Play ball! NCAA has gone off the deep end

The NCAA will ban from championship games any college sports teams using names and mascots its executive committee feels project “hostile and abusive” imagery.

These include such names as Indians, Braves, Warriors and Seminoles.

Interestingly enough, the Seminole Tribal Council of Florida has supported Florida State University’s use of its name. FSU President T.K. Wetherell called the NCAA action “outrageous and insulting.”

It also must be the ultimate in convoluted ridiculousness in how far some people can go in the name of political correctness.

Indeed, how can adoption of the name of an Indian tribe for the ball team of an outstanding university suggest “hostility and abusiveness” toward Native Americans? To the contrary, it would appear to reflect pride and appreciation of the spirit of a great people.

Does the name of the Dallas professional football team offend the nation’s cowboys or reflect adversely on that colorful Western heritage?

Did the heavens part with booming outrage at the naming of teams Angels and Saints?

Will the NCAA’s Charlotte Westerhaus, “vice president for diversity and inclusion,” next move to protect wolverines and bears and lions and cougars from hostility and humiliation by teams choosing them for namesakes?

Perhaps teams proudly bearing names the NCAA considers offensive should ignore the senseless complaints and continue playing ball, wearing war paint and brandishing their imaginary tomahawks.

If the NCAA insists on denying championship recognition to teams with the best records on the playing field, the organization compromises and cheapens the title of “champions” and reduces the “most outstanding record of athletic excellence” to a mockery.

The NCAA should get back to focusing on sports and stop trying to be the nation’s chief of police for political correctness.

Published in Editorials on August 11, 2005 11:36 AM