MplsBison

If anything, your group (if this is real) should be putting your energy, passion and resources into shutting down or at least changing the mission of the extraneous 4-year universities in ND. They should close or become 2 year tech schools. Having both UND and NDSU is only good for the RRV (research corridor) and the state of ND.

This is made up, right? There is no actual organization that is spending any money to get UND and NDSU to combine, correct?

I disagree with your entire post and premise on its face. I don't know how much longer you want to continue this because it's obvious to me that you've made up your mind to be hateful to the Summit and Douple and blame them for UND's problems and you won't allow any number of facts that prove you wrong to change your mind. But I leave it to you how long you want to continue this. 1) how did Douple or the Summit even "stick his nose into some else's business"? I reject that utterly false premise on its face. The Summit stated its position publicly so that the public would know what the hold up was. It was a fair position to take - the Summit would only accept UND once the issue had been resolved between UND and the Tribes one way or another. There is not a single iota that is immature or unfair about such a position or letting the public know that the Summit has taken that position. Pure bunk on your part to insist that such a thing is even close to them sticking their nose into UND's business. Did the Summit demand a seat at the negotiating table between UND and Standing Rock? That I could see you saying is them sticking their nose into UND's business...but they were as far from that as could be. 2) as you just admitted it was Kelley and Faison that may or may not have lobbied for the end of the nickname. It was THOSE TWO. The Summit was not lobbying anyone! You should be blaming Kelley and Faison if you want to blame someone for supposedly lobbying to end the nickname. And it's pretty obvious that if they were lobbying for the end of the nickname that they would've done so regardless of the Summit's position. If anything, the Summit being open and public about their position would restrict Kelley and Faison from potentially arguing that the Summit might want UND to end the nickname before inviting them to joint he conference. With the Summit's clear and fair position out in the open, that the Summit would accept UND once the school and the tribes settled the issue one way or another, neither Kelley or Faison could argue otherwise. 3) Even after all of that, at the end of the day the only thing that matters is that the Standing Rock TC did not allow a tribal vote on the issue and did everything in their power to end the nickname. It was the tribal council. It was always the tribal council. No amount of spin will ever be able to dismiss that. MK, I've totally defeated your ridiculous premise of blaming the Summit for the nickname. But I still have my doubts that you or any other UND fan will give up this foolishness of trying to make the Summit out to be the bad guys in this. I hope you prove me wrong!

Bunk, bunk, bunk. Douple/Summit have zero (if possible, they have negative) impact on anything having to do with the nickname being retired. It was 100% related to the Standing Rock TC's inaction. It was entirely up to them to save the nickname. If they had, the Summit would've accepted UND with teh Sioux nickname, no questions. This is nothing more than bitter UND fans desperately looking for something to lash out at. If anything, Douple's only mistake was giving them an excuse to lash out at the Summit.

This is crackpot - even for bisonville. How does this guy get an article in the forum? You gotta be kidding me. He paid someone off to print article about his fantasy. Whatever...never happen in a million years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word

Hopefully the ADs realize that, for whatever reason, those folks that choose to post on message boards tend to over-represent only a very narrow portion of the overall alumni feeling on any given topic.

Two points: 1 - if the WAC does come calling to the state of North Dakota, I do think they will invite both NDSU and UND -- it's going to take a complete collapse to get to this point (BYU does not join WAC, Utah State leaves, Hawaii goes independent, La Tech leaves at a minimum and New Mexico State might have to leave too...) 2 - if the WAC does invite NDSU and UND - depending on who is going to be in the new conference... I think both school should try to make it work. With the NCAA likely to make new rules requiring that to move up to FBS you have to be invited from an established FBS conference (or maybe this is already confirmed?) it could be at least a generation before either school gets another chance to move up to the bowl level. When opportunities like that come by, you either jump on the train or watch it pass you by...

For the millionth time: a) The only ones at fault if the name is retired are the Standing Rock Tribal Council. b) Withholding donations that you were planning to give because of the nickname being retired only punishes the student athletes. Summary: the university and teams are much better off without you.

