Here's the big question: is the NCAA STUPID?!?!?!?! Since when is the team name "Seminole" offensive? IT'S THE NAME OF A TRIBE IN THE AREA!!! How is the Illini chief abusive? He was a real person! I can't spell the name, but he was a real chief of the Illini tribe. Anyone who has gone to U of I will tell you that it is completely respectful. Granted, some of the names are offensive. I can understand getting rid of the "Savages." But most of the names on the banned list are not in the least offensive. And why do the Pembroke Braves get to keep their name? Because they have "historically had a high percentage of students, more than 20 percent, who are American Indians." How is the Pembroke Braves less damaging and offensive than the Alcorn State Braves or the Bradley Braves or the Chowan College Braves?

So now are we going to make Notre Dame change they're mascot? Maybe I, as one of Irish descent, find the "Fighting Irish" incredibly damaging and hostile. Yeah, right. No one would dream of changing Notre Dame. But somehow the "Fighting Sioux" is an unacceptable name for a school team.

And while we're at it, why don't we change place names, too. If it's unacceptabe to name a sports team after a tribe, how can we live with the state of Illinois? It's not like it was named after the Illini, oh, no. And Indiana couldn't possibly come from the word "indian." And we have to get rid of Chicago, too, because that's an indian word, and it seems we're getting rid of all of those. And Milwaukee, and Cheyanne, and everything else that's named after tribes. No one thinks about that, do they?

These names are, at least sometimes, a reflection of the area. Florida State Seminoles. University of Illinois Illini. University of Utah Utes. Both tribes are from that area. I'm really not seeing the offensvie-ness. They're history. Not ways to slam another culture.