82SiouxGuy

They were good friends. And Reg is a big supporter of UND. So I would guess that he gives the REA a pretty good deal. Just like I would guess that they give the State Fair a pretty good deal so they can support the Fair and also be exclusive. It's an easy way to give financial support without really costing a lot of money out of pocket.

Or their parents did.

As a private organization they can do whatever they want within the law. It doesn't matter if you or others don't like it. It isn't a morale issue or a case of right versus wrong. They only have to please the membership and stay out of trouble with the legal system. As of now they have pleased their membership (because the members make a lot of money) and they haven't broken laws so the legal system leaves them alone.

If you initiate contact, a strict reading of NCAA rules would put that as a possible yes. Probably not a problem but it would be best not to say anything that sounds like recruiting. You can probably say something like, "Hope you enjoy your visit to UND and Grand Forks." It sounds like the key is what would you say to anyone that is visiting. The possible problem comes with the "We hope you join our program." That sounds a little like recruiting.

You can't sue over and over again. You have to have a specific reason to sue. If that reason isn't accepted by the courts the lawsuit is dismissed. If you continue to sue without good LEGAL reasons you can be fined and held in contempt of court. The courts get tired of people wasting their time. Spirit Lake has thrown everything they can into this lawsuit, there isn't anything else they could sue about. And UND and the state of North Dakota can't sue about the issue any more unless the NCAA does something that is against the settlement. There shouldn't be any more lawsuits about the nickname after the Spirit Lake lawsuit is decided. Doing the right thing is doing what is right for UND. In this case, at this time in history, the right thing to do is retire the nickname. It has served UND well, but it is time to move on. I hope that the people of North Dakota can understand that when they learn more of the facts instead of the lies and half-truths that have been sold by S.A.B and the nickname-at-all-cost crowd.

They were around well before 2006, as a matter of fact they go back to the 1970s. By 2006 they were already in probably 65% of vehicles and estimates are closer to 85% by 2010. That number wasn't going to come down without some kind of government intervention. But as I said, now the information officially belongs to the car owner. I still believe that there are many other issues that are much more important, and I also believe that systems like Onstar are potentially more intrusive than the black box technology.

So we're supposed to work on their time schedule? Contracts usually have deadlines. The deadline wasn't met. Do the tribes get special treatment on meeting deadlines for other contracts? I doubt it. As we have discussed before, more than likely the requirement of 2 tribes was the penalty that had to be paid to get 4 extra years. Everyone else had to get tribal approval by 2006. UND got the deadline pushed until November 30, 2010. And the NCAA did ask them before, Spirit Lake was asked during the initial waiver period, as was Standing Rock. Neither would support UND during that time. And they were both asked again during the settlement period. Spirit Lake finally responded in favor but Standing Rock continues to say no. The meeting between the North Dakota delegation and the NCAA was on the NCAA's terms, and the only thing they wanted to do was to let the people from North Dakota know that they planned to follow the settlement. That didn't need tribal involvement because the time period for their input was past. The entire NCAA message was "Here's the agreement and this is what we will follow".

The black boxes have been around for a while in automobiles. I found this in one article: Your car or truck probably already has a black box. The advantage of this law, as your co-workers pointed out, is that we now know who can control the information. That wasn't clear earlier. I would worry more about other things before I would worry about this issue.

This^^^^^^. Beverage distributors can give some pretty good incentives to have an exclusive or semi-exclusive location. It could be in the form of lower prices or in the form of a "sponsorship". But I would bet that they are making it worth the effort for the REA.

It depends on what is found in the lawsuit. Could be one or the other or both or neither. But nothing will be won by Spirit Lake any time soon. The only logical results for this year are either the NCAA gets the case dismissed, or Spirit Lake wins the right to continue the case and they will get a hearing date for probably some time in 2013. Spirit Lake winning the right to continue the case would not give them any advantage going into the lawsuit itself, it would just mean that the court is willing to look at it.

I quit going to S.A.B. I don't want to give Port the hits. Besides, I get tired of reading the trash he puts on there since most of it is based on half-truths or outright lies. It is hard to believe that people can't see through him yet. People keep coming up with these scenarios, but can never give a legitimate reason that the NCAA would do that. The NCAA has all the cards at this point. The only wild card is the lawsuit, and that doesn't seem to have much chance. What are they going to say if the lawsuit gets thrown out? That the tribes have the NCAA right where they want them? Do they still believe that some "show of wills" will change the NCAA's minds? Doesn't the fact that Standing Rock agrees with the NCAA mean anything to them?

