MsNole
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On the Front Top Page of the Tampa Tribune...
Quote:FSU To Fight NCAA Mascot Ban
By ANDY STAPLES, GARY HABER and GARRETT THEROLF The Tampa Tribune
Published: Aug 6, 2005
TALLAHASSEE - Florida State University officials will go to court if they must to keep the National Collegiate Athletic Association from forcing mascot Chief Osceola to ride away forever.
FSU President T.K. Wetherell on Friday threatened legal action after his school was one of 18 whose mascots were deemed ``hostile and/or abusive'' by the NCAA's executive committee.
The school's athletic teams have been known as the Seminoles since the late 1940s, but the use of American Indian tribal names and images after Feb. 1 - in all sports except football - could cost FSU berths in NCAA postseason play and could prevent the school from hosting lucrative NCAA postseason events.
``Florida State University is stunned at the complete lack of appreciation for cultural diversity shown by the National Collegiate Athletic Association's executive committee. ... That the NCAA would now label our close bond with the Seminole Tribe of Florida as culturally `hostile and abusive' is both outrageous and insulting,'' Wetherell said Friday in a statement.
State Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, one of FSU's most ardent backers in the Legislature, said a lawsuit challenging the ruling is in the works.
``When a lawsuit is filed - and there will be a lawsuit - the Seminole tribes will be participants in that suit,'' King said.
`Narrow-Minded Policy'
Max Osceola, a member of the five-person Tribal Council of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, said the NCAA's ban is presumptuous. He said NCAA officials did not consult the tribe before issuing their ruling. The tribe passed a resolution in June supporting the school's use of the nickname and tribal images.
``We're not going to change our point of view,'' Osceola said. ``Our tribe has endorsed it, and we would hope another group would respect our wishes, but I guess the NCAA knows better for the Seminoles than the Seminoles do.''
Osceola drew a distinction between FSU's use of the tribe's name and the Washington Redskins. The latter is a name American Indians find offensive, Osceola said.
Charlotte Westerhaus, NCAA vice president for diversity and inclusion, said Florida's Seminoles were not the only Seminoles considered. The largest group of Seminoles outside Florida is the Oklahoma Seminole Nation.
``Other Seminole tribes are not supportive,'' Westerhaus said.
Across the nation, American Indian advocacy groups supported the NCAA's ruling, though some said it did not go far enough. But in Florida, politicians, talk-radio callers and sports fans posting on Internet message boards blasted the NCAA. Even a handful of University of Florida fans visited FSU fan site http://www.warchant.com to register their outrage.
State Rep. Trey Traviesa, R- Brandon, a former FSU student body president, said he was ``shocked and disappointed that the NCAA would adopt such an extreme and narrow- minded policy.''
University of Hartford, Conn., President Walter Harrison, chairman of the NCAA executive committee, said his group targeted schools whose mascots offended people of a particular race, ethnicity or nationality. He said the committee made its decision after several years of discussion and after every school with an American Indian mascot turned in a detailed self-study to the NCAA. The 18 schools cited use Indian nicknames. Schools such as Notre Dame (Fighting Irish) were left off the list.
The ruling probably will not affect FSU's football pregame ritual in which a student dressed as Chief Osceola rides onto the field on a spotted horse and plants a flaming spear in the turf. Because the NCAA does not sponsor a Division I-A football tournament, it has no say in the matter. The Bowl Championship Series, which governs Division I-A's top four bowl games, would have to issue a similar ruling. Harrison said neither the NCAA nor the BCS could tell a school what to do during regular-season games on its own campus.
``We would hope [the BCS] would follow the same procedure, but they will have to make those decisions themselves,'' Harrison said.
The ruling would affect FSU's baseball team, which has played well enough to host an NCAA regional the past nine seasons.
``You have to earn that advantage,'' pitcher Bryan Henry said. ``We could have another good year and have the NCAA take that away from us because we're the Seminoles.''
Fight Will Be `Ugly'
If FSU has to change its nickname and logo, it would mean the end of one of the most recognizable icons in sports marketing, said Paul Swangard, of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. Florida State was the 11th-best-selling college team in sales of logo merchandise from July 1, 2004, through Dec. 31, according to a ranking by the Collegiate Licensing Co.
NCAA President Myles Brand said the schools on the list can appeal, and Harrison said he hopes schools would ``oppose it through our own channels without going to the courts.''
Brand said unless there is a change by Feb. 1, schools ``will have to abide by'' Friday's ruling.
State Sen. King, an FSU graduate, said the school and its supporters won't back down. ``This is not going to be a walk on the beach,'' King said. ``It's going to be ugly.''
Fight the NCAA for this ridiculous ban :chair:
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