Teeder11

Thanks! I had sent you a PM about it a few weeks ago but hadn't heard anything. Really appeciate the work you do keeping us updated.

Is there any reason why Matilus has yet to be added to the Wiki recruiting page? Is it still iffy or what?

I agree in hindsight. But it seemed prudent at the time by those, who were in charge and who would have to answer for it if things went badly, to be more cautious. Different time, different priorities.

Who gives a crap what others are going to do with any of our potential new nicknames? If that is one of our overriding concerns, we've got thinner skin than I thought we did. It's not like our beloved Fighting Sioux nickname was immune from other fan bases twisting and morphing it into derrogatory and pejorative forms and phrases, and somehow we all got by ok.

It's always dangerous to dredge up the past, but here goes: there were reasons SU was able to "afford" to make the move, and why UND felt it could not. UND's administration, at the time, did not want to rape academics and low-ball faculty hires (by using GTAs) and engage in other shell games that Chapman was so adept at back in the day to make it work. Now, as history shows us, if you" just win baby," the public is willing to look the other way and let that stuff slide -- so we probably could have/should have done it. I am sure there are many in our own fan base that would have been ok with UND getting "creative" with the books to get a jumpstart on a transition, but at the time, for good or for bad, Kupchella and the boys (no female VPs at the time) didn't want to go down that path. Sometimes I think that we lose sight on here that these administrators are trying to run an entire university and are not exclusively fixated on athletics like we are. EDIT: Every time I wheel this out someone always pipes up and asks -- "what changed for UND, then?" I will try to get out ahead of that one this time by simply saying that the total and utter collapse of the NCC is what shifted the entire paradigm and forced UND to make the leap.

fs4l, is correct. It was two completely different scenarios. When you have a program that is rolling on all eight cylinders (albeit no recent natty) and you have a highly, if not overqualified heir apparent, North Dakota law permits you to hire immediately instead of having to wait the 30 days, or whatever, for the external HR process to play out. As for Bubba Schweigert's hiring, as we know, the football program did not have the internal candiate waiting in the wings, thus the need for the long, public hiring process. NDSU was able to do things the quick way with its recent football and basketball transitions because it felt it had the right guys already on staff.

I'm glad you took it in the right spirit!

I've never understood some folks' obsession with Jesus' crucifixion site as a potential nickname.

She may have been supplying reasons but it also sounded an awful lot like she was dissuading the group from going down that road (admittedly, even after Charging Nakota had already been accepted). My problem with GC's interpretation of the NCAA settlement with UND is that there are other NCAA institutions that use nicknames/words that derive directly from N.A. culture and language. i.e. University of Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks (Inuit word for polar bear), UCONN Huskies (Inuit word for dogs kept by the Inuit people), University of Maryland Terrapins (Algonquin word for a type of turtle), and University of South Dakota Coyotes (Nahuatl root word for an animal that is prominent in N.A. folklore. The Nahua people are descendants of Azetcs in central Mexico.), University of Tennessee, Chattanooga Mocs (shortened from from the word moccasins) etc. I could go on. It would seem GC is just doing her job, but IMHO, she is being too hypersensitive to the terms of the NCAA settlement regarding use of NCAA imagery in a nickname. Maybe the thought is that, as has been shown before, because we decided to fight the NCAA, the rules are different for UND.

They are looking into that right now. That's what Lowell and the committee asked the consultant to look into. Lowell was very confused why one would make it and the other did not. I agree with Lowell. We shall see what they decide.

You are correct. I was at the meetings and McDonald was a little lost at first as to what Lowell was asking about.... McDonald thought he was asking about the tribe known as "Nakota," (mostly in Montana, with some small bands in western North Dakota), when in fact, Lowell was referring to "Nokota," the feral horse in western North Dakota. It seemed like McDonald had no idea what a "Nokota" was and it was the first time he had actually heard it mentioned. McDonald was listening in via teleconference, so maybe there was some technological reasons for the misunderstanding. It was UND's general counsel who was most adament that Nokota was too closely aligned with N.A. culture. Lowell disagreed vehemently, and I tend to agree with Lowell. General Counsel is interpreting things much too broadly here IMHO.

Here's hoping commits stay committed and returners don't change their minds.

Best to Hak!

Dropped out, huh? Bummer. ?

This must be your first time on SiouxSports, then. Wow! You've been busy today-- over 200 posts!!!!

Let me slow it down for you. The nastiness and hypocrisy associated with the UND-NDSU rivalry is not an anomaly in the world of college athletics. It is the norm in all great rivalries. That does not make it right. That is just the way it is. To wish that it should just go poof and be gone is one's prerogative but it is pretty naive, too. And to highlight a hypocrisy on one side while dismissing or ignoring one on the other is not just hypocritical, it is also disingenuous. This is fun!

My, you are naive, aren't you, Pollyanna?

Neither side owns the high ground on hypocrisy. It's very mutual part of any great rivalry. Next.

They mean "region" as in upper Midwest, not just northeastern North Dakota.

All very true. It was interesting that Oregon was interested in Smith as a PWO. The Ducks are pretty synonymous with "fast." He must have some pretty decent speed. As far as football IQ, I Don't know.

Projected safety, corner, returner, slot receiver, running back? Or all of the above?

Relax. Geaux Sioux, this is a fan message board. Everything is done in hyperbole. ( ;

It certainly is the proverbial "sausage being made" isn't it?

Teeder11, on 05 May 2015 - 2:59 PM, said: Fixed your fix.

I was just talking about this very thing with a co-worker... and your explanation was my best guess, too. I just wished that there would have been a happy medium on the lag time between the time the lists arrived from the outside agency to the time it was released publicly, at which point better vetting could have taken place and some of the confusing matters that are confounding people today could have been cleared up and alleviated. I think it should have been released today rather than immediately after it was received. Just my 2 cents. I do realize, however, that someone could then accuse UND of manipulating the data... so damned if you do, damned if you don't, I guess.