82SiouxGuy

It's a matter of steps. I don't think that any of the regional transitioning schools beat Big 10 or other established DI teams in the first year or 2 of the transition. That's where UND is currently, near the beginning of the transition. Most of the wins against that level of competition start happening in year 3 or 4, if things go well. The goal should be to be competitive with your league (have the ability to compete for a title) by the time you are done with transition, and be able to win some of the games you play against the more established leagues by that time. UND is not to that point yet. The men's roster includes 6 redshirt freshman and 2 sophomores. At least 9 different players have started games because of injury problems and they have had at least 6 different starting line-ups. The team is young, has not had a lot of time to play together as a unit and has had many of its best players miss games with injuries. All of that adds up to a slow start and not playing well as a team. It adds up to missing passes because either people aren't where they are supposed to be or players don't know where teammates are going. It can often result in poor shooting and weak decision making. It adds up to the type of record you see right now. You should be able to get a better idea about the direction of the men's program by the last half of next year when this year's redshirt freshman should be playing major minutes. The women have other issues. Injuries have been a problem for them also. And not having their 6'5" player eligible for a single game yet has probably affected them. But the biggest problem for them seems to be the fact that they haven't found the gems they found for several years in Division II. They were always able to pull in 1 or 2 players almost every year that could play at the top of Division II if not in Division I. They don't have them right now. The transition might be scaring some of them off and sending them to other schools. It might be that the usual recruiting areas are drying up or being over recruited so the coaches may have to find other target areas. Again, another year or possibly 2 will tell whether the program is going to go in the right direction as they leave transition or not. This is a process. The step from Division II to Division I is huge in basketball. It would be like going from Division II to BCS in football. Anyone that didn't see a lot of struggles in the first few years was fooling themselves, and that would have been under the best of situations. Injuries have made it even harder. I don't know if these teams can get better enough to compete at the higher level or not. But you have to give it some time to see.

I have a pair of tickets available for the series against MSU Mankato next weekend. The seats are at the top of Section 306, behind the Mankato goalie for periods 1 and 3. Tickets are $27.50 each ($55 for the pair) for each game. Or I will let the seats go for $100 if you take the tickets for both nights. Tickets are in Grand Forks and I will be at both games so we can arrange delivery of the tickets anytime up to the drop of the puck each night. Send me a PM if you are interested in the tickets.

The Alumni Foundation usually puts something together for big games. I haven't seen anything yet, but it might just be a little early for them to post it. I know that R.T. O'Sullivan's in Mesa usually has UND games on if they are broadcast. www.rtosullivans.com/contacts.htm

UND has faced 2 issues that I don't think Florida State and some other schools have faced in this nickname debate. The issues are somewhat related. The first issue is the level of activism by tribe members. Native American activism has been much more active and much stronger in this region than in many other parts of the country. While African Americans were fighting for their rights in the South and in other parts of the country, NAs were starting to fight for theirs in this part of the country. All you have to do is look at people like Russell Means, Clyde Bellecourt and the American Indian Movement (AIM). (I believe that Means is Oglala Sioux and Bellecourt is from the White Earth Ojibwa tribe.) AIM was started in the Minneapolis area during the late 1960s and spread around the country. It eventually split in 2, but 1 faction is still headquartered in Minneapolis. AIM took over Alcatraz, Mount Rushmore, the Mayflower II, the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington, DC and Wounded Knee in separate protests between 1969 and 1973 along with many other actions. AIM has always been strong in this region. Native Americans haven't been as organized or as strong in protesting in some other parts of the country. I also believe that UND did too little in tribal relations. They have done some great things with programs aimed to help with Native American issues. But I don't think that they did enough with actually making personal contacts with tribal leaders and trying to work with them. That goes back to at least Tom Clifford and maybe further. With AIM and other groups out working with the tribes, UND should have been working with them also. I'm sure that most people didn't see this coming, including me, and hindsight is 20-20. But just look at the time lines. Real issues with the Fighting Sioux nickname and various logos started in the 1960s. AIM started in the same time period. UND didn't really work to create bonds with the tribes ever as far as I know. Therefore the tribes didn't relate to UND and have never been invested in the University or the nickname. The Seminole tribe seems to be much more invested in having Florida State represent their name.

I have heard the same thing as you, the Seminole tribe didn't receive any payoff for the rights to the name. I remember reading an article that was written around the time of the NCAA decree. An attorney that worked with the tribe said that no money changed hands. I have not been able to find that article the last couple of times I searched for it.

siouxforeverbaby is correct. The issue is Native American imagery and representation. The NCAA originally outlawed anything related to Native Americans, including names, logos and other traditions. When schools started fighting the issue the NCAA quickly changed the requirements to allow tribal approval. The NCAA didn't just single out UND and the Fighting Sioux nickname. All tribal names, and names like Warriors and Braves, were outlawed. Schools with nicknames like Warriors and Braves had no chance to keep any Native imagery. Almost all of them changed their nicknames. I think their were a couple that changed imagery. I seem to remember 1 school that just had a couple of feathers as part of the logo on their football helmets, the feathers had to be removed. So the only chance to keep using the logo is if the Fighting Sioux name can be saved when approved by the 2 main Sioux tribes in the state. The Chippewa option has been discussed. But at this point it is probably too late to even think about chasing that option. It is going to be Fighting Sioux or something else that is non-native related.

