fightingsioux4life

I remember a Bison fan once saying that NDSU might become "The next Gonzaga of Division I Basketball". It's good to see that their delusions of grandeur are still alive and well; it's good entertainment during the off-season!

So is UND hockey, but Midco Sports isn't televising practices with a "post-game" show afterwards. And if they did that, I would call it stupid as well.

I could live with that list.

I don't often agree with Tom Dennis and his cute little editorials, but this one is right on the money. Using "UND" or "University of North Dakota" or "North Dakota" or (heaven forbid) "Green and White" into perpetuity are not viable options. I remember Grand Forks Central's process for picking a new name back when I was going to school there. Some people were loudly pushing to be called "GFC" or "Grand Forks Central" arguing "That says it all!" So we got stuck with "Maroon and Grey" for two years. Then in 1995, they finally wised up and picked "Knights", which has served the school well ever since. In the 21st century, branding is very important. We must have a distinct brand of our own. "North Dakota" is too generic and too easily confused with "North Dakota State". Is anyone else as sick of our hockey team being called "North Dakota State" by the national (and even regional) sports media as I am? Picking a new name and logo would help prevent that from happening. If we don't have a new name and logo in place for the start of the 2015-16 sports calendar, it will represent a failure of leadership and vision by the Kelley Administration.

I think all the kids bolting high school for junior hockey has hurt the product on the ice. And the new REA is much, much too big for this tournament. The old REA was perfect; the atmosphere was great there. Whether high school hockey will draw in Fargo is a big question mark; hockey is not even close to being the #1 sport there or even #2. I almost would rather have it out west if it isn't in Grand Forks, but I don't know if Bismarck or Minot have the facilities to host it.

By that logic, Bismarck and Minot should lose their tournaments to Fargo too. Try telling them that; there might be a secessionist movement out there! Fargo is NOT Minneapolis; they should not host every single state tournament every single year. Grand Forks has hosted some basketball tournaments in recent years and they have done pretty well. I don't want that to stop.

It's a simple tradeoff. Either put up with orange barrels or put up with pot holes. Our construction season is so short with our long winters that everything gets squeezed into the same short period of time. I don't like road construction either, but the trade off is worth not having my car damaged hitting pot holes.

Fargo is the only town that supports tournaments when they get them? Please make a coherent case to support this. Simple right?

This makes sense for football, but this doesn't explain why the state hockey tournament is being moved to Fargo. Grand Forks teams are almost always in the hunt for state championships, while Fargo teams make much less frequent trips to the state title game. It's only a matter of time before all (or almost all) state tournaments are held in Fargo every single year. Imperial Cass County's Silver Platter keeps getting more and more plates added to it.

And then some of the same people complaining about the orange barrels would be complaining that the city is incompetent for not fixing the pot holes. This is what turns people off from serving in public office; you will always have someone mad at you for something.

That is clever, I'll give them that.

Really? UND Women's Basketball is an early favorite to repeat as Big Sky Champions and go back to the NCAA tournament again in March. UND Women's Hockey will continue building depth and talent and be a dangerous team come March. UND Men's Hockey will once again be NCHC and NCAA title contenders. UND Men's Basketball's future is much less certain, but they did get to the Big Sky Conference Tournament title game last year following a less-than-great regular season, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. UND Women's Volleyball will be good again, even with a new coach, whom I think will continue to build what Ashley Hardee started. Oh, that's right, I forgot.....#buttfootball.

One is high school. The other is college. Apples and oranges. I honestly cannot figure out what the big deal is.

This is proof positive that some schools shouldn't even have football. One local example is MSU-Moorhead. They just don't have the resources to put a competitive team on the field. They should think of dropping football and focusing on basketball, which they are pretty good in sometimes. If they focused more on basketball, they might be good all the time.

Awesome! I am so looking forward to football again.

When does training camp start? So we can talk about football and not this stuff?

He should have used a to indicate that. Without that it's hard to tell sometimes. But I think you are right.

Really? So we are going to give a local HS veto power in this? Sorry, but I don't think so. Like I have said before, if we start with the premise that we have to use a name nobody else is using, we will get nowhere.

Agreed, it's a stupid rule because it isn't enforced evenly. Either enforce it or get rid of it. I was just providing a possible rationale for why they have it. But it's the NCAA so don't look for them to make sense all the time (or even most of the time).

I think basketball might be cheaper to run than football. There also are about three times as many games in a basketball season than a football season. And lastly, whatever revenues are lost from poorly attended regular season games are more than made up in the conference tournaments and the NCAA tournament. I am thinking the national college football playoff will help football financially when it comes to the post-season.

Grand Forks got hammered last night. Lots of branches down, widespread street flooding. Some areas lost power; I was fortunate in that I did not lose power, just some flickering. My kitty didn't like all the wind and rain and noise, but she handled it pretty well. Today is much drier and more comfortable outside, which I am grateful for. Monday was unbearably hot and humid.

I think Roughriders or Oilers would make the most sense and be accepted by most people.

I don't see it happening. Do you really think REA wants to have a 60% drop in attendance for hockey and basketball? And do you think UND wants to have a similar drop in football attendance at the Alerus Center? I am not a big fan of Kelley and his leadership style, but I believe him when he says he will not do this. There is just too much to lose, starting with his job.

Or they could at least start the long process of picking a new name. The sooner they start the vetting process, the better.

You can bet if you ask President Kelley, you'll get his favorite response to everything: "No comment".