MafiaMan

I told you clowns that it wasn't the end of the world, LOL, but you guys KILLED me on that thread. All of my Packer fan friends now SWEAR that they thought Ted Thompson was right all along. Riiiiight.

I was simply pointing out that schools are eliminating sports or considering that thought...not implying that UND wipe out its bocce ball team in order to save money for hockey.

And I remember standing in line at 3:00 pm during the 88/89 season waiting for the doors to open up at 6:00 pm for the Friday night Gopher game. The Dakota Student reported that several thousand students went home without getting into the rink. Most games required you to be in line by 4:30-5:00 pm in order to get a decent seat.

LOL, Oxbow...nice to see you again. Looks like your tears have dried from Brett Favre retiring.

bincitysioux himself was just griping about men's basketball attendance being under 1,600 per game on another forum.

Really? Have you seen the stands at an Alabama basketball game lately? Maybe they need to cut a dozen football scholarships and find some basketball players. Or maybe Alabama understands that nothing will change the fact that football butters the bread...like hockey in Grand Forks. Unless you're one of the visionaries picturing 25,000 fans watching football every weekend at the Alerus Center.

LOL...so going 10 years between NATIONAL hockey titles affects attendance and qualifies as a time frame when football and basketball were bigger interests on campus? How has attendance at REA been during the "down years of Sioux hockey," or 2001-2011?

Schools all over the country are discussing eliminating sports. You only need to look at St Cloud State and their football program for something local.

When was THAT? 1994-1996? A bad 3-year stretch of hockey?

Really? UND hockey is far and away the biggest attendance sport in Grand Forks. It's a smaller scale but a valid comparison. I didn't say elimination of sports 2-16 was anything I favored.

I guess if you consider Michigan Tech, Nebraska-Omaha, St Cloud State, Bemidji, and Mankato "premier", then you're correct. Every week? I mean no disrespect to those schools, but when I hear "premier" and "college hockey," the first visions that come into my head aren't those. I can't believe people think UND/UM home and away EVERY year is an option when they're not in the same conference. That's simply not going to happen regardless of the nickname.

Do you think sacrifices in programs 2-16 at Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Alabama, or LSU are made to benefit program #1?

True story...we played in a broomball tournament in 2004 the day after the giant tsunami hit Indonesia...one of the teams in the tournament was a team called "Tsunami". The team had been around for YEARS. After their first game (we were up next), their opponent and several fans chided them for being insensitive and expressed disgust at their jerseys. 24 hours earlier, those same people would have had to google the word "tsunami" to find out what it meant. I know your nickname was tongue-in-cheek, but much like the Utah high school "Cougar" story, you simply can't make this stuff up.

Exactly. Bemidji, Nebraska Omaha, Duluth, Mankato, St Cloud, etc...will all be lobbying Minnesota and Wisconsin to stay on their schedules. Folks thinking UND would play Minnesota and Wisconsin in non-conference action EVERY hockey season REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE NICKNAME IS are sadly mistaken.

Wisconsin's policy was amended AFTER the NCAA's "hostile and abusive" language was added to its own policy. The previous policy had always been pretty simple: No non-conference scheduling of any teams with Indian nicknames and/or imagery. Period. After 2007, that policy was scrapped in favor of "except when...". "Nickname crusader"? I love the nickname as much as anyone else and have been resigned to its departure whether I like it or not. I'm undecided as to whether or not the latest measure is a wise one.

Complaining about Minnesota? I'm simply pointing out that three schools essentially ignore official university policy...and yet you think this ban would stick with hockey no questions asked. I respectfully disagree.

REALLY? Walter Dickey, chairman of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Board, says the Badgers would play the Sioux because of their previous games in hockey. “We have an exception in our policy for what we call a traditional opponent, and you’re a traditional opponent,” Dickey says of the Sioux. “The policy is under review. We’re considering stuff. One of the things we’re looking at is what the NCAA is doing.” Minnesota would quickly do the same.

The official school policy of all three schools does not mention any preference for "NCAA-approved schools with Indian imagery". Check out Iowa AD Gary Barta's quote below... “We have a policy that came out several years ago indicating that we would not play any university outside of the Big Ten Conference who had a Native American mascot,” says Iowa athletic director Gary Barta. ...unless we can make money from scheduling that opponent, then we'll do it.

If Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin were SERIOUS about their commitment, they would ask the Big 10 to kindly schedule them against Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Miami, North Carolina State, Boston College, or any other ACC team not named "Seminoles." They aren't locked in by conference affiliation at all. The school policy is that they will not schedule any teams with Indian-related imagery and/or mascots. They're hypocrites and they know it.

GeauxSioux, ever wonder how Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota don't have a problem playing Florida State in the Big 10/ACC basketball challenge? Those "we can't play you because of university policy" issues go right out the window when money talks.

Typical ignorant liberal comment...

Back in 2006, ESPN Gonzaga basketball fans chanted "brokeback mountain" at West Virginia players and several signs were spotted in the stands reading "brokeback mountaineers." Gonzaga requested video from ESPN and students identified leading chants and carrying signs faced disciplinary action. Funny, though, I can't recall ANYONE saying that if West Virginia simply changed its nickname, that the problem would be solved. The University of Pittsburgh had similar problems with their football fans in 2008 for the very same reasons. The double-standard is unbelievable.

These are the same types of people who feel that the LSU Tigers could defeat a Peyton Manning-less Indianapolis Colts.

InterlockingNDsports.com?

I always preferred this Canada hockey logo over the image the country currently uses.