I will take exception about requirement to recruit in California and Texas. IMO, that's an accountant's view of college football recruiting, from his desk. The majority of NDSU starters, even in the skill positions will be from the upper midwest. There is nothing genetically different about a HS player in CA or TX than there is with a HS player in MN or WI.

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/14499/wac-commish-karl-benson-comes-out-firing

Agree...BUT... look at the geography of the proposed conference. It's basically a FBS version of the Big Sky. Other than the Montana schools...what business does North Dakota schools have being in that conference with western schools? It would be like the Great West all over again. Would it be worth it just to be FBS? I don't know...

The entire Kelley/Douple/Summit angle on this is such pathetic bunk. The decision was entirely up to the Standing Rock Tribal Council. They alone will be the reason that the nickname will be retired or saved. As star2 already pointed out, relationships/business partnerships could've been formed with Standing Rock TC a long time ago. Far before Kelley's time. He certainly wasn't going to be able to erase 20+ years of history between UND and the tribe.

I guess I don't get the "retractable roof" fad. You're basically playing in a can of beans with the top removed...it's not and will never be anything close to the feel of a real open-air, outdoor stadium. If you want to host events, bball tournaments, etc. then just build a dome. The only solution I've ever seen proposed that might actually be able to provide a legitimate conversion from a true open-air, outdoor stadium to a fully enclosed stadium was the original proposal in Kansas City for the Royals and Chiefs stadiums that would've had a moving roof that would be on a track and actually move back and forth to cover either stadium when needed. That really would've been something. I think they tried again to build that recently but it failed.

Lets make it as crystal clear as possible: people who were planning to donate now or soon to UND but now will not donate because of the nickname issue do not deserve any praise. In fact, they deserve to be called our and embarrassed for what they are: childish cowards.

Don't try to cloud the issue. We're talking about people who have already been donating, perhaps every year for several years, who have plenty of money to keep donating - yet they make up some BS excuse to stop donating for what basically amounts to being a crybaby, "you can't come to my birthday!" child over the nickname changing. As as been said a million times already, don't punish the student athletes! No, of course no one is required to start donating. But if you have been and can continue to do so, this is not a rightful excuse to stop.

Any UND fan who was previously donating and has stopped because of the nickname, who reads The Sicatoka's post and still finds an excuse to stop donating because of the nickname...should be banned from any UND athletic event or from even watching on TV! It couldn't be said any more perfectly than his post and if you're still so pathetically bitter, then you don't deserve to even watch.

And there it is, the raw, naked truth: as soon as the Spirit Lake voted their support for the nickname, every single card was placed into the Standing Rock Tribal Council's hand. The Summit had zero to do with the SR tribal council's inaction.

Don't mistake it for being an endorsement of the building and how it's being used "as is". I think you get my point...these days trying to actually do something is almost impossible. Too many people who sit around being critics of others and don't actually do anything themselves.

There is absolutely no need for your to explain yourself to some of the mouth breathers on this forum. You're never going to convince them anyway. But it is still nice to read such well written posts from your side of the argument, the side of rational people and the side of the majority of UND alumni. It's too bad that in most internet message boards, it's the very few extermists that often have try to project themselves as being the majority when it's not true.

At least they (city of GF) took the chance and built the thing. Maybe it is a money loser, but these days (esp. in fiscally conservative states like ND) getting anything built is a challenge. I guess my point is that they can be proud that they actually got something built, even if it didn't work out.

Very well said! You're wasting your time trying to convince people like Goon. He would sacrifice his neighbor, his brother-in-law, his favorite hunting dog...whatever it would take to keep a nickname to a college sports team and expects nothing less of anyone. That type of emotional attachment (obsession?) is impossible to convince otherwise using logic.

Maybe that's exactly what the people who hired Kelley wanted in the first place: no previous connection to the school. He in turn hired Faison under the same directive. Sometimes it's good for a business to bring in leadership from the outside, for a fresh perspective.

Short of a coup, pitchforks in hand, your will as a commoner is more or less irrelevant. Those in power are the ones who control what happens. It's always been that way.

Summit League never had any authority to change the nickname. UND admin wanted the nickname to change and so they used the Summit League as an excuse to do so. Now you're using the Summit League as an excuse to hate something.