[ChuckElias]

I know this doesn't relate directly to basketball, so if it gets moved to the General Forum, I won't be offended. I just wanted to throw it out to everybody. This article was posted on ESPN.com's Page 2, in response to the NCAA's demand that William & Mary remove two feathers from its team logo:

A few hours after the column was posted, William & Mary announced it was giving up and would take off the feathers. Further resistance would require suing the NCAA, and the college said it cannot justify spending parents' money on the matter -- especially since the NCAA, backed by the deep pockets of the football factories, seems willing to invest substantial resources to get its way. As Daphne Cooper of Bluffton, S.C. notes, "William & Mary thinks money is best used for education, while the NCAA thinks money is best used to increase its financial control over what was once amateur collegiate sports." The NCAA ruled that Florida State may keep the Indian-themed feather on its helmet, and the University of Utah may keep its Utes nickname and two-feathers logo -- yet is adamant the feathers come off William & Mary's helmets. But then, Florida State and Utah football are money machines. Nathan Verilla of Richmond, Va. puts it, "The NCAA's efforts to police Native American nicknames and logos is a sham. It has nothing to do with the actual nicknames or logos and everything to do with which schools bring in the money. Never mind that the majority of Native Americans don't really care about Native American imagery in sports and that the groups working to alter sports images should better spend their time on the real problems facing Native Americans today -- alcoholism, suicide, unemployment, lack of political power. If the NCAA was serious about removing Native American imagery from their member schools, it would have forced every college with such imagery to change their nicknames and logos, instead of caving to the football factories while bullying small schools like William & Mary."

Even by the standards of the NCAA, an organization that has made its name synonymous with double standards, the campaign against William & Mary's feathers seems a fool's errand. My guess is the NCAA wanted to claim it was taking dramatic action about Indian imagery, but was afraid to pick on big-money schools, so picked on the little guy. Great job of setting an example, Myles Brand! Also, William & Mary perennially embarrasses the NCAA by playing in Division I and graduating almost all scholarship athletes -- 98 percent of the school's Division I-AA football players graduated in the latest stats. Florida State by contrast does an atrocious job, graduating just 52 percent of its football scholarship holders. Florida State treats education for football players as a big joke, and the NCAA lavishes special favors on that school; whereas graduate your athletes and the NCAA will punish you! Gene Nichol, president of William and Mary, said yesterday, "It is galling that a university with such a consistent and compelling record of doing intercollegiate athletics the right way is threatened with punishment by an organization whose own house, simply put, is not in order." My suggestion to William & Mary faithful: Start wearing feathers to games.

Just to compare the two logos: