fightingsioux4life

My perspective on this is kind of mixed. On one hand, you have the Flyers, a franchise that has always promoted and celebrated Thug N Slug hockey. I never have and never will like the Flyers. In 1997, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Red Wings sweep Eric "Wonder Boy" Lindros and the overrated "Legion of Doom" line out of the Stanley Cup Finals. From Bobby Clarke in the 1970's to today, the Flyers are an example of what this great game shouldn't be like. And I think any Flyer fans that complain about what the Pens are doing are being just a little bit hypocritical. On the other hand, you have the Pens, a very talented and skilled team that has, for some reason, resorted to the same tactics you expect from the Flyers in order to prove their toughness. I do not think this is a smart approach. If you have skill and speed up front, then use it. Don't take stupid penalties and neutralize your own skilled players because you are on the penalty kill for half the game. I believe that Crosby is trying to set the tone as the Captain of his team by playing uncharacteristically rough and tumble with a rough and tumble team. I also think he is trying to prove that he is over his concussion problems and that he is not a soft touch. While I understand the psychological reasons for all this, the Pens shouldn't resort to this garbage. You have speed and skill, use it. That is what they did last night. The Flyers took a bunch of stupid penalties and the Pens used their skill to make them pay for it. The Pens also cut out the cheap stuff and focused on playing the game. The Flyers better end this series in Game 5 or else the Pens will gain even more confidence and start to believe they can pull off the comeback.

The sanctions will more than likely mean no conference home for football and basketball (I do not believe that the Big Sky is bluffing). That would plunge the athletic department into a sea of red ink that no amount of REA beer revenues could compensate for. We would have to switch to non-scholarship status for all non-hockey programs and run a shoe string, bargain basement operation using whatever revenues we get from Men's Hockey. And even then, it would be difficult to make it work.

That should be enough to keep burning the bandwidth!

My friend, I will gladly feel dumb if indeed the name and logo are saved by Spirit Lake's lawsuit. I just don't think it will happen. And you are wrong about the name being retired too soon. The repeal of the law included a provision that we couldn't pick a new name until sometime in 2015. So if Spirit Lake does somehow save the name, we could go back to using it again. All this referral does is back us into a corner and put our membership in the Big Sky Conference in serious jeopardy.

You can't get everybody. She might have liked the campus, the educational choices and being further away from Mom and Dad. We have a lot of talented kids coming in, so I am not worried.

Well put.

The only reason Fetch wants an AHL team is because he is mad about the impending demise of the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo. He wants REA to kick out UND and then get an AHL team and call them the Fighting Sioux. I can tell you right now if that ever happens, I will never set foot in that place ever again for any event. The AHL team would last one or two years tops, after REA had burned its bridges with UND. I would call that poetic justice. Bottom line: I don't think people in Grand Forks would warm up to a minor league team. This is a college town.

I think the fact that the Seminole tribe endorses the use of their name by Florida State would make their situation a little different. We have the endorsement of Spirit Lake, but not Standing Rock, so that would be interesting.

That is my guess. I am thinking this lawsuit won't fly.

I am no lawyer (and I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night), but I think that the lawsuit is based on Federal civil rights and equal protection laws. The idea is to get the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo declared a violation of Native American civil and human rights under Federal law because it creates a hostile educational environment for Native American students. Because UND is a public institution that gets Federal dollars from many, many different sources and is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution, I think it is plausible that a Federal court could order the official use of the name and logo discontinued. I think they will have to come up with solid evidence to prove their case; whether they have that is anybodys guess. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

I think that truth is self-evident. I would imagine that if a Federal Court ruled that the Fighting Sioux nickname had to be retired based on that lawsuit, Al Carlson would make some stupid statement about North Dakota's "sovereignty" and how "the Federal Government has no real power here". In other words, he just wouldn't get it.

Then the people you have been speaking with are foolish and stubborn. I can assure you we are not all like that.

