Sanction Letter

[Siouxperfan7]

Here is the letter that UND recieved on Feb 29th after they reinstated the "Fighting Sioux' nickname.

Dear Dr. LeBel:

President Robert Kelly (sic) recently informed me that the University of North Dakota was resuming its use of the Fighting Sioux nickname and imagery in connection with its athletics program. I noted in my discussion with you and Mr. Brain (sic) Faison that this action by the university means that your athletic programs are subject to the NCAA’s policies concerning participation in NCAA championships. Please allow me to reiterate the limitations that are in effect immediately:

1. No University of North Dakota team may host an NCAA championship round. If a North Dakota team is selected as the lower-seeded team in a championship competition, North Dakota would be designated as the “home” team but would be assigned to play at the higher-seeded institution’s venue.

2. If the university accepts an invitation to participate in any postseason competition, the NCAA policy requires that student-athletes, band, cheerleading, dance and mascot uniforms and paraphernalia not have hostile or abusive racial/ethnic/national original references during the NCAA championship competition.

3. If an invitation is accepted and the university must forfeit competition because it has not adhered to this requirement, the NCAA reserves its right to seek reimbursement for expenses incurred by the Association for travel, per diem or other expenses in connection with the championship.

It is the spirit of the NCAA’s championship policy that the competing student-athletes (both North Dakota and its opponents) not be distracted or disrupted during the championship by debates about when and where your institution’s Native American imagery or nickname may be displayed or worn. Therefore, we ask that the university take measures to minimize or eliminate the presence of the imagery or nickname brought to an NCAA championship venue.

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Bernard W. Franklin

Executive Vice President of Membership and Student-Athlete Affairs/Chief Inclusion Officer

__________________________

Just bringing up a couple issues I hade with two points made in this letter.

Int point 2 listed above, it says "student-athletes, band, cheerleading, dance and mascot uniforms and paraphernalia not have hostile or abusive racial/ethnic/national original references during the NCAA championship competition." Now, the working is important here. It did not say "native american imageary," it just said referecnces (whether racial, ethnic, notaional origin) that were hostile and abusive. I thought that the settlement agreement took the "hostile and abusive" label off of UND and the Fighting Sioux logo. So could the hockey team have worn their jerseys in the tournament and still adhered to this sanction letter?

In pothe final point of the letter, they are asking UND to ask that the university to "take measures to minimize or eliminate the presence of the imagery or nickname brought to an NCAA championship venue." Does this not sound like they want UND to make an effort to get people to not wear Fighting Sioux apparel at NCAA tournament games!! I mean we all knon that the NCAA is already overstepping its authority, but this is rediculous!! It hink this is going to become an issue even if we do retire the name!!

Just wondering if anyone else had noticed this.

[82SiouxGuy]

Here is the letter that UND recieved on Feb 29th after they reinstated the "Fighting Sioux' nickname.

Dear Dr. LeBel:

President Robert Kelly (sic) recently informed me that the University of North Dakota was resuming its use of the Fighting Sioux nickname and imagery in connection with its athletics program. I noted in my discussion with you and Mr. Brain (sic) Faison that this action by the university means that your athletic programs are subject to the NCAA’s policies concerning participation in NCAA championships. Please allow me to reiterate the limitations that are in effect immediately:

1. No University of North Dakota team may host an NCAA championship round. If a North Dakota team is selected as the lower-seeded team in a championship competition, North Dakota would be designated as the “home” team but would be assigned to play at the higher-seeded institution’s venue.

2. If the university accepts an invitation to participate in any postseason competition, the NCAA policy requires that student-athletes, band, cheerleading, dance and mascot uniforms and paraphernalia not have hostile or abusive racial/ethnic/national original references during the NCAA championship competition.

3. If an invitation is accepted and the university must forfeit competition because it has not adhered to this requirement, the NCAA reserves its right to seek reimbursement for expenses incurred by the Association for travel, per diem or other expenses in connection with the championship.

It is the spirit of the NCAA’s championship policy that the competing student-athletes (both North Dakota and its opponents) not be distracted or disrupted during the championship by debates about when and where your institution’s Native American imagery or nickname may be displayed or worn. Therefore, we ask that the university take measures to minimize or eliminate the presence of the imagery or nickname brought to an NCAA championship venue.

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Bernard W. Franklin

Executive Vice President of Membership and Student-Athlete Affairs/Chief Inclusion Officer

__________________________

Just bringing up a couple issues I hade with two points made in this letter.

Int point 2 listed above, it says "student-athletes, band, cheerleading, dance and mascot uniforms and paraphernalia not have hostile or abusive racial/ethnic/national original references during the NCAA championship competition." Now, the working is important here. It did not say "native american imageary," it just said referecnces (whether racial, ethnic, notaional origin) that were hostile and abusive. I thought that the settlement agreement took the "hostile and abusive" label off of UND and the Fighting Sioux logo. So could the hockey team have worn their jerseys in the tournament and still adhered to this sanction letter?

In pothe final point of the letter, they are asking UND to ask that the university to "take measures to minimize or eliminate the presence of the imagery or nickname brought to an NCAA championship venue." Does this not sound like they want UND to make an effort to get people to not wear Fighting Sioux apparel at NCAA tournament games!! I mean we all knon that the NCAA is already overstepping its authority, but this is rediculous!! It hink this is going to become an issue even if we do retire the name!!

Just wondering if anyone else had noticed this.

Some of this was discussed when the letter came out. No, UND could not have worn their regular jerseys. The NCAA, as a result of the settlement, issued a statement that UND was not hostile and abusive toward Native Americans. But once the settlement period had passed without getting approval from the required tribes, the nickname and logo went back on the hostile list because they are Native American imagery that has not received the needed approval. UND is not hostile and abusive as an institution, any non-approved NA imagery is on the hostile list and subject to sanctions.

