President Kennedy Message on Athletics

[UNDvince97-01]

Are we sure we still have a CFO of athletics?

[UNDBIZ]

2 minutes ago, ND1 said:

On a side note, it appears Midco and UND reached an agreement for another 5 years 

Link?

[ND1]

2 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

Link?

Press release should be within the next few days 

[UND-1]

6 minutes ago, UNDvince97-01 said:

Are we sure we still have a CFO of athletics?

Convenient time to transition it out of the AD.  

[UNDBIZ]

Just now, ND1 said:

Press release should be within the next few days 

Any insight on terms/$$?  A simple "you should be pleased" or "not as good as we hoped" would suffice if you can't give details. 

[UND-1]

Faison:  "Some scholarship costs were more than anticipated..."   

Like when student-athletes are recruited from Europe?  Been told their cost is almost double what a North Dakota kid's cost is. 

[ND1]

10 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

Any insight on terms/$$?  A simple "you should be pleased" or "not as good as we hoped" would suffice if you can't give details. 

No idea on the specific terms.

[Siouxperman8]

9 hours ago, SooToo said:

 There was nothing stopping UND admin from completing the Summit site visit and informally exploring the possibility of MVFC invite -- just as USD did -- before answering the Big Sky offer. But they didn't because they saw the Big Sky offer as clearly superior, as Faison publicly stated. A formal, up-front offer from the MVFC may or may not have changed that.

I was told from people in the athletic department when this was going on that an MVFC invite was what we needed and then we would have done the summit/MVFC combo.  with no football conference coming we had had not choice but the Big Sky and it was superior considering that it included a home for the football team.  would you have expected him to say we were settling for the Big Sky? 

[southpaw]

1 hour ago, jdub27 said:

This whole this has become way overblown:

 

• I'm not 100% sure what went on behind the scenes, but the Herald guys seemed to think something was imminent and that is why they wanted quotes. They mistook a an e-mail to the campus stating that things are still being examined and that because of budget issues, things might not be settled for a press release. Guessing Kennedy will learn a bit from this but at this point, there really wasn't more to talk about than the e-mail being sent out.

 

I don't believe they think something was imminent, but apparently they do think there was more to talk about than just the email.  Tom listed off a couple of questions but there likely were more, which would lead to follow-up questions.  Sure every answer could be "Right now, we don't have that info but we'll get it to you as soon as we can," but at least it's an answer.

32 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

I agree with most all of this.  The president sent out an email, even though the specifics hadn't been hammered out yet, in an effort to be up front and honest.  He's out of town and can't just set aside an hour right now to talk to the Herald.  If they wanted responses, they could've emailed him and he'd respond to them as time permitted.

Although I disagree with the Herald in this instance, I believe this will be a good thing in the long run as it sets the tone early on public disclosure and availability.  Perhaps the Herald overreacted because the previous president was ALWAYS out of town/unavailable for comment and they saw history repeating itself.

Why release it when you're out of town and can't just set aside an hour to talk to the Herald?

And you don't email your questions.  That's going to get a canned "PR" response every time and it's not how the media works.  Show me one story where it says "we emailed him asking for comment, but he was unavailable."  

[Irish]

16 hours ago, Dagger said:

I have to admit,   the  quickness and disgust of this article doesn't seem to fit the situation.  It is way to early to cast stones.  I think we should see what ends up happening first.  It is kind of an odd article to come out that quickly when we don't even know what is going  to happen.    Seems strange.

Actually, I think it fits the total situation perfectly - and (I'm reading in here) expresses what many of us feel about the processes involved at UND starting with the job the "committee" did on the nickname and including Fast Eddy being the only opinion on picking our crappy logo.  Many are glad that the media is finally standing up to this crapfest and is taking the evasive "I'm out of town and won't explain, but I am forming a committee) message to task.  Nice job, Tom.  

[bison73]

4 hours ago, jdub27 said:

You continue to offer zero proof. But speaking of schools that decide not to pay their bills, did NDSU ever pay their assistant wrestling coach his full salary or did that make it to litigation?

 

Incorrect. USD was in the Summit in 2011 in all sports except football. The switch to the Big Sky was going to happen in 2012. The Great West disbanded in 2012, causing the need for both UND and USD to find homes for their football team.

Proof is when it comes true. When it does you just try to explain it away as we knew about it even though the board argued that I was wrong. Now you say its being blown out of proportion? LOL Remember the uproar about NDSU going to the student to request more money? Who here said missing the budget numbers on travel etc  was incompetent etc etc etc.

Well somebody missed by 1.4 million.  But since its UND its just being over blown?

As I said awhile ago. That there was a shell game going on and its just the tip of the iceberg.  Hold on to your hat.

[Yotes]

16 hours ago, UNDBIZ said:

Other than the fact the Slummit doesn't sponsor football..... 

You apparently don't know anything about college athletics, conference affiliations, or UND. 

You say UND has been hiding from ndsu and then claim you weren't trolling...  

So the Big Sky suddenly won't allow football only members? Summit League makes infinitely more sense for all other sports so long as football isn't left homeless. I hope to see UND come to their senses and explore this option. Travelling between 800 and 1800 miles for every single conference road game makes no sense whatsoever.

