The Grand Forks Herald has an interesting series of articles on the Fighting Sioux nickname in this mornings Sunday paper, the articles focus on the impending August 15th deadline for the University of North Dakota to retire the Fighting Sioux nickname and the possible outcomes for UND not being compliant. I am going to forewarn you, there going to be a lot of articles like this from the Grand Forks Herald and other newspapers and television channels from around the area covering this story.
The first fallout?
Since UND is not eligible for NCAA postseason play in all sports but hockey for the upcoming year, the 2011-12 season is relatively manageable for the department. But there will be challenges, starting with women’s hockey.
“If women’s hockey is a top-four seed for the first-round (NCAA) playoff games next season, and they were knocking on the door this past season, they potentially would be the first team to be impacted by the inability to host a game on home ice,” Faison said.
There are other challenges as well, not directly related to the NCAA sanctions.
Recruiting in all sports could be affected as schools may use the NCAA sanctions against UND to their advantage.
Scheduling is another issue. One of the perks of the move to Division I in 2007 was the thought of scheduling Minnesota in more than just hockey.
“Minnesota did pull back on a cross country meet in the fall,” Faison said. “And we’ve been discussing future football scheduling (with Minnesota). But they’ve pulled back that discussion for now. They’re in a holding pattern. They don’t want to commit to anything until everything is sorted out here.”
And it doesn’t appear anything will be sorted out any time soon, leaving the department and its coaches to forge ahead without knowing the outcome of the controversy.
By state law, UND will be known as the Fighting Sioux. And the state Legislature won’t meet again until January of 2013. Potentially, UND could be known as the Fighting Sioux for two more seasons.
Will UND remain the Fighting Sioux forever?
“I don’t really have an answer for that,” Faison said. “I do know that it will stick around for another year.”
