D-1 Survey Says...

[govikes27]

Just fired a letter to Kupchella. Probably won't matter, but ya gotta try.

[bincitysioux]

They interviewed Boyd on KNOX this morning. If what he had to say is representative of the veiws of the rest of the administration, I doubt a move will be happening anytime soon.

[LennonIsTheMan]

They interviewed Boyd on KNOX this morning. If what he had to say is representative of the veiws of the rest of the administration, I doubt a move will be happening anytime soon.

that's comforting.

[The Sicatoka]

Show 'em the money;

show 'em a conference;

you'll be amazed how quickly a tune change.

[Bison Dan]

Show 'em the money;

show 'em a conference;

you'll be amazed how quickly a tune change.

I'm sure that's stopping a lot of dii schools that are looking at DI.

[Northcountry]

Exactly the point I was trying to hint at.

I'm telling you now: they only contacted hockey ticket holders. And it was done on purpose.

That's my speculation.

I was a part of this survey and was contacted as a season ticket holder for football. All of the questions I answered referred directly to foootball, level of support if a move occurred, likelihood of attending road games, etc.

[rabidrabbit]

Show 'em the money;

show 'em a conference;

you'll be amazed how quickly a tune change.

Money - Go Sioux and Alumni -

Conference - Football - GWFC

Basketball - Mid-con (toward end of transition years), possibility - immediately - United Basketball Alliance.

Soccer - United Soccer Conference

Swimming & Diving - possible mid-con affiliate?

Given Grand Forks ND for a base, the "nearby" conferences are the Big Sky, Mid-con/GWFC, and (huge stretch) Gateway/Mo Valley.

Big Sky may expand. Mid-con is DEFINITELY going to expand, and Gateway/Mo Valley several years away from expanding.

[The Sicatoka]

I'm sure that's stopping a lot of dii schools that are looking at DI.

I was speaking to UND fans who want to go DI. (Is that how you interpretted that?)

[MplsBison]

I was a part of this survey and was contacted as a season ticket holder for football. All of the questions I answered referred directly to foootball, level of support if a move occurred, likelihood of attending road games, etc.

I'm glad to have been proven wrong.

I'm still suspicious, though.

[Irish]

I find these result unbelievable. If this is followed through with it might as well be a death sentence for every other sport on campus other than hockey. It's unfathomable that a majority of the "stakeholders" in UND have decided that we are to become a second rate university in ND. I'm speechless.

Quite to the contrary - the only sport that would benefit would be football. Ask the once proud Bison Womens Basketball, volleyball, or softball teams. What do you think would happen to both Sioux basketball teams, track, baseball, volleyball, soccer? The move up to DI for these teams is a killer. This is just from a comptition aspect. How do you think we would fund the move - apparently we are broke now even with attendence at record levels for hockey, football, and women's basketball. The move up would be a train wreck for most programs.

[dlsiouxfan]

Quite to the contrary - the only sport that would benefit would be football. Ask the once proud Bison Womens Basketball, volleyball, or softball teams. What do you think would happen to both Sioux basketball teams, track, baseball, volleyball, soccer? The move up to DI for these teams is a killer. This is just from a comptition aspect. How do you think we would fund the move - apparently we are broke now even with attendence at record levels for hockey, football, and women's basketball. The move up would be a train wreck for most programs.

Imagine how much worse the bottom line will look if attendance drops because the casual sports fan heads south to Fargo or if corporate donations dry up because everyone wants to support the D-1 institution towards our south. No doubt those sports will struggle, but they'll struggle even more when they're budgets are cut because we're losing our fan base. Plus it's only a matter of time before women's basketball starts losing recruits to full rides from NDSU and SDSU like football and men's basketball. It's also only a matter of time before these recruiting losses start hurting us on the playing field and then how will that affect attendance and the availability of funds. By staying D-2 you're effectively selling out every sport that competes with the SU's for athletes or donations.

[MplsBison]

Quite to the contrary - the only sport that would benefit would be football. Ask the once proud Bison Womens Basketball, volleyball, or softball teams. What do you think would happen to both Sioux basketball teams, track, baseball, volleyball, soccer? The move up to DI for these teams is a killer. This is just from a comptition aspect. How do you think we would fund the move - apparently we are broke now even with attendence at record levels for hockey, football, and women's basketball. The move up would be a train wreck for most programs.

Speaking of Soccer, the Bison's women's team has done quite well.

The volleyball program hit a snag, true, but I have no doubt they'll bounce back. Not expecting DI championships, but I think they'll make the field of 64 eventually.

Women's basketball had a rough year. But they will be in the NCAA DI tournamant. No doubt UND would be able to as well.

How about NDSU men's basketball? Yeah, they did pretty good didn't they?

Softball, well, it's tough when you have to play on the road for 90% of the season. Not sure if this sport will continue on at NDSU. Perhaps because of title IX.

I have no doubt that attendance for basketball and football would increase at UND against DI competition.

[bincitysioux]

- apparently we are broke now even with attendence at record levels for hockey, football, and women's basketball. The move up would be a train wreck for most programs.

That is an inaccurate statement. Football attendance is great, but it is not at a record level. When NDSU moved up, they saw a ~15% increase in football attendance, and SDSU about a 30% increase. And I'm sorry to say that interest in women's basketball at UND could be on the decline. The attendance is way, way off from their all-time highs, and that is despite going 34-1 and playing in a brand new beautiful facility (which BTW if anyone hasn't been there is a fantastic place to watch a basketball game). The biggest reason for the low attendance is because of the competition we are playing. I was at the women's game against Mayville St. That was money well spent

I have no doubt that attendance for basketball and football would increase at UND against DI competition.

