The Banning of Indian Names

To:  The NCAA

A governing body of student-athletics, better known as the NCAA, has made a bylaw banning any use of Indian related names and mascots from their sponsored post-season tournaments. Every sport but major college football will be affected by this bylaw. The only reason major college football will not be affected is because they do not have a post-season playoff/tournament.

The NCAA is not, and cannot, force schools to change their names/mascots, yet are going to ban any school from participating in post-season play that has a name or mascot in relation to Native American tribes or culture.

The NCAA also stated that the reason for this bylaw is because the team names/mascots are found to be "hostile" and "abusive."

The only name they are not banning from post season play is "Warriors." However, not all schools will be banned from post-season play for their mascots.

North Carolina-Pembroke will be allowed by the NCAA to perform in post-season play with the team name the "Braves." Citing that UNC-Pembroke has a high percentage of Native American enrollment.
Florida State University has been granted permission from the Seminole Nation of Florida to represnt the Seminoles of Florida. However, the NCAA will not allow them to use that name/mascot.

There will be a total of 18 schools in the NCAA that will be affected by this new bylaw of the NCAA. Including, but not limited to: The Univeristy of Illinois, Florida State University, and the University of Louisiana-Monroe.

This petition was formed to bring forth, that the NCAA has no right to disallow a school from post season play just because of their mascot or team name. The post-season tournaments and playoffs are given to the student-athelete for their hard work and accomplishments during their respective season of sport, not because of their team name or mascot.

We fans that are signing this petition feel that the NCAA is over stepping their organizational rights at governing the universities associated with them, by discriminating against a school for their mascot which came from the history of that institution or that institution's respective State.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The The Banning of Indian Names Petition to The NCAA was created by College Football Media and written by Tim Bond (timb@cfbmedia.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.