UND's next Athletic Director

[Sioux-per Fan]

First off, Dean will never takae this job. I no him personally aand he will never have a job again where he sits in teh office day in and day out. hence the NHL job he had. Arule dean out... I heard its aa done deal rob to und but i wish they would pick some one other then a good ole boy.

Proudsioux has it right, Dean has absolutely no interest in the AD job.

I don't pretend to have a lot of inside information, but I've got this one right.

Somebody missed the Boat on this one.....?

[Shawn-O]

There are people A LOT closer to the situation than I am, that will be very surprised to hear this. Maybe the Fargo situation is more delicate than we thought?

[The Sicatoka]

There are people A LOT closer to the situation than I am, that will be very surprised to hear this. Maybe the Fargo situation is more delicate than we thought?

Uh, yup.

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm...mp;section=news

Given all of this hijinx, I sure hope USA Hockey is smart enough to award the upcoming U-18 tourney to a city with a complete arena. (Geez, did I just wish well for St. Cloud or Providence? OK, Providence.)

As far as Blais, he's a great guy and ambassador, but does his resume show enough administrative horsepower?

[dlsiouxfan]

I don't think Blais would be a good choice at all for the new A.D. position. We need someone with D-1 experience or at least D-1 connections. Blais may have been a great hockey coach, but what does he know about scheduling teams like Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska for football or basketball. The D-1 move is really about getting more exposure for these sports and through that the university as a whole. We need someone who's going to make success in these sports a number one priority. The days when these sports play second fiddle to hockey are over and our next choice for AD must agree with this.

[bincitysioux]

I revere Dean Blais, the coach, as much as the next guy, but I don't think this would be in the best interests of the University at this time. I'm a firm believer that what we need right now is somebody who has experience in college athletics administration (preferrably with connections in DI). Money is going to be tight over the next several years (transition) and some tough decisions are going to have to be made. We had a guy that was willing to do that, but he was burned at the stake by the coaches who became accustomed to Roger Thomas' spend-at-will philosophy. We need a happy-medium. Someone who can keep the coaches happy (Buning obviously could not), and someone who can keep the athletic dept profitable or at least breaking even (RT could not). Some may not like to hear it, but I think we need a guy like Wanless. He wasn't nessecarily liked by everyone in the dept., but from what I gather, he was at least respected.

I agree with a few others who say that of any potentially interested candidates, at least until applications are formally submitted, that Ray Purpur would be the ideal hire. He has years of administrative experience, Division I connections, a proven fund-raiser, and apparently most importantly has ties to the University of North Dakota. His surname is just icing on the cake.

[dlsiouxfan]

I agree, Wanless did a pretty good job here and basically got ran out of town because he somehow got on Ralph's bad side. Many of the coaches I think would support his return. I also think he'd have the guts to stand up to REA, as often times what's best for REA isn't best for UND. Roger Thomas never got this and it was really his major flaw as an AD. Buning was a little better, but he gave little or no interest to other parts of the position and upset a lot of the coaches with his laziness. That's why he's gone now.

[The Sicatoka]

The days when these sports play second fiddle to hockey are over and our next choice for AD must agree with this.

No, those days end when the other sports aren't dependent on hockey revenues to make their, and the overall, budgets.

[so.cal.sioux]

I revere Dean Blais, the coach, as much as the next guy, but I don't think this would be in the best interests of the University at this time. I'm a firm believer that what we need right now is somebody who has experience in college athletics administration (preferrably with connections in DI). Money is going to be tight over the next several years (transition) and some tough decisions are going to have to be made. We had a guy that was willing to do that, but he was burned at the stake by the coaches who became accustomed to Roger Thomas' spend-at-will philosophy. We need a happy-medium. Someone who can keep the coaches happy (Buning obviously could not), and someone who can keep the athletic dept profitable or at least breaking even (RT could not). Some may not like to hear it, but I think we need a guy like Wanless. He wasn't nessecarily liked by everyone in the dept., but from what I gather, he was at least respected.

I agree with a few others who say that of any potentially interested candidates, at least until applications are formally submitted, that Ray Purpur would be the ideal hire. He has years of administrative experience, Division I connections, a proven fund-raiser, and apparently most importantly has ties to the University of North Dakota. His surname is just icing on the cake.

