Latest news with #Leipold
Dominion Post
5 days ago
- General
- Dominion Post
Rodriguez's one transfer portal period a consensus among Big 12 coaches
West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez was vocal this spring about his problems with the NCAA and the current state of college football. His biggest issue was with the transfer portal, and how there were two openings, with one in the winter and the other in the spring. Rodriguez wants to adopt a professional model, like Bill Belichick's model, with one portal window being like free agency and recruiting being the draft. 'It kind of sucks that we have to do so much roster movement, management, whatever you want to call it in April,' Rodriguez said early this spring. 'I guess I am complaining. It's kind of a new thing in college football. It's not smart. It's not right. It's not organized correctly.' Rodriguez wants one portal period. His argument is that he'll coach a player all spring, and then after he's spent all his time and effort developing the player, he can just jump in the portal and play against him in the fall. 'I mean, how ridiculous is that?' Rodriguez said in March. 'There's another portal thing coming up in a couple of weeks… I wasted all my time coaching this guy, getting him ready, and then he's getting a paycheck to go somewhere else.' Rodriguez isn't the only coach in college football who sees this as an issue. Last week, the Big 12 coaches, athletic directors, and commissioner Brett Yormark met to talk about the current state of the sport and voiced their complaints. Thursday, Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham and Kansas coach Lance Leipold took to the podium, answering questions about what they'd like to see for the future of college football, representing the rest of the Big 12 coaches. The consensus for the portal was that the Big 12 coaches agree with Rodriguez and want one portal period. 'As coaches, we unanimously support one portal window, and that is in January,' Leipold said. 'That's what we'd like.' Currently, there's a portal period in December and another in April, so the January window won't be a plug-and-play option. It won't just replace one of the current windows while getting rid of the other. But, there's reasoning behind why the coaches want January to be when the spring portal falls. 'It's a tough thing with calendars right now and where it goes,' Leipold said ' It's a chance to get your team settled. You're signing most of your guys in December. You're going to know what your roster will be like to start the second semester, and you have the opportunity to work and develop, build those relationships, evaluate your team, and get ready for the next season.' A January portal gets rid of the awkward conversations a player and coach have in December when he's on the roster of a College Football Playoff team making a run for the national championship, and in the middle, the player has to decide to whether to stay for the betterment of the team or leave to better his career. It also removes a coach coaching a player all spring, just for them to leave at the end. It'll be interesting to see how January works, though. The December portal was created because the winter semester ends in early December and starts at the beginning of January. So, players have time to switch schools during the break. The portal in January could get dicey with many schools starting the second semester in early January. The National Championship game for 2026 is scheduled for January 19, which is deep into January, so will it be after? Now, it's almost February at that point. There hasn't been a change, yet, on the portal because of issues like these, but it's known that the Big 12 coaches want it to change, so a switch could be coming in the future. 'I think the people in charge see that you can't have this much roster movement and turnover and change in April and May,' Rodriguez said. 'It's ridiculous.'
New York Times
20-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Could the Wild's season-long resilience help them upset Vegas? ‘We have nothing to lose'
SUMMERLIN, Nev. — Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold said it's 'very unusual' for him to address the team, regular season finale or not. Leipold made an exception after Tuesday night's season-saving, heart-thumping overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks. 'I felt like I had to go down there,' he said. 'Games like that don't happen very often.' Advertisement Joel Eriksson Ek's goal with 22 seconds left forced overtime and officially clinched the playoff spot, and Marc-Andre Fleury's relief appearance will forever live in Wild lore. As it turns out, if Eriksson Ek didn't score, the Wild would not have made the playoffs. When it was Leipold's turn to talk postgame in the dressing room, one line stuck out to some players. 'If only people on the outside knew the kind of character we have on the inside,' Leipold told them. The Wild, following their season-long theme of 'choose your hard,' didn't take the easy route here. It looked good when they were at the top of the league standings in mid-December, but an array of injuries (especially to top players Kirill Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek) threatened to derail their season. The team's ability to withstand the adversity helped them develop the confidence that they can handle anything. 'It's been up and down like crazy,' defenseman Jake Middleton said. 'There were times we thought the world was ending. There were times we thought we'd already won the league.' Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper has said that his championship teams had 'characters with character,' and that term could apply to this year's Wild, as Leipold brought up. Now that doesn't guarantee anything, but perhaps Minnesota gathered enough scar-tissue through its adversity and comebacks this season (they had seven comebacks wins from two-goal deficits) to give a boost going into this first round series against the Golden Knights, which starts Sunday night in Las Vegas. The lack of resilience and mental toughness was an issue in the Wild missing the playoffs last season, as Marcus Foligno and other veterans brought up in their exit interviews. That hasn't been a problem this season, giving them hope they can end their decade-long streak of not getting out of the first round. Advertisement 'You're going to need character to get to the Stanley Cup finals,' Foligno said. 'There's no team that hasn't been tested to get there, and we feel like we're battle-tested. I think the way we're coming into the playoffs is special this time of year. That's something I'm looking at as a character team right now — that we've got good guys that care and are ready for a push for getting a Round 1 win.' The Golden Knights are heavy favorites in this series for a reason, with the Pacific Division champions boasting 17 players who have won the Stanley Cup together. Like the Wild, they're heading into the playoffs healthy. The fact that Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek returned for the last couple weeks of the season should provide a big boost. And adding their top prospect, defenseman Zeev Buium, to the lineup for Game 1 should be an interesting new wrinkle. Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon remembered that when the Wild were in Vegas Dec. 15 , Kaprizov scored twice and was neck and neck with Leon Draisaitl for the NHL goal-scoring lead: 'I think the team we're preparing for is probably going to be a lot more like the team that we faced in the first half of the season,' McCrimmon said. At least one wild-card team has advanced out of the first round in six of the nine years under the format, including four times in 2018-19. While no wild-card team has won the Stanley Cup, two have advanced to the final (the Florida Panthers in 2023 and the Nashville Predators in 2017). The Wild held a lead in each of their last four playoff series, including going up 2-1 on Dallas two years ago. Minnesota feels like it has been playing playoff games for the last several weeks, as it had to fight for its spot down the stretch as the hard-charging Calgary Flames nearly caught them — and would have, had Eriksson Ek not scored to force overtime against the Ducks. Advertisement 'I think that's what makes us a dangerous team,' said Fleury, a three-time Cup champion. 'I think we're comfortable playing close games. We've done it for the past two months almost. And guys kept going, kept playing until the end. I feel like we always have a chance to win games, so that's fun.' Zach Bogosian, who won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2020, said handling adversity during the season helps teams in the playoffs because you need everyone to contribute in the postseason. And, the 'good' part about injuries is that they thrust players into different, and bigger, roles. Matt Boldy stepped up in the final month with Kaprizov out, finishing the season with 10 game-winning goals — tied for third in the NHL. Foligno spent some time on the top line. Marcus Johansson played his best hockey in the final few weeks, including setting up the OT winner on Tuesday. 'We've got to find a different gear,' Mats Zuccarello said. 'We need everyone to play up to their standards, and maybe even more to be able to beat a team like that. We all believe in the group that we can do it, but we need everyone.' There are a lot of on-the-ice factors that will play a big role in the series, not just good vibes of a resilient team. Vegas boasts one of the league's biggest, and best, blue lines, so getting to the inside will be critical for the Wild. Minnesota's struggles in the faceoff circle will be a challenge and something that must be remedied, coach John Hynes said. Vegas' second-ranked power play could give the Wild fits. Filip Gustavsson, one of the team's top players down the stretch, needs to win the goaltending battle against Adin Hill. Wild vs. Golden Knights: 5 burning questions for the first-round playoff series By @JoeSmithNHL, @JesseGranger_ and me — Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 19, 2025 BetMGM has set the series odds for the Wild at +200, making them tied for the second-biggest underdogs in the first round with Montreal (vs Washington). The Devils have the longest odds, at + 230 to beat Carolina. The pressure is clearly on Vegas, so Minnesota can approach it as if they're playing with house money. Advertisement 'We're coming in and it's just got to be a team that has no doubt, really,' Foligno said. 'We're playing against a really good Vegas team and we have nothing to lose. We just leave it all out there and at the end of the day, we've got to (put) our best hockey in a seven-game series and just be ready for it, be emotionally involved in these games and be smart, learn from past experiences.' Foligno brought up the Wild's playoff series against Vegas in 2021, when Minnesota fell behind 3-1 and forced a Game 7. 'It was the same kind of matchup, where they were highly touted and we came in and pushed them to Game 7,' Foligno said. 'We've done it the hard way all year — and 20 seconds left in the season is when you do it the hard way,' Zuccarello said. 'That's been our season. So hopefully we can do it the hard way this series and get a win.'
