What a group
1.Texas Pan American
2.North Dakota State
3.South Dakota State
4.Indiana Purdue Ft Wayne
5.Utah Valley Sate
6.NJ Institute of Technology
I hear the ad and president of NJIT wants to win the award for the costliest travel budget in 1A bb.

Yeah, it will be the most costliest.

I think a better name than the United Basketball Conference would be:

Conference Sprawl


Like Conference USA, only instead, call it Sprawl, as it is sprawled-out.

Or maybe, Conference Globe or the Global Conference.

In the back of my mind, I keep coming back to the Big Country Conference.

At least they'd have a kick-a$$ theme song, and the lyrics actually fit the "member" schools' situation:

- - -
In a big country dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice fires the mountainside
Stay alive

I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered
- - -

There's a song about Sprawl too. Its called Subdvisions, by Rush (with modifications here):

Sprawling on the fringes of the country
In geometric disorder
A far distant border
In between the bright city lights
And the far unlit unknown

No where is the dreamer
And the misfit so alone

I think the SUs would rather be singing "Big Sky Country" but this is an improvement. Its funny it took so long. Maybe everyone had higher hopes and didnt want to make this affiliation? Its a fragile group but does solve scheduling problems. Its an imporvement to be sure and who knows, all big things start small.

As well as dissapate or evolve or change. Who knows? If the other NCC teams move up, they may just join this group too.

Im pretty sure big things start small because they do evolve and change ???

This is the only realistic option any new transfers from our region have right now and its only BB.

At the half NDSU leads the Badgers 30-16.

Big Win for the BISON in Madison toady in a hard fought 62-55 win against the #15 University Wisconsin Badgers! Great win for the fledgling UBC too!

Congratulations on a win at #13 Wisconsin.

Great comeback from a loss at UVSC.

However, regarding the last statement: All big things start off small. Thats pretty much true. However, not all things small become big or stay the same they started out. Some things that you may not want may become a part of the thing you start. And yes, it would be great to have a D-I (AA/AAA) conference primarily focused on the Upper Great Plains/Upper Midwest, an option where NDSU, SDSU and NCC schools can move up into. The region has the market for midmajor alignment, with MN providing the base of such a conference and Minneapolis the metro/city base of market. Of course, this could also be in the form of a total realigned Mid Con, or a BSC/Great West remnant merger.

Independent North Dakota St. upsets Wisconsin at home

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- After a week's worth of adversity, Saturday's game against North Dakota State was supposed to be a welcome respite for Wisconsin (No. 13 ESPN/USA Today, No. 15 AP).

Instead, the Badgers had their 27-game home non-conference winning streak snapped by an unlikely opponent, losing 62-55 to the Bison.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=260210275 for the rest of the story.

It was a great win, no doubt about.

However, a ranked team can have a down day every once and awhile too. Wisconsin was going through a lot of problems in the week. Maybe this is a wakeup call for them.

What a great day for NDSU and the BISON BB program. I dont think anybody is taking anything away from NDSU. We are now 2-5 all time against the Badgers. They played tough and really took a run at us in the last 7 min. The BISON held tough, forcing some key turnovers and making just enough FT to win it!

I didnt hear the Wisconsin players making any excuses. It was obvious the BISON were playing with them all afternoon. Congratulations to Coach Miles. He had the team ready and they executed. They sounded confident in the pre grame interviews and it followed through on the court.

Its a great day in BISON Lore!!!

Prior to todays game there were 2 teams in both the BSC and Mid Con that had higher RPIs (Wisconsin was #3). With the BSC commissioner lecturing his conference on getting serious about competiting in BB this has to look good for NDSU. Its also a feather in the cap of the UBC.

UVSU is a very good team and the rest of the conference could really turn out to be competitive and a whole lot of fun. The BISON Women play IPFW tonight and the internet video feed can be purchased here.

http://www.gobison.com/liveEvents/liveEvents.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=2400&KEY=

The video feeds, now in their first season, are another sign of the burgeoning sports market that NDSU has. This win isnt going to hurt a bit! ;D

It isn't going to hurt a bit. That's true. However, it doesn't necessarily indicate what a team is.

