nodakhoops

I mostly liked Roughriders because I like the name and potential of it, but a whole new reason for me wanting it came after reading the article this morning. It seems to be the least favorite of the higher education marketing consultant police. For that reason it goes up even more in my eyes. UND has been told by to many PC people for the last ten years what to do with their nickname. Roughriders was the committees top choice last night even after hearing the PC police talk it down, and it's a top two choice of the fans along with just ND. Take a hike marketing consultants along with your urban dictionary, we don't need you telling us what we should like and what we shouldn't. Give us names we want to vote on not Sundogs or some type of hawk.

Were these the numbers? Saw on bisonville. Roughriders - 48 North stars - 46 Sundogs - 46 Nodak - 42 One of the hawks - 41 The other hawk - 35 No nickname - 21 Quick observations It looks like no nickname barely made the cut. If it goes down like that fine but also eliminate one of the hawk names, we don't need 2 to choose from. Eliminating both Hawks and Sundogs would be the better. Hawk names and Sundogs seem very PC consultant driven in my mind. Also, If this hired consultant hasn't heard of the USC Trojans, why did they hire him? Isn't that the exact same meaning he is talking about? Trojans is also a way bigger condom brand than Roughriders. If high schools are mature enough to have those names I think colleges can. In the end... Roughrider state > North Star state. Roughrider logo potential > North Star logo potential. Hire Brien to make us some sweet logos and let's go. Teddy R, American Soldiers/heroes, badass horses, - if you can't get behind that.....

Makes you wonder if Wyoming is done in ND. Might mean NDSU and UND need to offer sooner and more money if they want these kids because Wyoming only has full rides. Might be 12-15 D1 kids in ND/NW MN this year that will either be scholarship or pwo at D1 schools.

So if I'm watching that valley news live piece there will not be a final vote? It will be Kelly and the committee that decide once it's down to the final 3?

Maybe we all should wait until the final 2-3 come out before we pass any more judgement on the committee. It's a tough spot to be in. If the final three names are spirit Sundogs blaze something will not pass the smell test, but until then we should wait and see. I think at this point everyone can agree it's pretty obvious the committee should have North Dakota and Roughriders in the final vote. If not I think they would have to really explain that because based on polls they are far and away the top choices. Beyond that if they have something like cavalry explorers north stars as the 3rd option I would say they did their job and listened to the people. Maybe they just say 2 names North Dakota and Roughriders to vote. We'll find out eventually.

I agree with 83 and cratter that Roughriders is gender neutral and people will say riders a lot like when we were the Fighting Sioux and people just said Sioux. Rider Nation Roughrider Country Let's go Riders Roll riders Roll ride roll Roll damn ride Rider pride I'm sure there is more creative stuff people would say and cheer but you get the idea.

Another way of looking at it TBR is if we actually have a nickname the people that want to just be North Dakota will still have the interlocking ND to use. That is our unofficial name already. In essence what we are doing now has always been the backup nickname/logo option. I would look at picking a nickname as the best of both worlds because we'll have more logo jersey shirt options for people that want to move on and those who want to stay in the past can wear their old Sioux stuff and buy interlocking new stuff. We can unofficially be whatever we want but they don't put unofficial names on jerseys merchandise etc. if we are just ND the Sioux logo isnt coming back on anything new, we're stuck with the interlocking ND and whatever new updates they can do with having no nickname. I can tell you what Scheels, Sioux shop UND bookstore etc prefer we do.

To follow up DamStraits post. Top 3 in some polls this morning. Two common names. SS 1 Roughriders 2 North Dakota 3 cavalry Herald 1 North Dakota 2 Roughriders 3 north stars Forum 1 North Dakota 2 green Hawks 3 Roughriders Bismarck tribune 1. North Dakota 2. Roughriders Small amount of votes in the Bismarck one but those two names had 70% of the vote so it was pointless listing a third. Forum poll is only one that doesn't show numbers so that's tough to get a grasp of data.

