fightingsioux4life

Go with just plain "Stars". Sure, it's a little bland, but it's better than a lot of alternatives (Prairie Dogs, Sun Dogs, Spirit, Flames, Green and White, etc.).

Isn't that an added bonus?

I must admit, it's a cute little animal. But that is what makes it a bad choice for an sports nickname.

Questioning the loyalty of a fellow poster is not cool.

I will go with the Wild in 6 over the Hawks. The Blackhawks aren't as deep as their Cup winning teams were and the Wild have the edge in goal. The Wild are also a great road team.

Drop the "North" and go with just plain "Stars". It would work with our colors and it shouldn't be offensive to anyone. Other names I like are Oilers, Aviators, Predators (the warplane, not the animal), Jets (with a much different logo than Winnipeg), Flyers and Raptors. Are any of them as good as Fighting Sioux? No. Are they better than nothing? Yes. Am I ready for this whole tired, sorry affair to be over? Heck Yes.

Touche my friend!

Man, all this FB talk is making me excited for the 2015 campaign!

I suppose he didn't understand the full extent of what was going to happen until he got to that particular part of the movie. But I do think this is a bit of an overreaction. It's like those posters on UND's campus entitled "More than Beads and Feathers".....the presumption (mostly false, but sometimes true) that us white Europeans look at Native Americans as all living in teepees and wearing feathers and animal skins. I for one couldn't care less about a person's skin color, ethnic origins or nationality (if I did, I wouldn't work on campus). But I am sure that B.R.I.D.G.E.S. will tell me that I don't know what I am talking about and that only they are allowed to comment on issues like this.

Yeah, I was just guessing.

No, those prices would turn off pretty much everyone, which mean very few sales, which means very little profit.

Concessions? That is supposedly how most events make most of their money.

Yeah, I wish I was his agent. Those guys make good money. And if I was AP's agent, I wouldn't behave like a jacka$$ and would talk some sense into his head.

Yes, eventually Father Time wins (I actually use that a lot). But I am not convinced that AP is all washed up yet. And the Ravens won a championship in Ray Lewis' final season, so I guess he wasn't all that "slow". His leadership presence more than compensated for any "slowness".

Ponder was stupid and happened quite recently, but you are going to bring up Williamson? That was quite awhile ago. Spielman used to have to share personnel decisions with guys like Brad Childress, now he doesn't. He does a good job in the draft of trading up to get a player or down to get more picks. Now that we have a competent head coach running the team (Mike Zimmer), I think you'll see some serious progress from the Vikings (for a change).

AP is not a normal human being. Anyone who rushes for over 2,000 yards one year after shredding his knee is not your average NFL player. He works hard in the weight room and takes care of his body, unlike Randy Moss, who could have been the greatest WR of all time but didn't want to put in the off-season work like Jerry Rice did. He played in one game last year, which means he didn't get beat up in games and any nagging injuries have healed by now. Any team that wants to win right now will be interested in him. And as for a rookie draft pick having "more tread on the tires", that doesn't mean he'll give you anything close to what AP gives you, a home run threat every time he touches the ball. With a productive QB (Bridgewater), he'll be even more dangerous.....if he comes to his senses and gets back on board the Mike Zimmer Train before it leaves the station.

Well, several Division I hockey schools don't sponsor football (Denver, Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks), so it wouldn't be all that unprecedented. And I have said over and over again that if we aren't committed to being a top-tier FCS program, then we are better off without having a program at all. But I am hoping Bubba can make some big strides in the next couple of years.

Do you really think AP will leave all that money on the table and retire? After the year he has had, he is itching to get back on the field and focus on football (and keep collecting those huge paychecks). What is happening right now is a high-stakes poker game being played in the media between AP's agent and the Vikings front office. AP will not be cut and he will not retire. He will either play with the Vikings or be traded to one of the teams of his choice (that is the only card he has to play here, he is not an unrestricted free agent). Whatever happens, I just want to Vikings to keep building around Bridgewater and a young defense.

If anyone else is as concerned about this issue as I am, here are the e-mail addresses for both Faison and Kelley. Be polite, be respectful, but also be clear about why this is so important to the future of UND athletics: brian.faison@athletics.und.edu robert.kelley@email.und.edu

"Making fun"? I guess I am a little more skeptical of UND administration than you are, which is an honest difference of opinion. But I do intend on e-mailing both Kelley and Faison about this issue because I think it is one of the cornerstone, bedrock issues facing our programs right now.

Ah yes, the all-purpose jdub27 solution to every problem, write e-mails. But in all seriousness, I plan on doing just that. I want us to get out in front of the situation and force our competitors to play catch-up with us for once. I think a special fundraising campaign along the lines of the Champions Club is in order. If Faison and Kelley were to announce their intentions to fund FCOA for our bedrock programs (MH, FB, WBB, MBB) and ask that boosters and alumni chip in whatever they can afford, I think there would be no shortage of boosters and alumni that would step up and deliver. Our track record of raising financial support for stuff like this is very good and I don't see it changing for FCOA. And it doesn't have to depend entirely on big money donors. Remember, 1,000 people giving $100 each is the same as one person giving $100,000. If you look at the Champions Club membership rolls, the Coaches Club is the largest and it's not even close (I am in the Coaches Club). If we could establish an endowment for athletics to fund stuff like this, it will provide a steady stream of revenues that will help us cover the cost of all this. I am looking at the long-term consequences, not the short-term. Right now, it isn't a big problem. In the future, it might become one when our coaches are trying to recruit top-notch athletes to come to Grand Forks.

This is the hard truth that Kelley and Faison (and some people on here) need to come to terms with. If we wanted to run our programs on a shoestring budget, then we should have stayed D-II and joined the NSIC.

Exactly what I am thinking. This is proactive thinking, not reactive thinking. And this is what we need to do.

I am not against cutting certain programs (baseball and softball don't do much for our athletic department, IMHO). And I fully realize they cannot bankrupt the department. But I hope there is some medium to long-range planning taking place behind the scenes with regard to raising the money to pay for all this if it becomes necessary to do so.