82SiouxGuy

Exactly. It isn't like the coaches have decided it's too hard to coach big men so they don't recruit them. Most teams at the lower end of the DI spectrum have a shortage of talented big men.

There are literally hundreds of facilities that the NCAA can use across the United States. They don't believe that Native American imagery should be used for sports teams. If they don't want it seen at their tournaments they should hold their tournaments in buildings without Native American imagery. How hard is that to understand. It isn't about placing sanctions on the team or facility. It is about living up to the standard that they have tried to set.

See this post from 1 month ago to see the stats from last year.

And their point is that recruiting quality bigs to a small DI school, much less one going through transition, is very difficult. Therefore you take the best players you can get.

It is the imagery and use of Native American names that is offensive to the NCAA. They are being hypocritical if they say that it only matters for their members and not for anyone else. Therefore the tenant should be irrelevant. There is no other logically consistent way to look at it, IMHO.

Regular tenant of the facility is irrelevant. NCAA is against Native American imagery. Facilities displaying such imagery should be out of bounds. Otherwise the NCAA would be condoning said imagery.

The transition to Division I is a marathon, not a sprint. The most important leg is getting into a viable conference. That is much more important than what the football schedule looks like in 2011. And that includes all sports, not just football. Mr. Faison is working very hard on the conference issue. The prospects look good for the Summit for the majority of sports. Mr. Faison will find a good answer for football also. Just relax for a little while.

You are probably going to be waiting for many more weeks. This is the time of year that most college coaches and athletic directors take their vacation. Very little happens in college athletics during June and July. You probably won't hear anything on scheduling until after the football season starts.

Anyone that gives serious consideration to any poll done on the internet is wasting their own time. Nothing about any of these polls is scientific. The only time they are accurate at all is by accident. They are worth about as much as a $100 bill drawn in crayon. In this case it is obvious that current or past swimmers for UND, or their family members, were the main group paying attention and voting. Most of the rest of us weren't paying attention or didn't care enough to be involved. Congrats to Ms. Gormally.

Another example of a post that deserves a thumbs up smiley.

Interesting article. It's good news for Sioux fans around the country to know that things are working well with Fox Sports and all of the local partners. It also explains the HD question to those who keep asking.

Those dates are correct. Since the WCHA isn't going to have a 3rd place game they decided that the Wild could take that Saturday afternoon slot. So you can see 6 games in 3 days if you want to go that far.

It is interesting that you believe you know what the NCAA thinks, is going to do or what they will give an inch on. No one knows how the NCAA would react to the REA deciding not to follow the terms of the settlement. They would probably not allow any tournament games to be held there, but no one knows if they would push any punishments further than that. And it is pretty well accepted that a tournament would earn more money for college football than the bowl system does. The difference is that the biggest schools would probably have to share more, and that the NCAA would probably run it since they are responsible for running all national tournaments for NCAA member schools. So the BCS would be replaced and there are probably people making money off the BCS that would fight that.

I try not to put a lot of spin into my posts. I try to use facts as much as possible. The bequest was originally going to be $100 million, $50 for an arena and $50 for academics. As Ralph and others worked on the design for the arena they moved more and more money from academics to the arena. Pretty soon it became $100 million for an arena. And then it passed that mark. No further funds were allocated for academics at the time. After Ralph died the Foundation pledged another $20 million to academics spread over time (I think it was $2 million per year for 10 years). Part of that money is for scholarships and part to support specific professor positions (Endowed Chairs). They are 2 or 3 years into that pledge. There is a time to fight on an issue. But there is also a time when the best thing to do for all involved is to move on. We have reached that point on the Fighting Sioux nickname. The only chance that the name had was with the Standing Rock Reservation. But because of tribal politics, Standing Rock was a very long shot at best. The people in charge at Standing Rock wouldn't let it happen. That's the way that tribal politics can work. But there are no more cards to be played unless Archie Fool Bear and friends can pull a rabbit out of a hat in the next 4 1/2 months. After that continued fighting will do nothing more than cause problems for a school that is important to most of us here on SiouxSports, and cause more pain for most people involved. The chances of reversing the name change after November 30th will be zero. As far as Ralph and the nickname go, the Fighting Sioux name was very important to him. But I believe that the school was even more important to him. He has given credit in the past to his time at UND, and the chance to go to college, as very important to his success. So my guess is that he would have fought to the very end to support the name. But he would probably have continued to support UND in the long run no matter how the issue was settled.

And by the way, I'm pretty sure that Ralph didn't spend $150 million of his own money on the REA. The number quoted on the REA web site is $104+ million. I have heard estimates up to $112 million. If you are trying to include the amount to build the Betty, that was not a donation. IIRC, that money has come out of operating profits from REA. His total gifts to UND may approach that $150 million number, including the donations for the old building (I believe the original number was about $6 million), an airplane, papers donated to the Chester Fritz Library and the $20 million the Foundation is in the process of giving for scholarships and such. But you keep accusing the media of not being accurate so you might want to be more accurate. And I'm pretty sure that Ralph didn't worry what anyone else thought so he wouldn't have worried too much what any of us thought on any of these subjects.