Seems fair to me. I'd rather they give people options they want to vote on rather than Spirit Pride or Sundogs.

This is another reason besides all the other stuff why picking a name is good. The potential with a Cavalry or Roughriders logo is great. Just using those ones from Cedar Rapids as examples UND could go a couple different ways and even have a great primary logo and a great secondary logo. Like I mentioned maybe one with a cool looking horse and another with Teddy R or a soldier. What American can't get behind Teddy R or a soldier? Besides that we'd still have the interlocking ND as our third logo. At the other end of things with just North Dakota we have the interlocking ND logo we can use as our 1st, 2nd and 3rd logos. They can update another one along the way, but really what are our options logo wise with just North Dakota? If we have Roughriders or Cavalry we still have the interlocking ND and will also potentially get 1-2 more really cool logos to have with lots of potential for updating every 10-15 years. Think about the Sioux logo, that was updated every 10-15 years. How many variations of the interlocking ND are we going to update over the next 50 years? Not a lot of ways you can go with just North Dakota that excite me logo wise. Another reason why this process will probably happen again if a name isn't chosen.

Interesting on the forum poll. I also notice Sundogs is really high which leads me to believe bison fans are voting for some of those unpopular names. They also don't show the total number of votes which makes it tough to get a read. The committee needs to realize because this vote is open to everyone (big mistake) the dumbest name will be voted on by NDSU fans and others. That means they should probably get a good pulse on what UND fans actually want so there are no bad choices on the final vote.

I think the main reason we shouldn't be North Dakota has been said a couple of times......we'll be doing this whole thing over in 5-10 years and that could've been 5-10 of branding with a new name already. Legal arguments aside that could be an issue. Having said that I think smarter heads would prevail in a vote anyways and we won't end up with just ND. For example the ss poll Roughriders has more votes than ND. In the herald poll ND leads by quite a bit but what happens when there are only 2-3 names to choose from. My guess is everyone that voted for something other than just ND wants a new name. So you'd have North Dakota with 24% of the vote and the rest split between Roguhriders and Northstars. If it's just North Dakota and Roughriders riders wins easy. Now if you have 4-5 in the final that might be a different story but I think if Roughriders and North Dakota are the only 2 or 2 of 3 RIders will win. Realize those are small samples of people but I think most people are honestly ready to move forward with a new name.

There it is, the Teddy R one, although I like the horse one without the stick too. I think you could go a lot of different ways on a logo with that name. Maybe one main one with Teddy R like that and a secondary logo with a bad ass horse. All while keeping the interlocking ND too. I'd buy merchandise with either of those logos though.

Having Brien design the logo is an awesome idea. There is one I've seen that the Cedar Rapids Roughriders used that actually comes close to the Sioux logo imo. Give him that to work off of and let him do his thing. I'm to lazy to look that logo up right now, but if someone else has it feel free to post. Brien should do the logo regardless of the nickname chosen. He obviously does nice work.

Good question. My guess would be maybe not that much, but I really think if North Dakota isn't on the final ballot Roughriders would win pretty easily.

Well said. Pretty much my exact thoughts as well.

I completely agree with this statement. Way worse choosing a name that was a neighboring states pro team than a local high school team. BTW for those that don't know North Stars is the name of the high school in Cando for those worrying about high school names. Anyways my point was just to show it's pretty obvious to me there are 2-3 names that fans seem to like above the rest and I would rather the committee put those for final vote than ones people don't like at all. Look at the numbers. Just North Dakota and Roughriders account for 44% of the vote on the SS poll and 40% on the herald poll. When North Stars gets added in it jumps to 53% and 54% respectively. 130 people voted in the SS poll and around 7700 in the herald one, and the ss people are probably UNDs biggest fans. The herald poll is a big chunk of UND fans too. Pretty big difference compared to the rest. To me those are numbers that shouldn't be ignored whether I like any of those names or not. That's a big enough number for just ND and Roughriders were I think the committee might have to explain to people why either of those isn't in the final 3 if their not. Pretty obvious my personal preference of those 3 is Roughriders, but regardless I would rather the committee give people choices they want rather than Spirit, Sundogs, and Pride. If Spirit Pride and Sundogs were those top 3 I would say the same about them but they are obviously not. The committee and the marketing research company should notice these things.

