mksioux

That is exactly how I see it as well. In listening the his radio interview, it is clear that prior to yesterday, Douple had never given any directive to his members to avoid scheduling UND because of the nickname issue. Yet, Gene Taylor either lied or erroneously interpreted Douple's actions to mean that he shouldn't schedule UND because of the nickname. If Gene Taylor had not done that, Douple never would have had any reason to "caution" the members from playing UND because of the nickname. But now he has, solely because of Gene Taylor. I've tried to be as fair and impartial as possible with regard to NDSU and have taken their side on many of the past issues, but this is truly outrageous.

Whatever the reason, this is really bad. Stinkbombs like this could negatively impact season tickets, donations, and recruiting. It's one thing to schedule them in 2009 out of necessity, but there is absolutely no excuse to schedule this team in 2011. A lot can happen in two years and UND should stay optimistic that it won't need games like this by 2011. It makes it look like the administration is throwing in the towel. Yes, there is probably a buy-out clause, but it does more harm than good having this team sitting on the 2011 schedule. This is the first real disappointment of the Faison era.

Virtually everyone agrees that UND will drop the nickname if it doesn't get tribal support, but it is not legally required to do so. Nothing in the settlement agreement forces UND to drop its nickname. If UND told the Summit, "we will drop our nickname if we don't get tribal approval by the deadline in the settlement agreement", then I agree the issue would be resolved. But we don't know what UND has told the Summit. It's not even clear Douple even knew about the settlement. Under the settlement agreement, UND's inclusion on the list has been "suspended." UND can only be removed from the list if it drops its nickname. If it gains namesake approval with the deadline, then it will be excepted from the policy. Under paragraph 2.b., the NCAA agreed not to contact the Sioux tribes to influence tribal approval. Under paragraph 2.g., and as part of the settlement agreement, the NCAA had to issue a statement to its members stating: "Application of the Policy to UND has been suspended...by mutual agreement bewteen UND and the NCAA. No member institution should use the Policy as a factor in scheduling regular season competition with UND. Regular season competition should be scheduled in accordance with each individual institution's own internal policies and practices." I don't see a specific provision that would prohibit the NCAA from presuading a conference commissioner from refusing to consider UND's application from consideration because of the nickname issue, but it certainly would violated the spirit of the settlement agreement. In any event, I highly doubt the NCAA has anything to do with Douple's decision.

In the Summit's defense, can it really assume that UND is going to drop its nickname if it doesn't obtain tribal approval? We all think that's the case, but can the Summit make the same assumption? The settlement does not require it. UND can maintain its nickname and go back on the NCAA's list. I can see why a conference wouldn't want to take in that kind of potential baggage. But to refuse to visit? If it truly wanted UND, it could make acceptance contingent on UND not being on the NCAA list or something like that. I'm not really sure what to think about it, except to say that we can continue to expect this kind of stuff from all angles as long as we have this nickname.

I REALLY HOPE WE CAN GET THIS GAME!!!!!!!! I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO SEE UND PLAY THE UNIVERSITY OF INCARNATE WORD!!!!!!!!!

I can't say I know the details why Suite 49 closed, but all I can say is that the service was terrible everytime I was there. And I also know it had a reputation for terrible service. I don't think many restaurants anywhere can survive long-term when they consistently offer bad service.

UND, Alerus Agree on 10-Year Lease

Regardless of how well UMD did this year, I'd much rather see Idaho State come to town than UMD. UND's goal should be to get as many DI opponents to come to Grand Forks as possible. Having said that, obviously UND is going to have to rely on DII teams to fill out its home schedule the next couple years. UMD would be a fine choice for one of those DII games. The problem though is that the NSIC is so big now that I think they only get one non-conference game per year.

You won't be getting Sitting Bull because your school chose to end it as a traveling trophy, not because your team is going to lose the game on Saturday. As for the game, I think South Dakota gets the win this year.

I agree 100%. Not only is having fewer bloated leagues bad for UND, it is bad for college hockey. Expansion will be impossible after this move because there will be no conference for new teams to enter. And we all know that once you let a team into a conference, it's next to impossible to ask them to leave. So unless the Big Ten starts a hockey conference, there is zero possibility of teams leaving the WCHA and CCHA in the future to facilitate expansion. I want to save the CHA teams, but the rational way to do it is to have teams leave the CCHA and/or WCHA to go to the CHA, keeping six conferences alive and allowing room in the conferences for future expansion. But nobody is going to volunteer to leave the CCHA or WCHA for the CHA, so it won't happen. Too bad there isn't a college hockey czar to make it happen. There are more than enough college hockey teams to support six conferences. The death of one of the six conferences in college hockey is a travesty in my opinion and I can't believe the college hockey community is allowing it to happen.

