nodakfan17

You could make an argument for college football and men's basketball players (the main revenue sports), but then you're poking a hornet's nest of equity issues. I sympathize with football players because there are no professional options aside from the NFL, but every other athlete has the ability to go pro after high school (including men's basketball players via the D-League or Europe). If you check your favorite university's financials, you will undoubtedly learn that over 95% of athletic teams lose money (and some of them lose a lot of money). As for the topic at hand - I don't like it, but I'm not aware of any obvious solutions.

Good luck, Badgers. I would love to see a classic Wisconsin / North Dakota matchup in the NCAAs. I love the Pairwise rankings - it's probably the fairest way to select tournament teams (vs. football or basketball). After you seed the conference tournament winners (who sometimes have lower rankings but qualify based on their conference auto-bid), teams basically have to be in the top 10-12 of the Pairwise rankings to make the tournament. However, I do find it odd that college hockey teams play series all year, but then play single games to decide a national champion.

It also helps that there are no pro sports in North Dakota. That hockey program probably has state wide love. Speaking of real North Dakota hockey, as a big Badgers hockey fan, i miss playing North Dakota home and away every year. They along with Minnesota used to be the Badgers biggest rivals. Plus, i thought they had the best looking uniforms in college hockey, especially when they still had the Fighting Sioux head on the front. You're right in that it probably helps that there are no professional sports teams in North Dakota, but the college basketball season runs concurrently with hockey and the UND men's team draws fewer than 4,000 per game. It they started making the NCAA tourney every year, I'm sure their following would grow, but there's just not much to be excited about there (even if it is Division I men's basketball). I miss the rivalries with Wisconsin and Minnesota, but those programs will be just fine (as will North Dakota). Growing up in Wisconsin, I have great memories of watching Badger hockey late at night on PBS with my dad. I'll always be a fan of the old WCHA teams. Notre Dame is in the Big Ten now for hockey - what the heck? Too funny that my outlook on North Dakota men's basketball has changed so drastically in 2 months ... Even though Arizona dropped 100 on them in the first round of the NCAA tournament, they still grew their following by going 22-9 and winning the Big Sky for the first time (regular season and tournament). Today, I just ordered UND basketball sweatshirts for my son and I (everything else my family owns says "hockey" after "North Dakota"). You cannot deny that, regardless of sport, winning is the key to building a following in the major professional leagues and NCAA Division I.

I agree with you in spirit, but I believe there is something like 31 auto bids (31 D1 conferences). So right there, you're getting 20 mid-majors or about 1/3 of the field. I think that's an appropriate level of representation.

One of the cruelest fates in college sports is a mid-major regular season champion losing in the conference finals and missing the tourney.

If I were to enter the rental game, I'd also start out with an above-average duplex to attract decent tenants and minimize headaches (both maintenance and personalities). I have two friends who bought older rental properties during the most recent financial crisis and couldn't wait to unload them after the market recovered a bit (boy, do they have some stories). I lack the patience for difficult maintenance / people, but I'm sure there's money to be made there for those with more discipline than myself. For me, it's low-fee, equity index funds in my 401(k) / IRA and Brewers Timeless Tickets (sarcasm).

I didn't think gold or silver bars carried much of a premium above spot price? I thought small denomination coins were the easiest to unload?

I would love to know what transpired between Cook and the Packers in the last 48 hours. Of all the things to happen in free agency, I would never have guessed they would add 2 tight ends in 2 days. Now, I'm just hoping Cook gets a big contract and makes the All Pro team so that he can offset the Bennett signing in the comp formula.

Yeah but that was mostly to build a new arena. If a team already has an arena that can add hockey the cost wouldn't be nearly as much. I think Nebraska just built a nice shiny new basketball arena that has the ability to make ice so there was some speculation they were thinking of adding hockey but I think that speculation has died down a bit. I think conference expansion is inevitable again with the soon to happen demise of the Big 12. If or when that happens I wouldn't be surprised to see the Big Ten add two more teams and I think UConn would be a serious contender. They would shore up the East Coast, probably more so than Rutgers did. They also add traditionally strong basketball programs and although their football team is weak, as Rutgers showed that's not an automatic disqualifier like it would be for the SEC. Plus obviously they have a men's hockey program so with Notre Dame that'd make 8, a much more stable number than 6 for a conference. I see what you're saying - you do not need an $80 million arena to begin playing college hockey. However, since college hockey is played on Friday and Saturday nights, you would almost have to be the primary tenant in the arena.

