homer

So UND athletics should pay the price so they can "stick it to the man"?

I agree with this completely. Guy remains quiet during this whole process and his only comment is essentially, there is no penalty for breaking the law. Basically saying as I fucked up, don't screw yourselves over my mistake.

This is why I said a few days ago that if this goes to vote, either by the voters of North Dakota or the Big Sky presidents, it is than out of the hands of anyone with an interest in UND and its athletics. One does not have to look any further than the success the petitions had in Fargo, the postings of fans on the bisonville fan board, or the number of signitures gathered at the ndsu playoff games. I am not saying they are in any way responsible for this but obviously the people gathering signitures knew that they would have success gathering signitures because of what you mentioned above. I doubt their whole fanbase feels that way but there are definately some.

I think Fullerton pretty much answered your question in the article. He has no reason to lie about this. Basically, yes they can with a unanimous vote.

The earlier quote from Carlson pretty well sums up what these people's thoughts are. A man has realized his mistake, still won't answer calls from a resident in his district about the issue and comes out and basically tells UND it is ok to break a law he put into place. He started this mess but is now trying to distance himself from it. After Fullerton's comments from today get out, hopefully most of the folks who signed a petition go through the same thought process.

Take away the Great West teams on the schedule and that is a good looking non conference schedule. I want to give the baseball coaches credit as they keep plugging away despite lack of conference. I think if someone in the athletics dept. would just make a phone call to the Summit league we could be accepted for baseball only. That conference is hanging on by a thread and needs members dearly. We would be an instant contender in that league, especially after Oral Roberts leaves after the year.

This year maybe, but two years ago did the last team in not deserve to be there?

Final petitions are getting ready to be turned in and according to Eunice Davidson more than 16,000 signitures have been gathered. Looks like tomorrow we are back to the Fighting Sioux. http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/349986/group/homepage/ Question- Does anyone know if after all this is done, petitions are made public record? I'm guessing not but am curious.

Who cares?

Just making sure. Secondary is a concern. We brought in a good looking prospect in Ryan Cain who had offers from a couple other schools. We had two guys who redshirted last year, was 3 until Butler was inelgible. With Mersereau and Carr back along with the 2 RFr. from last year someone will need to step up at safety or Cain may have to step in and play. Or as 92,96 mentioned, we may have to look for a late transfer to help if possible. I think the problem was more than that though. Watkins got beat a lot last year and Mackey missed some time early. We had 3 corners who reshirted and there was talk about pulling some redshirts but why not save a year for when it matters. Also, our offense continually going 3 and out last year killed our defense. Didn't matter the opponent. If our offense is able to move the ball next year that will help tremendously.

Which team are you talking about?

Someone is still a little butt hurt after getting beat up in Grand Forks. Having a hard time being the second best basketball team in the state?

Your guys' recruting class is so good. Look almost every recruit has a page. We all know that is the top indicator of talent.

Thats right. And when/if these petitions go through and there is a state wide vote, the nickname and the future of UND athletics are going to be put in the hands of people who A) didn't attend UND or aren't fans of UND and B) don't give a !@#$ about the future of UND athletics or the nickname. These people will be a large percentage of voters across the state of ND and presidents of schools in the Big Sky conference.

So if the nickname was something other than Fighting Sioux the athletes you mentioned above would be less honored or less satisfied with their careers at UND? Was it the college, facilities, coaches, fans, and their own hard work that made them enjoy their time at UND and helped them continue to develop their skills to advance their careers or was it the Fighting Sioux nickname alone? Would a nickname of anything else made them less proud to attend UND? I'm thinking their pride in the university is because of their experiences on and off the ice or field, the successes and times they had as a team, and the support they received from the fans. I'm not going to far out on a limb when I say the Ralph isn't going to stop selling out every night cause the nickname is gone. The fans aren't going to stop traveling in bunches to road games cause the nickname is gone. And playing for the University of North Dakota is not going to become any less of a privilege once the nickname is gone.

University of North Dakota Spirit Lake Sioux?? Not a real good ring to it

Yes, we know the importance of home playoff games.

As it has been this whole process since he started this mess, I have placed a number of e-mails and calls to Al Carlson to get his opinion on why he believes the law he put into action will benefit UND and UND athletics. As a resident in his Fargo district you would think he would be more than happy to get back to me and share his thoughts right? Have yet to hear from him. That alone tells me all I need to know about this petition and this law. DaveK the guy who put the law into action and met with the NCAA to hear their stance obviously knows this will hurt UND, otherwise what does he have to be so quiet about and why ignore someone who voted him into office? Speaks volumes about his honesty. That and Bison fans' willingness to sign petitions tell me how much "good" this will bring to UND. Also, as I mentioned above, with a Native American population in the state of well over 30,000, getting 13,000 signitures from people so "honored" by the nickname should be easy. Right?

Changing the name is so "wrong" that the goup of people we are "honoring" by having it have come out in groves to sign petitions and support the name. There are well over 30,000 Native Americans in North Dakota. If it is so "wrong" to change the name surely they would recognize this and overwhelmingly support this right?

I'd take the success ndsu has had vs. FBS and in FCS. You can't argue it. Why would they change it? Until we beat any FBS on our schedule, I won't comment on what they are doing. I think our coaching staff is taking this team the direction it needs to go and we will notch one of those wins soon.

What sums it up for me is that he is actually suprised they had great success at a Bison football game. You think Bison fans would have any interest in something that was going to help UND?

I still think we will be a run first team but with an improved passing game hopefully it opens some things up. Last year it didn't take long for teams to figure out we struggled throwing the ball. It wasn't due to lack of talent outside, it was inconsistency from the qb. I think the coaches did their best to address that.

We'll have some work to do upfront as well regarding protection but yes, I am excited. Our passing production from last year has no where to go but up. Beings our best WR's were Sophmore, Sophmore, Freshmen and we had a young o-line dealing with injuries all season starting game one, along with the addition of what will hopefully be improvement at qb, I think our passing game will improve. There is a lot to be excited about with what should be a better offense.

I think we're fine at OL. Actually we brought in two O-linemen. Mike Edwards is going to start out on the d-line but has a highlight tape of him at guard that is as impressive as anything I've seen. If we absolutely get into a pinch there, he can be moved. It wouldn't be ideal but its not like it is something that hasn't been done before Johnny. With what we have returning on the o-line next year that will be Jr., So., or RFr., I don't think we could have added 4-5 OL. 2 or maybe 3 tops. Bigger needs with only a few scholorships.

From the article posted by the Bison fan earlier it mentioned that Portland St. had a very good recruiting class. They were inconsistent last year in their play and I think will be an early measuring stick for UND to get a feel for how we'll stack up against most of the Big Sky. Sounds like they, on paper, had a good class.