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league," Bohl said. He added that the committee is good at what it does, but the members represent different regions with different perspectives.
• Kern put out a release Wednesday that shows the Missouri Valley as the top-rated conference under a so-called Gridiron Power Index, or GPI, a compilation of computer and human polls. Five Valley teams -- NDSU, Youngstown, SDSU, Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois -- are rated in the top 20 of the GPI in the FCS.
• Southern Illinois head coach Dale Lennon said he hopes the committee looks at head-to-head competition.
• "I just hope that the reputation of the league helps everyone," he said.
• There are 13 at-large bids available. The conference scenario that generally creates the most bids, Kern said, is to have a top-heavy league with three or so dominant teams at the top and the same number of sacrificial lambs at the bottom.
• The Big Sky Conference, for example, has five teams with league records of 5-2 or better and four with two wins or fewer, including two winless clubs.
• There's no arguing NDSU's numbers. The Bison have not gone undefeated in the regular season since the 1990 NCAA Division II championship team went 10-0 in the regular season and 4-0 in the playoffs. Their 19-game winning streak dating back to last season is a Missouri Valley record, the longest active streak in FCS, and the second longest streak in all of Division I behind Ohio State.
• South Dakota head coach Joe Glenn, who butted heads with the Bison for 10 years when he coached Northern Colorado in Division II, said he's "been there, done that" when asked about going up against a powerhouse.
• "We're all trying to be like North Dakota State," Glenn said. "You can see it in recruiting, the level of athletes they're getting. They're strong, right down the line."
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Blue Cloud Abbey monastery sold to Catholic group
CARSON WALKER, Associated Press
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Six Catholic couples from South Dakota and Minnesota have purchased a 108-bedroom rural monastery and now hope to raise enough money to keep it open as a quiet place of renewal.
• Blue Cloud Abbey near Marvin in northeast South Dakota, just miles from the Minnesota border, housed Benedictine monks from 1950 until it closed in May 2012. The remaining 14 residents, most of them aging, voted to sell the 80-acre property.
• "We can't reproduce the Benedictines but can continue that tradition of helping everybody who needs help," said Wade Van Dover, one of its new co-owners.
• "There's 100,000 square feet. It's a big facility."
• The buyers have signed a purchase agreement that does not allow them to re (Continued on page 20)
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