Showing posts with label Big Sky Conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Sky Conference. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Wayne Nelson: Is the Big Sky the right conference for UND?

My answer is one word, "yes."

I think the rivalry with Montana Schools is one of the bigger draws of the Big Sky Conference. UND and the Montana schools should be playing each other every season. Obviously, that won't happen with there being 11 teams in the BSC. Let's not forget, UND has made great strides in football under coach Bubba Schweigert.

Also, I don't see UND getting invited to the Summit League or the Missouri Valley Football Conference. So, the Big Sky Football is the best fit for UND's sports teams. Actually, I am not sure where UND would go if they weren't in the BSC?  Contrary to some on Sioux Sports, UND isn't going to FBS Football. UND isn't getting invited to a power 5 conference. Finally, I don't see UND dropping back down to DII sports. Do you? Nope!
Wayne Nelson, Grand Forks Herald --- Since joining the league, UND has been competitive in Big Sky football, men's basketball, volleyball and women's basketball. The same can't be said for the rest of the school's sports.

There is no question the UND athletic department is doing everything it can to position each of its programs for the best chance of succeeding.

It just hasn't happened yet.

And, in these uncertain economic times, UND's struggles in the Big Sky—perceived or real—leads to another question:

Is the Big Sky the right conference for UND?
What do you think?  Mr. Nelson does ask some pressing questions that need to be answered. UND is going to have to find some additional funding streams to insure that UND is successful in the future.

Monday, December 08, 2014

President Kelly Praised for His Stand on Retiring Logo in Performance Rating

s/t to Rob Port of sayanythingblog.com -- Here's UND President, Rob Kelly's most recent performance evaluation . Check out the comments by his evaluator, North Dakota Chancellor, Larry Skogen. These comments will definitely rub some UND fans the wrong way. 

You can find the whole evaluation at this link.



Doesn't look like the leadership is looking at the no nickname option.


Again, most of us realize that the Fighting Sioux nickname is gone and that it's not coming back. But a lot of people in high places of higher education are out of touch with reality and these comments smack of elitism.  Feel free to argue if you want.

Saturday, August 09, 2014

Grand Forks Herald, UND may play NDSU in football in Fargo, without return game

I would have to say that this is an interesting turn of events. I do find it odd that NDSU will schedule a home-and-home game with a Big Sky Conference foe, but not with UND. Seems kind of petty to me. Again, obviously, NDSU is a very good FCS team, but UND is already playing and beating NDSU in every other sport that they have.
Brad Schlossman, Grand Forks Herald --- UND athletic director Brian Faison may be willing to sign a contract to renew the UND-North Dakota State football rivalry without any guarantee of a game in Grand Forks.

Faison, who previously held firm asking for a home-and-home series, indicated Friday that he would even consider playing two games in Fargo for a monetary guarantee just to get the dormant rivalry started again.

“There’s a strong sentiment from a certain part of our fan base that, whatever we have to do, let’s do it,” Faison told the Herald. “If that means one game or two games. . . at least it gets it to being started again. I’ve been working to get a home-and-home, but that doesn’t appear to be in the mix.”

The teams, who haven’t competed against each other in football since 2003, could play as soon as next season.


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

UND Football: Dexter Albrecht explains ‘30 Minutes or Less'

I was able to ask Dexter Albrecht the Director of Ticket Sales & Promotions at the University of North Dakota, a few questions about the University of North Dakota’s ‘30 Minutes or Less’...  Which UND is running on July 31, 2013. It's a season tickets promotion for UND football, where if you order season tickets and you live in the Greater Grand Forks Metro Area and you don’t have them delivered to your home or business by the UND football staffers, student-athletes and athletic department officials in 30 minutes or less, they’ll be free.  

Eric Burton: So, you can guarantee that every UND fans living in the Greater Grand Forks Metro Area that orders a Season Ticket will have it in 30 minutes or less?

Dexter Albrecht : I don’t think I can 100% guarantee that, and that is kind of the hook for this. You can get to most places in town in 30 minutes or less, but we’re limited on cars, drivers, and coaches so if we get swamped with orders it will be difficult to get tickets to everyone. We could be giving some away or a lot away depending on how many orders we get.

The main reason we wanted to do with this was to create awareness to the program, and the great home schedule we have. Last year football attendance increased over 1300 fans per game and currently we have already sold close to as many season tickets as where we finished last year, so we’re on pace for some great ticket numbers. Along with that we traditionally have a lot of people that wait until the week of the first game to purchase season tickets. We wanted to give those people a reason not to wait to purchase their season tickets, as well as maybe get some people who were on the fence about getting them.

