Edit: UND Nickname Selection Process is a Farce

I have been on vacation since last Thursday evening, and I left my laptop computer at home, instead of bringing it on my vacation. So, yes, I am a little late to the party. That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking/seething about this. Because I have.

First, while I love the Fighting Sioux nickname, I understand that the University of North Dakota can not go back to being the Fighting Sioux. It's never going to happen, especially in today's day and age where you have a God-given right to not be offended. That's not the point of this blog post. I am just going to give my brief opinion on a the very flawed process UND has taken to come up with a new nickname.

In my opinion, the UND Nickname Committee should go back to the nickname suggestions that didn't make the list and find some better choices. There are many nicknames on that list that are better than five remaining choices. Without looking at the list, Aeros, Aviators and Nokota come to mind. Sad that they didn't make the list.

I have had a few people tweet me that UND has already picked a new nickname and this is nothing but a side show or a farce. It "almost" looks like this becoming reality. It's a matter of if UND is the North Stars or Sundogs. North Stars is better than Sundogs. 

@ryahanson rumor has it that North Stars has already been chosen and any kind of public vote will be for show and not mean anything #bogus

— TK (@tjksports) July 22, 2015

Last night, while I was watching television with my father, Twitter blew up with the announcement that the UND Nickname Committee had decided to drop North Dakota as an option from the remaining nickname choices. Another great decision from that group. Shocking, yes, but not unpredictable.

There're a lot of people that aren't happy with this decision, to include Karl Goehring. If you don't believe people are upset with this decision go back and check out twitter.

Per the Grand Forks Herald.

The decision to eliminate playing as UND/North Dakota didn't please everyone on the committee, as Chairman Karl Goehring wanted to let the public decide whether to essentially move forward with no new nickname.

"I have several friends who are athletes, and not a single one plays hockey," committee member and UND student Jazmyn Friesz said. "They just want to stay UND, not to bring back Fighting Sioux."

Regardless, committee member and UND alumna Diane Hillebrand made the motion to eliminate UND/North Dakota. Committee member and UND faculty member John Bridewell seconded it.

The motion passed seven to four with Friesz, Goehring and committee members Dave St. Peter and Lowell Schweigert, a UND alumnus, casting dissenting votes.

While I believe the UND Nickname Committed has done a subpar job, they're in a tough spot. There're many people from the politically correct crowd chirping in their ear and telling the UND Nickname Committee how they've got to pick something, just not North Dakota.

Moving forward with simply "North Dakota" can't be an option. Just ask the anti-Fighting Sioux nickname crowd (obviously, there's other fans that don't like the no nickname option, I realize that, they're just not as vocal). Their reason, remaining UND or North Dakota is a pseudo way of keeping the Fighting Sioux nickname alive. Whatever. 

So, what do you tell the UND athletes that are chiming in on Twitter today? Does their opinion not matter? Their opinion matters more than some troll from another fan base that replies to their tweet lecturing them and telling them that they have to move on. It's also easy for a newspaper writer from another town to tell people to move on. Especially when they have no skin in the game. 

I have chatted with a number of former athletes that would like to remain simply "North Dakota". I guess their opinion doesn't matter all that much. 

Tough break for the "if we can't have our old nickname, we won't have any nickname" crowd. Time to grow up. https://t.co/8xbGo0mfLb

— Stu Whitney (@stuwhitney) July 22, 2015

Let me tell you something; when the UND president picks one of the five remaining horrible nicknames, people are still going to yell "go Sioux" at UND sporting events. That's a true statement. It's going to happen. You can bank on it. 

When the national anthem is played at UND sporting events, they're still going to have fans yelling "Sioux." No matter how hard the handwringers try, it's not going away. Not anytime soon. The anti-Fighting Sioux nickname people can scream and write all of the letters to the editors that they want, but it won't change anything.

I want to caution President Robert O. Kelly, if he decides to go ahead and disregard the will the people (Alumni, former student-athletes, current athletes and current UND students) and picks the wrong nickname, i.e. Sundogs, he's going to set off a firestorm.

IMHO, I am for any  remaining nickname, just not Sundogs. I preferred North Dakota.