UND Athletics: So far, so good

[GeauxSioux]

UND athletics: So far, so good

When UND first announced its decision to compete at the Division I level, the school

[star2city]

What I can't believe is that Faison doesn't know the five other teams that have applied to the Summit. Either he's playing dumb or he hasn't bothered to make a few phone calls within the AD network to find out what's going on.

[Chief Illiniwek Supporter]

Either he's playing dumb...

My money would be on this choice.

And if your AD really

doesn't

know basic facts like this, then quite frankly I would say that your school needs a new AD.

[Hammersmith]

What I can't believe is that Faison doesn't know the five other teams that have applied to the Summit. Either he's playing dumb or he hasn't bothered to make a few phone calls within the AD network to find out what's going on.

Considering that at least 5 of the 6(and maybe all 6) are members of the Great West Conference, I'm pretty confident that Faison knows exactly who the five other potential members are.

[star2city]

Considering that at least 5 of the 6(and maybe all 6) are members of the Great West Conference, I'm pretty confident that Faison knows exactly who the five other potential members are.

That's part of my point: he knows exactly who's applied and doesn't seem to want the public to know. If the public knew the names, they urgency the adminstration says is needed in dropping the Sioux name would look ridiculous.

[Chief Illiniwek Supporter]

That's part of my point: he knows exactly who's applied and doesn't seem to want the public to know. If the public knew the names, they urgency the adminstration says is needed in dropping the Sioux name would look ridiculous.

I've said both things before:

-If this conference was seriously considering Chicago State, it isn't a conference you want anything to do with.

-If this conference lets Douple lead them around in the manner that some here claim is "necessary" then again, I wouldn't want anything to do with joining those schools.

[FargoBison]

Douple has said schools from other conferences have applied, Faison probably knows who they are but can't name them since it isn't something the Summit wants out there.

Don't put any stock on the Chicago State talk, they were kicked out of the league, and they will not be coming back unless the league has no other option.

The only viable candidates are UND and Denver(assuming they are the school) and I hope Centenary drops out so both can be added.

[MadScout03]

I saw this article in the Herald this morning. Anyone else find it interesting that one of the topics in the article was about grades and the high GPA amongst a good majority of the athletes, but yet they put Josh Murray's picture at the top of the article? By no means is this a slam on Josh Murray

[NDSUguy]

UND athletics: So far, so good

I'll admit that i'm not totally up to speed on UND athletics but I do have one question.... When the decision was made to move up to D1....where there many people who publically criticized UND? Was there a divide between those at UND and in Grand Forks?

[jimdahl]

I'll admit that i'm not totally up to speed on UND athletics but I do have one question.... When the decision was made to move up to D1....where there many people who publically criticized UND? Was there a divide between those at UND and in Grand Forks?

A lot of people, including some on this board, actually preferred to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. The local press was (somewhat surprisingly, but to their credit for consistency) nearly as critical of UND moving as they were of NDSU moving. There was a lot of second guessing the potential for competitiveness in any sport other than football, concern about change itself expressed as nostalgia for the "good old days", and big worries about budget impacts (and not just from the Bisonville forensic accounting team).

[Bison Dan]

A lot of people, including some on this board, actually preferred to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. The local press was (somewhat surprisingly, but to their credit for consistency) nearly as critical of UND moving as they were of NDSU moving. There was a lot of second guessing the potential for competitiveness in any sport other than football, concern about change itself expressed as nostalgia for the "good old days", and big worries about budget impacts (and not just from the Bisonville forensic accounting team).

"nearly as critical" Really? The only sportswriter I saw that didn't like the move was Virg Foss and he's just all hockey.

[jimdahl]

"nearly as critical" Really? The only sportswriter I saw that didn't like the move was Virg Foss and he's just all hockey.

To be honest, I remember the local press being pretty quiet on the issue (also somewhat surprisingly to the consternation of Bison fans) so it's a pretty small sample. I recall the opinion coverage being somewhat mixed, but whether it was "nearly as critical" or "noticeably less critical" is a qualitative matter of degree, so subject to our own biases and expectations, I suppose.

That doesn't affect the usefulness of my response to NDSUguy's question, which is that there were definitely lots of questions being asked by UND stakeholders and there still are a lot of Sioux fans who don't support the move (e.g. check out the nickname forum this week). The reasons are those I listed above.