The Division I Question? New Answer?

[star2city]

36-24 is going to happen as early as next season.

Why do you guys have your heads so far up your asses about a damn indoor practice facility!?!

Only the best of the best DI schools in the whole nation have such facilities. If you did build it, there goes another $10 million.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

For a new indoor training/practice facility, I would suspect that locker rooms, offices, weight rooms etc would be in a traditional building, but the 300 meter track/indoor practice field would be a bubble-type facility. Much cheaper that way.

BTW, only the best DI schools have anything approaching the Ralph and the Betty.

[star2city]

my fault,

i didn't take the report from the Dakota Student too seriously

why nothing in the Herald or Forum or television, hell even CBS    for that matter

if this thing had legs there'd be real press involved, in fact upon rereading RT's comments, it doesn't sound, at least with any degree of certainty, like the slightest thing official is occuring

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

IMO, the Dakota Student article was just the beginning of what will be a well-organized "discussion" of UND and Div I with the public. After all, who should be spoken with first? The answer is rather obvious, the immediate University community, and that is the exact readership the Dakota Student reaches. Sometime around Homecoming week, this story will begin having mainstream media play. If the Betty can be paid off and construction begins on an indoor practice facility, facilities-wise UND would be better positioned than nearly any school making the D-II to D-I transition, ever.

[ScottM]

IMO, the Dakota Student article was just the beginning of what will be a well-organized "discussion" of UND and Div I with the public.  After all, who should be spoken with first?  The answer is rather obvious, the immediate University community, and that is the exact readership the Dakota Student reaches.  Sometime around Homecoming week, this story will begin having mainstream media play.  If the Betty can be paid off and construction begins on an indoor practice facility, facilities-wise UND would be better positioned than nearly any school making the D-II to D-I transition, ever.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Agreed. UND's D1 moves began well before Chaps and the Stream Yellow partisans trotted out the Carr Report, only to promptly ignore it. Moreover, the drive to build facilities, consensus and support from alums and current UND students/staff did not come about overnight. As well, even though the Blundering Turd crowd tries to downplay it, the hockey program has allowed us to gain stature within the D1 circles where we are connected (see Maine knocking off Miss. State recently), as well as the NC$$. The financing for the Betty, the Ralph and other facilities, as well as financing a broader athletic program, has been carefully crafted over the years, and not over a pitcher of stale Busch at the Bison Turf.

[dakotadan]

I completely agree ScottM. I think there have been some sort of plans in place for if a move happened. I don't think there was a definate plan to move but plans so that if a move was made, things were laid out. Especially since the announcement of the new Ralph and the plans for the Alerus came about. And as far as NDSU fans claiming that RT and Kupchella said it would never happen, that is completely false. They always made a point to say that "a move wasn't for UND at this time, but we remain open to the possibility." I distinctly remember Kupchella saying that in an interview during halftime of the 2001 UND/UC-Davis game. I have it on tape if anyone would like to come over and watch it.

[SiouxMeNow]

Now why in the world would this guy be in Grand Forks. (There's a photo to check your eyes SiouxMeNow.)

(cleaning my lenses...) YUP - that was him! Like i said, I know who he is...maybe just killing some time in GF before traveling to CANDYLAND!! (ie Fargo)

[SiouxMeNow]

I just suspect, however (from any official standpoint), ALL LIPS ARE SEALED!

[IowaBison]

s2city your proposition that this might be the first of a series of stories that UND is moving makes a lot of sense

i don't buy into the plan that this has been in the works for three to five years, there is no way that the administration would have made the negative remarks about the almost certain downfall of NDSU because of their move, whose situation is in a number of ways quite similar to UND's, only to announce that they would be doing the same thing

while some posters may disagree nothing seismic has happened in the last few months to change anything

1. You knew that you were going to have some world class facilities in place by this fall

2. You knew that there was pressure to decrease the maximum number of football scholies (I don't think anything will come of it, at the worst it would drop to 30)

3. Most of you could probably admit that NDSU, at worst, would be 'ok' during its transition

the open invitation for letters of interest by the Big Sky is about the only thing that's happened and that shouldn't be huge news as they have had varied membership for years

I'm awaiting press stories to tell me what's been happening at UND

[ScottM]

I'm awaiting press stories to tell me what's been happening at UND

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you're waiting for anything relevant on this issue from the Fargo Fraud, you're going to be waiting for a very long time. Ziegler, McFeely and the rest are too busy chapping their lips on Chaps' ass.

[IowaBison]

like i said i'd even take my information from CBS

by the way if there is a story there MrFeely would be one of the first guys to break it his on everyone's bad side

[choyt3]

like i said i'd even take my information from CBS

by the way if there is a story there MrFeely would be one of the first guys to break it his on everyone's bad side

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have you been cheating off of Bisonfan1234's paper again?

