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From what I hear, you'll be getting your wish on paying more for you Champions Club membership this year, not sure what ticket prices will be doing but should be finding out in the next few weeks when the renewal letters come out.  Like I said, they are well aware of it but they can't just make money appear out of thin air.  Its being worked on but the money needs to be there.  Remember that UND's athletic department is already funded at something like 45% or so by school and state funds.  It will need to come from a handful of sources and hopefully people respond to the challenge.

I never said it would happen instantaneously and it doesn't have to because it hasn't been implemented yet.  But when Faison says we only going to fund 36 FCOAs (18 each for men and women) and that's it because the Big Sky isn't doing more than that, that worries me and others.  It makes it sound like they are just going to "stand pat" and not do any more in the future.  I just hope they have a game plan for the next 5 to 10 years to deal with all this because the health and vitality of our programs is at stake.

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I never said it would happen instantaneously and it doesn't have to because it hasn't been implemented yet.  But when Faison says we only going to fund 36 FCOAs (18 each for men and women) and that's it because the Big Sky isn't doing more than that, that worries me and others.  It makes it sound like they are just going to "stand pat" and not do any more in the future.  I just hope they have a game plan for the next 5 to 10 years to deal with all this because the health and vitality of our programs is at stake.

 

That's seems like selective reading to me.  They are proving the FCOA immediately where they will run up against it.  It clearly states that for now they will only do 36.  It also states that they will continue to monitor it.  

 

Honestly, if the funds where there, I can't imagine a scenario where UND doesn't declare they are doing it across the board immediately.  They aren't trying to save money in some offshore bank account, they are trying to not bankrupt the department.  As much as I hate to see it, I would support cutting 1-2 programs if necessary.  UND sponsors 21 different teams, a good percentage higher than its peer schools.

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That's seems like selective reading to me.  They are proving the FCOA immediately where they will run up against it.  It clearly states that for now they will only do 36.  It also states that they will continue to monitor it.  

 

Honestly, if the funds where there, I can't imagine a scenario where UND doesn't declare they are doing it across the board immediately.  They aren't trying to save money in some offshore bank account, they are trying to not bankrupt the department.  As much as I hate to see it, I would support cutting 1-2 programs if necessary.  UND sponsors 21 different teams, a good percentage higher than its peer schools.

I am not against cutting certain programs (baseball and softball don't do much for our athletic department, IMHO).  And I fully realize they cannot bankrupt the department.  But I hope there is some medium to long-range planning taking place behind the scenes with regard to raising the money to pay for all this if it becomes necessary to do so.

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We had a total attendance for hockey of over 250k last year

Take a Hockey ticket at $3 measles price to it

That gets 750k right there

I've heard the cost of this is between 750k to a million

If Taison can't find the extra 250k he should be fired

 

 

This isn't a half bad idea or math for that matter. Up various things like ticket prices, donations, etc and you should be able to find 750,000-1 million. I have tickets for everything at UND and will gladly pay it, and so will the others I share them with. In fact if there was a statement from Faison in there saying something like we're doing this and we're going all in with all sports I would be pumped and gladly write the check.  Men's hockey and WBB (i assuming it will be this) are fine for this year, but let's have a plan for FB, MBB, etc. All other Dakota/Big Sky schools are going through the same issues, but UND has the biggest athletic budget in the Dakotas.....

 

 

I agree with others, if UND is proactive instead of reactive they can pull this off if they get creative. 

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