The formation of a Big Ten hockey conference was more or less a formality when Penn State added hockey. The Big Ten requires at least 6 member schools to play under the Big Ten name and the NCAA requires a minimum of 6 teams in a conference to award an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Despite the great rivalries in the WCHA and CCHA, I believe the potential revenue from Big Ten Network games and a conference tournament was too much to forgo. 6 would be the critical mass for any of the major conferences to play under their primary conference brand. Man, i so wish that North Dakota would join the Big Ten conference. Has there ever been any talk of them being potentially invited and if they were, would they strongly consider it? Obviously, a move to the Big Ten for all sports is extremely unlikely. A state of 750,000 people just doesn't have the resources to fund a major research university. North Dakota would make more sense as an affiliate member for hockey, but the only way I could see North Dakota making that move would be if they received an equal share of conference tournament revenue and an equal share of BTN revenue (prorated for men's hockey viewership). Plus, they'd need some assurance that they wouldn't be bumped for the next Big Ten team to add hockey. I think North Dakota is comfortable in a league with a bunch of hockey-first schools like Denver, St. Cloud State, Minnesota-Duluth, and Nebraska-Omaha. I predict the next big shakeup in college hockey will come out West, where hockey is growing and Pac 12 / Mountain West schools have highly competitive club teams. We've already seen Arizona State make the jump.

And this is why Aaron Rodgers is the MVP, not Matt Ryan, because the only time you would ever see Rodgers snap the ball with that much time left is if he was trying to catch the defense with 12 men on the field. Rodgers is a master of letting the clock run down, trying to read the defense and their scheme, and audibling out of a play if he sees something he doesn't like. If Rodgers had Freeman and Coleman instead of a converted WR and a waiver claim he would be setting records. This is why I'm surprised Matt Ryan made the All-Pro Team and won the MVP by such wide margins. Not to mention he had Julio Jones.

2014 Packers pop a cork - no longer the worst collapse in NFL history!

Wow. I have never admitted it until now, but Tom Brady is the GOAT. Matt Ryan is pretty good, but not elite. Should have picked the white jerseys, Falcons.

Kurt Warner has 67 career wins. Jay Cutler has 68.

So they pretty much got nothing for Brandon Knight?

It was nice to see Jordy win the award for Comeback Player of the Year. Kurt Warner was an interesting HOF selection. It's hard to argue against 2 MVP's and a Super Bowl win, but there's a pretty large void in his resume from 2002-2007 when he was 8-23 as an intermittent starter behind Marc Bulger, Eli Manning, and Matt Leinart. As a starting QB, he only had 5 seasons with a winning record (1999, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2009).

The formation of a Big Ten hockey conference was more or less a formality when Penn State added hockey. The Big Ten requires at least 6 member schools to play under the Big Ten name and the NCAA requires a minimum of 6 teams in a conference to award an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Despite the great rivalries in the WCHA and CCHA, I believe the potential revenue from Big Ten Network games and a conference tournament was too much to forgo. 6 would be the critical mass for any of the major conferences to play under their primary conference brand. As far as which other teams may be interested in starting hockey, Nebraska is unlikely to be an option. A few years back (10?), Nebraska-Omaha dropped football and allocated more resources to men's hockey. I believe there's some type of gentlemans' agreement in place whereby the Cornhuskers will not sponsor hockey, provided Nebraska-Omaha does not sponsor football. The biggest obstacle to sponsoring hockey is cost. Don't forget that it took an $80 million dollar donation by the owner of the Buffalo Sabres for Penn State to add hockey. And it's not just men's hockey, most schools would be forced to add women's hockey to satisfy Title IX requirements. With all due respect to women's hockey, it lacks the revenue potential that men's hockey brings.

With the current power structure in the organization? Nope. They suffer from a complete lack of forward thinking and an inability to evaluate talent. I waited to answer my own poll question so that I didn't influence anyone's answer, but you pretty much summed up my opinion. From about 2004-2010, I listened to nearly every Bucks' game on the radio. I was all in for teams that finished well below .500. Finally, in 2010, my patience was rewarded with the "Fear the Deer" team. The loss of Bogut late in the season prevented them from advancing to the second round of the playoffs, but that was a fun team. I eagerly waited to see how Hammond would reload the team for the next campaign and on the first day of free agency, he paid Drew Gooden $32 million on a 5-year deal (which is probably about $75 million in today's NBA). I was crushed, but didn't become totally jaded until statewide public financing was used to help pay for a new arena. I'm generally not opposed to some types of public financing, but the Packers went to the state for help back in 2000 and came up empty. Brown County, with about 250,000 residents, shouldered the burden of the Lambeau Field sales tax alone.

I waited a week to get my final thoughts out - I didn't want to be too influenced by raw emotion. The Packers' defense has been broken since Week 2 of 2011 when Nick Collins suffered his career-ending injury. Despite spending 5 consecutive 1st Round picks on that side of the ball (with only HHCD to show for it), the defense hasn't improved. Is it TT? Is it DC? Is it injuries and bad luck? Probably a little of each in my estimation, but 6 years should be enough time for an organization to solve a problem. Aaron Rodgers has 3 playoff losses where his defense has given up 44 or more points; Tom Brady's defenses have NEVER allowed 44 points in his 267 career starts. Nonetheless, this was the most exciting / least disappointing season since 2010. In a span of 6 weeks, we beat the Seahawks, all 3 division opponents, the Giants at Lambeau (finally), and the #1 seeded Dallas Cowboys. I sure had fun. Go Pack!