If you break it down with the schedule we have I really think you will have a hard time finding a better value for your entertainment dollar in the state of North Dakota, Southern Manitoba, or Northwest Minnesota than season tickets for as low as $75 a seat for 7 home football games with 5 of them being against ranked opponents.

Eric Burton: Also, will the team deliver season the tickets to a person’s place of work if they want; if that person lives in the Greater Grand Forks Metro Area?

Dexter Albrecht: We will deliver these tickets to anywhere that our fans would like, as long as it’s in Grand Forks/East Grand Forks city limits. Home, work, or your own business it doesn’t matter to us.

Eric Burton: Taking a look at the UND football schedule, it looks like UND’s schedule is again one of the toughest home schedules in FCS Football?

Dexter Albrecht: It does look like a tough home schedule and I know the coaches and players are fired up for the season. While it’s a tough home schedule it’s also a very attractive schedule for fans.

To give you an idea of how attractive the schedule is for no just UND fans but casual college football fans, we have actually had multiple people who have purchased UND season tickets this year that have also told me they also have football season tickets for North Dakota State, and Montana State. I’ve also had people tell me they are fans of NDSU, Montana, and Montana St. first, but they live in the area and can’t make all of those schools games purchase season tickets with us because of the value of the tickets and the great home schedule we have. To me that’s great, we’ll take those fans and try and convert then to UND fans, or fans of both schools.  

I would also guess that we will probably have some of these fans of other schools who won’t purchase season tickets with us, but they will still come to a game or two of ours because of all the big games on our schedule. That’s a credit to the Big Sky Conference as well as schools like NDSU, SDSU, and USD. There are a lot of people in the state and region that cheer for success for all of the local Universities and casual college football fans in the Dakotas do not have very far to go anymore to see great college football week in and week out and that’s exciting for everyone.

I would also say that statement translate into all sports (basketball, volleyball, etc) with the four Dakota schools all being Division one now. With us being in a different conference we offer fans of those schools an opportunity to see schools they don’t normally see in the Missouri Valley Conference, and the Summit League which makes us a little unique and I think that is attractive to casual fans. They all know who Montana, Montana State and Eastern Washington are in football or who Weber State is in Men’s Basketball.

Goon’s World would like to thank Dexter Albrecht for stopping by and answering a few questions. UND opens the 2013 season against Valparaiso August 29, 2013,
at 7:00 p.m. at the Alerus Center.  


Season-ticket packages start at $75 per seat and are also available for purchase any time at undsports.com.
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Sunday, September 23, 2012

I wonder if Bill Bradley still wants the BSC to drop UND



One of my facebook friends pinged me today and asked me if I had the link to the Sacramento State blog post that Bill Bradley of the Sac State Sports wrote that said that the Big Sky Conference should kick UND out of the Big Sky Conference because of the school's Fighting Sioux Nickname.

This was before UND has finished their transition period where they became an official member of the BSC. Apparently, the said author didn't think UND was worthy of being in the Big Sky Conference based our nickname.

Obviously, getting kicked out of the Big Sky Conference was a concern around the UND athletic department this past spring before the June 12th vote on the measure 4 nickname referendum was voted down.

That being said, it was interesting to re-read what this beat writer from had said.
Bill Bradley, SacStateSports.com Editor --- UND is joining the league next season as part of a Big Sky expansion to 13 teams that includes Southern Utah and UC Davis and Cal Poly in football only. If only it were that easy.

The problem is UND’s entry to the Big Sky hasn’t gone as planned – at all. From its botched entry in the league to its continued controversy over the Fighting Sioux nickname, UND has transitioned into the Big Sky like a child going kicking and screaming.

Which is why the Big Sky Conference needs to say, “No thanks. We made a mistake. Thanks for playing. Go find another conference.” The premier league in the Football Championship Subdivision and a competitive mid-major group in basketball doesn’t need the long road trips and headaches UND will bring.North Dakota was supposed to join with South Dakota as a package deal. It was all set to make the Big Sky a 14-team league, Big Sky Commissioner Doug Fullerton said this fall. However, at the last minute South Dakota got a better offer from a more geographic-friendly league, the Missouri Valley Conference.
After re-reading that article, I guess I am going to enjoy UND's first official Big Sky Conference win in football against Sac State, even a little more. I wonder if the writer of said article would still write his blog post, more specifically I wonder if he still wants to see UND get booted from the Big Sky Conference.
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Friday, August 31, 2012

UND Football and Hockey on the Web - the future of broadcasts?

