Image via WikipediaI have been out of pocket for the weekend while I was getting gas in Cando, ND yesterday I found this predictable article on the front of the Grand Forks Herald. Personally, I would've guessed that this article and the letter from the Big Sky would have come earlier.... This is why I think the Fighting Sioux nickname will never make it past next year. Grand Forks Herald --- Leaders of the Big Sky Conference told UND President Robert Kelley this week that continued use of the Fighting Sioux name and logo as mandated by a new state law has become a “concern” for them and could jeopardize UND’s joining the conference next year.While I am one of the biggest fans of the Fighting Sioux nickname and I do not want to see the University change the Fighting Sioux nickname; however, I see no way how the University of North Dakota can keep the Fighting Sioux nickname past 2012, the university's of North Dakota's other athletic programs need to have a stable athletic conference they can call a home, if not it would be the same as being a death sentence.
Furthermore, the ongoing controversy “has the possibility of destroying Division I athletics at the University of North Dakota.”
Writing earlier this week on behalf of the presidents of Big Sky member schools, league Commissioner Douglas Fullerton told Kelley that the presidents “are forced to consider the ramifications of continued use of the ‘Fighting Sioux’ name” and imagery.
“When the University of North Dakota was considered and accepted for membership (on Nov. 1, 2010), this issue was (considered) ‘settled,’ ” Fullerton wrote. “The institution had reached an agreement with the NCAA and the conference accepted that agreement.
“Obviously, today there is a new reality, and the question has to be asked: Could this lead to a time when league play and possibly league membership itself could be affected?”
In a telephone interview Friday, Fullerton said the presidents “were very intense” in discussing UND’s nickname issue with Kelley June 1 and 2 at the Big Sky Conference spring meetings in Park City, Utah.
If the NCAA maintains scheduled sanctions against the school and UND loses its “ability to be a viable NCAA institution, they don’t do us much good as a conference member,” he said.
In his letter, sent Tuesday and received at UND Wednesday, Fullerton also noted that all the other Big Sky schools have relationships with Native American tribes in their regions, “and the presidents feel strongly that if forced to choose, they would support the wishes of the Sioux tribes in this dispute.”
He underscored the point in the telephone interview.
“Our schools have great relationships with tribes in their respective regions,” he said. “There is no way we cannot support the positions of the Native American tribes.”
He was asked whether the continuing controversy could cause the presidents ultimately to reject UND as a Big Sky member.
“Very easily,” Fullerton said.
Unless the State of North Dakota can go back and sue the NCAA in court, which is doubtful, I don't see how the NCAA is not going to change their minds on the Fighting Sioux nickname, the organization is run by like minded goody two shoes that have long since decided that if we want to play on their play ground we have to play by these hand wringing liberals' rules.
