Sioux Hockey is king in ND... Can we all just get along?

I was bored so I thought I would add a few observations of my own. Being a UND fan in Football and Hockey, I do miss the old days of bantering back and forth with Bison fans before the Sioux football team slaughters the Bison in college football and then hoists another Nickel Trophy. The sad news is that rivalry hasn’t happened since 2004 the last year the Bison were a member of the now defunct NCC. The Bison AD wanted to play the Sioux but then AD Roger Thomas decided against it, I guess Thomas thought it was better to slaughter UM Crookston instead of playing a competitive and entertaining game against the Bison. In retrospect it was a bad move for UND not to schedule the Bison when they first started their transition to Division I. By not scheduling the Bison in football during their transition period the Sioux shot themselves in the foot.

UND follows NDSU

Now that the Sioux have started their own transition to Division I in all sports the two schools are looking into possibly playing every other season in football and are in the process of scheduling games in other sports. Eventually UND and NDSU will play in football possibly as conference foes. Contrary to what the Bison fans say on Bisonville aka Belligerent-ville, there is a slim - decent chance that the Missouri Valley Football Conference could accept the Fighting Sioux some day in the future. None the less the; the rivalry “with the other school” could resume on a bi-yearly or semi regular basis in the near future…

NDSU decided to transition to division I in all sports in 2004-2005 and left the Sioux in division II. Today; NDSU is a full fledged member of division I in all sports and are entering their third season in the Summit league and the Missouri Valley Football Conference. Late to the dance; UND has since decided to move up to Division I as well and are beginning year three of a five year process to transfer over to division I. UND is in the process of applying for membership in the Summit League in 2012 or 2013. UND’s application was slowed down because of the Fighting Sioux nickname battle.

Hockey is King

As the hockey season approaches UND hockey is getting ready to embark on another run towards the NCAA tourney and has a good shot at taking a run at winning another MacNaughton Cup, based on the roster that they have returning. From reading the drivel over at Belligerentville; Bison fans are hoping that their mediocre FCS team can finish .500 and in the middle of the Missouri Valley Football Conference; last season the NDSU Bison were an unimpressive 2-6 in conference play and 3-8 over all last season. In Basketball, the Bison men and women will embark on a chance to win an auto bid in the Summit League.

Being bored during the summer I decided to do some light reading of the posting and pontifications from Bison fans on their favorite message board Bisonville aka “Belligerentville.” After some thought, I have come to the realization that Bison fans are kind of like the fans of an unnamed WCHA SCSU hockey team; they have little bit of a Napoleon complex.

Whether Bison fans will admit it or not a fair number of their fan base does have program envy of the Fighting Sioux hockey. Every message board post that mentions UND hockey ends up being a moronathon about how Bison fans don’t like hockey or care about it and then they go on to mention about how awesome the Bison are in football and basketball. Just for the record the Summit League Conference is a mid major that is stuff full of unimpressive teams most of have never heard of or would recognize until recently. This is league is not to be confused with the Big Ten, ACC, WAC, PAC Ten, et. el.. When people talk about the WCHA people recognize the league and don't have much trouble with identifying the schools. Sure some of the schools are division II but who cares?

I always laugh when I read that fallacious comment about how Bison fans are not interested in hockey. If they are not interested about it why do they keep bringing it up? Someone forgot to tell that to the thousands of cars that are coming up from Fargo to watch Fighting Sioux hockey every weekend during the fall and winter when there is a home hockey game during the WCHA hockey season.

This past week some fan was commenting about how no one watches hockey and that it’s a niche sport. The comment is about as clueless as you can get and isn’t even close to being true. It sounds like some of the Bison fans need to get out of their mother’s basement; UND is ranked second nationally in attendance for division I hockey. If hockey is a niche sport, what do you call the attendance numbers for the Summit League Championship Men’s Division One Basketball. Here are the Summit League Conference basketball tourney - 6,285, 3122, 2033, 2854 attendance numbers. In comparison here are the attendance numbers for the WCHA Red Baron Final Five, 12544, 13113, 15292, 14170, 16414. I rest my case.

In conclusion; while I write this blog post with a hint of sarcasm and maybe with my tongue in cheek just a little, I do think there is some validity to the argument that the Fighting Sioux hockey team is king in North Dakota, and no other college sport marvels is Fighting Sioux hockey in the Flickertail state. I would probably stand by this comment that can be found on Bisionville.

Not necessarily, but I would expect them to be just a little bit more informed before they post something stupid about Sioux hockey. While it seems fashionable to make fun of UND Hockey, no sport that NDSU has will ever marvel Sioux hockey.

Making some stupid blanket ridiculous statement that no one watches UND hockey when it doesn’t take a genius/AG student to realize that more people attend Sioux hockey than any other sport in North Dakota.

So yeah college hockey is a big deal, one could make the comparison that Hockey is to UND like football is to say, Florida State University maybe. The WCHA would probably compare in significance to the SEC of football.

Let’s compare Bison football and Basketball, well, we know where they stand. The WCHA > the Summit. Look I can't wait till UND can start kicking NDSUck's ass in sports again, I miss watching the Bison get run over in football. Like the one guy said, 'have you seen the nickel trophy lately?'

I also think it's funny that an message board thread that is in a forum dedicated to smack talk, actually got closed/locked down, it would be interesting to see why they closed it? Must have been too much talking smack. That takes the cake. You can have sucks without NDSU...