Couldn't have said it better. Ray Purpur would be an excellent choice. I was initially on Bollinger's bandwagon for the job but I am not sure he would be better than Purpur and not sure he would even want it.

[supersioux]

I'm sure that Rob wants it. Purpur is the one that I'm not sure would apply

[The Sicatoka]

Getting Purpur (and his family, think: spouse) out of Palo Alto and back to Grand Forks would require Houdini-like abilities. He's Duputy AD at Stanford and is provided a home on the Stanford campus.

http://gostanford.cstv.com/school-bio/stan-purpur.html

[PartTime]

Getting Purpur (and his family, think: spouse) out of Palo Alto and back to Grand Forks would require Houdini-like abilities. He's Duputy AD at Stanford and is provided a home on the Stanford campus.

http://gostanford.cstv.com/school-bio/stan-purpur.html

Impressive. I agree, it would be good for UND to get him, but he would be giving up a lot. Put him on our wish list along with our facilities I guess.

[TheGreatSiouxNation]

I don't think Blais would be a good choice at all for the new A.D. position. We need someone with D-1 experience or at least D-1 connections. Blais may have been a great hockey coach, but what does he know about scheduling teams like Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska for football or basketball. The D-1 move is really about getting more exposure for these sports and through that the university as a whole. We need someone who's going to make success in these sports a number one priority. The days when these sports play second fiddle to hockey are over and our next choice for AD must agree with this.

I can not disagree with you more. Can you tell me why Michigan State hired the hockey coach (Ron Mason) or even Wisconsin (Barry Alvarez) when they needed an AD?? I'm sure their resumes were loaded with previous AD experience. These two men have what Dean has, a personality that can sell the school. I'm sure having connections all across the country while coaching hockey will not hurt his chances either. Remember a few years back in the old Ralph when Blais was able to convince Notre Dame to come to Grand Forks? How about his connection with Maine, Ohio State, and almost every other Big 10 school? How easy we can forgot that being the AD nowadays is getting more and more a selling job than x's and o's. We need Dean now to give some creditability back to UND after our disaster hiring of Buning. Plus Dean has alot of respect and could be the perfect Ambassador with the Tribes. Anyway that's my 2 cents.

[TheGreatSiouxNation]

I agree, Wanless did a pretty good job here and basically got ran out of town because he somehow got on Ralph's bad side. Many of the coaches I think would support his return. I also think he'd have the guts to stand up to REA, as often times what's best for REA isn't best for UND. Roger Thomas never got this and it was really his major flaw as an AD. Buning was a little better, but he gave little or no interest to other parts of the position and upset a lot of the coaches with his laziness. That's why he's gone now.

Wanless was actually a good guy but he didn't get on Ralph's bad side it was Baker. What hurt Wanless was his inability to stand up to Baker. Wanless actually wanted to make the Blackhawk logo our logo across the board for all athletics. If Wanless did anything wrong it was the way he personally handled the Gino firing. But there is to much inside information on that to discuss here.

[dlsiouxfan]

No, those days end when the other sports aren't dependent on hockey revenues to make their, and the overall, budgets.

Well, maybe if we actually did some marketing for football and basketball instead of spending all our marketing dollars on hockey we'd draw a little better for football and basketball. You can't tell me if we actually marketed football and basketball the way NDSU does we couldn't sell out the Alerus. People attend hockey games at UND because it's marketed as an event, not because they're die-hard hockey fans. Your average fan at the Ralph on a Friday night doesn't know a lick about hockey, but they love going because it's seen as the "the place to be in GF". If we did this with football we'd see even better results because your average sports fan is going to be a lot more inclined to attend a football game than a hockey game.

That's how we need to approach this D-1 move. Football and basketball need to become the focus. They're the best two draws nationally and believe it or not they're the best two draws in ND as well. East of Devils Lake and South of Thompson, football and basketball are king. As much as it absolutely pains me to say this, NDSU had the whole state's attention when they beat Minnesota. Did we have that this weekend for our game against the Gophers? I'd say no. Outside of GF not many people cared, just like most people don't care nationally. The exposure we can gain from hockey is limited, the exposure we can obtain by defeating a BCS team or reaching a NCAA basketball tournament will dwarf it by comparison.

