Well I'm not so sure I would want our team called NODAKs. Down here in Twin Cities land there's usually a certain 'F' word that precedes NODAK...and it's not Fightin'.
I agree with the last part. No way this wouldn't be considered a conflict, Brad had to know that.
I hope you're right on the first part, but it does raise the question as to why his daughter would get the trademark.
I don't care who wrote the story...the optics on the whole thing suck for UND. Either UND knew about this issue and didn't care or they didn't know, which would make them quite lame and kinda bad at their job.