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In contrast, read between the lines of this tweet today from ORU reserve Braeden Moore:

HUGE 7-to-10 days upcoming for ORU recruiting, starting this weekend. Several prospects visiting campus, featuring JUCO and portal guys. And the jury is still out on McBride staying or going. Meanwhile, wondering what to make of the likes of Phipps and Bedford not yet announcing new homes. Could they come full circle back to 81st & Lewis?

Our ministry will be in Paris this summer during the Olympics doing street performances and outreach! (We've been in Europe every summer for the last 10 years except 20/21 Covid years)

I think our frontcourt is decent. Jones can hopefully make a sophomore leap, Herron and Moore are both pretty reliable IMO, and Gray has the potential to be very good. As for the guards, hopefully McBride comes back. Pair him with Miller in the backcourt and it should be decent. Miller is one of my favorite players on the team. The 3 spot is where there isn’t anyone from last year, or who’s currently committed, to replace Kareem. Obviously, we need more guys. But I don’t hate the makeup of the group that is on the roster right now. They all seem to be high character guys who are all in on ORU.

During my 2 years in Grand Forks and 14 years in Minot, my wife and kids came to love the warmth, friendliness, and heartiness of the people. However, we experienced snow at least once in every month except in July. When out-of-state friends came to visit, we knew they wanted to see us. When we lived in Florida 30 minutes from Disney World, we suddenly had lots of "friends" wanting to come and stay with us a few days. Now, when asked about life in the Dakotas, I reply with a modified cliche: "It's a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there."

