Corky: Name blame by the NCAA just so lame
by Corky Simpson on May. 01, 2006, under SportsOK, one more time: What’s in a name? “That which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet,” Shakespeare wrote in “Romeo and Juliet.” Juliet Capulet tells her lover, Romeo Montague, that a name is a meaningless convention and she loves the person, not the name.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association feels that way, only in reverse.
The NCAA hates – and has vowed to crush – any school with a sports nickname that doesn’t measure up to politically correct standards. The governing body of college sports Friday rejected appeals by Illinois, North Dakota and Indiana University of Pennsylvania to continue using Indian nicknames and mascots.
The NCAA considers Fighting Illini, Fighting Sioux and Indians hostile and abusive. Worse yet, those names are “inconsistent with the NCAA commitment to diversity, respect and sportsmanship,” the organization said in a news release.
It may be fair to ask at this point about the organization’s position on commercial incursion into amateur athletics. For example, the day before the NCAA stood firmly against politically incorrect nicknames, it gave its full support to such football games as the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, the Pioneer Pure Vision Bowl, the Meineke Car Care Bowl, the MPC Computers Bowl and the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.
There are others among 31 bowl games granted licenses with names almost as bad.
Back to nicknames, though. The NCAA’s executive committee Friday placed Bradley University on a watch list for five years because of its awful nickname, Braves.
What the latest ruling means is, Illinois, North Dakota and Indiana University of Pennsylvania will be allowed to participate in championships only if they leave their nicknames at home. Any reference to their nicknames must be ripped off jerseys, warm-ups and anything else.
The NCAA stiff-armed Bradley into removing “all Native American imagery,” keeping only the generic name Braves. The Peoria, Ill. school, according to the NCAA news release, “will be placed on a watch list for five years, during which the NCAA will work with the school to assure that circumstances do not change.”
You have to wonder which would be the worst punishment: getting put on restrictions or being cleansed for five years by the NCAA. Whatever. Watch list or not, Bradley will be allowed to participate in and host championships without restrictions.
The Florida State Seminoles, Central Michigan Chippewas and Utah Utes were taken off NCAA restrictions when officials from those schools came up with signed letters from tribes supporting the use of their names. Midwestern State of Wichita Falls, Texas, wasn’t quite so lucky (or powerful). It was let out of NCAA jail only when the school reluctantly changed its nickname from Indians to Mustangs
The NCAA has nothing against horses or cars. Yet.