[dlsiouxfan]

I can not disagree with you more. Can you tell me why Michigan State hired the hockey coach (Ron Mason) or even Wisconsin (Barry Alvarez) when they needed an AD?? I'm sure their resumes were loaded with previous AD experience. These two men have what Dean has, a personality that can sell the school. I'm sure having connections all across the country while coaching hockey will not hurt his chances either. Remember a few years back in the old Ralph when Blais was able to convince Notre Dame to come to Grand Forks? How about his connection with Maine, Ohio State, and almost every other Big 10 school? How easy we can forgot that being the AD nowadays is getting more and more a selling job than x's and o's. We need Dean now to give some creditability back to UND after our disaster hiring of Buning. Plus Dean has alot of respect and could be the perfect Ambassador with the Tribes. Anyway that's my 2 cents.

Blais may be the right guy. That's the new president's decision to make. If he is the guy then it's imperative he forget his past allegiances and move football to the forefront in terms of the athletic pecking order at UND. There's too much at stake for him not to.

[dakotadan]

Can you tell me why Michigan State hired the hockey coach (Ron Mason) or even Wisconsin (Barry Alvarez) when they needed an AD??

Apples to Oranges. They weren't just beginning a transition from DII to DI, we are. They are both established Big 10 schools, we're facing an unknown number of years of being a DI independant. They both have huge fan bases relative to UND's.

If we were just looking for an AD that could be a great fund raiser, Blais would be one of my first choices. However, this transition is going to be very difficult and scrutinized by fans of not only UND but many other schools. I would just prefer that we look for someone that has a little more experience on the administrative side, book keeping and conference politics.

[so.cal.sioux]

Well, maybe if we actually did some marketing for football and basketball instead of spending all our marketing dollars on hockey we'd draw a little better for football and basketball. You can't tell me if we actually marketed football and basketball the way NDSU does we couldn't sell out the Alerus. People attend hockey games at UND because it's marketed as an event, not because they're die-hard hockey fans. Your average fan at the Ralph on a Friday night doesn't know a lick about hockey, but they love going because it's seen as the "the place to be in GF". If we did this with football we'd see even better results because your average sports fan is going to be a lot more inclined to attend a football game than a hockey game.

That's how we need to approach this D-1 move. Football and basketball need to become the focus. They're the best two draws nationally and believe it or not they're the best two draws in ND as well. East of Devils Lake and South of Thompson, football and basketball are king. As much as it absolutely pains me to say this, NDSU had the whole state's attention when they beat Minnesota. Did we have that this weekend for our game against the Gophers? I'd say no. Outside of GF not many people cared, just like most people don't care nationally. The exposure we can gain from hockey is limited, the exposure we can obtain by defeating a BCS team or reaching a NCAA basketball tournament will dwarf it by comparison.

Pay closer attention to all the advertisments and you will realize that football is the most marketed sport at UND. It seems like the hockey team is because of the buzz that follows the men's team and also all the bells and whistles in the REA that help advertise. When it comes to marketing dollars, I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of the dollars go towards football.

[so.cal.sioux]

Blais may be the right guy. That's the new president's decision to make. If he is the guy then it's imperative he forget his past allegiances and move football to the forefront in terms of the athletic pecking order at UND. There's too much at stake for him not to.

Did you read the bio on Ray Purpur? If not, you should and get back to us on who would be the better fundraiser. Dean has NO experience fundraising.

I agree with you second paragraph. Football and BBall must receive more attention from administration moving forward.

[The Sicatoka]

Yes, football and BB need to be more self-sufficient in any move forward. There are things that can be done to make that better.

However, can anyone legitimately see a day when UND BB outdraws UND Hockey? UND Hockey draws as well as the top 50 NCAA DI mens BB programs. UND Hockey averages more per home game (20 games) than most FCS (DI-AA) football programs, and even some FBS (DI-A) programs do over six home games.

UND has a hockey culture (that came over a long time and with winning) just like Ohio State has football culture for the same reasons. Same thing at Duke and basketball. You can't wish that traditional culture away. You must work with it to your advantage.

