If you haven't seen this letter to the editor it’s worth a read, it was posted in today’s letters to the editor
in the Grand Forks Herald. I think it's hypocritical as well, the NCAA want to ban the Fighting Sioux logo because the NCAA say it’s hostile and abusive but then NCAA is still making money off of the Fighting Sioux logo. Shameful!!!
GRAND FORKS — In 2005, the NCAA made a decision that schools with tribal logos and/or nicknames — including UND — were to be sanctioned, originally because they were deemed “hostile and abusive.”
Those sanctions would not allow UND or other schools like it to use tribal names or logos in post-season play nor could they host post-season championships.
Asking universities to do away with these logos — even suing schools and threatening them with sanctions — is a bold move. Therefore, the NCAA as an organization certainly should not be promoting let alone profiting off of the very logos it is against.
But the NCAA has not stopped selling the logoed wear of the schools that it has sanctioned. Hundreds of UND items are available on the NCAA’s website, www.shopncaasports.com. This at a time when the Sioux men’s hockey team will be participating in a prominent NCAA-sanctioned event.
Despite threats of the UND logo going away, the cost of Sioux apparel is up, and the rise doesn’t appear to be stopping. But go into any local retailer, and these items are flying off the shelves. Sioux apparel continues to rank among the hottest sellers.
It is interesting that the NCAA has not taken a hard stance on this and stated that regardless of the position of the school, the organization would be the first to stop selling the logoed apparel.
Has anyone associated with UND, the State Board of Higher Education or even the North Dakota attorney general’s office discussed this with the NCAA? Why is the organization profiting off of something it is so against?
Jennifer Dame