UND is making more money off the relationship with REA than they could have off the old buildings. They get more fans in the door, at a higher ticket price, sell a lot more concessions, and with a great deal more advertising dollars spent, than in the old building. In addition REA hosts concerts (that can be very lucrative at times), the Hockey Academy, tournaments and more camps than the old building could handle. REA probably would lose money without UND sports, but UND gets many benefits out of the relationship also. And increased revenue is at the top of the list. So I would hardly call REA a parasite. It is a mutually beneficial relationship. Each side benefits. UND pays so much for services rendered. REA adds value to those services and makes additional money. The net income is returned to UND. UND wins on the bottom line. Jody probably wouldn't have a job in Grand Forks without UND hockey, but he had a pretty successful career before coming to REA. So I'm sure that he would be working somewhere else running another facility. He doesn't answer to UND, he answers to the board of the REA and to the Engelstad Foundation. They seem happy with his work so he is probably doing what his bosses want him to do. That doesn't always mesh with what UND or anyone else wants. That is what happens when you don't own the facility. Consider it part of the cost of doing business. And don't forget, the North Dakota Legislature is who decided that UND couldn't own the building until after a suitable period of time had passed (30 years comes to mind). That wasn't Ralph's idea. Under Ralph's original announcement I'm pretty sure that UND would already have title to the facility and could do whatever they wanted with it.

First, the settlement doesn't say "as part of routine maintenance of the building". It talks about imagery that will ultimately be replaced because of ordinary wear and tear, but then identifies exactly which items and a deadline for each one of them. For instance, it says that all brass etched logos must be replaced by Dec 31, 2011. Brass doesn't wear out that fast and those logos would not normally be replaced. The same with the logos on the ends of the rows of seats, which the settlement say need to be gone by Dec 31,2012. The settlement lists 2 different sets of etched glass doors. One of them has to be replaced by Dec 31, 2012 and the other by Dec 31, 2015. It even lists logos in the administrative offices of the REA which must be gone by Dec 31, 2013. These aren't seen by the general public. Glass doors don't wear out that quickly so why do those doors need to be replaced, especially since so many others are going to be left? So the REA isn't refusing to do regular maintenance, they are planning to refuse to dismantle the building based on the settlement schedule. You can read the settlement again at www.ag.state.nd.us/ncaa/SettlementAgreement.pdf. Second, your hatred of the REA is well established. But, unless you have read the contract between UND and REA, your accusations may not hold water. Everyone knows that Ralph Engelstad wanted to help support UND. But REA is a separate entity and is run by the Engelstad Foundation. As such they probably have pretty wide latitude to run the building the way they want, and to spend money how they want. I find it hard to believe that Ralph would tie himself to a contract that didn't give him room to make changes or decide how money was spent. His foundation now has those rights. I'm sure that UND got some language in the contract to protect itself since it owns the land. But I think the possibility of any civil or criminal liability is pretty small unless people are actually stealing from the foundation.

The question is whether the changes would qualify as repairs and maintenance. If REA was not maintaining the building, was not keeping it safe for customers or employees, was not keeping up the appearance which would make it less than desirable for customers to attend games, then REA would probably be in breach of contract (I can't say absolutely because I haven't seen the contract). The changes the settlement with the NCAA want are mainly cosmetic. Normally a renter is responsible for those costs. For instance, if you lease a building and want to change the way it looks, you would have to pay those costs rather than the owner. REA owns the building. Depending on the language in the contract, they may or may not have control over the decorations in the building. But refusing to pay for changes in decor is probably not a breach of contract.

Sorry, you lost me with your logic. Let's say that the REA turns over $X per year to UND. If REA pays for logo removal and such it would come out of operating profit, not from foundation funds, so they would turn over $X-removal costs. Or UND could pay for it out of the money they get from REA, so they would get $X and then subtract the costs. UND gets the same net income either way. As long as UND can use the facility for regular season games and has very little chance of hosting tournament games anyway because of the way the NCAA chooses sites then I don't see a great chance of a breach of contract lawsuit.

Attendance would be good for a Summit League tournament if most of the Dakota schools were involved.

I agree on the potential for hosting women's tourney games, that's why I made a point of saying men's games. And you're right about hotel rooms and flights, I'm sure those are considerations. I don't think that UND was the driving force in applying to host the women's Frozen Four. I would guess that REA did that, although I am sure that they kept UND informed. REA isn't going to do the application so the games can be hosted at Urban Plains. It may have been a test to see if the NCAA would budge on their demands. Future applications may come directly from UND and the Urban Plains if it is determined that the NCAA will follow through and not allow tourney games in the REA.

It could very well be that Hak had a little scholarship money left and decided to give something to this young man. You can be sure that he isn't getting a full scholarship. It's possible that someone else offered a scholarship and Hak decided to offer something rather than just ask him to walk on.

Basketball isn't attracting that kind of support at the present time in Grand Forks, but it has in the past. There is no proof that it won't again at some time in the future. That being said, REA isn't going to try to be a NCAA Division I Men's basketball tourney host for a few reasons. It is a great hockey facility, but it isn't quite as good for basketball. The seats are a little too far from the court, especially on the ends, and the sight lines aren't premium. Plus the number of seats isn't huge. Most NCAA Division I tournament games are held at NBA size arenas or larger. They range from the 18-20,000 range up to the domes that can fit 50,000 plus. At 13-14,000 people REA is smaller than most other arenas that are used. So the arena would have a very hard time winning a bid even without the logos being present.

I'm just trying to get you the best in the state. If you want to settle for the Bismarck Chamber Orchestra we can do that. Now if you want a cowboy band, Bismarck probably has several that are better than any in the Grand Forks area. How about getting the Governor to welcome you to the state, he shows up for a lot of hockey games anyway.

Forget Bismarck. The Grand Forks Symphony has been around for more than a hundred years. I'm sure they would be happy to greet you.