I know there have been other threads on this. I know some people hate the idea. But the landscape for college sports in North Dakota has changed since the last hockey conversation.

Now that UND is going to be in the Summit and MVFC, we've no longer got something that UND doesn't have, and that annoys me. In fact, we helped them achieve those league memberships. So, there should be absolutely no reason why UND would oppose NDSU starting D-1 hockey. We could join the WCHA in 5 minutes and be competitive. Scheels would be perhaps the nicest arena in the league. It would sell out every game.

Of course, any change in athletics would have to be gender neutral, so that means a women's team (most leagues require that anyway for membership). In our budget climate, such a move would also have to be revenue neutral or better. That's the kicker...when I look at hockey programs at schools our size, hockey is a money-maker (and that includes calculating for the net loss of revenue with women's hockey). For example, at St. Cloud State, net expenses for men's and women's hockey combined in 2016 was $3.28 million; net revenue was $3.76 million. At Minnesota-Duluth, they were about $1 million in the black.

If there is a plan at NDSU to go FBS, then I would understand not being distracted by hockey. But with an arena already in place and a potentially very large fan base for D-1 hockey in F-M, I'm at a loss for why we would not consider this.