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Minnesota Wild, St. Paul Saints make their pitches to state lawmakers for major bonding dollars
The Minnesota Wild want to take the city's 25-year-old hockey arena into the future, with lounge-style seating areas and other fresh amenities. The city of St. Paul wants to host big-name concerts, tournaments, conventions and trade shows, and more of them, to give city tax coffers — and downtown in particular — a badly-needed boost. The St. Paul Saints want $16 million in improvements at CHS Field in Lowertown, including a Ferris wheel. On Thursday, state lawmakers from both parties reminded them all that none of their asks would come cheap, if they get funded at all. Sitting shoulder to shoulder within a State Capitol hearing room, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold asked a key committee of House lawmakers for nearly $400 million in state bonding funds to cover half the proposed cost of a $796 million renovation of the Xcel Energy Center and the adjoining RiverCentre Convention Center. 'We're creating a city anchor where people want to be, a hub of energy, business and community that reverberates beyond our border,' said Carter, addressing members of the House Capital Investment Committee. 'Xcel Energy Center is now at the edge of its intended life span,' said Leipold, who has lived downtown for 16 years. 'Over the last few years, we've visited arenas in downtowns across the country, and seen firsthand how similar investment can literally transform communities. … This is the vital economic engine driving St. Paul. It's hard to imagine St. Paul without it.' Lawmakers from both parties — including Democratic-Farmer-Labor state representatives from St. Paul and Minneapolis — called the size of the Xcel Center ask little short of startling, given grim state budget forecasts, growing talk of a possible national economic slowdown and uncertain federal grant funding for public infrastructure. Minutes after glowingly introducing the Saints request for $8 million in state bond funds to cover ballpark improvements, state Rep. Maria Perez-Vega, DFL-St. Paul, criticized Carter and Leipold for surprising her with a large ask in the 'front yard of my community' without first sharing with her the specifics. The mayor's office said their presentation was informational, and a written bill was not been presented to lawmakers. 'If this is the number one priority for the city that I love … I'd like to see more effort to deliver this information to my office,' said Perez-Vega, after listing a litany of other St. Paul priorities, from homelessness to climate concerns, where tax dollars could be spent. 'I want to talk off the record more, and I would appreciate those discussions with you and I, Mr. Leipold.' State Rep. Fue Lee, a DFLer who represents North Minneapolis and co-chairs the House Capital Investment Committee, said a $394 million state appropriation bond would translate to an estimated $32 million a year increase in the debt service paid through the state general fund. That number may change depending upon interest rates and whether the funding was structured as one bond sale or three. 'There's some talk that we might not even have a bonding bill this year,' said Lee, noting the Minnesota Vikings are likely to ask for funding for new fencing at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. 'Is this the right time to look at some of these appropriation bonds?' Republican lawmakers seemed no less skeptical. Introducing the presentations on the Saints and Xcel arena requests, committee co-chair Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, said, 'Next up, members, we have two bills that I understand are controversial.' She then acknowledged that both projects held statewide importance, and then qualified that remark, noting that opinion could also be construed as controversial. Among the improvements, Leipold said the Xcel renovation will create new types of seating areas more in line with modern demand, including low-cost, lounge-style community viewing rooms. Under the title 'Project Wow,' the Wild have attempted to lure the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame from Eveleth, Minn. to downtown St. Paul, a move supported by the chair of the museum's board of directors, state Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, but opposed by some of the area's state lawmakers. In a letter of support from the St. Paul Area Chamber, President and CEO B. Kyle noted that the arena complex, which includes the convention center and Roy Wilkins Auditorium, draws nearly 2 million visitors to some 400 annual events, generating nearly $500 million in economic impact between spending, state and local sales tax, hotel stays and more. The renovations could boost that spending by another $110 million, she said. Carter said downtown St. Paul faces tough challenges, with plummeting building values biting into the city's tax base in the era of remote work and 'the sudden passing of our largest property owner downtown,' a reference to the death last year of James Crockarell, whose Madison Equities properties have been falling into neglect and foreclosure. Across downtown, the St. Paul Saints have $16 million in improvements lined up for the area surrounding the east entrance to CHS Field, which opened in May 2015. Tom Whaley, executive vice president with the Saints, said those improvements are needed, in part, to keep up with Major League Baseball standards, which have changed. The Minor League Saints became a AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins in 2021. The funding also will support 'The Wheel at St. Paul,' a large Ferris wheel to be located in the same vicinity as new visiting player facilities, with inspiration taken from popular Ferris wheels in Chicago and St. Louis. Plans call for relocating visiting player locker rooms from the service level near home plate to an area to be constructed behind the left fielder outfield wall, beneath an existing berm. A mix of state, city and team funds would also fix a moisture barrier problem that has developed behind the bullpen walls, according to the team, and remove and replace soils that were contaminated with debris, shifted from one part of the site to another and capped during initial ballpark construction. Whaley on Thursday asked the state to cover half the cost — $8 million — with bonding dollars, with the city and team covering the rest. The request is sponsored by Perez-Vega and Rep. Samakab Hussein, Hollins and others. Politics | Minnesota state senator resigns after he was charged with soliciting a minor for prostitution Politics | Feds charge Sen. Justin Eichorn, Minnesota lawmaker accused of attempting to pay for sex with minor Politics | St. Paul looks to state for half of $769 million renovation of the Xcel Center Politics | Minnesota Sen. Justin Eichorn arrested for allegedly soliciting prostitution with minor Politics | Minnesota Supreme Court tosses recall petitions against DFLers who boycotted session