Last night I had the opportunity to watch some of UND and South Dakota School of Mines game on the internet via Big Sky TV.

I stopped watching the game when the score got out of hand it was apparent that one could be more entertained by watching a UND practice with the number one’s going against the scout team. I had a few of my friends make the comment, “why would UND even play a NAIA team?”

First off, game action is always better than practice action. Game action gives the coaches got a chance to see their players in live action against another foe other than their own team mates. Unfortunately, UND lost their starting quarterback Braden Hanson to a leg injury and appears to be unavailable for a couple of weeks.

I would have to say that my first impression of the Big Sky TV’s on-line version was very good.

There are a couple of things that you will need to do to be able to watch the on-line video – you have to have to down load Adobe Flash Player 10.x and the ONE Vision Plugin. I also highly recommend using the Google Chrome Browser as well.

On line broadcasts are going to be a thing of the future – especially with the NCHC kicking off it’s season in 2013-14. As most of you know the NCHC signed an exclusivity agreement with CBSSN to broadcast at least 18 games and UND will not be able to broadcast the games on FCS like they have in the past because of the exclusivity agreement.

While fans aren’t happy with this, this doesn’t mean the University isn’t trying to solve this issue and there is a lot of time yet to come to a solution. Jayson Hajdu aka @UNDSID posted this new nugget on Sioux Sports.
At this point, Fox College Sports is only picking up men’s hockey. All home men’s hockey games will be broadcast on Fox College Sports for 2012-13 only. Once UND joins the National Collegiate Hockey Conference in 2013-14, CBS Sports Network holds national broadcast rights to all NCHC games. Thus, UND cannot broadcast nationally on another network, even if CBS Sports Network is not showing that particular game.

Is this ideal for UND as an individual institution? Of course not. In college athletics, there is a cost to doing business. Sometimes concessions have to be made for the best interests of the league(s). Now, this doesn’t preclude us from attempting to regain that national footprint in the future. We are well aware of how many loyal fans we have nationwide and we will make every effort to make sure we reach as many as possible, in as many ways as possible.

In the meantime, fans outside of the MidcoSN viewing area will still have the opportunity to view home men’s hockey games via UNDInsider webcasts. We like to think we already offer high-quality webcasts – we pull the feed directly from the television broadcast – but we are still making significant upgrades for the upcoming season.

Specifically, we are upgrading in terms of quality (to near-HD), video player (better streaming for your connection speed) and accessibility (iPad, etc.). Once MidcoSN makes the conversion to HD in 2014-15, our webcasts will also be available in full HD.

With the upgrade to near-HD – and eventually full HD – you’ll still be able to enjoy UND men’s hockey games on your television screen by connecting your computer. It will essentially be the same quality you previously enjoyed, albeit with an extra step involved.

Our goal is to provide our programming to as many fans possible through as many platforms as possible. We’ve come an awful long ways since the days of one or two games per year being broadcast on local network television. In 2012-13, every home game will be available to watch on television, webcasts and mobile devices.
So going forward it appears that on line broadcasts are going to be a wave of the future for UND sports. This is an issue that fans are positive about and while watching sporting events on line is not the best method of watching football and hockey – it at least gives fans an option to listening to the game on line – that’s not a slam on Tim Hennesy either, because he is one of the best hockey play-by-play guys in the business in my humble opinion.

Personally, I prefer to watch hockey live or on a television set as opposed to listening to hockey on a radio or on the computer. Most sports fans that I know are visual people. Talking to other people that I know and through the blog, it appears that there are others that feel the same way.

Let’s not kid ourselves, some schools on line broadcasts are better than others – one of the best free on line broadcasts is the GCI Cable out of Anchorage, Alaska. For the most part the B2 Broadcasts in the past have been questionable and in some cases brutal.

From my vantage point, it appears that the UND will probably be on the fore front of this issue and the athletic department at the University of North Dakota knows that they have a huge fan base outside of the state of North Dakota that is very passionate about UND sports. If there are any updates on this issue I will post it on the blog – I will also keep my ear to the ground.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Is the Big Sky and the WAC merging?

