The University of North Dakota has sued the National Collegiate Athletic Association over restrictions on using its American Indian nickname.
The 27-page complaint, filed this month in a state district court in Grand Forks, charges that the NCAA acted illegally by ruling last year that North Dakota could not participate in or play host to postseason competition unless it changed its Fighting Sioux nickname and removed thousands of American Indian images from its athletics facilities.
Fourteen months ago, the NCAA’s Executive Committee ruled that 18 colleges and universities would face postseason sanctions if they did not retire their American Indian imagery, which the NCAA deemed to be “hostile and abusive.”
In its lawsuit, North Dakota officials argue that the NCAA’s Executive Committee has no power to enact legislation to govern member institutions, enforce bylaws, or select postseason championship sites. Because of that, the suit says, the university is under no obligation to follow the committee’s policy and should not face postseason restrictions.
The Executive Committee is considered a governance body and does not enact legislation, but under NCAA bylaws it oversees associationwide issues and is allowed to establish policies.
North Dakota officials also contend that the NCAA’s policy is unfair because it does not hold all institutions to the same standard. For example, the Executive Committee did not cite colleges and universities with non-American Indian ethnic references, such as the Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame, as subject to the policy.
And the committee has failed to apply the same standards to all of the institutions that have appealed its policy, the complaint says. The committee reversed its ban on one university’s use of American Indian imagery after the institution received support from one Indian tribe, the suit says, whereas the NCAA sought more than one tribe’s input when deciding North Dakota’s fate.
The policy “seriously inhibits” the university’s ability to pay for its athletics programs, the suit says, limiting the revenue it can earn by playing host to postseason contests, harming its ability to recruit athletes who might view the program as unfriendly to American Indians, and potentially causing donors and fans to turn away.
Adhering to the policy would require removing or altering an estimated 2,400 Fighting Sioux images in the $100-million Ralph Engelstad Arena, a cost-prohibitive proposition, the complaint says.
North Dakota, which is paying for its legal defense with private money, is seeking a permanent injunction against the application of the NCAA’s policy, as well as undisclosed monetary damages, according to Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota’s attorney general.
Myles Brand, the NCAA’s president, said in a news conference earlier this year that he felt confident that the policy would hold up if challenged in court — and that the association planned to defend its policy “to the utmost.”
http://chronicle.com Section: Athletics Volume 53, Issue 9, Page A40
