bincitysioux

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.

Well, I guess we're just "lucky" then...........................

Luckily the lines will be alot shorter in the future since Minnesota won't be coming back to Grand Forks..............................

I'm shocked you went into another forum other than the Hockey or Nickname ones. Do ya think maybe the poor attendance at basketball games has anything at all to do with a crappy schedule that is the result of no conference affilitation?

The conference affiliation issue with the NCHC, Big Ten, and WCHA means fewer games for UND with Minnesota and Wisconsin. The nickname issue means NO games with Minnesota and Wisconsin.

He was asked on the coach's show this week. He said "no comment". He'll probably issue another super double secret email shortly....................

I would just like to see Minnesota and Wisconsin on the schedule at some point. Once a year, every other year, whether it is in Grand Forks, Minneapolis, or Madison I don't care. With the sanctions in place it'll only happen once in a blue moon in the regionals or frozen four, possibly thousands of miles away..................

Absolutely nothing remotely even close to this scale.

In DII, we would still be under sanctions. In DIII, we would still be under sanctions. The sanctions apply to the hockey team too.

I'd rather have JohnboyND7 cast his vote on this matter than about half of the members of this forum....................