This is a story that is beginning to emerge on Big Sky Conference fan message boards and now the newspapers out west are beginning to pick up the story as well. Since UND is now in the Big Sky Conference, this could potentially affect North Dakota sports. The WAC was blown up last summer during conference re-alignment and is left with 4 remaining schools - NMSU, Idaho, Seattle, Denver - Boise State is headed to the Big West.
Jason Groves, Las Cruces Sun News - The Big Sky Conference has emerged as a potential lifeline for the dwindling Western Athletic Conference.

In a radio interview with a Boise radio station, Big Sky commissioner Doug Fullerton said his league is exploring a merger with the Western Athletic Conference that could save the WAC as a non-football league in 2013-14 while keeping two automatic qualifiers for the NCAA basketball tournament in the west.

"There may not be anything but it's something we need to look at before it (the WAC) goes black," Fullerton said.

WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd said on Thursday that a merger between the Big Sky and WAC is realistic, but still extremely preliminary.

"Doug and I led a commissioner's meeting in June in Chicago and it was an idea that originally he brought to my attention well before that," Hurd said. "I re-approached him in June with a different version. We both feel there is some merit to it."

Fullerton said New Mexico State has been slow to join the discussion in hopes of securing Mountain West, Conference USA or Sun Belt membership, whereas Idaho has had in-depth conversations with the Big Sky about merging certain Big Sky teams with the WAC for Olympic sports while Big Sky teams remain under the Big Sky umbrella for football - currently at the FCS level.

NMSU, Idaho, Seattle, Denver and Boise State are the remaining WAC schools for Olympic sports in 2013, but Boise State is expected to join the Big West before school starts in the fall.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Not all WCHA members are thrilled about the new Mystery Alaska plan

The WCHA leadership has been in full spin mode since the league announced their “Mystery Alaska” plan. It’s been interesting to watch as the WCHA commissioner spins this unattractive playoff plan. This would be a text book definition of a “gong show” – there is no way to explain this – it is what it is.

Today we have found out that the new format might only be around for a two year rotation – to me this suggests that the league has taken an idea and thrown it up against the wall to see if it sticks, but to also see how the nWCHA’s fan base responds to the new playoff format.
Todd D. Milewski, USCHO.COM --- The plan was born from financial and geographical issues related to Alaska and Alaska-Anchorage being in the same conference for the first time when conferences reshuffle in 2013, McLeod said.

But the league committed to it for only two seasons, possibly further illustrating the trepidation WCHA members felt about making an outside-the-box change to postseason seeding.

“Some years if they both finish in the lower half, that’s not going to taste very good,” McLeod said. “But if they both finish in the upper half, it’s going to be not good for them. They might have been able to get two in [to the Final Five] otherwise and they’re only going to get one. That’s why we did it on a two-year rotation to see how things shake out and how people feel about it. It’s not a very long commitment.”

Including all nine teams in the postseason wasn’t a foregone conclusion, McLeod said. Eight- and six-team plans were also discussed at the meeting in Detroit before the full field was approved.
Perusing the fan message boards - I have seen a mixed response from the nWCHA fans about the new “Mystery Alaska” playoff format.

It would also appear that a big number of the nWCHA fans are siding more with the ‘we don’t like the new playoff format’ or they have just basically blamed the NCHC for the nWCHA’s fortunes.

Based on what we have seen transpire in the last week in Detroit. I believe is one of the major reasons that UND, SCSU, UMD, DU, C.C. and UNO decided to leave the WCHA and go out on their own to form a new league.

There seems to be a major divide between the schools that are strapped for cash and the schools that aren’t as strapped for cash; especially in the present economy. Schools are experiencing financial constraints and reduced budgets and this is not new to college sports or to college hockey.

Let’s also not forget there there’s always going to be the “haves” and “have nots, ” this was true even in the old North Central Conference and will be true in the Big Sky Conference as well. The present WCHA schools are never really going to be able to compete financially with the schools in the NCHC, B1G or even a majority of the Hockey East schools.

The question I pose is; is it the big school’s responsibility to prop up the small schools in Division I athletics?

Also, does the nWCHA hold the moral high ground?

Another school in their geographic template UAH (BGSU is 629 miles from UAH - it's rougly 4000 from BGSU to UAA) needs to find a conference home and it would appear from the side lines that the nWCHA is basically stalling or dawdling, almost hoping that the Chargers go away.

The UAH Chargers basically have one viable option, conference membership in the WCHA where they would be able to be with other schools (except BGSU who is DI); who outside of hockey are also Division II in all their other sports.

But I digress.

