UNO

[JackJD]

Re: UNO

This thread appears drifting out of the travel lane into the off-topic ditch with the smack dropoff not far away.

UNO is interesting.

[usdfbalum]

Re: UNO

I am disappointed that UNO Hockey has not given the UNO Athletic program more fan support and individual identity as a school. The UNL athletic shadow is pretty dark in Omaha. If Trev Alberts cannot sell the Omaha public on UNO athletics and why they should be interested, I do not know what would work.

For SDSU's Nebraska HS recruiting purposes - I think being in a different conference and level of play than UNO is desireable. The Omaha public has a skewed view of UNO's quality to the negative.

[bub94]

Re: UNO

Don't know if I agree with UNO being the answer. Regionally, it works. I just don't know if it's the solution.

[TeaJackrabbit]

Re: UNO

I think best bet is to go hard after more established programs. UALR jumps out.

[Grizzled_Jack]

Re: UNO

There's continued low level talk in St. Louis media about UMSL eventually going DI. I would assume the Summit might be interested unless the OVC decided to pick up another non-football school to go with the one on the other side of the river.

[AugieJackFan]

Re: UNO

Any chance the MVFC takes USD to go to 10 teams and USD stays in the Summit? I have a feeling this is why USD is holding up making a decision.

Wow, this guy nailed it huh?

[jackmd]

Re: UNO

Wow, this guy nailed it huh?

I think you were a little late to the party though. Discussion about this possibility had been ongoing in other threads since the rumor about the BSC option for USD first arose.

That said, you did "nail" it.

[GopherHole]

Re: UNO

I have pondered for over a week about the possiblity of UNO moving to DI and specifically in the Summit.

It is no secret that Trev Alberts would like to move to DI, however the school has been comfortable in living in the Huskers' shadow in football. While they may not be viewed as an attractive alternative for metro kids as compared to walking on with the Huskers, they do have a good presence with out-state recruits in Nebraska. UNO has always offered more scholarship money for talent then other Nebraska state universities (excluding the Huskers). SDSU has been a very good alternative for many DI talent from Nebraska that are not offered scholarships at UNL or the neighboring Big X or Big XII schools. Some kids just want the scholarship and the ability to play at the highest level possible.

UNO would be an excellent fit for the Summit and the MVFC geographically. They have nice facilities, albeit small compared to SDSU's. Caniglia Field is very nice for football, but holds 9,500. They have had 19 games where they have exceeded 10,000 fans and their record home crowd is 13,000. Their basketball facility is small. It has held several national championships, but it seats only 5,200 people.

I could see Omaha being a strong competitor to Sioux Falls for the basketball championships. It has the Qwest Center, which, has held numerous collegiate sporting events outside of Mavericks hockey.

A big thing holding back UNO is that they just moved conferences to the MIAA. That conference is one of the better conferences in DII.

** Edit - obviously USD's announcement makes it a mute point. Unless the MVFC decides to add more teams in the future.

[AugieJackFan]

Re: UNO

I think you were a little late to the party though. Discussion about this possibility had been ongoing in other threads since the rumor about the BSC option for USD first arose.

That said, you did "nail" it.

Lately everyone has been saying Big Sky at least that's all I've heard. No one thought USD was going Summit and Mo Valley recently at least the media anyway. I haven't read every message board out there but you're probably right someone on some random message board somewhere probably did say it before I did. My bad.

[jacksfaninne]

Re: UNO

I don't think that UNO has the $$ nor the fan base to move up. Is there still, or was there ever, a freeze on new D-I applications? And isn't the application fee now $1 million?

I think it was this spring that the Omaha World Herald ran a state-of-UNO-athletics type article after Trev Alberts had been in the AD role for about a year. One of the changes touted as an accomplishment was that they had reduced the number of comp tickets for basketball games from nearly 90% of the butts in seats to somewhere near 60% -- about the only people paying to see UNO basketball were/are the visiting fans. I'm guessing it's not a whole lot different for football.

D-I hockey was great until the newness wore off and the team went in the tank. They're back in the top 10 now, but I haven't noticed if that's helped attendance much. I do know they have a horrible lease with the Qwest Center and that they're hoping to build an on-campus ice arena. I can't say that with Trev Alberts I've noticed any increase in the visibility of UNO athletics, but I'm also paying a lot less attention since the Jacks have move on to bigger and better things.