Thought this was interesting the herald is running a poll kind of like ss and 3-4 names lead by a wide margin. North Dakota Roughriders North Stars and Calvary only on the ss one. I would think ss and gfherald readers are a big portion of the UND fan base. Hope all those big market research dollars pick up on that. Give the people the choices they want the most to vote on not some higher ed force fed crap like Sundogs spirit or green hawks. Based on that this should be the final three to vote. If you wanted just two Roughriders and North Dakota are 1-2 in both polls. North Dakota Roughriders North Stars Only question would be whether just ND should even be considered. I'll stay away from that as I just thought this was worth pointing out. I don't want to be just ND but it's pretty obvious to me there are 3-4 favorites of fans with 2 top favorites. I'd rather the committee give people what they want to vote on than pride spirit and sundogs. I'll take my market research paycheck now UND.

Getting spoon fed some name with Hawks or Sundogs by some hired "marketing guru," would be wrong. The way I see it now after some thought...North Dakota and Roughriders must be on the final ballot. They can throw in whatever 3rd wheel they want but if it's truly a fan vote those are far and away the most popular from what I have seen and heard. I don't like just North Dakota, but let's be fair and honest. Those are the two most popular of the 15 left by far from what I have seen. Throw in whatever other name you want I think it comes down to Roughriders and North Dakota. If the final three are Sundogs Spirit and Green Hawks that is wrong. Roughriders and just North Dakota are the most popular......put them on the ballot and let people vote.

This is where this gets interesting. I would argue the logo design is even more important than the nickname because that is what people are going to see and what will be on merchandise. My preference would be whatever the name is come up with 3-4 potential logos and have a vote just so we don't get forced some bad logo design from some hired marketing company. Regardless of what the name is logo design is way more important than just the nickname IMO. Maybe they can even form a committee for that. Edit - forgot to mention i don't think we'll see any logos until a name is chosen.

It's time to vote so everyone can worry about better things like what to grill for tailgating at the potato bowl. Here's 4 to go to a vote. North Dakota (don't think it should be but let's have it on there, that way no one can complain if it's voted down) Cavalry Roughriders Explorers I would think everyone would be ok with at least one of those names maybe 2-3 and no sun dogs, spirit, blaze etc. Explorers could be the option for the spirit pride crowd. There you go committee, pick those 4 and let the masses decide. Everyone good with that?

Time for someone on the committee to step up and take North Dakota off the list. Shouldn't be an option. This committee needs to think about the long term effects that has on UND. Don't care what the hockey only fans or the hockey only writers think, would be a big mistake for the school. Roughriders or Cavalry will do just fine. Time to move on.

Not sure where to put this, but saw on twitter Scout.com is starting an NDSU FB & BB site covered by a gopher writer. Being that they recruit a lot of the same kids how long before they consider starting UND, SDSU, and USD sites? Between here SFI, and the UNDRecruiting twitter there is a lot of good free recruiting info already, but the extra coverage for the program might be nice. .

Sorry, i got that mixed up. Yes, either way still impressive requirements.

Very impressive job qualifications. I was trying to think of another program in any college sport that would have listed 12 years experience in a professional league for an assistant coach and couldn't think of one. Would Alabama football require 12 years NFL for one or Duke BB require 12 years NBA for one? Completely different deals and UND is obviously just tailoring this to the guy they want hired, but still impressive qualifications. I think the only people even qualified for this that might be interested are Wilson, Patrick and Shaw. Wilson isn't leaving MN i'm guessing, so it would come down to the other two. Can't go wrong with either one imo. That kind of experience on the bench will surely make an impact in recruiting.