Lastly, Division I college hockey is currently resembling the other major Division I college sports right now with all their conference re-alignment. It has been really ugly with the other sports changing conferences leaving teams to scramble to find a new conference home. It’s almost like natural selection, or a survival of the fittest.

I also don’t know if there are any answers or quick fixes to what ails college sports – there doesn’t seem to be any magic pill that could just fix everything. Some say that the WCHA would have been fine if the schools that left had stayed. The CCHA still might have been a conference in shambles, Miami and Notre Dame still probably would have wanted out. There would still be other issues out there that would still be unresolved.

There is also another elephant sitting in the room – the commissioner of the WCHA Bruce McLeod – no one seem to want to talk about it right now. Eventually, I believe the WCHA is going to have to cut ties with McLeod and go a different direction. Keeping him on board past the 2013-14 season is detrimental to the WCHA going forward. The WCHA needs an infusion of new blood.
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Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Who are you going to believe?

University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux athl...
University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux athletic logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Listen to the clip on the Fan 740AM. [click to listen]

The question is who are you going to believe - the coaches Dave Hakstol, Brian Idalski or Chris Mussman that are already dealing with the NCAA sanctions on a day-to-day basis or some political blogger that is just trying to stir up the masses so he can hits on his blog and or some lawyer who doesn't even know what college former athletic director Terry Wanless is currently at.

 Just for clarification purposes - former UND athletic director Terry Wanless is at is Sacramento State not SDSU... Swing and a miss, you're wrong again Reed.

Reed Soderstrom
"The Athletic Director, Faison, was telling everybody that the Big Sky Conference is really worried about the Fighting Sioux thing," said Soderstrom. "We found out later through a former UND athletic director, who is now at San Diego State, that that`s not true. It wasn`t even brought up."
More Reed Soderstrom
Soderstrom suggested Hakstol’s stance in particular was related to his contract, which was renewed a few months after Hakstol first came out in favor of retiring the nickname. Hakstol has denied a connection. 
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Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Big Sky Bluffing?



First off, I am not trying to start a fight with anyone, I agree with Rob Port of Sayanythingblog on a lot of things when it comes to politics, but on this issue he is dead wrong. Today's ruling by the North Dakota Supreme Court puts UND's Athletic Department in a very bad situation, now they really get to find out if the Big Sky Conference is bluffing, "if" the Fighting Sioux nickname law isn't voted down or killed by the NDSC.

I am going to take the word of the UND athletic department over a political blogger. Who are you going to believe? 

While it might only be three B1G teams that won't play UND in any sport, two of those teams (Wisconsin and Minnesota) in college hockey, those teams bring a lot of money when they play the Fighting Sioux in hockey at the Ralph Englestad Arena. 

So that point is flawed and a little disingenuous from a hockey point of view. Not being able to play Minnesota and Wisconsin in college hockey after the 2012-13 season would be a fatal blow to the University and could cost the University of North Dakota a lot of money.

Would you rather see some random team every other season or would you like to play Wisconsin and Minnesota on a "semi" regular basis?

Wisconsin has stated they want to continue the series between the two teams but won’t if UND keeps the Fighting Sioux nickname.  According to Chuck Schwartz of Bucky's Fifth Quarter, "assuming North Dakota works out their nickname issues, it seems likely that the Badgers will continue to play Denver and North Dakota one series per year for the foreseeable future."

Lastly, some suggest we should discount Dale Lennon, Tim O'Keefe, Dave Hakstol and Chris  Mussman who some have accused of being  liars or stooges for the UND administration and the Big Sky Conference.  

Today's decision by the North Dakota Supreme Court puts that match up in jeopardy.
I will always love the Fighting Sioux nickname but where were these people 3-4 years ago? That was the time to stand up and fight. Why now?



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Developing - NDSC rules against NDBoHE

University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux athl...
University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux athletic logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This just in the North Dakota Supreme Court has ruled against the North Dakota Board of Higher. The North Dakota Supreme Court ruled against the North Dakota Board of Higher Education.
ND Courts ---- The Justices signing this majority opinion would exercise this Court's discretionary original jurisdiction and decide now the constitutionality of the legislative enactment requiring the University of North Dakota ("UND") to use the "Fighting Sioux" nickname and logo. We conclude the question of the constitutional authority of the Board of Higher Education, in contrast to the constitutional authority of the legislature, is properly before this Court and is ready to be decided. Those Justices writing separately, however, conclude the issue is not properly before this Court at this time, is not ready to be decided and they will not decide the issue at this time. The necessary number of Justices required to decide the merits is lacking and for this reason we must deny the application of the State Board of Higher Education.
This ruling by the North Dakota Supreme Court puts UND in a precarious situation with the Big Sky Conference. Of course this is a little breathing room after Montana put themselves in the cross hairs with their on campus scandal where they fired the Athletic Director and the head football coach.

