Denver has been a model for non-football D-I schools.

The Pioneers have won 10 NCAA skiing titles, 3 NCAA Hockey titles and 1 NCAA men's lacrosse title since 2000, when the school transitioned back to full D-I status between 1998 and 2000. DU has won the D-I AAA Directors Cup 11 times in the past 12 years.

Other DU sports have had remarkable successes as well. DU men's soccer went to the 2016 NCAA College Cup, and has had multiple NCAA tourney appearances since 2000. DU women's soccer has been to the Sweet 16 in 2012, with multiple NCAA appearances since 2000. Women's lacrosse has been to the NCAA Final Eight in 2019 with multiple NCAA appearances since 2000, and NCAA Women's Gymnastics went to the Final (four) day of the NCAA championships in 2019. Many other Denver teams make regular NCAA appearances.

Denver does this all on a $35 million budget, and flying all teams to 85% of away games due to distance, as part of five different leagues, as well as a 94% graduation rate and a 3.4 athletic GPA, and no arrests of players in the last 10 years.

(07-09-2020 05:28 AM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(07-08-2020 06:47 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(07-08-2020 05:36 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Grand Canyon, North Dakota St, and South Dakota St for the fan bases each has built and sustained. NDSU/SDSU fan bases would fit into the G5 seamlessly and GCU has a Gonzaga-like fan base.

NDSU/SDSU FB and GCU BB could make a terrible hire and recover quickly because of the support systems in place.

NDSU and SDSU arguably had bigger fan bases in D2. Basketball shows it. UND's fan base grew tremendously over that pre-DI period because of a new football stadium, a new hockey stadium, a new cable stateswide network, and hockey and football championships.
Can't speak for SDSU, but NDSU felt they had no choice but DI as they were getting knocked out at every turn in DII. Hell, they had to move to FCS because the football playoffs couldn't be met in DII any longer. The officials were forced off the field at lowly St Cloud St because of horrible NDSU performance be NDSU fans.

So, NDSU was struggling to find success in the DII football playoffs, and thus they decided to move up to DI to improve their chances.

That is right. UND and Grand Valley St were almost in annual DII Champion football matches. UND only won one because GVSU had Brian Kelly as their coach. NDSU barely touched the playoffs those years. Our coach left soon after that because the AD and President would not keep spending time and money ike NDSU did at DI. Lennon beat NDSU in their first FCS battle then NDSU discontinued the home and home out of spite.. Lennon then left.

But in the 70's, 80's, and 90's, NDSU had won a heep of DII fb championships. but their bball was always bad except for women's. But that flipped as the women became sheer awful at DI.

(07-09-2020 08:56 AM)puck swami Wrote:  Denver has been a model for non-football D-I schools.

The Pioneers have won 10 NCAA skiing titles, 3 NCAA Hockey titles and 1 NCAA men's lacrosse title since 2000, when the school transitioned back to full D-I status between 1998 and 2000. DU has won the D-I AAA Directors Cup 11 times in the past 12 years.

Other DU sports have had remarkable successes as well. DU men's soccer went to the 2016 NCAA College Cup, and has had multiple NCAA tourney appearances since 2000. DU women's soccer has been to the Sweet 16 in 2012, with multiple NCAA appearances since 2000. Women's lacrosse has been to the NCAA Final Eight in 2019 with multiple NCAA appearances since 2000, and NCAA Women's Gymnastics went to the Final (four) day of the NCAA championships in 2019. Many other Denver teams make regular NCAA appearances.

Denver does this all on a $35 million budget, and flying all teams to 85% of away games due to distance, as part of five different leagues, as well as a 94% graduation rate and a 3.4 athletic GPA, and no arrests of players in the last 10 years.

Explains why UND values Denver much as a conference mate than say NDSU. Hockey is a key reason granted. Denver just seems to have a clean reputation.

I don't know what all these schools have done.
But the facilities investment by the Dakota four is impressive.

USD new 6k arena dome renovation

SDSU indoor practice facility stadium expansion and renovation.

NDSU arena renovation and indoor football football operations facility.

UND new IPF football operations facility

Those are all recent additions might be more within the time frame.

SDSU has the smallest endowment so they have been more dependent on Sanford.
uSD has the largest endowment but still as relied on Sanford.
UND has a large endowment too, but so has four elderly billionaires. The hockey arena was but by one and the fb one has promised considerable budkng. He has considerateable silverr holdings.

(07-09-2020 07:01 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  Merrimack won their conference in basketball in their first transition year

Yeah the NEC turned out to be more of a downgrade for them in hoops. They went 12-8 in conference play the year prior in the NE10.

(07-09-2020 09:19 PM)NoDak Wrote:  SDSU has the smallest endowment so they have been more dependent on Sanford.
uSD has the largest endowment but still as relied on Sanford.
UND has a large endowment too, but so has four elderly billionaires. The hockey arena was but by one and the fb one has promised considerable backing. He has considerateable silver holdings.

(07-10-2020 06:57 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(07-09-2020 09:19 PM)NoDak Wrote:  SDSU has the smallest endowment so they have been more dependent on Sanford.
uSD has the largest endowment but still as relied on Sanford.
UND has a large endowment too, but so has four elderly billionaires. The hockey arena was but by one and the fb one has promised considerable backing. He has considerateable silver holdings.

The Dakota dome looks a lot better but no extra seats.
How was USD and UND going to move up to FBS.

(07-10-2020 08:45 PM)CoastalVANDAL Wrote:  

(07-10-2020 06:57 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(07-09-2020 09:19 PM)NoDak Wrote:  SDSU has the smallest endowment so they have been more dependent on Sanford.
uSD has the largest endowment but still as relied on Sanford.
UND has a large endowment too, but so has four elderly billionaires. The hockey arena was but by one and the fb one has promised considerable backing. He has considerateable silver holdings.

The Dakota dome looks a lot better but no extra seats.
How was USD and UND going to move up to FBS.

For UND, always thought the move back to back to campus would happen Lo and behold, the historic Memorial Field is being taken down and a new athletic dorm will be built. At the same time, the westernend of the HPC will be taken further east and new offices, locker rooms etc will be built. A stadium has all the planning marks.between the two sides as more than 20 k seats can fit between those parts. Just make them so each side has steps for seats and maybe a roof. University Avenue has undergone major renovations to increase it's buildings so why not a new Memorial Stadium?

CFL has a few stadiums sunken in the ground with roofs over Fan's. Takes most of the wind and rain out of the experience.