NCAA May Bow if American Indian Tribes Support Schools
SALT LAKE CITY
Two weeks after saying schools that use American Indian nicknames, mascots or imagery to represent their athletic teams could face NCAA sanctions, the governing body of college sports seems to be softening its stance — but only for those schools who have the cooperation of tribes.
Last week NCAA officials said that approval from American Indian tribes will be a “primary factor” in deciding appears from the 18 schools it recently named, including the University of Utah. Since 1972 the university has had the permission of Utah’s Ute Tribe to use the nickname “Ute” for its athletic teams.
“From our perspective it’s good news,” university president Michael Young said. “We have been saying for some time that our impression is that nobody intends to be abusive or offensive. I’ve been surprised that the NCAA has been less attentive to that perspective.”
The NCAA’s ruling will prohibit schools with American Indian mascots from hosting future NCAA postseason events. Schools that have already been awarded postseason tournaments would have to cover any American Indian depictions in their sports venues.
That would directly affect Utah’s largest public university, which has hosted more NCAA basketball tournament games than all but one other venue in the country, and is scheduled to host first- and second-round NCAA tournament basketball games in March 2006.
