Kill The Mascots! (Part 1)

It was inevitable, wasn't it? In our time of runaway political correctness, it was simply inevitable.

Last Friday, the NCAA issued a mandate prohibiting the use of "hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery" at any NCAA postseason tournament. In addition, schools that are in violation of this mandate will be barred from hosting any such tournaments in the future.

In other words, pretty much any school that uses Native American nicknames and/or imagery is now under orders to change their mascots, or failing that, to change their uniforms (as well as the uniforms of their mascots, cheerleaders, dance teams, and bands) if they expect to compete in events like March Madness.

Of course, the NCAA didn't present it as a mandate. Quoting from the press release:

"Colleges and universities may adopt any mascot that they wish, as that is an institutional matter," said Walter Harrison, chair of the Executive Committee and president at the University of Hartford. "But as a national association, we believe that mascots, nicknames or images deemed hostile or abusive in terms of race, ethnicity or national origin should not be visible at the championship events that we control."

Deemed hostile of abusive by whom? Why, the brain trust at the NCAA, of course! It boils down to Henry Ford's classic choice: You can have any color car that you want, as long as you want black. It's the NCAA's way or the highway.

Included with the article is a list of those schools in violation of this new policy. Included on this list are Florida State University (Seminoles), University of Illinois (Illini), University of North Dakota (Fighting Sioux), and my soon-to-be alma mater, the University of Utah (Utes).

Okay, I can understand the desire to be accommodating and to avoid giving offense. And yes, it's hard to consider the nickname for Southeastern Oklahoma State University (the Savages) as anything other than derogatory.

But a blanket condemnation on all Native American nicknames and mascots? That's excessive.

The states of Illinois and Utah are named after the Illini and Ute tribes respectively, so it's only natural that the nicknames would follow. And Florida State has permission from the Seminole Tribe of Florida to use the name.

I have a co-worker who's a full-blooded Ouray Ute. I asked him about this issue. He has no problem with the nickname whatsoever. He said he thinks it's cool that the University of Utah uses the Ute moniker to pay tribute to the tribe. Another of my former co-workers was a member of the Sioux tribe. She loved the fact that the University of North Dakota has the Fighting Sioux as their mascot. In both cases, the choice of the mascot has significant historical ties to the area and to their tribes. Neither felt offended by the choice in mascots.

I also found it interesting that both of these people, when describing themselves and their ethnic heritage, frequently use the word "Indian". How can this term be "hostile and abusive" if the people using it to describe themselves don't find it offensive?

Here's another highlight from the article:

"Model institutions include the University of Iowa and University of Wisconsin, who have practices of not scheduling athletic competitions with schools who use Native American nicknames, imagery or mascots. "

What the...? The last time I checked, Iowa and Wisconsin were both still members of the Big Ten Conference, whose membership includes the above-mentioned Fighting Illini. I checked the 2005 football schedules for Iowa and Wisconsin, and both teams have Illinois on their schedule for 2005. Double standards, anyone?

Then again, this policy is full of double standards. Take, for example, the list of schools that the NCAA determined had "removed all references to Native American culture or were deemed not to have references to Native American culture as part of their athletics programs". Included on this list is fellow Mountain West Conference member San Diego State University. So, the use of the term "Utes" is offensive, but "Aztecs" is apparently okay.

Whatever. In four months or so I'll be graduating as a Utah Ute. But I suppose that in future days I'll be getting calls for donations from the Utah Sparrow-Hawks Alumni Association or something similarly warm and touchy-feely.

Doesn't the NCAA have better things to do?