I have a pair of tickets available for the series against MSU Mankato next weekend. The seats are at the top of Section 306, behind the Mankato goalie for periods 1 and 3. Tickets are $27.50 each ($55 for the pair) for each game. Or I will let the seats go for $100 if you take the tickets for both nights. Tickets are in Grand Forks and I will be at both games so we can arrange delivery of the tickets anytime up to the drop of the puck each night. Send me a PM if you are interested in the tickets.

I agree, Predators has some possibilities. It is still pretty unique even if Nashville uses it. Remember, nobody in the country watches hockey anyway. You could either stay with an aviation theme with the drones becoming a big part of aviation in the area; or you could go with more of a hunter theme, the teams hunting down their prey.

I do remember that. Flying is just one of many different things that can affect recovery from a concussion. A change in altitude is another. Healthy athletes can have trouble trying to play at a higher altitude. Exercise and exertion can cause a set back from recovery from concussion. It only makes sense that exertion at a higher altitude could cause a problem. But it is also hard to predict how a concussion patient is going to react to any of these factors. That is why I said that Chay flying on this trip was no indication that he was ready to play but it was an indication of progress in his recovery.

Here is an article from the Grand Forks Herald about Frattin's press conference. This is my favorite part:

There is also a thread devoted to the subject of the Olympic teams here.

So that would be UND fans masquerading as NDSU fans posing as UND fans? I think my head is starting to hurt just a little bit.

I am pretty sure that TSN is not available south of the border by any cable or dish system.

One indication that Chay might be doing better is the fact that he is cleared to travel. Flying can aggravate concussions for some people, and they are often told not to fly when they are having problems. Definitely no indication that he is just about ready to play, but it might be a sign of progress.

He's been threatening to shut them off for weeks, if not months. He needs to just do it.

Both Sweden and Russia are in the other bracket. The US plays Latvia and Canado plays Slovakia tomorrow. Then the US and Canada both get Wednesday off before they play each other on Thursday in the last game in the bracket for each team. It looks like both teams should move on to the quarterfinals unless something strange happens tomorrow.

Trupp and Gregoire

A lot of people that attend games are local, from Grand Forks or the Grand Forks area. Those people do know that Red River is the Roughriders and they have been for more than 40 years. As a matter of fact, I believe that most of the students are still from this region, so the average student probably does know that Red River is the Roughriders. If Bismarck Century or Williston High School was the Roughriders it wouldn't be a problem for me. I just think it is too much Roughrider in too small a space. And if you want UND to use the state nickname you probably would support Flickertails or Peace Gardeners, both also are North Dakota state nicknames. I don't like either one of them.

I didn't say it would be tribe members that would have a problem with Cavalry. It would be the same group that is against the Fighting Sioux nickname. Going from Sioux to Cavalry would look like spite, or an attack on the Native Americans to that group opposing the Sioux nickname. They are the ones that would cause the PR problems. We have already seen what kind of PR noise they can make. My prediction is that UND would avoid that possibility. Roughriders are somewhat different from Cavalry because they are usually associated with Teddy Roosevelt and the Cuban-American War. The Roughriders were fighting the Cubans, not the Indians. The Roughriders were from all over the West, and are mainly associated with North Dakota because of Roosevelt. My beef with that name is the fact that Red River High School is already using it in town. I think UND would want a unique name, at least in this area.

Cavalry would be a fine nickname in most cases. However, in this case many people would think that going from Sioux to Cavalry would look like an insult to the tribes. Who did the Sioux fight wars with? The Cavalry. And the Cavalry forced the tribes onto the reservations. It would potentially be bad public relations to change the name from Sioux to Cavalry. My issue with Cavalry as a nickname is a little different. The normal colors of the real Cavalry are blue and gold. I don't see UND changing colors if they have to change the nickname. I don't know if I can see a green and white Cavalry.

Try justin.tv and go to Sports. The quality is pretty poor, but you can watch some and hear the rest.

I don't think that Fox Sports would ever use volunteer announcers. They have a professional image to uphold and they wouldn't want to hurt that image by putting a product on the air that wasn't at least professional. My guess is that the expense of broadcasting and the cost of paying staff to run cameras, do the announcing, do the production work, etc. make up most of the expense. The travel costs of those staff members are probably the smaller portion of the cost. Regular high school hockey games just don't attract enough viewers to pay their expenses. They probably can't sell enough advertising. The tournaments are the only games that normally would draw enough viewers. I don't think Fox Sports has the rights to the high school tournament; the local Fox affiliate, Channel 9, has had the rights to most of the high school tournaments in Minnesota for many years.

Actually, the new Spud has been closed for years. I don't know what is in the building now.

I could never keep those 2 straight. I guess I didn't spend enough time in either one to make a difference.