I agree. I think basketball attendance would struggle early on (as it has for NDSU) unless of course we have a conference right away, but in either scenario, it would go up in the end, and it will for NDSU too.

[LennonIsTheMan]

Yes, some of the other sports will struggle early on. It will be part of a growing process for those programs. But why can't those other programs improve down the road and eventually become contenders in their conferences? Heck, even the football team will have an adjustment period to deal with. It's called competing at the highest level that you possibly can. And UND CAN compete at D1 and D1-AA and do quite well in the near future.

[bincitysioux]

Yes, some of the other sports will struggle early on. It will be part of a growing process for those programs. But why can't those other programs improve down the road and eventually become contenders in their conferences? Heck, even the football team will have an adjustment period to deal with. It's called competing at the highest level that you possibly can. And UND CAN compete at D1 and D1-AA and do quite well in the near future.

Aside from swimming & diving, most of UND's non-revenue sports struggle now in DII. Personally, I'd rather struggle against Minnesota or Kansas, than Emporia St. or Shippensburg.

[RD17]

I'm surprised that no one has brought up this paragraph that was in this Herald article today:

UND's survey asked people to rate the move on a scale of zero to 10, with zero meaning the school had no business making the move, and 10 meaning UND should jump to Division I whatever it takes. The average score was 5.61 for students, 5.45 for season ticketholders, 4.43 for employees and 3.14 for faculty.

This certainly indicates to me that the students and season ticket holders are pro D-I, all things considered.

Also, I think it's reasonable to assume that more season ticket holders for hockey were surveyed than basketball or football simply because there are more season tickets sold for hockey. Now I'm not saying that all the people that are hockey-only ticket holders were cool on a move, but clearly there is a percentage that simply don't care one way or another about whether or not the rest of the sports are D-I (I realize this is purely anecdotal, but just click on a random thread in the hockey forum and look at all of the users with 100s of posts that have never posted on anything but hockey). I'm sure if only basketball and football ticket holders were surveyed, the results would have been much more favorable towards D-I.

[PCM]

Many of the hockey season ticket holders and football season ticket holders are the same people.

[RD17]

Many of the hockey season ticket holders and football season ticket holders are the same people.

Yes, some certainly are. But (I believe) there are at least three times as many hockey season ticket holders as there are for football. Obviously most hockey ticket holders do not have season tickets for multiple sports.

[govikes27]

I'm surprised that no one has brought up this paragraph that was in this Herald article today:

This certainly indicates to me that the students and season ticket holders are pro D-I, all things considered.

Also, I think it's reasonable to assume that more season ticket holders for hockey were surveyed than basketball or football simply because there are more season tickets sold for hockey. Now I'm not saying that all the people that are hockey-only ticket holders were cool on a move, but clearly there is a percentage that simply don't care one way or another about whether or not the rest of the sports are D-I (I realize this is purely anecdotal, but just click on a random thread in the hockey forum and look at all of the users with 100s of posts that have never posted on anything but hockey). I'm sure if only basketball and football ticket holders were surveyed, the results would have been much more favorable towards D-I.

Yeah, that actually isn't too bad. Especially if you look at how most of the questions are phrases having 2 options: 1. move RIGHT NOW or 2. don't move. Seems that there is actually a sizeable chuck of the pie that would take the third option if it was offered: make the move when conditions are right (not blindly like NDSU has been percieved as doing).

[dakotadan]

Many of the hockey season ticket holders and football season ticket holders are the same people.

And many of the hockey season ticket holders are also Bison fans in other sports or fans who don't even realize that UND has sports other than hockey.

[Bison Dan]

Looks like your hometown newspaper and that survey has given Kupchella all the cover he needs to pass on the DI move.

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/n...on/14549989.htm

[The Sicatoka]

Looks like your hometown newspaper and that survey has given Kupchella all the cover he needs to pass on the DI move.

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/n...on/14549989.htm

... there's almost no appetite for the change-first, find-the-money-and-a-conference-later approach that NDSU took.

That article is saying what some of us have been saying (and observed thanks to others) all along:

Cost.

Conference.

Answer those and there's the answer.

Ultimately, nothing's changed.

[rabidrabbit]

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/sports/14550002.htm

And with the other article, the time to make the plunge with plenty of time to search out a D-1 conference affilation. If choose to commit to D-1 plan now, eligible in 2013 for play-offs. Plenty of time to resolve issues of name, conference and ramp up slower.

Best of luck in D-

[Cratter]

Would you be angry if UND moved to DI and anounced that some of the resources that would've gone to hockey will now go to help the football and basketball teams with the transition?

Your question should be: Do you wanna sacrafice basketball and other teams for you football team (in IAA where it belongs) because those others sports have no serious risk of ever winning a championship like they do in D2.

Okay maybe ndsu's estrogen, er, equestrian, or whatever it is.

[MplsBison]

Your question should be: Do you wanna sacrafice basketball and other teams for you football team (in IAA where it belongs) because those others sports have no serious risk of ever winning a championship like they do in D2.

Okay maybe ndsu's estrogen, er, equestrian, or whatever it is.

No way do we sacrifice basketball.

I think NDSU men's basketball is eventually going to do what Northern Iowa is doing now.

The other sports, I hope they do well, but I don't follow them that much.