I have not been alone in complaining about the SLN in this forum. I finally got so fed up that I wrote the Commissioner. I am posting my email and his response below. I was impressed that he wrote me back within 24 hours. I tried not to be too snarky but I don't think I was 100% successful there but he was gracious in his response. I have a couple of thoughts. The first, if the member institutions were all able to start their streams on time last year and now are not as successful perhaps some of this is on MidCo. Is the process to start a stream in need of some re-engineering? Secondly, I feel buried in the weeds of his response about why they went with MidCo is the Dakota schools entanglement with MidCo. That has been surmised on this board before, particularly by @Old Titan. Dang it that stinks! Anyway, since there's no baseball this afternoon some of you may want to fight through this. My Email Commissioner Fenton, I’m writing you to share my experience with the Summit League Network on the MidCo Sports Plus platform. For background, I am an Oral Roberts University alumni living in Dallas, TX. Therefore, I rely almost exclusively on the SLN to consume ORU sports. Prior to the creation of the SLN, I consumed ORU sports on the ORU Sports Network, which was free, the free streaming provided by most of our member schools and ESPN+. I subscribed to ESPN+ because many of ORU’s non-conference baseball and basketball games were carried on that platform. With the creation of the SLN all the free streaming platforms provided by member schools, including ORU, went away. To get was once mostly free, I now pay $9.99 a month plus tax. Not great but if that helps ORU and the conference maybe I can get over that additional expense. My issue is that that the fan experience has deteriorated from what I experienced in prior years. I am not always able to watch games live. I often will plan to watch a game the morning after. I don’t think there has been a single time during the basketball season, or so far in the baseball season, that replays were available on the SLN the morning after a game. Previously, when I was relying on member schools, for free I might add, replays were always available the next morning and often within 30 minutes of the conclusion of the game. On ESPN+ replays are available shortly after the conclusion of the game, by the way. Another example of the deterioration in the fan experience is with the reliability of the SLN. It is not uncommon for the broadcast to not be available when games are scheduled to start. MidCo provides a variety of “error messages” when this happens. Sometimes the message is that the event hasn’t started. I know this isn’t true because I am following the game on my phone using “live stats.” Last week, MidCo was telling users that their subscription wasn’t current, and we should check with the platform we used to subscribe. This was bogus and 16 minutes after the start of the game the stream on SLN finally started. I know from talking to other ORU fans this isn't unique to me. Reaching out to MidCo customer service in these situations is an absolute waste of time. Previously, when I was relying on member schools, for free I might add, games always started on time. In fact the streams often started 15 minutes prior to the start of the game and fans could enjoy the pre-game show. We get a very abbreviated pre-game show from MidCo if any at all. Why don’t broadcasts start earlier like they used to? I know that ORU still has pre-game shows because I hear them referred to during game broadcasts. Finally, I am baffled by the decision to use MidCo and CBS Sports. I can only assume the economics are better for the league but at what cost to the fans? As I said in my opening comments, in the past I would subscribe to ESPN+ to pick up non-conference games. If I want to do that now I am paying for two subscriptions. If the Summit League had partnered with ESPN, like virtually every other mid-major conference has done, one subscription gives fans conference and non-conference games and a better fan experience. Why is it that the partnership that works for our peer conferences wasn’t workable for the Summit League? Here’s my assessment of my experience with the Summit League Network. I am paying more and receiving less. I hear you speak a lot about how important the student athlete and the fan experience is to you. I can tell you that with the Summit League Network, you have fallen short of the standard you claim to set for the league. Sincerely, John Wright And the response from the commissioner Mr. Wright, Thank you for taking the time to craft a thoughtful email. First, let me thank you for your support of ORU Athletics and the Summit League. We appreciate the passion from our various fan bases. Second, I apologize for the experience you’ve had viewing games digitally or via television. As you noted, the experiences of our student-athletes and fans are incredibly important to the Summit League and the operations through the conference office. We understand that fans have their favorite teams/schools, but we hope to augment the experiences felt through the campus with an aggregated approach from the League. I want to take a moment to address a few points, particularly the technical ones, you noted below. Replays – Assuming the process to complete a live event and create an archive is done correctly by the home institution responsible for producing and managing the stream, the full game replay/archive will be available within an hour or so from when the process is completed. We have experienced situations where the archive creation process was not done (or not done correctly). This then leads to the replay not being available. We have reoccurring meetings with those managing at our schools to remind of this process, which included another one earlier this week. Games Not Starting On-Time/Error Messages – As noted above, each institution manages their streams. They set the start times within the technology platform and ultimately initiate the stream when ready. Schools have the flexibility to start the stream whenever they want. Some may start much earlier than the scheduled start to ensure the stream is already running when the game commences, and others may not start until closer to the starting time. We encourage our schools to start the stream early enough to make sure everything is working properly. If schools have ‘pre-game’ shows prior to the scheduled start, they have the flexibility to adjust the start time to accommodate the pre-game show and start the stream before that show begins. If a stream has not been initiated, the viewer will then see a message indicating the game has not yet begun. Third, as it relates to the League’s overall media partner strategy with the Summit League Network and national television distributor, CBS Sports Network, the decision was made after a year-long process that involved a membership committee. The process involved establishing priorities, which included 1.) Expanded National Linear TV; 2.) Increased Revenue; 3.) Brand Building & Fan Affinity; and 4.) Protecting Existing School Local/Regional Partnerships. As you can likely appreciate, the process included an exhaustive review of all options. Some of the options contained restrictions that would have impacted the membership negatively (production requirement challenges, increased costs, limited linear opportunity, impacts to existing partner agreements, and more). It is also worthwhile to note that only certain options were available as we attempted to structure a model that involved national linear TV and digital distribution. Intentionally, we put together these new relationships with a short-term agreement structure, knowing the evolution in the media rights landscape will continue to evolve. Fourth, rest assured that I will continue to communicate with our partners the constant need to improve, particularly in areas you and others have noted. We value the relationships with our partners and will continue working closely with them to make improvements for the future. Finally, I want you to know that your (and other fan’s) experience are important to the Summit League. This feedback is important and helpful. I’m hopeful that provided you information to better understand the overall structure and why specific technical challenges might be arising. Best Regards, Josh

Any info you can share on who is coming to campus?

Sad to see. Not all represented in those number will find "greener pastures," but players with ability will be snatched away from the programs that gave them opportunity to display their skills and that desperately need them, by promises of money, PT, and greater fame made by programs with greater prestige. Or, they may just be disgruntled, and looking for the easy way out. In either situation they may find, that that (not a typo ) grass isn't always greener.

