Great points Shiloh. Unfortunately, I believe the answer to most of the questions you posed is "yes". Minnesota, Wisconsin and others have already refused to schedule UND in other sports. The NCAA is capricious enough to stick it to UND every chance it gets if we retain the name without tribal approval. Many Big Sky schools would object, although I'm not sure there is much they can do at this point. It would be costly both financially and in recruiting. Opposing schools would use the controversy and uncertainty with potential recruits. While I'm sure this would be an unpopular opinion, I believe people who only follow UND Men's Hockey would support keeping the name under any circumstances. In the short-run, these fans see few downsides to keeping the name. It would potentially cost hockey the chance to host a regional, but not much else. People who support UND athletics as a whole see the disaster that looms for the other programs if the name remains unchanged and the university ends up on a "hostile" list of one. I would also like to point out that if the Big Ten does form a hockey conference that does not include UND, the hockey team would not be able to play Minnesota or Wisconsin since there would be no conference affiliation. Like the majority of Sioux fans, I believe the NCAA is a shortsighted, arrogant, spiteful, pathetic collection of wannabe intellectuals. Unfortunately, it's their show in the end. Hope a miracle happens in the next few months.
