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NCAA vs. Seminoles

Social tolerance is a worthy objective, but the NCAA should have taken more care before issuing its ruling on American Indian mascots.

Universities are no place for symbols of social intolerance, but the NCAA won't advance that important educational cause with an assault on mascot names that is seen as more political correctness. That's why the decision to treat the Seminoles of Florida State University the same as the Savages of Southeastern Oklahoma State University, for example, is jarring and misguided. Not all mascots share the same history or meaning.

At FSU, the university has built a relationship with the Seminole Tribe of Florida that includes scholarships, consultation on Seminole symbols used at sporting events, and plans for an authentic chickee to be built in Tallahassee. The tribe itself has formally supported the university, an endorsement that should have meant something to the NCAA.

Here is how Tribe Council member Max Osceola Jr. reacted to the decision to include FSU on a list of 18 schools that are banned from using their mascot names in any NCAA post-season event: "Here's another example of non-Indians telling Indians what's good for them. No one from the NCAA came to our tribe to ask us directly."

NCAA officials note other Native American groups object to the use of Indian mascot names, including the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma, and those opinions are worth considering. But the NCAA cannot fairly describe the FSU tradition as "hostile and abusive." Such a charge is unsupported and only inflames emotions on both sides.

Those emotions are riding entirely too high at FSU, where president T.K. Wetherell, a former Seminole football player, has threatened everything but weapons of mass destruction. Wetherell signed up Tallahassee lawyer Barry Richard, who represented the Bush campaign in the contested 2000 election, to represent the university and has scheduled an emergency trustees meeting today to plot strategy. University officials would do well to take a deep breath. The Seminole name aside, their celebrations do include war paint and tomahawk chops. They don't need their NCAA complaint to sound like a war chant.

The case FSU can make is to question the method, not the objective, of the NCAA. Look at the range of mascot names that landed on the NCAA hit list. Is Seminole, which even describes a city and county in Florida, really the equivalent of Redmen or Savages or Fighting Sioux? Look at the mascot names that managed to avoid penalty. North Carolina-Pembroke, for example, can remain Braves because more than 20 percent of its student body is Native American. (Southeastern Oklahoma, home of the Savages, is 28 percent Native American.) The San Diego State Aztecs can keep dressing their mascot with a spear and headdress, because Mexicans apparently don't count. William & Mary gets another year to make its case for the Tribe.

These questions are not always easy to parse. The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame could be deemed as offensive to one group as the Fighting Illini of Illinois are to another. If the NCAA wants to set a social example with its athletic competition, it needs to bring more precision - and maybe a little common sense - to this debate. FSU, and the Florida Seminole tribe, deserve as much.

[Last modified August 10, 2005, 00:37:16]