I will plead ignorance here but why is thread view for dinosaurs?
It isn't, necessarily. They just have different impacts on the way conversations flow on message boards.
Just my personal opinion, but thread view takes up a lot of real estate for one discussion. And, while this may not be a huge deal, the more people move to smart phones and view the web through apps and mobile web sites, this real estate is needed to view as many topics as possible in one shot. Do you really want a discussion about our main rival being Rutgers or not taking up half of a page? Now, even if you are on a computer, it has the same effect, but just not as glaring as if you are on a smartphone.
The other thing, is that the advantage of thread view is that you can clearly see the hierarchy of the discussion. However this also lends itself to breaking up the topic into sub-topics within the discussion instead of just having a new topic (think of the tangents that take place within discussion topics like going off on a beer discussion during a tailgate logistics thread).
Topic view gives you a snapshot of what is being discussed on the board in a more easily scanned and digestible fashion. It also, hopefully, mitigates the chance for redundant posts since users can see more of what is being discussed. And, with the auto-quoting function in posting, it helps to close the gap on the advantage of the thread view's hierarchical clarity.
Ideally, you want a clean, easily scanned entry into the discussion that you want to participate in or read. But, with that said, if the option to have thread view implemented is available, I think we should do it.