I have no clue why folks don't understand that. When the New Orleans Hornets re-branded as the Pelicans, the team owner still had to grant permission for Charlotte to "take back" the Hornets nickname.
Ummm...Minnesota wasn't allowed to use "North Stars" because that retired name belongs to the Dallas Stars. The league also wanted to avoid any possible confusion between Stars and North Stars.
So NDSU/Gopher fans chanting "Sioux suck" or "f*** the Sioux" means that the nickname must go but nobody on the committee can envision a single fan in the opposing student section yelling anything vulgar about "Pride" and being gay.
What kind of Utopia do these committee members live in anyways?
Hot rumor out of Chicago is that the Blackhawks are flying in "superfan" siouxweet for game 6 in appreciation of all of his "support" of the team this year on SiouxSports.com.
I get the feeling that committee members were interviewed beforehand and quizzed on their open-mindedness and abstract vision regarding this process...Karl was a Trojan horse put on there to appease the loud hockey voices.
My problem with Roughriders or RoughRiders or Rough Riders is the same problem I have with "hawk" names. Miami is the Redhawks but UMass-Lowell is the River Hawks (two words). It's very confusing...
Plus there's the branding issue of Rough Riders and Lady Roughriders. It's the reason Syracuse went from "Orangemen" and "Orangewomen" to simply "Orange."