Edit: Justice Carol Ronning Kapsner  ruled that there is no matter of urgency at this time, if there was the State Board of Higher Education would have filed in court last year after the Fighting Sioux nickname law was passed in March of 2011.
[¶37] It is clear that the constitutionality of N.D.C.C. § 15-10-46, the statute asserted to be a problem, is not a matter of urgency. If it were so, the Board would have challenged its constitutionality, as it could have done, immediately upon its signature by the Governor on March 15, 2011, one year ago, or any time thereafter. The fact that it did not do so until now indicates this is not a matter of urgency.

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

They aren't listening - Fighting Sioux nickname

University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux athl...
University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux athletic logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

s/t to Chuck Haga from the Grand Forks Herald because he has done a great job covering this story, I don’t care what some of the self-professed and self-congratulatory experts say, Haga has done a fair job covering all sides of this issue.
 Chuck Haga, Grand Forks Herald --- She asks whether the NCAA, in adopting “a policy that blankets the country,” took into account how divisive it would be in Indian Country.

“Within my own immediate family, some words have been spoken that will take a long time to heal, words that have been unkind and caused by the policy of the NCAA,” she writes. “I am hurt and angry that neither I nor my people had a say in informing the NCAA of what their policy would do to me and to my family and to my state.”

She writes that she has “very little knowledge about the pipe ceremony in 1969,” the event at UND cited by nickname supporters as an irreversible gift of the Sioux name to the university. But she says she learned to respect such traditions from her father, the late Joseph Chaske Jr. “I was taught that praying with the pipe is very sacred and should never be disrespected in any way.”

As we go into the regional and our favorite team can’t wear their regular uniform because it’s considered hostile and abusive the reality hits that, it doesn’t matter what Native American think about the Fighting Sioux nickname. 

The Attorney General of the state of North Dakota signed a legal settlement agreement, the NCAA doesn’t care what anyone else has to say, the NCAA isn't going to change their minds one bit, they aren’t budging, they are going to change their mind. 

Contrary to some people’s misguided opinion, UND’s administrators  are not going work out a deal to not use the nickname when a  certain school objects to the UND using the Fighting Sioux nickname, it's not going to happened. There simply won’t be any games scheduled between UND and insert favorite Big Ten School, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin etc.   

You're delusion if you think this is going to happen folks. These schools don't care because we aren't playing by their rules, because the University of North Dakota belongs to a private club and we have to abide by those rules and regulations.


These schools will not play UND in “any sport” including college hockey, that they are not a conference member with, because the University of North Dakota is under NCAA sanctions. Again, they control the terms of the conversation and we need them more than they need us.

The same goes with the Big Sky Conference, UND needs them more than they need us, I don't care what some say. I doubt any of these people have talked to anyone in the know. The UND athletic department is very concerned about the threat of the BSC pulling our membership, maybe not this year or next, but it's a real threat. 

These schools won’t find common ground here, frankly, they don’t have to, because our school is under NCAA sanctions. Right, wrong or indifferent, our school will be considered damaged goods.
Do I like this, hell no!  

I voted for a democrat whose name I don’t even know ( I am a registered Republican), in 2010 instead of voting for Wayne Stenehjem for North Dakota Attorney General, because I think he should have never signed that surrender agreement that he signed. The agreement was a bad agreement and unacceptable in many of our eyes. 


That day was the end of the Fighting Sioux nickname essentially died.  You have to give the NCAA credit, they knew the Standing Rock Tribe would never agree to let the University of North Dakota use the Fighting Sioux nickname and they got the best of Stenehjem.

As an alumnus of the University of North Dakota, I will continue to cheer on and cover the University of North Dakota Hockey team no matter what their name is, as long as it’s not the Flickertails.  That’s not going to happen according to current UND President Dr. Robert O. Kelley, who has said that the team will not be called the Flickertails if and when the name is changed.

And lastly, Go Sioux!!! Bring home number "8"....Our team is still known as the Fighting Sioux for now.  What a fitting end of this season it would be if the Fighting Sioux could win number 8 as the Fighting Sioux. The NCAA would probably tie themselves up in knots over that one. 
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