Then you, my friend, are part of the problem. Just go back to Bisonville where you belong. Troll.

That should not surprise anyone. Let's Play Hockey is a Gopher-sucking publication and it always has been. I am willing to bet some of the people that work there don't even realize that there is more than one Division I program in the State of Minnesota. If some private entity decided to set up their own Midget team based in the Twin Cities (Xcel Energy Center?), these same people would call it the greatest thing since sliced bread because it would benefit the Rodent Hockey Program. I think Karl Goehring had a nice response to this drivel.

I have an idea, we can call THIS team the Fighting Sioux! Then we can keep selling merchandise with the name and logo on it and the nickname-at-all-costers can switch their UND Men's Hockey tickets for season tickets to watch THIS team instead! Then they don't have to keep whining, moaning and complaining about UND not using the name and logo and UND can move on in Division I athletics. It's a win-win!

Apples and Oranges comparisons are entertaining, but not accurate to the matter at hand. Notre Dame is an independent in FOOTBALL, but all their other sports are in the Big East. They knew it wasn't economically viable to remain an independent in everything a long time ago and thus they joined a legitimate, established conference. I honestly hope this post is a joke; if so please accept my apology.

I am so sick of this whole thing I want to throw up. But it's so vital for the future of UND athletics and the vitality of the institution as a whole that we can and must continue talking about it. People need to know what the consequences are of keeping the name and logo at all costs before they vote in June and (presumably) in November. The Legislature needs to know that we want UND athletics to become a viable Division I member and that we will hold them accountable if they don't do what they need to do when they go to Bismarck in 2013. This isn't an argument over who should start at QB or what line combinations Hakstol should use. This is very serious business. Do you want UND playing the likes of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and NDSU or do you want us stuck playing Mayville State, Dickinson State, Sioux Falls College and UM-Crookston? That is what is at stake here. So, as sick and tired of the arguing and bickering that we all are, it is just too important of a matter to be left to chance.

This sounds like a tongue-in-cheek post. All sarcasm aside, the Big Sky has made it abundantly clear from the start that if UND does not get rid of the sanctions (either by getting off the H&A List or dropping the name), they are not interested in having us as a member. Have they said that explicitly? No. But based on all their public statements over the past 2 years, have they not implied that one of the qualifications for membership is resolving the name issue one way or another? Yes, they have. They have been very consistent about this right from the start. If the SBoHE hadn't announced their intentions to drop the name and logo when they did, I don't think the Big Sky would have extended their invitation to us and we'd still be looking for a conference home. I guess if the nickname-at-all-costers wanted to help pay the bills of being a Division I Independent, we could take another look at it. But since that likely isn't going to happen, we had better resolve this issue ASAP or else UND athletics as we have known them will cease to exist. But at least we can keep that sizzling FB rivalry with Sioux Falls College going, right?

That sounds good for those of us hoping to hang onto Eades.

Thanks, that is better!

Congratulations to Coach Hakstol. One of the best examples of getting more out of less that I have ever seen!

*Pending outcome of the Fighting Sioux Nickname and Logo fight.

I think Eades has actually submitted a formal application for the job, so that is why he is considered the favorite.

Before August 5th, 2005, we had developed a reputation for success in NCAA Division I Men's Hockey.

You are 100% dead wrong about that. A strong, successful and vibrant athletic program is a tremendous marketing tool for colleges and universities. Want proof? How many people would know where Gonzaga is if their basketball team hadn't knocked off some big-time programs in March in the late 1990's? How many people now know where NDSU is after they won the FCS Football title in January of 2012? How many people know about UND because of the success of our hockey program at a national level? This isn't Europe, where you don't have organized college sports. And it isn't Canada, where college sports is really for participation and nothing more. College athletics are an important part of the college experience in the United States. Sometimes it's for the better, sometimes it's for the worse, but it's an undeniable fact. And destroying the athletic department at UND would have a negative impact on everything else.