State Flag Issue with NCAA

[Po Monkey Lounger]

There is a movement afoot by the black coaches association for the NCAA to expand its post-season ban of championships being hosted by states which have the confederate flag as part of its state flag. The expansion of the prohibition would include baseball and tennis regionals and super regionals currently being hosted in Mississippi, and would ostensible apply to hosting of an NIT basketball tourney game, since the NCAA now owns the NIT tourney.

Here is an article from a South Carolina newspaper discussing this issue:

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Clemson’s role as baseball host unfurls flag flap
Black Coaches Association complaint prompts NCAA to review scope of ban in S.C.
By JOSEPH PERSON
jperson @thestate.com
Unless lawmakers remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds, the road to the College World Series could become longer for Clemson, South Carolina and the state’s other schools.

An NCAA subcommittee is re-examining the flag issue after the head of the Black Coaches Association questioned why Clemson hosted regional and super regional games before advancing to Omaha this past season.

In 2002 the NCAA implemented a two-year moratorium prohibiting schools in South Carolina from hosting any pre-assigned championships. A year later the NCAA extended the ban indefinitely.

Now BCA executive director Floyd Keith wants college athletics’ chief governing body to consider broadening the ban to keep all postseason contests out of the state.

“At least from our viewpoint, there should not be any postseason events awarded,” Keith said Friday during a telephone interview.

Robert Vowels, commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference and chair of the NCAA’s Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee, said an eight-person subcommittee plans a teleconference in the coming months to discuss the issue. The group wants to review the original moratorium and the selection process for championship sites in sports such as baseball and tennis, in which the highest-seeded schools often are chosen as hosts.

“The main thing is understanding the selection process and just seeing what’s what,” Vowels said. “Once we can understand processes, then we can go from there.”

The NCAA maintains the same postseason ban in Mississippi, which incorporates the Confederate flag into its state flag.

Greenville’s Bi-Lo Center hosted first- and second-round games of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 2002 because the bid had been awarded before the ban took effect.

Since then, however, South Carolina has lost out on several NCAA-sanctioned events.

• A cross-country regional that Furman had hosted for 21 years was moved.

• The ACC pulled its baseball tournament out of Fort Mill in 2003.

• Officials with USC and the Bi-Lo Center were turned down after submitting bids to serve as first- and second-round sites for the NCAA men’s basketball tourney.

“March Madness is March Sadness in South Carolina because there will be no March Madness here. And the NAACP is in lockstep with it,” said Lonnie Randolph, the NAACP state president.

Lawmakers have not addressed the flag issue since 2000, when a legislative compromise moved the flag from atop the Capitol dome to a Confederate monument on the north side of the State House grounds. Beginning in 1999, the NAACP asked African-Americans to boycott South Carolina’s tourism industry, an effort Randolph said would continue until the flag comes down.

In the meantime, the only postseason games that have been staged in the state have been at the conference level. While aware of the NCAA’s moratorium, the SEC allows its schools from South Carolina and Mississippi to submit proposals to host the conference’s neutral-site championships.

The SEC held its 2005 women’s basketball tournament in Greenville after a scheduling conflict at Atlanta’s Philips Arena forced organizers to look for an alternative site. This past fall the SEC cross country championships were run at Fort Jackson.

However, despite attractive arenas in Greenville and Columbia, event organizers across the state have had their hands tied when it comes to trying to host games in the lucrative NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Said Randolph: “(Basketball fans) don’t drop pennies in your community. They drop millions of dollars in your community.”

Vowels said his subcommittee would study the issue of extending the NCAA’s ban to include all postseason events and would make a recommendation to the NCAA’s executive committee by the end of the year.

Even if no changes are made, Keith, the BCA director, believes the ban has been effective in drawing attention to the flag.

“It’s certainly an issue of awareness that has been supported and embraced by the NCAA. That in itself is a positive step from our platform,” Keith said. “Is it completely eradicated or something we can say it’s done? No. The issue is still there.”

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IF this occurs, such would absolutely hurt the baseball programs at MSU, UM, and USM (to a lesser degree). And while it would hurt all three schools' tennis programs, it would really hurt UM since it is highly ranked and hosts regionals year in and year out.

Imagine not being able to host baseball regionals in the state of Mississippi? The road to Omaha would be THAT much tougher, and recruiting the top players would be a hard sell as well. I think such a development would send Bianco packing to a school in another state, and likely trigger the resignation of Polk at MSU.

There has already been a statewide vote on this issue. The confederate flag proponents voted to keep the current state flag. To a large degree, changing the state flag would be out of the control of MSU or UM. Even if the state were to have another vote, would the prospect of not hosting baseball and tennis regionals make a difference with most of the population who voted in support of the current state flag?

Hopefully, this unfair scenario will never become the rule at the NCAA. But, I do not trust the NCAA and its attempts at political correctness.

[big gumbo]

Well, thats just plain Bull $#!+.

A recently uncovered letter dating to the early years of the war has Lincoln proposing a constitutional admendment legalizing slavery to bring a quick end to the hostilities. Amazing how history gets warped to met a groups needs.

[GordonGekko]

I do not trust the NCAA and its attempts at political correctness.