(As an aside: We're in a northern climate. Hockey is part of the culture of this region. That others choose to ignore it works to UND's advantage. UND pulls hockey fans from other bases because it's not available there.)

So how do you deal with this other than just saying make FB and BB first (which is going against the grain that is established)? Work with it.

Instead of a price increase in hockey tickets or FSC dues, make it that you must buy a either a FB season pass or BB half-season pass when you renew a hockey season pass. Sell 'em; put more tickets out there to be used.

Use your advantages to your advantages. And don't ever sell them short.

[UND92,96]

Getting Purpur (and his family, think: spouse) out of Palo Alto and back to Grand Forks would require Houdini-like abilities. He's Duputy AD at Stanford and is provided a home on the Stanford campus.

http://gostanford.cstv.com/school-bio/stan-purpur.html

Does anybody know where his wife is from? I'm guessing she's not from the area, but I don't know. I don't honestly expect that he'll apply this time around, but with the name "Purpur", you kind of have to think that hockey is in his blood to some extent, and that's something he'll never get the opportunity to work with in Palo Alto. Also, 12 years as an assistant a.d. is kind of a long time. What are the chances of him eventually getting the a.d. job at Stanford? Does that matter to him? Even if that is his ultimate goal, perhaps getting experience completely running the show at a different school can only help him in the long run?

[PartTime]

Does anybody know where his wife is from? I'm guessing she's not from the area, but I don't know. I don't honestly expect that he'll apply this time around, but with the name "Purpur", you kind of have to think that hockey is in his blood to some extent, and that's something he'll never get the opportunity to work with in Palo Alto. Also, 12 years as an assistant a.d. is kind of a long time. What are the chances of him eventually getting the a.d. job at Stanford? Does that matter to him? Even if that is his ultimate goal, perhaps getting experience completely running the show at a different school can only help him in the long run?

Good points. If his wife was from around here and wanted to get back, that could weigh heavy............plus, he could be the home bodied type himself. Pro's and con's, who knows what all weighs in on a person when making a decision like this and it's different with everybody I'm sure.

[The Sicatoka]

What are the chances of him eventually getting the a.d. job at Stanford?

He got the title Deputy AD (and all that comes with it) after he applied when Roger Thomas left.

He is the heir-apparent at Stanford.

And I have it (admittedly third-hand) that his wife is not fond of the weather in North Dakota.

[UND92,96]

He got the title Deputy AD (and all that comes with it) after he applied when Roger Thomas left.

He is the heir-apparent at Stanford.

And I have it (admittedly third-hand) that his wife is not fond of the weather in North Dakota.

Unfortunately for him, it could be a rather long wait. Current a.d. Bowlsby isn't particularly old, and he was hired within the past two years. But if his wife is truly dead-set against dealing with the weather in North Dakota, that probably all but rules him out.

[PartTime]

He got the title Deputy AD (and all that comes with it) after he applied when Roger Thomas left.

He is the heir-apparent at Stanford.

And I have it (admittedly third-hand) that his wife is not fond of the weather in North Dakota.

That, I find real hard to believe. Not fond of the weather in North Dakota? Are you sure your sources are credible? What's not to like about ND weather?

[so.cal.sioux]

However, can anyone legitimately see a day when UND BB outdraws UND Hockey? UND Hockey draws as well as the top 50 NCAA DI mens BB programs. UND Hockey averages more per home game (20 games) than most FCS (DI-AA) football programs, and even some FBS (DI-A) programs do over six home games.

I don't think you have you facts straight. UND doesn't come close to some of the top programs in basketball. Kansas seats around 18,000 and consistently sells out. Same with North Carolina. Maryland has a huge new arena that seats around the same I Believe. UND averages around 10,000 fans per game. That is not even close to the top 50 programs in basketball.

UND hockey also does not come close to football I-A programs. In order to keep your I-A status, you must average 15,000 per game. I think this is doable in football, maybe not basketball.

Hockey is not maxed out but it is damn close. The room for growth in the future will be seen in Football and Basketball, more so football. We need to start allocating our resources, in terms of more marketing dollars, to those sports. UND needs a marketing budget at least on par, if not more, than NDSU! Right now it isn't even close.