82SiouxGuy

Thanks for all of the interest. The tickets were sold to a Sioux fan earlier in the evening. Good luck to everyone still looking for tickets.

These tickets are still available. I have been away from a computer for most of the week, so I am going to bump this up and take any late offers. I would like to get these tickets a good home by the end of the day.

All above are correct. My best guess is that the Summit League would like to make a decision next Spring. They want to have any new teams in place 1 year before the year they will begin. So any announcements for teams to join the same year as USD (2011-2012) would come before July 1, 2010. So applications will probably need to be in, and the nickname issue resolved, by the end of 2009.

Welcome to Grand Forks, welcome to UND and welcome to SiouxSports.com. I think you will enjoy your time here and will probably fall in love with Sioux hockey. Most people do.

If you have access to Fox College Sports on either cable television or on DirecTV you will be able to see it there. It should also be available on the Internet at www.fightingsioux.com. The webcast isn't free, but can be purchased by the game, the month or for the year.

I don't think so. My guess is that the remainder of those gifts are for other areas of the school instead of the College of Business. But it isn't very clearly written.

$5.6 million has already shown up along with $1.8 of the anonymous donation. Only another $24.4 million left to raise.

An anonymous donor has donated $10 million to the College of Business and Public Administration in the form of a challenge grant. They will give $1 for every $3 others give in the form of endowments of $25,000 or more. The donation goes back 15 months. During that time $5.6 million in endowments have been given that were matched by this grant.

There is no guarantee that all of the available games will be shown on Directv. They use Channel 617 to show some of the content from Fox College Sports and it sounds like they will also use Channel 623 for the same purpose. But you will have to check for each game to see if they will be shown or not. Those that have the 3 Fox College Sports Channels on their cable system will be able to see all of the available games on one of the 3 channels.

When the SBoHE set the October 1 deadline they thought that Standing Rock would hold their election on September 15th. That would have given them 2 weeks to decide whether to extend or not. From the Grand Forks Herald on May 14th. You are correct that they should have considered the fact that UND would be celebrating Homecoming that week.

The vast majority of schools will follow the direction of the NCAA. If both tribes support the nickname the NCAA will approve use of the nickname. Most schools would then schedule games with UND. Minnesota is a question mark. They have chosen not to schedule games in the major sports other than hockey. I believe that some of the other UND sports have competed against Minnesota. And if the NCAA approves the nickname there is a good chance Minnesota would change their policy, but that is not guaranteed.

I said 7-4 because I think they should be able to win 1 more of those games. The best chances are either at SFA or Davis.

The Summit League can make an issue of the nickname because it's their league and they get to make the rules on getting in the league. They don't know that the issue will be resolved until it is actually resolved. People change their minds. UND could decide to keep the name without approval and accept the repercussions. It's not likely, but it could happen. The Summit wants a guarantee before they move ahead. This issue isn't going to be resolved unless there is a deadline to force people to make a decision. We have seen over the past couple of decades that people will bluster and make speeches, but they won't actually talk to each other unless they have to. The deadline forces them to talk. The SBoHE will extend the deadline. But they aren't going to give them an open checkbook. They will have a tight leash on the situation. The situation will probably be decided by the end of the year. That gives Standing Rock time to reach a decision, UND time to react to that decision and still have time to apply to the Summit League within their schedule.

UND may not qualify for an auto bid until 2012, but there are very limited opportunities to get into auto bid conferences. The Summit is the only legitimate opportunity on the horizon at this time. That could change, but there is no guarantee. Life for an athletic department is very difficult without an auto bid conference. That is why a chance to get into the Summit is so important right now. If you only care about football and hockey, then the Summit isn't important. If you are interested in the rest of the athletic department then the Summit is very important. I have been saying for months that the deadline could be extended if there was a chance to save the nickname. 15 days is not enough, but if progress is being made it could be extended again. 6 months isn't going to happen. My best guess is that a deadline to apply to the Summit is probably between December and February. And I don't think an extension of 6 months needs to happen. The issue is well known throughout Standing Rock, it has been around for years. If the road block is removed and an election is allowed to happen the entire process can be done in less than 3 months. Hopefully, if the tribal council allows the election they will also commit to following the wishes expressed in that election. Setting a deadline will spur activity. If they set the deadline at 3 months, it can be decided in 3 months. If they stretched it to 6 months the same process would take the 6 months and get the same result.

Earlier in this thread I had the same thought. I don't know if the SBoHE did it on purpose or not, but it looks like the deadline may have spurred some action. It is just like what happens during a lot of labor negotiations. Very little happens until it gets close to the deadline. When everyone realizes that they are running out of time they can sit down and work out differences.

The beer alone would be more expensive than a rental car.

I was talking about renting a car in Grand Forks if he flew into town. He might get a better deal, but most of the time it's tough to get a deal on a busy weekend.