Said a mouthful there.... How about this caffeine is on the NCAA list of performance enhancing drugs! So in theory if you drink too many Mountain Dew's before your test you could pop an NCAA test.... seems to me the NCAA carries things a bit too far at times...I remember a few years back when a friend of my family popped a test for a banned substance that was in an over the counter protein shake, nobody payed much attention to the substance at the time and some of the coaches didn't even know what it was...kid makes 1 mistake and loses his college scholarship for popping a test, no it's not the NCAA's fault, but they have gone overboard, if you can buy it at GNC it should probably be ok, just my 2 cents...hell I guess I got lucky and got hurt before I had a chance to fail one for chugging a 12 pack of Jolt cola

Sorry for hijacking the thread with an NCAA rant Po Monkey...I just think they are a bit extreme....

[mudsucker]

So update the flag! Who gives a flip!

[Bully]

I knew it. Mudsucker is a liberal!

[Po Monkey Lounger]

Mudsucker, if it were only that simple, then such a position by the NCAA would not cause any real problems.

But, our state was torn apart on racial lines the last time this issue of the state flag came up (just a few years ago) and a statewide vote was conducted. Our legislators will not touch this issue with a 10 foot pole. Such is why they "punted" the last time, and placed it on a statewide ballot.

Hopefully, UM and MSU will not be punished by the NCAA for what the state of MS decides to do collectively, as a whole.

[rjohnson]

This kind of chit pisses me off. How can a race that has many more opportunities to obtain a free education and make all the money they can dream of still be holding on to this friggin' racial issue? To me the Confederate flag is a symbol of Southern pride, not prejudice. I'm proud to be from the South and wouldn't live anywhere else. They are a part of our heritage just like we are so why all the fuss. They haven't been slaves for several generations and have more government help than an educated white person on umemployment! For them to use some underhanded BS like this to try and get their way AGAIN is uncalled for!!!!

Anyone know Croom's stance on this. I'm pretty sure his name is on their roster. I'm a State fan through and through but if he's in on this he needs to go!! No need for a racial agenda in this state anywhere. I hope and assume he is against it for our baseball teams' sake.

[mudsucker]

Mudsucker, if it were only that simple, then such a position by the NCAA would not cause any real problems.

But, our state was torn apart on racial lines the last time this issue of the state flag came up (just a few years ago) and a statewide vote was conducted. Our legislators will not touch this issue with a 10 foot pole. Such is why they "punted" the last time, and placed it on a statewide ballot.

Hopefully, UM and MSU will not be punished by the NCAA for what the state of MS decides to do collectively, as a whole.

I know! I been living in MS 14yrs. so I was here for the election debacle. I am NOT a liberal but it is time to move on folks!

[Hooded Merganzer]

The NCAA has gotten itself into the political arena where it
"ABSOLUTELY" does not belong. Plain and Simple. My .02
on it.

[bigwater]

boyz this is f'd up.. first off the ncaa is a chicken schit politcial correctness run amock organization..

we're "@#$%#" if the ncaa moves on this proposal... this means bad news to our baseball programs...

no more regionals.. would be very hard to swallow..

the bad thing is the ncaa would be punishing the schools for something they have no, and i mean no control over..

i would be willing to bet that despite the possible ban of all ncaa post-season events, our voters would still vote for the current flag...

question, does anyone remember the results of the last flag vote?? didn't the current flag design win easily??

[RebelYelp]

65-35 i believe bigwater....

the NCAA is all about $$ when it comes down to it, last year Ole Miss had the highest attended regional and super regional by about 6k in each. Mississippi State has traditionally had one of the highest attendence figures in the nation in baseball. Surely the NCAA wouldn't bite the hand that feeds it....

[mshunter77]

This is just ridiculous. I really don't care about if the flag gets changed or whatever, but i do get mad about the way people go aboout doing things. The NCAA has no reason to be messing with issues like this.
These are college kids out their playing a game they love and having a good time and they want to mess it up by crying about a freaking flag. I am sorry I am sick and tired of these people playing the racism card, espcially when they are the most acist of all and can say whatever they want to say and get away with it. I think that was proven when the NO mayor said it would be a chocolate city again, a white person could never have gotten away with that. This whole thing has gotten way out of hand because these people have been given everything they want and realize all they have to do is ban together and scream racisim and they get what they want with out having to work for it and earn and i am just tired of it. OK i will get off of my soapbox now.

[bigwater]

i don't understand why the black coaches assn.. would be that upset.. its not like a lot of negros play college baseball anyway... is it too much to ask for us poor slow white men to have one college sport.. baseball...

as for tennis who gives a schit... hell college tennis is dominated by euros and foreigners anyway//

[mottlet]

The New York Times ran a front page article about Mississippi keeping the flag after the election. Anybody who didn't see this coming wasn't looking very hard. That flag isn't going to do anything but hold us back and this is just one example. That's a damn shame, but it's reality. Blame the Klan.

The problem is that Mississippi teams are gonna have to deal with getting screwed by this chicken-schit end-around by the NCAA. But again, is anybody really suprised that this is how they're gonna play it? I'd trust ol' Bernie Ebbers before I trusted anybody at the NCAA.

mottlet

[bigwater]

bernie loved sports... he majored in phys ed.. that why he was unaware of what them bean counters were up to...

bwabwaa