It also helps that there are no pro sports in North Dakota. That hockey program probably has state wide love. Speaking of real North Dakota hockey, as a big Badgers hockey fan, i miss playing North Dakota home and away every year. They along with Minnesota used to be the Badgers biggest rivals. Plus, i thought they had the best looking uniforms in college hockey, especially when they still had the Fighting Sioux head on the front. You're right in that it probably helps that there are no professional sports teams in North Dakota, but the college basketball season runs concurrently with hockey and the UND men's team draws fewer than 4,000 per game. It they started making the NCAA tourney every year, I'm sure their following would grow, but there's just not much to be excited about there (even if it is Division I men's basketball). I miss the rivalries with Wisconsin and Minnesota, but those programs will be just fine (as will North Dakota). Growing up in Wisconsin, I have great memories of watching Badger hockey late at night on PBS with my dad. I'll always be a fan of the old WCHA teams. Notre Dame is in the Big Ten now for hockey - what the heck?

I'll weigh in here after echoing one huge caveat - The Packers have to beat Atlanta first. I would rather see the Packers play the Patriots in the Super Bowl for two reasons: 1) The Steelers have a Top 5 QB, a Top 5 RB, and a Top 5 WR ... I don't know how you counter that without an elite defense. 2) I not only want my team to face Tom Brady, I want my team to beat Tom Brady. On NFL Sundays, I probably spend too much time reading online comments during commercials and between games. I find Patriots fans to be insufferable (I acknowledge that Packer fans are not without fault). Any time Rodgers is praised, you can count on a Pats fan mentioning that he's just a "one ring wonder" or a "playoff choker" (because if you don't win a coin toss in OT, you choked). Tom Brady is an elite, HOF QB, but if we're going strictly by championships, isn't Bart Starr the GOAT (sarcasm)? While minuscule next to the prospect of the Packers winning another Super Bowl, I would delight in watching Aaron Rodgers snatching a ring off Tom Brady's finger ... just to keep this GOAT talk interesting. There's your problem. Take out playoffs/championships they're pretty comparable. Neither Rodgers or Brady has ever had great players on their offense. Gronk and Jordy Nelson are close but most great QB's have had Hall of Fame or close to it players on their side of the ball. Neither has ever really even had a running game. Sometimes New England has ran the ball well but like Green Bay the offense is pretty much all on the QB's shoulders. Totally different styles of play but equal value to their teams. Greatest of all time - who cares? They're two of the greatest ever. I don't get bent out of shape over it. I just think it's a fun debate. Honestly, Brady's body of work is so voluminous, you'd be hard pressed to rank Rodgers ahead of Brady. Even when you exclude the postseason, Brady's career record as a starter is 183-52 (0.779), whereas Rodgers is 90-45 (0.667). Brady wins 3 out of 4 games, whereas Rodgers only wins 2 out of 3 games. Sure, dozens of variables factor into those records, but we're talking about 183 wins to 52 losses. That's incredible. Personally, I'd take Rodgers to win one game, but Brady's sustained success is remarkable. It's just funny how defensive Pats fans get when a writer suggests that other quarterbacks are good too.

I really haven't been a fan of the Academy Awards since A Beautiful Mind edged out The Ladies Man for Best Picture back in 2001.

There will always be an attendance hurdle for the NBA / NHL in Milwaukee. As a small market team, the Brewers have had respectable attendance because they have been able to draw fans from the rest of the state. Part of this has to do with the Wisconsin tailgate culture and Summer weather. Living in Green Bay, it's difficult for me to plan a trip to see the Bucks during the months of December - March. I just hate the prospect of 4 hours of "white knuckle driving." With the Brewers, I can generally count on better road conditions and will almost certainly be able to spend more time with friends and family tailgating beforehand. I think this hurdle can be cleared, but only through sustained success. My wife and I enjoy hockey. She's from North Dakota, where the University of North Dakota has won 8 NCAA Division I National Championships, including the most recent one. How does a town of 50,000 sell out a 12,000 seat arena every other weekend? They win games. Lots of games.

Honest poll question: Do you see the Bucks winning a championship in the next 10 years?

I'll weigh in here after echoing one huge caveat - The Packers have to beat Atlanta first. I would rather see the Packers play the Patriots in the Super Bowl for two reasons: 1) The Steelers have a Top 5 QB, a Top 5 RB, and a Top 5 WR ... I don't know how you counter that without an elite defense. 2) I not only want my team to face Tom Brady, I want my team to beat Tom Brady. On NFL Sundays, I probably spend too much time reading online comments during commercials and between games. I find Patriots fans to be insufferable (I acknowledge that Packer fans are not without fault). Any time Rodgers is praised, you can count on a Pats fan mentioning that he's just a "one ring wonder" or a "playoff choker" (because if you don't win a coin toss in OT, you choked). Tom Brady is an elite, HOF QB, but if we're going strictly by championships, isn't Bart Starr the GOAT (sarcasm)? While minuscule next to the prospect of the Packers winning another Super Bowl, I would delight in watching Aaron Rodgers snatching a ring off Tom Brady's finger ... just to keep this GOAT talk interesting.