After this next Wednesday’s basketball game against Michigan at Assembly Hall, there will be no more halftime dances or any appearances by Chief Illiniwek, the mascot of the University of Illinois. With such a decision and an eighty year tradition has come majour controversy between University administration and current students and national alumni. By removing the existence of Chief Illiniwek, all sanctions imposed by the NCAA are dropped and the university once again becomes “compliant”. The keyword there is “compliant”. How can one university be compliant while other university’s remain in long-standing battles with Myles Brand and the NCAA (one school even in Federal court).

I didn’t go to Illinois, cheer for them, or follow them. However, I do understand the feelings being expressed by the university’s alumni. The NCAA hasn’t asked certain university’s to become “compliant”, they’ve made dire threats and imposed serious sanctions if not followed.

While the University of Illinois has lost its mascot, its now compliant and can continue to use its nickname, “Fighting Illini”, on an ongoing basis. True, they lose a mascot, yet they can still keep uniformity by keeping their nickname.

The problem I have with all of this is the consistency of the NCAA (more specifically Miles Brand). For example, Illinois loses its mascot, while Florida State continues to keep their mascot and use the nickname “Seminoles”. Minor controversy was raised (FSU even got support from the Seminole nation) and the decision by Florida State’s regents and administration was easy. The University of Utah (Utes) had a similar decree as well.

The biggest loser in all of this is the University of North Dakota. Their nickname is the “Fighting Sioux”, similar to the University of Illinois (Illinois was at one time working with the University of North Dakota on this issue). Since the decision of the NCAA to mandate “appropriate” changes to member university nicknames, mascots, etc., they’ve faced the most scrutiny. The university has changed their logo (which was designed by a Native-American artist) and nearly lost private funding for the new Ralph Engelstand Arena (which was fully funded by him) just for exploring options on changing the nickname.

North Dakota’s nickname is the Fighting Sioux, but they don’t have a mascot. Last year in the NCAA Hockey quarterfinals (which were held at their university), they were forced to remove any and all logos or items depicting their nickname. They’ve done all that and yet still ended up in Federal court with the NCAA. Not to mention that they are a leader in providing education for Native-American’s in the medical field and supporting area tribes in providing educational resources.

Even with the decision to allow Illinois to be compliant, the University of North Dakota still has an up hill battle with the NCAA. What’s the difference? I dont know, but the biggest losers of all this bureacracy is the students and the alumni.

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