PhillySioux

Seems to me that if one is a supporter of the nickname and of the process that led to passage of the bill, one would want all questions regarding constitutionality of the law answered quickly and clearly. One can be sure that the NCAA will do NOTHING to change their position if there is a cloud of uncertainty as to whether the nickname law will remain law of the land.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/202923/ Probably, the first Herald editorial in a while that will be supported here.

ESPN's OTL on Omaha

Despite the thread title..........

Do Bison fans want to see Thornton beat out Jenson? I would certainly like to see a ND kid succeed at QB.

I think that is Pat Smykowski's son.

I'll complain about something. Based on the schedules from fightingsioux.com, why the eff are we playing SD school of Mines to open 2012 and Valpo to open 2013 and not NDSU. I dont care who is to blame, blah blah blah. Get it done. There is absolutely zero reason that Colorado/Colorado State model cannot be implemented in ND.

Sweet.

So they come to Alerus 3 times be before we go to Missoula.

After seeing these schedules, we now have matching open dates with NDSU for the foreseeable future. Both programs need games, get the damn thing done already.

MSU travels to Fargo and Grand Forks in 2013. Montana does the same in 2014.

Arguably, this piece points out nicely why the NCAA is not going to back down. UND is big enough to attract attention but small enough to pushed around and it is the most visible school left in the NCAAs nickname crusade. Only small schools no one has heard of have actually dropped a nickname due to the 2005 policy. UND is the hill that the NCAA will choose to die upon. Figuratively speaking.

Has this been confirmed?

Bitching about the transitional seasons accomplishes nothing and looking at those years is a ridiculous way to predict future success. It seems to me the correct conversation should be about whether the Sanctions themselves will delay success. With regard to scheduling, it should be noted that for the 2010 season only 2 BigSky teams did not play a non-qualifying game.

We have one calendar year. UND is playoff eligible fall of 2012, its first year of BigSky play. That would be one full and one partial recruiting cycles under sanctions.

The WACs TV deal is on the chopping block at ESPN. Its a terrible league. http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/sportsnews/20110327_the_future_of_uh_sports_on_tv_is_a_big_unknown.html

Is there a copy of the settlement agreement available anywhere?

I'm not following the metaphor. We can agree that UND is in a "tight spot" as Ulysses Everett McGill would say. The NCAA come August 1 will not be running afoul of the nickname law, no matter what they do.

UND will comply with the law or not. The NCAA telling UND to drop the name or face consequences from the NCAA is not a violation of state law.

Im not an anti-trust attorney so I ill leave that to someone else. But to be clear, the NCAA is NOT in violation of any state law.

I couldn't find that prediction anywhere in the piece.

They certainly care about the success of their teams in the playoffs and with success comes more exposure. Home field plays a role in potential success. I would submit that they had no earthly idea the legislature would force UND into sanctions. As the matter was settled at the time of membership invitation. We'll have to wait and see if they publicly care.

I agree that the current state of affairs is bogus. I've been involved with large NGO regulators my whole professional life, they have memories and they generally win. I digress.....one thing that hasn't been discussed much is how the Big Sky will view its newest member, banned from hosting home playoff games in what is clearly the conferences most important sport. What can be said for sure is its bad for the Big Sky.

And Coach Idalski's players can expect the same amount of respect?

For an FCS level program to be successful on a national level it must recruit and sign some FBS quality kids every year. The kids that could play in the MAC or WAC or walk on at a larger program. They go to a FCS school to play more, earlier and have a chance at a National Title. The kids that are "happy to have a scholarship" go play in the NSIC not the Big Sky or the MVFC.