The Fighting Gekko's

Have you ever heard the old college joke about the NCAA being so upset with Alabama they gave Florida International an extra year of probation.

So is the life with the NCAA, who manage to make mountains out of mole hills by banishing the nickname of the University of North Dakota, The Fighting Sioux.

Nevermind that Illinois gets to keep Fighting Illini or Florida State gets to keep Seminoles, somehow the NCAA is deeply offended by The Fighting Sioux. By the way, have you ever seen the tremendously stereotypical Seminole pregame ceremony with the Indian on a horse driving a spear into the ground?

Here's some points to keep in mind.

1) Let's say that you were ethnically cleansing an area, what is the first thing you do? You eliminate all references to the ethnic groups you are oppressing. By eliminating reference to tribes, I believe the NCAA is practicing a form of ethnic cleansing.

2) By my count, at least 15 states' names are references to Indian tribes and/or have origins to Indian culture. Should we wipe those out?

3) In my home town we have a neighborhood with a series of Indian tribe names; Wyandot, Cherokee, Shawnee, Miami, etc. are those offensive? I mean, afterall, we don't name streets after the 12 tribes of Israel or African tribes like Somali, Hutu, or Zulu. So it should be taken as a slight? Does it matter that those streets back into streets named after American presidents Roosevelt, McKinley, Garfield, Washington, Harrison, Pierce, etc.? I'm sure that was done to offend everyone.

Here's a solution to the problem. UND can use the nickname The Fighting Valentine's (my real name) and they do stuff like throw candy hearts into the crowd, change the school colors to Scarlett and Pink, or have a giant cupid come onto the field and drop and arrow into the 50 yard line and I promise I won't be offended.

In fact, I'd be honored. But I think they're looking for something a little more proud than that.