I could see this being replicated in one of our post-game interviews.......

@OKC Eagle and I had the stream as soon as the 2nd inning. The game listing on ORU Athletic site is jacked. I've been watching live stats thru the NDSU site. On a positive note, the bats are finally out. ORU up 10-3 B9 with 17 hits in G1!

7-3 good guys bottom of the 7th

Welcome to the 21st century @tmh8286 We are thrilled to have you join us

At least five JUCO and portal guys that I know of; I’m guessing there may be more.

Make no mistake friends, I do intend to let my contacts in the athletic department know that he is blaming them for the problems we are experiencing with the SLN. I also intend to reply to the commisioner asking him why member institutioins could start games on time and post replays in a timely manner and last year but can't manage to do that consistently this year. Only one thing changed Finally, I would encourage others to communicate similar themes to the league and to ORU. There's no change without the peasants rising up.

It will have NO affect on ORU. First of all, no one is going to recruit a transgender student in the athletic department. As for intermurals and bathrooms, no one on campus would allow that to happen consistently. In a semi-public building like the Mabee Center or CityPlex Towers, there may be an outsider or their customer that would attempt to use a bathroom that is not their biological gender, but it would not be tolerated well, if at all. If someone brought a civil action against the university, the University would unfortunately have to spend the time and dollars to defend themselves. However, with the current makeup of SCOTUS, no one would be able to get past the first amendment rights of the religious liberty aspects of ORU and ORU would ultimately prevail in any case, which may cause the losing party to pay an exorbitant amount of attorney fees. If SB 1737 is not vetoed by Governor Stitt later this month and becomes law, then recovering ones legal fees on a frivolous lawsuit may not be possible and we would have spent a lot of money that could have gone to educating students.

When you move from one organization to another, you are only trading one set of problems for another set of problems - no organization/team is perfect. These student-athletes are going to find this out earlier than later in their lives if they continue to change schools every year (and probably never graduate if they change more than twice). Find a school/team that values you for the person you are and game you have. If they are developing your skills and you are getting the education that you need to make a great living (if you work hard), you have found the school for you!

". . . an all-encompassing kind of suck." That's great!! I think we've had a couple games this season that fit that description!

Very will written email Otis. I would guess that Priority #4 was given much more weight than any of the others. Also, given that the membership of the league was basically the same last year as it is this year, some of his comments regarding the start time and archiving the broadcasts seem difficult to understand.

This explains why I got a softball game when I started the stream a few minutes ago. Ugh!

Pablo Navarro has not received much attention, but I think he has the potential to be a solid contributor next season. I wish he would have redshirted his first year. He reminds me of Chad Wilkerson, who actually planned on redshirting his freshman year, but was put into action and ultimately did not play many minutes that year. His senior year he was the conference player of the year. Go Pablo!!!

I very badly want this kid to have a long, fruitful career at ORU. He appears to represent everything the school stands for, and is just the kind of high school prospect that men's basketball needs to be signing in this strange, turbulent time.

TheEagleman was a huge fan of Mylon Lefevre and Broken Heart back in the day.....saw them at a small venue in Allentown PA and sat on the front row...this would have been late 80s....right before his heart attack that forced his retirement.....great Christian Band arguably best of all time which is another discussion....Mylon could preach and rock it up.....saw him multiple times in the 80s in Trenton, NJ at a smallish theatre.....he passed away last fall at like 78 yrs old.... RIP Mylon.....More of Jesus....Less of Me.......

I won 2 tickets to see BJ Thomas at Ziegfield's my first year at ORU (1979) by guessing the right Bible verse (Matt. 5:16) on a radio station question from KXOJ (Sapulpa) at 1am. Tickets were downstairs at the desk in EMR in the morning when I went down the elevator. Ticket said no jeans allowed (wish I had tickets to prove this). I had to receive permission to attend concert from my RA because event started at 10:30pm and our freshman curfew was 12am. Also, I needed to borrow a wing mate's Malibu car because we weren't allowed to have a car the first year (as I recall...it's been a while).