[UND92,96]

Kolpack has a column on the Big Sky today, in which UND is mentioned as having had discussions with the conference, and that UNC and SDSU have some work to do to get close the the Big Sky unofficial football scholarship minimum of 60. link

[tony]

Come on, McFeely isn't a Bison-loving homer. Some of you guys keep saying that but can't seem to find a link to a column that backs it up. Not surprising, since McFeely might have written one column about NDSU's move to DI that wasn't derisive (and, if so, it was the week after the Grizzly game). Can't recall ever reading anything by Ziegler... is he anything like Ryan Bakken?

Anyway, so what conference do UND fans want? The Big Sky?

If UND gets into the Big Sky, does that mean the Big Sky ends up turning down SDSU (even though SDSU is already two years ahead in the process) or is it possible that the Big Sky would take three Dakota programs even though one wouldn't have a travel partner?

From a Bison fan's perspective, I'm worried that if the BSC is really interested in UND, they may decide to delay expansion because it doesn't seem likely that UND could make a commitment to DI in time. Could UND announce in January that they are looking at DI and have a decision ready soon enough to make them a likely candidate when the BSC meets in the early summer?

If UND decides that DI is the right place and a BSC invitation isn't forthcoming, should UND wait until they get an invitation from another DI conference before leaving DII? If so, which conferences would be acceptable?

[UND92,96]

Come on, McFeely isn't a Bison-loving homer. Some of you guys keep saying that but can't seem to find a link to a column that backs it up. Not surprising, since McFeely might have written one column about NDSU's move to DI that wasn't derisive.

I've always thought McFeely just disliked everything and everyone. Or at least that's the persona he seems to enjoy cultivating.

Anyway, so what conference do UND fans want? The Big Sky?

Geography would seem to dictate that the BSC is really the only viable option at this time.

If UND gets into the Big Sky, does that mean the Big Sky ends up turning down SDSU (even though SDSU is already two years ahead in the process) or is it possible that the Big Sky would take three Dakota programs even though one wouldn't have a travel partner?

SDSU may be ahead of UND in the process, but having added just two scholarships for football thus far pretty much negates that advantage. Is that really a horse that NDSU wants to hitch its cart to? It would certainly seem that SDSU's move to I-AA football looks suspiciously like certain schools who have moved to dII and then kept their funding at the same level they were in NAIA. As Kolpack said or at least implied in his column today, the Big Sky is a football-first league. As between UND and SDSU, I think we all can agree who would appear more attractive to a conference that puts a high priority on football.

[tony]

Sorry, it wasn't very helpful to put the SDSU comment in there. UND definitely has other advantages over them - the Big Sky is the only party that can really answer the question.

[Corella]

Sorry, it wasn't very helpful to put the SDSU comment in there. UND definitely has other advantages over them - the Big Sky is the only party that can really answer the question.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Realistically, if it came down to SDSU vs UND, Brookings vs Grand Forks for the Big Sky, it has to be a no-brainer even given the "head start" that SDSU has on UND. Facilities wise it is not even close. Their football stadium is an eyesore at best. With football being the Big Sky's big thing, that has got to go against them, not to mention the fact that their football program has been stuck in the lower tier of the NCC for 20+ years and hasn't progressed at all in nearly that entire period. Frost Arena is getting old, it has be about 30 years old right now, and everytime I have left there I have had to pick wooden splinters out of my butt because that is about all the seaters there are, high school style wood bleachers. At this point their funding has to be seriously in question based on their scholarship "increases" they put into effect for this year. Are they going to make a big leap and bump up the football scholarships by 3 next year to get them at 43?? And call me crazy, but I have to think that their AD's recent legal troubles cannot help them out as an athletic department either. The town of Brookings, well, you get the point. If, for a spot in the Big Sky, it came down to UND vs SDSU, UND would be sitting pretty well IMO.

[The Sicatoka]

To all the folks that want every UND thought process to go out as a press release to all the world's media, here's how the Big Sky does business:

"We promised everyone that the talks will be done quietly with expansion and they'll have this opportunity in anonymity," Big Sky commissioner Doug Fullerton said. "In December, now people are going to know."

Seems like the Big Sky does business like UND: Quietly until it has studied things and thought them through.

[ScottM]

Can't recall ever reading anything by Ziegler... is he anything like Ryan Bakken?

"We'll also continue to provide staff coverage of home games at the University of North Dakota, which now plays in the minor leagues of most sports, at least compared with the Bison.

We'll continue our reports on UND's national hockey powerhouse, although winter and spring sports coverage at NDSU is bound to gain more prominence as Bison teams take on more big-name universities."

Lou "I'm Chaps' Lapdog" Ziegler, Fargo Fraud, August 28, 2004.