During the Nebraska vs. Kansas game today, a game in which the Huskers were blown out, the announcer made a statement about a season. In 30 games, give or take some games, there are usually about 5 games in which you play above your potential and 5 games in which you play below, and the other 20 tell the story of who you really are. This is just one game. I just saw highlights and they showed a weak performance by Wisconsin. They showed about 3 airballs by UW. This could conceivably be about NDSU playing one of their 5 "above their potential games" and one of Wisconsin's 5 "below their potential" games. The announcer stated that its how you perform and hold on during your 5 "below your potential games" that makes your season great.

NDSU is having a decent season for who they are. However, this game is not a be all of end all that determines a conference alignment decision, if there is one.

Also, an internet video feed does not define a "market". There is much more, including what that market with that team provides in a recruiting base, what that market provides in advertising dollars, which is related to buying power which is related to population and disposable income. As well as potential for corporate sponsorship, which is related to the amount of corporate presence compared to other candidates. This win, and perhaps this season is a one feather in NDSU cap. But, the small market feather when compared to IPFW, NJIT, and perhaps UTPA is not in NDSU's cap. Neither is their location.

This win is reverberating across the country. Its a watershed win. A great achievement for our BB program. Even our coach is joking that its a great win, good for NDSU, but bad for scheduling.

When you look at historic program wins this one is right up there. Although we were established around the same time as these grand daddy universities we didnt grow with them. We are 2-5 against the Badgers and the last time we met was in the 1920s. Thats the story with a lot of the regions (to a certain extent the nations) major universities. We used to play regularly then in the 20s and 30s we didnt see much of them, until now.

This win is as large as North Dakota thats for sure. People are already saying its a great win for the State. I say Go State! In the light of this win you cant help but reflect on NDSU and how much it has achieved.

NDSU has an exploding research budget. The business park is a great incubator and NDSU and the business community are making the most of it. Academically its growing at every level. Our student body is growing by all measures and the University is in an unprecedented building phase. Now that we are carving out a competitive market niche in Division I it really is a time for hope and optimism.

What a day in BISON Lore!

Its a great win. But there really isn't such a thing as a watershed win. The only thing that is watershed, is an era.

Over a 27 to 30 game season, a lot can happen. Wisconsin had a down day.

North Dakota State is growing somewhat, but not on the level of many other universities in the nation. That really doesn't get at the way athletic markets are defined. Certainly NDSU being a Land Grant University helps. But it doesn't tell the whole story of North Dakota, as there is an equal university to the north in the same state, UND. Both are a part of a Tech boondoggle corridor that Senator Byron Dorgon got for the state.

College sports markets are defined by many factors, and not one factor means that they excel in a market. Market means advertizing dollars (related to buying power, which is related to population and disposable income), corporate sponsorship of both the university and a potential conference, it means a recruiting base, it means the number of people that show up in the stands, it also means what the other competition within the market is, and the competition of all these factors with that competition. An intangible related to this is the reasonable proximity (within a 2 hour commutable drive) to a major market or even a midmajor market, if there is not either a major or a midmajor market located within the state.

About the only one of these factors that NDSU excels in is maybe the attendance (especially football).

All the others NDSU is likely to be less competitive in when compared to conference candidates.

NDSU as an instition has 1/4 the size of enrollment of any Big 10 school, and about 1/2 to 1/3rd of any Big 12 school. NDSU is a Land Grant university, but its basically on the bottom rung of schools among all land grants and flagships. This is related to a reall small base of population. ND is the 48th largest state. Vermont, the 49th largest state, offers UVM, which is better than a number of larger state's flagships and land grants. They also are part private and have no Vermont State University, nor no Rutland State, Bennington State, nor Burlington State. Soon Vermont will be the 48th largest state and North Dakota will move down to the 49th largest state. However, a better comparable is the University of Wyoming. Wyoming is the 50th largest state. It has only one public university, the University of Wyoming. There is no Wyoming State, Casper State, Cody State, Evanston State, Torrington State, Gillette State. They did it right for such a very small state, and as a result, the University of Wyoming has a much better standing. They are in a better standing than NDSU, as they are able to spread very limited state tax dollars further in such a small state. NDSU is more on the level in comparison to many regional state universities and metro universities. Miami University of Ohio, Ball State, Bowling Green, Western Michigan, Wayne State, University of Illinois-Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Cincinnati, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Northern Illinois, Illinois State, East Carolina, Southern Mississippi, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Southern Illinois all have better academic reputations than North Dakota State, and those are not land grants nor flagships of any kind. Acadmically, NDSU is comparable to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.