bincitysioux

Douple first interjected himself into this debate back in January of 2009 when the legislature was toying with the idea of mandating a Sioux-Bison football game. NDSU's A.D. revealed one morning that the Summit discouraged all member schools from scheduling UND. Douple was interviewed by Dan Hammer that afternoon and Douple categorically denied ever discussing UND's nickname with any administrators of any of his schools. The next day Kolpack had an article in the Forum in which Douple said he discouraged his schools from scheduling UND. Here is a fun walk down memory lane. Kelley had been on the job for a whopping six months at the time. If you truly believe that a rookie college president had enough influence to set policy at a conference that they weren't affiliated with, and get the commissioner of said conference and the A.D. of our biggest rival to work in conjuction through the media to build steam for an anti-nickname agenda, then I have some ocean-front property in North Dakota for sale that you'll likely be interested in........................

You know what the biggest difference to me is between Alcorn St. and UND's situations? The commissioner of Alcorn's conference never came out publicly and said their membership could be in jeopardy. The commissioner of UND's conference has.

Also, while on the member overview page, at the far right of the screen, basically straight across from the avatar, you can click the "find content" tab. Then you can either choose to view posts or any threads that the member has posted in.

Let's not forget about our friends at Denver either, a major geographic outlier in the Sun Belt Conference............................... Denver being forced out of Sun Belt Conference

There are very few "full-time" free channels on FTA that are worth watching. Mostly foreign channels and religious channels. There are a couple news channels. The best thing FTA is good for is picking up live sports feeds, mostly college. I don't consider FTA a convenience, rather it is a hobby. I've had a system for about 7 years, and honestly, since the Sioux games became available on Fox College Sports two or three years ago, I only turn the thing on once or twice a season if there is a chance that I can scan in an away game. I watched the Fresno St football game on it this season, and that is the only time I used it so far this year. FTA can be a great supplement to cable or regular satellite, but if you are hoping for it to be your main avenue of television viewing, I think you'd be disappointed unless you are a Muslim. Having said that, given that UND games won't be available on FCS after next season, IMO it would work great for you to watch Sioux home games, assuming that they will still be available on FTA like they are now. I think they will, because that is how Midco and the rest of the regional cable companies up here get the feed.

Of course, with the nickname fiasco, if we were awarded a "home" game as a seeded team, we'd have to "host" NDSU at the Fargodome.........................

The one thing that I'm jealous of at NDSU is their football fan support and attendance at the Fargodome. And like I said, I'm not in favor of the game. But IMO, it is foolish to say that a long term arrangement for a football series would not be financially positive for NDSU. Your attendance is great. Over the last 7 years, the Fargodome has been at 88% capacity, and that is awesome. But I think as is true in Grand Forks, everyone loves a winner. Over the last 7 years, the Alerus has been at 74% capacity and as recently as three seasons ago, UND set an attendance record and the place was at 85% capacity that season. Then came a couple of poor years and our attendance has declined. Same thing could easily happen in Fargo. IMO, if it were an every-other year series, scheduling a guaranteed sell-out every 4 years would be a positive fiscal policy for both schools. Just like there is no guarantee in Grand Forks that UND will sell-out for Montana or Montana St. in future years, there is no guarantee that NDSU will sell-out for Robert Morris or Lafayette in future years.

Forgive me if this has been posted elseware, but here is a link to a podcast from today's Scott Hennen show where he interviewed Tim O'Keefe. It is the 2nd podcast from the top, (13-02-2012 (7.18 MB)), 15:40 in length. O'Keefe makes some awfully valid points, coming from a guy who has great "Fighting Sioux Cred"................

Colonial Athletic Association signs broadcast deal with NBC Sports Group NBC will televise nationally at least five CAA football games. Comcast will televise another 13 CAA regular-season football games regionally.

My point exactly. I have no doubt that going forward, that both North Dakota and NDSU will be perennial contenders for playoff consideration on an annual basis........................

I don't have the energy to read through the 3 pages of posts for this thread that have turned up today..................... But personally, I don't care to play them in football anytime soon. Fan interest is good at both schools.............obviously great at NDSU right now, and I'm optimistic that it'll pick up at UND with Big Sky play and coming off an 8-3 season. I'd rather make sure we are playing in basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, etc, on an annual basis.......................... When that first FCS football playoff pairing between UND and NDSU comes, it'll be a fun ride.................................

If only the cost of new field turf were the only issue facing this athletic department............................that would be nice...................

The UND Student Senate has long been in favor of dropping the name. The head of the UND Alumni Foundation is in favor of dropping the name. The President and Athletic Director of the University are in favor of dropping the name. The State Board of Higher Education is in favor of dropping the name. It seems to me that all four of these entities would have a better grasp of what the ramifications of keeping the name would mean to the University than would some Frat boys on University Avenue, a legislator from Fargo, a tribal member from Devils Lake or Standing Rock, or an attorney from Minot...............................

Coach................... I know you are a helluva alot closer to the program than I am, but my point is that if Wanless was such an inept A.D., he would not have moved up in the food chain......................

Sadly, if not for Ralph's extremely genereous gift, we would not be having this debate at all............................