[Bisonfan1234]

I've been saying for a while now that UND is the clear cut choice for NDSU to partner with going into the BSC.

A lot of guys on the Bisonville forums want SDSU simply because they have their heads lodged so far up their asses about hating UND at any costs.

[The Sicatoka]

If UND decides that DI is the right place and a BSC invitation isn't forthcoming, should UND wait until they get an invitation from another DI conference before leaving DII? If so, which conferences would be acceptable?

Pure "out there" speculation, some serious "pie in the sky" by me, and nothing more.

The Mid-America Conference.

Why?

- About half of the MAC is going to have trouble hitting the new DI-A "average 15000 per home game" attendance figure. How that affects that conference is yet to be known. Will it split along attendance lines? Will it split into two halves for football (part I-A, part I-AA) to make it work (and not give up the BB rivalries)?

- MAC members Miami of Ohio, Western Michigan, and Bowling Green all play DI hockey (CCHA) and would love the chance to get UND (WCHA) in there once-in-a-while even if it is non-conference.

- The MAC may be looking for members now that Marshall is bolting.

- Two of UND's comparables (for funding comparisons) with the State Board of Higher Education are MAC members (Ohio University, SUNY-Buffalo), so UND does compare well to some MAC schools.

- Geography-wise, the center of the MAC closer to GF than the the center of the BSC is. Travel-wise it may be easier (NWA's hub in Detroit) to get to.

Yeah, yeah, "out there", "unrealistic". I know. (There have to be schools in the MAC's existing geography that'd be much better fits.) But hey, it's all crazy speculating at this point anyway.

We now return you to the previous BSC discussion.

[IowaBison]

there's the first bit of real press on it, even if it is an editorial

when it makes the front page of the sports page, without an editors name on it, i'll give it even more credence

also, i never expected the Big Sky to make any news as far as potential new members.

things are very interesting

[IowaBison]

also you ain't joining the MAC

Mid-Continent maybe, MAC, i don't think so

[The Sicatoka]

Like I said:

... some serious "pie in the sky" by me, and nothing more.

[Bisonfan1234]

The MAC idea is sound except for your 1st point, which is the main point since the main sport there is football.

The 15000 attendence rule has yet to be enforced and it's easy to get around.

Half of the MAC isn't going to be forced down to DIAA causing them to need more DIAA teams which is where UND would come in.

[aff]

Realistically, if it came down to SDSU vs UND, Brookings vs Grand Forks for the Big Sky, it has to be a no-brainer even given the "head start" that SDSU has on UND. Facilities wise it is not even close. Their football stadium is an eyesore at best. With football being the Big Sky's big thing, that has got to go against them, not to mention the fact that their football program has been stuck in the lower tier of the NCC for 20+ years and hasn't progressed at all in nearly that entire period. Frost Arena is getting old, it has be about 30 years old right now, and everytime I have left there I have had to pick wooden splinters out of my butt because that is about all the seaters there are, high school style wood bleachers. At this point their funding has to be seriously in question based on their scholarship "increases" they put into effect for this year. Are they going to make a big leap and bump up the football scholarships by 3 next year to get them at 43?? And call me crazy, but I have to think that their AD's recent legal troubles cannot help them out as an athletic department either. The town of Brookings, well, you get the point. If, for a spot in the Big Sky, it came down to UND vs SDSU, UND would be sitting pretty well IMO.

Are you guys actually saying that the school that didn't originally want to go D-I (UND) is better off financially to make a move than the school that wanted to immediately jump to D-I (SDSU). Thats an interesting theory. So you know, SDSU already has a plan to be at 63 in 2009. The scholarships are going to go up much faster after this year, because this year they used money to make sure they were title 9 complient. If heard that the scholarships are probably going to go up faster than originally anticipated also, because the endowment is already half finished. What makes you guys think that UND has the money to make 60 scholarshps in 3 years? If they did, why didn't they move with NDSU?

Second, should you be comparing UND grand forks, and SDSU brookings, or SDSU Sioux Falls. Its forty minutes away, guys, I'm a student at SDSU and I go there at least once a week. I think everyone here already knows that sioux falls makes grand forks look like a dump. Besides that, Brookings definetly wouldn't be the worst in the big sky as cities go...

Just so you know, the inside of frost was remodeled this summer, the wood "highschool" bleaches are gone now. Go to the website and take a look.

[aff]

Realisitically, UND and NDSU are also much more comparable academically than NDSU and SDSU, at least as I see things

What? SDSU and NDSU are practically the same school, as they are the "State" universities, and so they have similar majors. The only difference between the two is that SDSU was Tier 3 with UND in the report you guys like to cite, and NDSU was Tier 4 (Not that the ratings matter much).