UI case for autonomy on Chief should impress the NCAA

In a remarkably thorough and convincing appeal signed by University of Illinois Board of Trustees Chairman Lawrence Eppley, the UI makes a strong case for overturning a National Collegiate Athletic Association policy that would ban the university from hosting postseason NCAA championship events because of the Chief Illiniwek tradition.

The appeal, filed just before the American Indian imagery-related prohibition was to go into effect today, focuses primarily on how the NCAA's Executive Committee exceeded its authority in imposing the ban. But it also addresses the issues of institutional autonomy, the arbitrariness of the committee's finding that there is a "hostile and abusive" environment on the UI's Urbana campus and the fact that the NCAA "did not conduct any thorough fact finding necessary to support its conclusions about our names and our Chief Illiniwek tradition."