[Siouxperfan7]

2 minutes ago, Yotes said:

So the Big Sky suddenly won't allow football only members? Summit League makes infinitely more sense for all other sports so long as football isn't left homeless. I hope to see UND come to their senses and explore this option. Travelling between 800 and 1800 miles for every single conference road game makes no sense whatsoever.

Yet both NDSU and USD were ok with doing it!!

[UNDvince97-01]

So.....Tom "Torch and Pitchfork" Miller is at it again, huh?

I guess I disagree with the notion that this was handled properly by our new President or should be overlooked.  Not a great start to say the least.  He should know better.  He's a politician and he's had a bird's eye view of everything that has transpired over the last 6 months at UND and at the Cow College to the south.

Cannot understand how he thought that was an effective way to communicate such a hot button issue.  A red flag right out of the gate?  I guess I'm shocked and disappointed by his judgment more than anything, given the timing and topic. 

Just hold a press conference and do it the right way the first time so questions can be answered.

Horrible start and even worse optics.  But I know others here disagree with that assertion.

Hopefully Kennedy learns from this PR mistake and we can all move on to bigger and better things for him and UND.

Oh, and the Twitter communication was......let's say.....not presidential.

 

[Siouxperman8]

17 minutes ago, Yotes said:

So the Big Sky suddenly won't allow football only members? Summit League makes infinitely more sense for all other sports so long as football isn't left homeless. I hope to see UND come to their senses and explore this option. Travelling between 800 and 1800 miles for every single conference road game makes no sense whatsoever.

I could be wrong but at the time we joined the Big Sky I think it was all or nothing with them

[Siouxperfan7]

13 minutes ago, Siouxperman8 said:

I could be wrong but at the time we joined the Big Sky I think it was all or nothing with them

That was the case.  Cal Poly and UC Davis got that deal, but that was when it looked like the Montanas were bolting for the FBS and the Big Sky was looking to add members, any way possible.  Didn't offer that when we were looking for a conference.

That being said, I wonder if given the chance, the other Big Sky Presidents would be in favor of having UND as a football affiliate only.  You'd have to think that only having to fly out to Grand Forks once every other year (or less) would be something that they would be for to cut costs.  Certainly for UND, Playing as a Big Sky football only memberand playing the rest of the sports in the Summit would be a huge money saver.

[SiouxVolley]

As said yesterday, Pres Kennedy is winning friends and trust, unlike Bresciani.

www.sayanythingblog.com

[bison73]

15 minutes ago, SiouxVolley said:

As said yesterday, Pres Kennedy is winning friends and trust, unlike Bresciani.

www.sayanythingblog.com

Youre quoting the lapdog? LOL

[jdub27]

1 hour ago, bison73 said:

Proof is when it comes true. When it does you just try to explain it away as we knew about it even though the board argued that I was wrong. Now you say its being blown out of proportion? LOL Remember the uproar about NDSU going to the student to request more money? Who here said missing the budget numbers on travel etc  was incompetent etc etc etc.

Well somebody missed by 1.4 million.  But since its UND its just being over blown?

As I said awhile ago. That there was a shell game going on and its just the tip of the iceberg.  Hold on to your hat.

The fact that you get to keep repeating what is basically an unsubstantiated rumor is surprising. There has been absolutely zero proof of what you accused and none of the stuff that has come out about a budget deficit (projected or real) has anything to do with your claim of UND not paying its bills. I work with and have talked to many businesses do that do work for UND and not a single one has mentioned any issue with payments. Zero.

UND missed their budget mark and they gave the reasons why (tuition cap after the fact and mandated budget cuts) and a gigantic part of that (particularly budget cuts) came after the fact, not "turns out travel costs 3x more than we thought even though its the same as last year". Big, big difference. I'm also going to go ahead and guess NDSU missed their budget this year as well due to state budget cuts. They already had to come up with a way to trim 15% of appropriated funds for next year yet not much discussion on that.

You keep claiming that this is the tip of the iceberg. Please expand on that and tell us exactly what is going on. I'd really, really love to hear it. If not, then quit making unsubstantiated claims, especially when your own house isn't exactly in order.

[bison73]

Cant exactly tell you whats going on on behind the scenes now can I when it just came to light. Waiting on verification. It will come out. 

[jdub27]

7 minutes ago, bison73 said:

Cant exactly tell you whats going on on behind the scenes now can I when it just came to light. Waiting on verification. It will come out. 

Can I get a translator?

[The Sicatoka]

So the claim is Ed Schafer missed or failed to uncover a budget issue during his complete inspection of the UND budget. O-Kaaaay ...

[geaux_sioux]

43 minutes ago, bison73 said:

Cant exactly tell you whats going on on behind the scenes now can I when it just came to light. Waiting on verification. It will come out. 

Waiting to get your marching orders from gfhockey?

[bison73]

9 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

Waiting to get your marching orders from gfhockey?

Who????????

[bison73]

45 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

Can I get a translator?

Yes and you can also buy a vowel.