Just because no one answered a stupid question on a fan forum you think that no one talked to Standing Rock. The 2 have nothing in common. Efforts were made to talk to people at Standing Rock. They wouldn't even talk to Archie Fool Bear, so why does anyone believe that they would talk to outsiders. And there isn't always a way if the other side doesn't want it. Standing Rock really doesn't want UND to have the nickname. You want an answer to your original post? Here are a bunch of reasons that it won't happen and wouldn't happen. 1) It's too late. The NCAA has said on multiple occasions that they won't accept anything after the deadline of November 30, 2010. Standing Rock could appeal right now and give unanimous approval and the NCAA would not remove UND from the sanctions list. What don't you understand about that? 2) It had to be all of Standing Rock, not just Sioux County. Getting some kind of approval from Sioux County wouldn't have made any difference to the NCAA. The approval needed to be from the entire tribe. 3) Standing Rock didn't want any money for the approval. The Tribal Council wouldn't even talk about it, so money was never going to be a factor to them. They don't believe that the name is for sale. 4) The money isn't as big as you seem to think. On an average year the merchandising rights brought in about $200,000 to $250,000. The last couple of years has been more because people have bought extra merchandise thinking that it was going to go away. I think that the big year was a little over $400,000. Sales are going to go back down to normal levels after the issue is settled. Standing Rock isn't going to sell out for $125,000. 5) UND wouldn't offer the percentages that you are suggesting anyway. One of the advantages to having a popular logo is to be able to make some money. They probably would have been interested in giving some of the proceeds, but certainly not all or even 2/3. My guess is that they would have been willing to give some place between 10% and 25%. Even if they gave 50% and kept half, that would leave less than $65,000 per tribe. If Standing Rock isn't going to sell out for $125,000, they certainly aren't for $65,000. The NCAA isn't going to give approval for UND to use the name and logo. It isn't going to happen.

Minnesota won't play UND at all because of the nickname. If the nickname is retired it may change. I don't believe they are going to play a regular series against each of the other Minnesota teams every year. The talk was that they would play a series against either 2 or 3 of them and would play the others in an annual Minnesota tournament and the teams would rotate. So it would probably be 2 game series against 2 of the schools and a single tournament game against the other 2 for a total of 6 games.

As I explained on the last page, the Alerus Center was scheduled to put in the equivalent of the turf that is currently in the building. That would have cost less than what the Alerus Center share of the new turf is going to be. The total price for the new turf is going to be about $4 million, UND is paying about 1/2. The Alerus Center could have replaced the turf for much less than $2 million. UND wanted the upgraded turf. The cost of the new turf is about double what the cheaper version is, plus the pit where the turf is stored has to be rebuilt and new equipment installed to handle the new turf. The pit project will cost close to $1 million. So the Alerus Center is spending several hundred thousand more than they were required to by the lease agreement, and UND is also putting in a lot more money than they probably thought they would. But they are getting the best of what they is available that will work in the building.

Chicago may be a little more fun, but KC isn't bad. And it has some great barbecue places.

I'm not sure, but I think it is more difficult to do that on this new turf. The old Metrodome turf was pretty basic and was probably easier to paint over. They may have even had different sections of carpeting that they just replaced. Remember, they could change from baseball to football in hours. The Alerus Center turf is all 1 piece.

You are correct that the Alerus Center was expected to replace the turf. But the main reason that UND was willing to contribute so much to the purchase was to upgrade the turf. The Alerus Center could have replaced the turf for approximately what they are contributing to this project or even less. I believe that UND wanted to get a better quality turf so they are basically paying for the upgrade. And part of the expense is they have to rebuild the pit where the turf is stored. The current pit would work fine for the basic level of turf, but this upgraded turf needs a bigger pit and new machinery. That part alone is approaching $1 million of the total cost. The turf alone is just over $3 million. The Fargodome has a similar problem with their new turf.

About 1/2. Total cost is a little under $4 million and UND is contributing about $2 million, although some of that might be in higher per game rent so I don't think it is all in 1 check. I would guess that the nickname and logo issue are a major part of this design. They can't take something off the turf without cutting out a section. But they can probably paint something different on it. So it wouldn't be a good idea to put something on the turf that you may not need during the entire 10 years, like the potential of using something other than the interlocking ND for a logo.

You don't have a built in audience in Chicago. It would get lost in everything going on there including the Blackhawks and Bulls. They don't have a college hockey audience built up in Chicago. Omaha makes more sense because of the built in audience and because it is more centrally located. Minneapolis-St Paul, Omaha and Denver make the most sense. I would throw in Kansas City as a wild card. They have a newer facility, it isn't too far from Omaha so they could attract a college hockey audience, it is within driving distance of most schools and it does a good job of hosting events. Plus it wouldn't have the competition of Chicago. KC isn't very likely but the NCHC might want to at least look at it.

