Augie to start D1 hockey

[oldmantutters]

Simple. Men's Ice Hockey, Women's Lacrosse added as the offsetting sport. Added bonus that Lacrosse is cheaper than running a women's hockey program AND lacrosse is growing huge in the upper Midwest with a natural recruiting ground in the Twin Cities area. Scheel's Arena is just sitting there for the taking. Perfect size for D1 hockey, so the largest obstacle to starting a program is not an issue for NDSU. Fargo metro area has a very large youth hockey following with FYHA, WFHA, Fargo Angels, MYHA not to mention all the surrounding area teams. D1 NDSU would work and be successful if the Bison every wanted to start it up. I dare say inside 20 years you'd be stealing the spotlight from UND.

Tough to say that without the tradition that UND has. UMD has been better than UND over the past decade and it really hasn't moved the needle. Maybe it has in Duluth, not sure. But it sure hasn't regionally. I think pay of it is the NCHC recruits a ton of Canadians. Maybe one way to chip into that popularity is to recruit more locally. But then you have to win.

None of this matters because NDSU isn't going to have hockey anytime soon.

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[Yote 53]

SCSU and UMD have taken a huge chunk out of the Gophers in the past decade. Duluth is the team of northern Minnesota. SCSU and UMD both get a large following in the Twin Cities.

NDSU would absolutely take a chunk out of UND hockey. Lots of dual Bison football/UND hockey fans that the Bison would bring into the fold. Fargo being the largest city in the state, the media center.

I look at it from the outside and see how huge NDSU hockey could be and how big of a threat it would be to UND hockey. You guys seriously don't give yourself enough credit.

Yes, El Chappo. I already know you don't care. No reason to respond.

[nodak651]

SCSU and UMD have taken a huge chunk out of the Gophers in the past decade. Duluth is the team of northern Minnesota. SCSU and UMD both get a large following in the Twin Cities.

NDSU would absolutely take a chunk out of UND hockey. Lots of dual Bison football/UND hockey fans that the Bison would bring into the fold. Fargo being the largest city in the state, the media center.

I look at it from the outside and see how huge NDSU hockey could be and how big of a threat it would be to UND hockey. You guys seriously don't give yourself enough credit.

Yes, El Chappo. I already know you don't care. No reason to respond.

This. If I had to guess, I'd say a good third of UND hockey fans are also Bison fans of some sort. That said, I completely understand why most Bison fans don't want to add hockey. No need to fix an athletic department that isn't broken, so to speak.

[Herd]

What chunk would be larger . . . the chunk NDSU hockey would take out of UND, or the chunk NDSU hockey would take out of NDSU football and Basketball. I think the latter.

[heffray]

What chunk would be larger . . . the chunk NDSU hockey would take out of UND, or the chunk NDSU hockey would take out of NDSU football and Basketball. I think the latter.

I’d rather NDSU focus on the sports that more people actually care about (even in ND, hockey is still more of a niche sport than football, basketball, and baseball)… Hockey is a way bigger deal in Minnesota and the quality on the ice is way better also. I grew up playing hockey and still love to do it from time to time, fwiw…

[AKBison]

I'd love to have hockey at NDSU. It would be one of a few sports that could be profitable and self sustaining assuming we had a Penn State type donor. In addition, it would be a sport that we could legitimately compete for a National Championship in. The only other team sport on campus that can do that is Football. Individually, we have wrestling and T&F and that's it. That doesn't mean basketball, softball, etc can't be nationally relevant because they can. Let's be honest though, Natty's ain't gonna happen, ever.

[HerdBot]

I'd love to have hockey at NDSU. It would be one of a few sports that could be profitable and self sustaining assuming we had a Penn State type donor. In addition, it would be a sport that we could legitimately compete for a National Championship in. The only other team sport on campus that can do that is Football. Individually, we have wrestling and T&F and that's it. That doesn't mean basketball, softball, etc can't be nationally relevant because they can. Let's be honest though, Natty's ain't gonna happen, ever.

I would certainly support NDSU Hockey. Scheels arena is more than adequate to be competitive. Guarantee we could be competitive within a decade. We live in a hockey region. With that being said, if we never added hockey I wouldn't care.

[ByeSonBusiness]

I’d rather NDSU focus on the sports that more people actually care about (even in ND, hockey is still more of a niche sport than football, basketball, and baseball)… Hockey is a way bigger deal in Minnesota and the quality on the ice is way better also. I grew up playing hockey and still love to do it from time to time, fwiw…

Eh...college hockey is not more niche than college baseball. And NDSU is not going to ever go anywhere in baseball either. But I'm with you. Lets focus on what we got before worrying about anything else.

[HerdBot]

Eh...college hockey is not more niche than college baseball. And NDSU is not going to ever go anywhere in baseball either. But I'm with you. Lets focus on what we got before worrying about anything else.

Nobody gives 2 shits about baseball. I don't like it just because I hate the sound of a metal bat on the radio lol. But yeah Hockey would be huge here. It's a niche but it's also a huge regional niche that draws huge crowds. The Force draw well and that's a step below. Nothing negative about hockey for NDSU. Would rather focus fundraising on basketball and football.

But yes we do need to focus on what we have. Basketball has the most potential

[heffray]

Nobody gives 2 shits about baseball. I don't like it just because I hate the sound of a metal bat on the radio lol. But yeah Hockey would be huge here. It's a niche but it's also a huge regional niche that draws huge crowds. The Force draw well and that's a step below. Nothing negative about hockey for NDSU. Would rather focus fundraising on basketball and football.

But yes we do need to focus on what we have. Basketball has the most potential

My comment was more about youth and high school interest in ND specifically… I think more kids in ND play or have a general interest in baseball than hockey, but I could be wrong about that, and I also could be wrong about the correlation between this assumption and the popularity of their collegiate counterparts.