The "people" of North Dakota gave the Board the powers that they have. The SBOHE is not trying to unrdemine me. They are doing exactly what I, a resident of North Dakota, wants done. The State Board of Higher Education is acting well within their democractic and constitutional rights. Link The State Board of Higher Education is the policy-setting and advocacy body for the North Dakota University System and the governing body for North Dakota's 11 publicly supported colleges and universities. The SBHE also oversees the NDSU Extension Service and Agricultural Research Stations, Northern Crops Institute, State Forest Service and the Upper Great Plans Transportation Institute. The SBHE is made up of seven citizen members appointed to four-year terms by the governor and one student appointed by the governor to serve a one-year term. The Council of College Faculties selects the board's non-voting faculty advisor, and the NDUS Staff Senate selects the board's non-voting staff advisor. Al Carlson can piss & moan all he wants about the State Board being a "4th Branch" of government, but simply put they don't have that power. Just because he disagrees with their position on an issue that they have total control over, doesn't make it so.................

IMO, Wanless was one of the best A.D.'s that UND has had. Just because he fired Gino doesn't mean he was "run out of town". He left a northern DII school for a DI school located in sunny California.......................... I agree that he sounded pretty optimistic that it would be a long shot that UND would be expelled from the Big Sky and that is worth something to me. He said that they've never had any discussion about UND's nickname or logo at the Athletic Direrector level. He also said that he is no "ace in the hole" if it came down to him convincing his President not to vote for UND getting ejected from the conference if it ever came down to it.

Your option means you gave up on about 400 student-athletes.......................even the ones who skate.

Honestly, the Alumni Association needs to get serious before this vote takes place about taking out newspaper ads, TV commercials, radio ads, etc to get the facts out there to the voters about the potential ramifications before they hit the polls. It would help to get some notable former Sioux players/coaches to publically get behind the retirement of the name i.e. Lennon, Roger Thomas, Rich Glas, Kleinsasser, Guldseth, etc..................... I highly doubt that while Frank Black Cloud and Reed Soderstrom were telling people the merits of signing the petition to preserve the name, they were also explaining what it would be like to not have conference affiliation for 18 of the 20 UND sports..............

Wisconsin's Policy POLICY ON NATIVE AMERICAN LOGOS AND NAMES The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department adds its name to those who desire to stop the use of American Indian symbols and names by athletic teams. We are concerned that the use of war chants, American Indian related mascots and logos by teams both perpetuates a stereotype and causes insult to many Native Americans. We therefore adopt the following policy: 1. The UW-Madison Athletic Department may schedule competitions with schools that are not on the NCAA's list of colleges and universities subject to the restrictions on the use of Native American mascots, names and imagery at NCAA championships (referred to subsequently in this policy as the NCAA list). 2. The UW-Madison Athletic Department will not schedule competitions against, or attend tournaments hosted by, any school on the NCAA list, unless the school is a conference member. The Athletic Department will contact the NCAA twice annually (by September 1 and January 1) to obtain the most current version of the NCAA list, and this list will be distributed to Athletic Department staff, including all coaches. The Athletic Department discourages participation of teams in pre-season events or tournaments during the regular season in which schools on the NCAA list are also participating, unless the schedule is controlled by outside entities (e.g., the Big Ten Conference) or is the result of other contractual agreements. 3. The UW-Madison will discourage all teams from bringing Native American mascots to UW-Madison athletic facilities. Furthermore, UW-Madison will request that any band not play war chants, that the cheerleaders/pompom squads not use Native American gestures, chants, or other items that perpetuate disrespectful stereotypes, and that visiting bands, cheerleaders, and student-athletes shall be prohibited from displaying racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery, except as may pre-exist on uniforms, equipment and apparel, or as may be allowed by contractual obligations. The current NCAA policy on the use of Native American mascots, names and imagery at NCAA championships provides the following list/designations: Subject to policy: Alcorn State University “Braves” Arkansas State University “Indians” University of North Dakota “Fighting Sioux” Exempt from policy (tribes have endorsed the use of their names): Catawba College “Catawba Indians” Central Michigan University “Chippewas” Florida State University “Seminoles” Mississippi College “Choctaws” University of Utah “Utes”

You are living in a fantasy world. There are no other potential conferences. Your questioning of Kelley and Faison's leadership is misguided at best. They basically had two conferences in a race to add our programs, AFTER THE NICKNAME WAS RETIRED. Now the one we left at the alter (Summit League) is letting out a huge sigh of relief, while the one we got hitched to (Big Sky) is drafting divorce papers. By all accounts, Faison basically spear-headed the NCHC, which although is basically a red-headed stepchild compared to the WCHA pre-Bemidji/UNO, is a hell of alot better than we would have been left with in McLeoud's WCHA after Wisco and Minnesota left. Faison, especially, has been a great leader, even with the anchor of the nickname controversy around his neck. And he probably could have accomplished a heck of alot more in his time here already if not for this assinine issue.

So you are hanging your hat on a hung jury? And I'm not sure that I've seen anything to indicate that we were invited to the conference by a unanimous vote. It takes a unanimous vote to expel a member, but only takes a 2/3 majority to invite a new member. It is entirely possible that when we were invited, only 6 of the 9 Big Sky schools voted for our inclusion, and that was when they were assuming we were bringing USD with.

I think he did quite a bit of "leading" when he got us into the Big Sky in the first place, as others have tried and failed......................

I would think they'd rather play BC than Michigan Tech. I don't know about Maine..............

It is not out of the realm of possibility that UND could come to agreements with both Minnesota and Wisconsin that they play one series per year, alternating the home venue each year. Hell Schlossman said the deal was nearly done with Wisco in his blog today. Stay on the sanctions list and that possibility is gone.