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Monday, August 8, 2005
NCAA once again oversteps its authority
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For a long time NCAA officials have had a stock answer when somebody would dare criticize the institution and the power it wields:”The NCAA is a voluntary organization established to serve its members. The individual institutions are the NCAA.”
It is no longer possible to listen to that argument with a straight face. Not after Friday, when the NCAA’s Executive Committee looked down on 18 of its members and, in its infinite wisdom, said that they were “hostile and abusive” in their depiction of Native Americans as mascots.
The 18 schools were told that they would not be welcome in any NCAA championships unless they removed all signs and images that reflected Native Americans. So if Florida State wanted to host a baseball regional the word “Seminoles,” which has been its mascot since 1947, can not appear anywhere in Dick Howser Stadium. And that spear? Cover it up, bubba, because we here in Indianapolis are offended.
Now reasonable people can disagree on the use of Native American imagery by sports teams. But the NCAA dressed up its handling of this matter to make it look like a process had taken place and that the reasonable people in that process had actually come to a consensus.
In reality, the outcome of the process was determined before it began:
*In November of 2004, 33 schools were asked to submit self-evaluations to the NCAA on their use of Native American imagery with their sports teams. Of those schools, 14 either agreed to find a new mascot or the NCAA ruled that what those schools was doing was acceptable. William & Mary (Tribe) asked for more time to study.
*The other 18 schools basically told the NCAA that they had looked at the issue and that their administrations, their students and their alumni were comfortable with their imagery. That’s where the process should have ended, but didn’t.
*In June, the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee forwarded recommendations on the issue. “We expect things to change and change quickly,” said SWAC commissioner Robert Vowels, the chairman of the committee.
Things did happen quickly. So quickly, in fact, that nobody in the ACC or at Florida State knew what was coming until just hours before last Friday’s announcement. It literally came out of left field (pun intended). That is why FSU president T.K. Wetherell was so angry and threatened legal action. The NCAA held his institution and 17 others up to public ridicule because Florida State would not tow the politically correct line that it had established.
Here is the real problem: The use of Native American imagery in sports is a legitimate issue because it does offend some people. Every school should search its soul and try to understand those who are hurt by these images.
But in the final analysis it is really none of the NCAA’s business.
Unless a policy gives one school a competitive advantage over another, the rights of the institution must prevail. If the Seminole Tribe, the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the NEA, or anybody else has a problem with Florida State, then that body needs to take it up with the folks in Tallahassee. They can sue, boycott, picket, make speeches or go to the state legislature and demand change. That is the correct process.
But it is not the proper role of the NCAA to pass judgments on which of its members are “hostile and abusive” and which ones are “model institutions.” It smacks of the worst kind of moral arrogance.
The NCAA exists to conduct championships and to keep the playing field as level as possible. It does not exist to ensure world peace. I would encourage the NCAA to graduate a few more student-athletes before it takes on that lofty goal.
Once again, the ruling body of college athletics has overstepped the bounds of its authority. And once again it may take a court of law to put the NCAA back into its proper place.
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