--- "Eric J. Burton" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Its not the NCAA job to do what you just said. The NCAA job is to run
> championships.
> That is one of the area Myles Brand stepped over his bounds.
> 
> Eric J. Burton
> (701)-610-9466
> http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/
> 

Unless there's some new lawsuit that I haven't heard of, "running the championships" is what this
lawsuit is all about.  The NCAA has pretty much conceded that they can't force a school to change
its mascot or logo; what they've said is that you can't participate in our tournament with an
offending logo or mascot.  If North Dakota qualifies for the tournament and shows up with jersies
with "North Dakota" on the front and no logo, there ain't a thing that the NCAA could do.

This is not about a "constitutional right not to be offended.  It is not about UND's right to have
a "Fighting Sioux" logo.  It is about what rights the NCAA has to regulate who attends its
championship tournament, and about whether UND has the right to participate in the NCAA
championship tournament.

Suppose I, as a private citizen, sponsor a tiddlywinks tournament at my house.  Well, I can invite
or not invite anybody I want, for any reason.  I can exclude you because of your shoe size, how
many vowels you have in your street address, or whether you like cats or not.  I can even exclude
you because of your race, sex, religion, or national origin.

If I'm a government entity, then there are some reasons I can't use to exclude you.

Where does the NCAA fit in that spectrum?  I'm sure that the NCAA lawyers will point out that
membership in the NCAA is purely voluntary.  UND is under no obligation to join.  And they're
perfectly free to sponsor their own tournament, in which the participating teams can have any
mascot or logo they want.  I'm sure that the UND lawyers will point out that the NCAA is a big
time financial entity with a near monopoly status over college athletics, and that, for example,
the NIT Tournament in college basketball was effectively put out of business the NCAA's decision
to expand its own tournament.

It's also far from clear to me that neither party wants this to be decided by a court.  Since the
NCAA is all about image, if they lose they can say to the proponents of this measure, "Look,we
tried our best and we expended a lot of money, but the court said we couldn't do it."  If UND
loses, they can say to their die-hard fans "Look, we tried our best and we expended a lot of
money, but we lost and we think we owe it to our student-athletes to give them the opportunity to
participate in the NCAA Tournament."  

                         

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