As far as the rest of the letter, it is just an emphasis that the school should make all efforts to limit the things that they can control. The schools can not control what fans wear to some outside venue. If the NCAA really wanted to limit what was allowed at their events, they could potentially prohibit fans wearing clothing with specific logos. But that would be up to the NCAA because it is their event. That is beyond the control of the schools. The NCAA would have to make that fact known in advance and provide that information to the media and the public, especially to ticket buyers. They are not going to do that any time soon, and they have said that in the past. In one of the interviews done in the past year they were asked if they planned to limit the fans wearing prohibited logos and nicknames and the NCAA representative said that they had no plans to do that. Go ahead and wear your Fighting Sioux jersey anywhere you want.

[fightingsioux4life]

There is zero chance the NCAA would ban the general public from wearing Fighting Sioux clothing. The reason is simple: $$$$$.

If there is one thing these people care more about than "cultural diversity" and "sensitivity to minorities", it's the Almighty Dollar. Banning the general public from wearing Fighting Sioux clothing would hurt their bottom line because people would simply refuse to attend under those circumstances. I know I sure as heck wouldn't buy tickets under those conditions.

[petey23]

Some of this was discussed when the letter came out. No, UND could not have worn their regular jerseys. The NCAA, as a result of the settlement, issued a statement that UND was not hostile and abusive toward Native Americans. But once the settlement period had passed without getting approval from the required tribes, the nickname and logo went back on the hostile list because they are Native American imagery that has not received the needed approval. UND is not hostile and abusive as an institution, any non-approved NA imagery is on the hostile list and subject to sanctions.

As far as the rest of the letter, it is just an emphasis that the school should make all efforts to limit the things that they can control. The schools can not control what fans wear to some outside venue. If the NCAA really wanted to limit what was allowed at their events, they could potentially prohibit fans wearing clothing with specific logos, or even quit selling Sioux merchandise themselves at said events.. But that would be up to the NCAA because it is their event. That is beyond the control of the schools. The NCAA would have to make that fact known in advance and provide that information to the media and the public, especially to ticket buyers. They are not going to do that any time soon, and they have said that in the past. In one of the interviews done in the past year they were asked if they planned to limit the fans wearing prohibited logos and nicknames and the NCAA representative said that they had no plans to do that. Go ahead and wear your Fighting Sioux jersey anywhere you want.

[jodcon]

Out of curiousity I went to the NCAA website and directed to their official merchandise outlet ShopNCAASports to see how much UND stuff they had listed. Last time I looked which was quite a while ago they had quite a bit of stuff, about 80 items I think, none of it saying Sioux or with the Native American head on it.

Now they have...wait for it...0. None. Nil.

In fact we aren't even listed as a school, but Bemidji and MInn. State are.

NDSU, in contrast, has 278 items listed.

I don't know if we are now blackballed from selling any merch on the NCAA website or if they pulled everything and are going to revamp it, but it is a little disturbing to look at.

[Fetch]

None of that is worth giving up the name & logo VOTE NO IN JUNE

[82SiouxGuy]

As I asked in the other discussion on that issue, was the NCAA selling the merchandise or was Xcel Energy Center selling the merchandise? If the NCAA is selling it they are hypocritical. My guess is that Xcel was selling like they often do, and the NCAA didn't even bother looking and don't care if Xcel is selling a few jerseys since the NCAA doesn't get any revenue from that source.

[82SiouxGuy]

Out of curiousity I went to the NCAA website and directed to their official merchandise outlet ShopNCAASports to see how much UND stuff they had listed. Last time I looked which was quite a while ago they had quite a bit of stuff, about 80 items I think, none of it saying Sioux or with the Native American head on it.

Now they have...wait for it...0. None. Nil.

In fact we aren't even listed as a school, but Bemidji and MInn. State are.

NDSU, in contrast, has 278 items listed.

I don't know if we are now blackballed from selling any merch on the NCAA website or if they pulled everything and are going to revamp it, but it is a little disturbing to look at.

They pulled the merchandise right after the sanctions went into effect in August. I never looked after the sanctions were lifted in November. I checked in February after the sanctions were back and the name was listed as North Dakota Fighting Sioux but they didn't have any merchandise available. Maybe they decided to just eliminate the listing as long as there is no merchandise available.

[jodcon]

They pulled the merchandise right after the sanctions went into effect in August. I never looked after the sanctions were lifted in November. I checked in February after the sanctions were back and the name was listed as North Dakota Fighting Sioux but they didn't have any merchandise available. Maybe they decided to just eliminate the listing as long as there is no merchandise available.

That probably explains the listing but why would they eliminate the stuff that simply says UND or North Dakota on it? It's legal according to them so it seems like they would be agreeable to selling it, and there was many items that were just labeled as such. Seems sketchy to me.

[82SiouxGuy]

That probably explains the listing but why would they eliminate the stuff that simply says UND or North Dakota on it? It's legal according to them so it seems like they would be agreeable to selling it, and there was many items that were just labeled as such. Seems sketchy to me.

Are you looking at shopncaasports.com? I noticed that Alcorn State is not on that list either, but Grambling is. Maybe they just aren't selling anything from schools on the sanctioned list.

[jodcon]

Are you looking at shopncaasports.com? I noticed that Alcorn State is not on that list either, but Grambling is. Maybe they just aren't selling anything from schools on the sanctioned list.

Yeah, I wasn't sure what it was called so I went directly to the NCAA website and it linked me there as their official merchandise store.

I didn't think to look for Alcorn, maybe you're right and they aren't selling anything from sanctioned schools. That would suck for lack of a better word.

If that's the case, it would be a sobering moment to the people who think they will magicly reopen the settlement agreement or dull their stance on the sanctions over time.