I tried to watch the game on the Southland Conference site, which is also operated by Jump TV. I tried for the entire 1st half and all I got was "Technical Difficulties". So the problem was either before Jump TV got the feed or at Jump TV.

The tribal council itself does not support the nickname. I would assume they are getting political pressure to make this statement. But they will only do the bare minimum of what they need to do. They are not going to go any further than they have to in helping the UND cause. Therefore they issue a statement stating the fact that the tribe passed the resolution and they concur with the wishes of the tribe. They will not approve the 30 year window on their own. It remains to be seen whether they will negotiate some kind of long term deal.

I think that the Standing Rock tribal council would still have to issue a statement of support for the nickname. As far as I can tell, the NC$$ and the court settlement both recognize a tribal council resolution against the nickname. They will not jump over that to the pipe ceremony unless the tribal council decides to overrule their current resolution and go back to uphold the pipe ceremony. That will not happen with the current makeup of the tribal council. It might be possible with an influx of new council members via the election. But I have not heard where any of the candidates stand except for the tribal chairmen candidates. RHHiT of course is against. The last I heard, Mr. Murphy is in favor of letting the people decide the issue. If Mr. Murphy wins it might be possible to have a vote.

The court settlement does not allow Native American imagery to be used (without the support of both reservations) so the logo would not be able to be used unless both Spirit Lake and Standing Rock allow it.

I am not an attorney, but this resolution should meet the requirements of the court settlement with the NC$$ as far as Spirit Lake is concerned. That is 1/2 of the basic requirement needed to keep the nickname and logo. Standing Rock is still an issue. The makeup of the tribal council after the next election will probably determine if they will allow a vote on the issue and whether such a vote would have any value. Remember, they don't have a process to make that vote binding. It would be a recommendation to the tribal council and the council could decide whether to accept or not. However, that clause in the settlement that allows the tribes to change their mind is still a major roadblock. UND administration and any potential leagues may have concerns about the long term viability of the name without a long term arrangement (it doesn't have to be 30 years). My uninformed guess is that the wording of the resolution may help a little in that matter. The resolution recognizes and accepts the results of the vote that was taken. This could set a precedent for Spirit Lake and any change would have to go to a vote of the people. Of course, the nickname opponents claimed last spring that they were going to arrange another election to vote against the nickname. If they could get that election and the results were reversed, would that be enough to change the name again? Would UND, the SBoHE and potential league partners worry about that? This issue is not decided yet. To rework an analogy, the fat lady is in the building but she hasn't started warming up to sing yet. I don't know if the SBoHE tried to do this or not, but it looks like setting an earlier decision deadline may have been what was needed to spur some kind of action. As is often the case, nothing happens with a lot of issues until close to the deadline when it becomes really important to a lot of people. Strike deadlines in contract negotiations are often the same way. People finally accepted that the issue was going to be decided one way or the other and they are finally working to accomplish something. I hope they can reach an agreement that works for the vast majority.

The other 2 answered most of your actual travel questions. The easiest is to fly Newark-MSP-Grand Forks on Northwest/Delta. They currently have 5 flights into Grand Forks on weekdays and 4 on Sundays. Hotel prices are variable depending on what else is going on in town. Best bet is to book early for hockey weekends. My best guess is that you will pay $50-100 per night depending on the weekend and the hotel. Rental car will run about $35-45 per day with taxes. Grand Forks has several cab companies and a couple of hotels run shuttles to the airport and to the Ralph for games so you have options for in town transportation. Tickets to games can always be had. I often have an extra pair of tickets because a friend and I have 4 seats. The toughest games to get tickets for are Minnesota and Wisconsin. Tickets often sell at a premium price for those games. Other games you can usually pay right around regular ticket price and find seats right up to game day.

I believe that Tu-Uyen has mentioned it before. He has a new blog up that discusses the issue and has some great information. A lot of it comes from the Attorney General after his comments to WDAZ. Tu-Uyen had heard rumors about possibly moving the deadline. He also says that Charlie Murphy, who is running for tribal chair, would like to let the people decide the issue.

They have not officially opposed the nickname. In 2000 (not positive on the year but I don't feel like looking it up tonight) the tribal council passed a resolution supporting the nickname (didn't have the new logo yet I don't believe) with the condition that UND did nothing to harm the name. But the NC$$ didn't recognize that statement. They wanted a new resolution in support after they got involved with the issue. The court settlement states that UND needs to obtain the support of both tribes, which means that as of that point they did not have the support from either tribe. Some people have thought that because of the 2000(?) resolution it may only take a letter of support from the tribal chair to follow up on the resolution. Two issues, 1) It isn't known for sure if that would fulfill the requirements of the lawsuit settlement (at least by anyone I have heard or seen) and 2) The tribal chair is against the nickname and would not write such a letter of support without the tribal council acting. The only sure way is to get a vote by the tribal council that would reflect the wishes of the constituents as evidenced by the referendum earlier this year. So far they have refused to bring the matter up for a vote.