U of North Dakota sees seismic changes

[star2city]

All-in-all, a very positive column in today's Star-Tribune:Patrick Reusse: North Dakota sees changes

Excerpt:

The past decade had been largely a celebration for University of North Dakota athletics. There were national championships for men and for women. The Sioux moved into the nation's grandest hockey arena, the football team went into a dome and now the basketball and volleyball teams are headed into a new arena.

For the Twin Cities media to acknowledge UND athletic achievements is a sign of respect that would have seemed inconceiveable a decade ago. For all the local concerns about the hockey coaching change or ticket price increases, it is important to keep our own personal irritants in perspective.

For the Bison fans lurking, you have to love these quotes from Reusse:

Roger Thomas:  "We'll see how the transition period goes for NDSU. Maybe we'll see that Division I in all sports would make sense for us, too, although I doubt it."

There have been no significant examples in recent times of Division II schools moving up and gaining prominence in Division I. There's a tentative deal in place for NDSU to play the Gophers in football at the Metrodome in 2007, which will provide the Bison with a momentary thrill, followed by a 35-point drubbing.

[bisonguy]

All-in-all, a very positive column in today's Star-Tribune:Patrick Reusse: North Dakota sees changes

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For the Bison fans lurking, you have to love these quotes from Reusse:

[jimdahl]

There's a tentative deal in place for NDSU to play the Gophers in football at the Metrodome in 2007, which will provide the Bison with a momentary thrill, followed by a 35-point drubbing.

Though we're not in the football forum... that would certainly be a great game to get. Playing at the regional Big Ten opponent (albeit not a particularly strong one) would be great publicity and a blast for the players. We need to hold out for Wisconsin

Back on topic -- nice to get the writeup in the "big city" paper. It seemed like half of it was about Blais leaving, which I guess is the biggest thing happening in athletics in North Dakota from the Minneapolis fan perspective.

I liked this quote:

Blais had a 10-year run that included two national championships and five WCHA titles. He put the Sioux back on equal footing, and then some, with the Gophers.

In Gasparini's first year the Gophers won, but the Sioux went on to win in '80, '82, and '87. Under Blais we did win two more, but so did the Gophers (admittedly equal footing, but from a different disparity than the author implied).

I'm sure the Sioux actually did fare better in the H2H under Blais, simply because Minnesota went through that horrible stretch in the late 90s whereas the Sioux had gone through a horrible stretch in the early 90s. The timing of those two slumps certainly made UND rise dramatically in stature vs. Minnesota under Blais's tenure.