I'm also disappointed. We need to start getting home-and-homes with teams like Stephen F. Austin. Other than Idaho State, has UND been able to get any home-and-homes with any FCS scholarship teams? I can't think of any.

Frankly, I'm more disappointed with the play on the field than I am with attendance.

If they won't bring Sitting Bull out of retirement, I'm not in favor of a traveling trophy. We had a perfectly good one. I don't see a reason to create a new and contrived one.

Yep, I'm sure you've really been rooting for UND. Attendance was pathetic though. And so was the play on the field. No denying either of those facts.

Disappointing season. And things may get a little worse before they get better.

I don't have any insight, but the poster on AGS appears to be a part of the Iona football team or program, so I'd guess its true. This is probably one of UND's home games. If Iona drops football, I'd imagine UND would try its best to replace it with an FCS, but might have to resort to a DII or DIII.

It's easy to blame the poor performances on stiffer competition, but I think the team is simply down this year. The defense has been deteriorating for some time and has finally hit rock bottom (hopefully). Objectively speaking, DI or DII, it's simply a bad defense. The offense is capable, but it doesn't have nearly as much explosion as in the past couple years that may have allowed it to compensate for the weak defense. It's frustrating to make the move up to DI with a weak team, knowing things would have been much more fun if this move had taken place a couple years earlier when UND had a better team. But it is what it is and we can only hope Mussman will get things turned around. I don't care about the GWFC title this year. I've never thought it meant much without a full round-robin schedule. And obviously there are no playoffs to worry about. But winning is still important for recruiting purposes.

The GWFC schedule next year should be UC Davis and USD at home and Southern Utah and Cal Poly on the road. Anything less would be disappointing.

Yep...was thinking the exact same thing. Should be...ummm...interesting...next year in Lubbock.

I know it's easy for Sioux fans to dislike Dubay because he would always rip on UND and look down on Grand Forks and North Dakota. But this is bad news for Sioux fans. Dubay brought a lot of attention to college hockey in the Twin Cities market and that brought a lot of exposure to UND and Sioux hockey. It's doubtful his replacement will be as much of a college hockey rube. Will they talk about college hockey as much? Probably not. Will weekend trips to WCHA cities be continued? Probably not. These were little things, but they added excitement and exposure to UND.

I wouldn't look for anything to happen for a few more years until we're done with the transition and the moratorium on reclassification is lifted. At that point, your guess is as good as anyone's. But the fact that the Great West is adding teams, I'd say that has no impact on whether UND will end up in a different conference. UND would leave the Great West in a hearbeat if it were invited to any of the three conferences you mentioned.

From Wiki

UC Davis and Cal Poly are in two different university systems. UC Davis is in the University of California system and Cal Poly is in the California State University System. Kind of like how Minnesota has the University of Minnesota system and the MnSCU system. It would be like someone calling the University of Minnesota-Duluth, "Minnesota State Duluth." I don't blame UC Davis for wanting to be known by the correct name.

I have no illusions that the nickname will be saved, but I think this action was required. I'm sure I'll take heat for this, but I think Duane Espegard showed real leadership here. You can't make a settlement with the NCAA that gives you three years to gave tribe approval, and then rely on Goetz to make one half-assed attempt to approach the tribes, and then change the name. Despite what you think of the settlement, given what it was, the Board is responsible for making an honest effort to give the tribes one last chance to get on board. It appears the Board is finally doing what it was supposed to do. If the tribes reject a delegation made up of the highest ranking officials in the State (assuming those high-ranking officials agree to be on the delegation), then the tribes will have absolutely no excuses. The last thing I would want to see is the Sioux nickname dropped only to have disingenous tribal officials later say they were open to negotiating if the State of North Dakota would have sent a high ranking delegation.

Us Sioux fans need to be careful about making fun of NDSU for *only* drawing 17,000. The lack of noise by their fans and leaving early are fair game, but attendance is not exactly a winnable argument.