Siouxphan27

They'll probably come up with something clever involving studded condoms instead.

UND Albatrosses! Makes perfect sense!

Nice post. I am also disappointed in the job the committee with "expert" help did in narrowing the list. They could've just asked a flaming gay guy with a bird fetish and came up with this exact same top 15. Disclaimer: (Nothing against flaming, gays, guys, birds, or fetishes)

Interesting side note.... There are just many North Stars (just one), as there were Roughriders who were from North Dakota that went to battle with Teddy Roosevelt in Cuba. (Just one- Jesse Langdon) If Roughriders is chosen, it would be a nice tribute to that "northern star" of the Roughriders Jesse Langdon, the son of the head veterinarian at ndsu in the 1890's. Or maybe Cavalry makes more sense....

Someone posted here earlier the "experts" advising the committee are pushing the three hawk choices. So my wild guess is their top three will be one each from three different types of names... _____Hawks Abstract concept of choice Roughriders, Cavalry, or Explorers If North Dakota makes the cut, who knows......

In this day and age of Minority Rules, it's all very confusing.

They'll probably use the info here, and the online polls to push their own agenda... For example if a few of them want North Stars, they could look at the polls and try to keep a popular name like Roughriders out of the top 3. Or vice versa.

Riders??? So our mascot will be a front butt chick wearing Lee brand Mom Jeans she bought at Penney's? Great.

LOL. UND Ostriches for the compromise?

Not a bad idea. It definitely would help make the name less of a mouthful.

Ok, i'll give the negatives idea a try.... Blaze- UND Blaze? Blaze of what? what is a blaze? just dumb... Cavalry - no negatives here- there were Cavalry in ND, so it is historically relevant. Explorers - not a bad choice given the crappy list- but not real catchy. Explorers Yeah Yeah! Yeah Explorers Explorers! ? Fighting Green- not a thing is it's biggest negative. can't believe it made the list Fighting Hawks- not the worst since there's so few good ones. But i'm not a fan of all these dumb Big Bird type mascots. Force -what is this, Star Wars? Green Hawks - again not a fan of Big Bird mascots Nodaks - nothing wrong with this choice. it's been used before. North Dakota - Perfect. As the saying goes, if you can't say something that isn't lame, don't say anything at all. North Stars - Maybe we could hire Oliver North to be the P.A. announcer while we're at it. Pride - When's the parade? Roughriders - not historically accurate as T.R.'s Roughriders were not from ND. But historical significance left this exercise 63 names ago. So not the worst Spirit - brought to you by Happy Harry's Sundogs -the mamby pamby rainbow connotation does not evoke any sense of power or competitiveness. Thunderhawks- How many Ornithologists are on this committee anyway?

Very, very well done.... and quite possibly sad but true. augh

I will go out on a limb and say this will not be open to everyone. Yes, it is being called a public vote. But I believe just saying "public" is becoming a little confusing.... being a public vote does not always mean everyone is eligible to vote. Just like a general election is a public vote, you still need to meet certain criteria to vote in your precinct for the people running in your district. The nickname vote will hopefully be handled similarly with a set of criteria that must be met to be eligible to vote. An email requesting a reply to the list of nickname finalists, sent to all current students and alumni would suffice in my opinion. If for some reason the university does not have someone's email address, that person is responsible for contacting the university, proving who they are, and registering their vote.

It's sure interesting reading all the differing opinions.... On one hand, if you prefer to go forward with no nickname, you are accused of holding UND back, as purported millions of nickname merchandise revenue will be left on the table, as people from all corners of the globe who had previously never heard of UND will suddenly purchase shirts that say UND Sundogs on them. Not to mention the loss of revenue from rich folks with no UND affiliation who might channel surf one evening and stumble upon a Traditional Circle of Sticks and see that Sundog logo and say to themselves, that nickname is cool! I gotta donate copious amounts of money to that school! And last but not least, when large research grants are being doled out to Universities, the deciding factor of who gets the grant and who doesn't, will inevitably come down to how cool the nicknames are of the top three finalist Universities. Yet some of the people accusing the no nickname crowd of holding UND back, are readily admitting they won't buy "Shiite" that "just says UND" on it. Interesting indeed.

Exactly. And also, people bought lifetime supplies of Sioux gear near the end, so it's understandable sales would be down.

If it were used to like that, it would be in reference to the state of North Dakota. Not the Dakota tribe. UNDs use of "we are North Dakota", irks some of the NDSU people. If we also said" we are Dakota", that would help tick off the South Dakota schools. It's a win-win for UND in both of the Dakotas

Don't have time to look, but I believe Slippery Rock uses Rock, and doesn't have another nickname.

I would've been ok with the UND Hunkpapas. Darnit, too late!

I guess I was just referencing his ability to play the race card and trump everyone else. He could just say staying without a nickname will be racist because people will then still use fighting Sioux.

You will need to talk to McDonald if you would like one person on the commitee to single handedly eliminate a choice; he's the only member who wields that much power. I think your assumption that people who want North Dakota are hockey only fans, is extremely inaccurate.

Very true. I would not be surprised if a similar problem with BRIDGES occurs for either Cavalry or Roughriders.

The first six I would like to see hacked from the list in no particular order: 1. Blaze a horse with a white blaze, or what is this describing exactly? 2. Fighting Green salad shooters? 3. Force what is a force? 4. North Stars Minnesota for one reason, and NORTH Dakota NORTH Stars is another 5. Pride all I got here is WTF 6. Spirit we got spirit, yes we do.... but we are not actually the spirits themselves. abstract concepts are poor choices for a name.

That's because it's really not about what is truly "offensive". Rather, it's about having more control of the process by being able to pick and choose which names related to NA culture they like (not offensive), and which names they don't like (offensive).

They spelled Blais wrong.

They're waiting for McDonald to tell them what the top ten are.