The Sicatoka

Yup, and many times the electorate is left to select someone they agree with most of the time. If I lived on a reservation, I guess a candidate's positions on jobs, poverty, teen suicide, addiction, and tribal infrastructure just might trump a candidate's stance on a moniker of a school 300 miles away. When you really do want the pulse of an electorate, direct democracy does trump representative democracy. Ultimately, none of this matters. Standing Rock won't be voting. The NCAA won't change their stance. And Spirit Lake is suing in a court that the NCAA can ignore.

When Mussman was hired I was concerned that he'd never held a head coach job. I see Kalen DeBoer doing all the right things to have his resume in order when an FCS job opens up: - very winning head coach at NAIA level - offensive coordinator at FCS level With him my only question is this: Does he want to move to FBS as an assistant or be a head coach at FCS? As far as Van Deist at Carroll College: He's been there a long time and rumored to be going to both Montana and Montana State when they had openings. Why would he want to come to UND? And yes, someone like Bubba Schweigert (FCS coordinator, head coaching experience) would make sense also. It's early; and Massey had UND with only a 10% chance of beating Idaho this year (and only a 1% chance of beating Fresno State); but I think signs of improvement need to be obvious by year end or the questions will only get louder.

Throw them back.

Personal foul, 15 yards, automatic first down.

Attendance translates into dollars. Dollars are what makes athletics go. Just ask the (continually migrating here of late) BCS conferences.

Vaht?

Well under that assumption set the ND Legislature and ND SBoHE are messing with NDSU status also, aren't they? The same governing bodies you mention control both UND and NDSU.

UND is already an NCAA member. Kicking UND out of the NCAA over a moniker would be a most radical step. Remember, my original response was to this:

Really? I figured you more for this Whitney classic. Naw ... more like this ...

You can call him many things, but even I wouldn't stoop that low.

Well, that should make it quick and easy to remove them from the arena (per the NCAA pre-game statement).

Just some PCM stats: - third member of the board (1. Admin, 2. jimdahl, 3. PCM) - still third in all-time posts here

Roll the clock forward a year or two: UND at NDSU in {sport here}. Hear the arena announcer read the standard NCAA mandated " ... racist, offensive, ... comments directed toward players, coaches, or athletes, ... grounds for removal ... " pre-game announcement. (We've all heard that at UND and NDSU events thousands of times and ignored it but it's there.) But this time, when UND takes the court as the "{new moniker here}" the only "Sioux" that NDSU fans could possibly be referencing would be those peoples of the Great Dakota/Lakota/Nakota nations. Hence, NDSU's favorite chant would not be about the opposing team but would strictly be about ... the D/L/Nakota people ... which fits exactly into " ... racist ... grounds for removal ... " and I'll demand that those folks, per the NCAA pre-game statement, be removed from the arena. And if they aren't I'll be sending a letter to the NCAA (with a whole host of national newspapers on cc:).

I believe that because there is no DII championship in WHockey they automatically play for the DI championship and that's why volleyball could become tourney eligible more quickly.

Dear NDSU fans: The loss to UND doesn't matter. Keep telling yourselves that ... until it's what keeps you from an at-large NCAA bid. One more note: I thought UND put volleyball on the "fast track" for post-season eligibility. I thought UND was allowed to move one womens sport to play up in DI and become tournament eligible faster than the normal transition five years and UND did that for volleyball. Are we sure UND isn't volleyball post-season eligible right now? The Great West has no autobid to win, but I do believe UND could be selected at-large.

I enjoyed the game at Memorial (one of the last seasons) where the wind was as follows: Kickoff: south at 30 mph, gusts to 40 mph End of first half: south at 30 mph Five minutes left in halftime: Calm Second half kickoff: northwest at 35 mph, gusts to 50 mph Visiting team didn't think (or realize what was coming) and ended up making their second half choice such that they played into the wind in the fourth quarter. That is home field advantage.

A person called "the green team" doesn't know ... Pantone 347. Shame, shame.

I remember the conversation but wasn't a part of that one (fortunately).

Juridiction. The Feds have it; the Tribal Court doesn't. Nothing, but if they didn't boot "The U" (Miami Hurricanes) for their recently discovered misdeeds booting a team for a moniker would raise some eyebrows.

At this point (namely, having sent the ND AG, ND Governor, and ND Legislature packing) on this issue the NCAA won't listen to anything short of an order from US Federal Court. Let me know when Spirit Lake Tribe is either: a) suing in US Federal Court, or b) working with Standing Rock to get them on-board Before that, none of it matters. None. Zilch.

The NCHC would be wise to become a link in USA Hockey's Officials Development Program. The USHL is part of this program. The program is designed to develop officials for international and professional competition. Just like players, the officials are taught, graded, and promoted based on who has the skill and performance to keep moving up through the ranks. I'd like to see the NCHC get involved with it as the next step after juniors but before the pro ranks. I'd like the officials to be on a tenure-track (pressing to get better, knowing they are being evaluated and graded nightly, and looking to move to bigger things) rather than just be tenured, be "fat, dumb, and happy" where they are, and knowing no matter how they ignore the rule book they won't be moved out.

Too bad it's not 2006 however.

I have to wonder who makes these decisions about so many multiple uniform combinations (ala Oregon). It's pretty sad when you can't recognize a team by uniform at first glance. And nearly as bad to me is not using an obvious option when you have it. Case in point: Minnesota has pee-yellow helmets. Why didn't they wear them at USC to help out their first-ever start at QB guy? Instead, every hat on the field (UM and USC) was that bloody stool brown color.* *Yes, I just called the colors used by UM and USC "pee-yellow" and "bloody stool brown".

They'll be wearing their standard uniforms, eh?

I'm going to give NDSU's new home yellow jersey an honorable mention here. The first time I saw it I thought it was a practice jersey. Very, very plain. An outlined number might have kept them out of honorable mention status. UND's green jersey gets a mention here too. You shouldn't see how much the guys are sweating on a football jersey. There were some guys with three shades of green: dry jersey, wet jersey, helmet.