Dave would rather let the athletic department be totally destroyed rather than lose the name. So giving up playoff games is trivial to Dave.

The document you cite was part of the lawsuit that resulted in the settlement in 2007 and is from the UND point of view. It looks like they were accusing the NCAA of trying to interfere with the process. That is just an accusation and since the case was settled we don't know if there was proof of that or not. But it may be the reason that the settlement stated the NCAA was not allowed to interact with the tribes. In 2000 Spirit Lake passed a resolution saying that they were not opposed to UND using the nickname and logo as long as something good came out of the use. By 2005, when the NCAA issued their policy, there was some dispute whether that "good" had come out of the use. But the key part is that in the NCAA waiver process they demanded that each tribe provide written proof that they were in support of the schools using the Native American nickname or confirming support if the tribe had given support at an earlier time. Spirit Lake refused to issue that written statement confirming the 2000 resolution. Reports said that at least some members of the Tribal Council doubted that the "good" had resulted from UND using the name and weren't willing to take the step to write the letter. That is why several of us have said that if Spirit Lake had simply written a letter saying that the 2000 resolution was still in effect, then the NCAA would have given a waiver. The other schools that kept their names were able to get a letter of support from their local tribes. Again I will go back to the fact that the NCAA is a private organization. Their club and they make the rules. They made all tribes provide written confirmation in 2005-2006. UND could not get that support. And the settlement cemented the fact that they had to provide written support. If you read the settlement you will see that the NCAA would accept the 2000 resolution from Spirit Lake if they would provide written proof signed by a tribal official with authority to give that proof. The whole vote on Spirit Lake wasn't needed by the NCAA, but that is what forced the Tribal Council to actually send the letter to the NCAA. And for Standing Rock the settlement says that the tribe could make the decision in any way allowed in the Tribal Constitution, but approval had to be sent in writing to the NCAA and signed by a tribal official with authority to send that approval.

Some form of athletic department may survive. But the football team being eliminated is a distinct possibility if UND loses its place in the Big Sky.

Don't forget that he believes that Spirit Lake will magically destroy the evil NCAA in court and a new organization will rise from the ashes to replace it.

The NCAA will not change their policy because they don't have to. They are an independent organization, membership is voluntary. Therefore they can make their own rules. If you don't like the rules you can leave the organization. They are not subject to the opinions of North Dakota citizens. They have a signed agreement with UND and the state of North Dakota saying that approval by both tribes was needed by November 30, 2010. That approval was not obtained at Standing Rock. So it doesn't matter what happens now. The Standing Rock Tribal council could vote unanimously in favor of UND using the nickname and it wouldn't matter to the NCAA. The NCAA told the delegation from North Dakota that the settlement date had passed, so nothing that happened after that date would change their position. The NCAA chose to follow the wishes of the Tribal Councils because they are the official voice of the tribes. It would be like someone coming into North Dakota and following what the state government told them rather than taking a poll of the citizens. That is the way business is done, you deal with the government policies rather than choosing to go against those policies because you think that's how the citizens feel. If you don't believe that the NCAA will maintain their position just look up the NCAA versus South Carolina and Mississippi on the Confederate flag issue. In South Carolina they are punishing the entire state because of a single flag flown over a war memorial. That flag was put into state law. So the NCAA no longer allows any NCAA tournaments in South Carolina that are scheduled in advance. This has been going on for a decade. The people of South Carolina support having the flag. The NCAA is not backing away.

Here are 2 newspaper articles from shortly after the NCAA policy announcement, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1461861/posts and http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/081205/col_19484407.shtml. If you read what I said, the Oklahoma Seminoles announced that they were not against the nickname, it was decide by an 18-2 vote. They didn't vote on approval, they said they were not against. The NCAA didn't demand this 2nd approval from the Oklahoma tribe, but the fact that they weren't opposed probably changed how the NCAA handled the appeal process. As I have stated several times, the original waiver process only needed approval by 1 tribe. But that needed to be in by 2006. UND couldn't get approval from 1 tribe by then, so they sued. As a part of the settlement the NCAA demanded approval from Spirit Lake and Standing Rock. In return UND got an extra 4 years to get the approval, 1 year during the trial and another 3 years after the trial. The 2nd tribe approval was obviously the penalty they wanted in trade for the extra time. It is unrealistic to believe that the NCAA was going to give UND several extra years for nothing.