North Dakota’s attorney general filed a lawsuit in a state district court October 6 challenging the NCAA’s mascot policy.

The policy, which prohibits institutions with Native American mascots deemed hostile or abusive from hosting NCAA championships, impacts the University of North Dakota because of its Fighting Sioux nickname. Institutions on the list are also prohibited from participation in postseason play unless all references to Native Americans are removed from their uniforms.

North Dakota was retained on the list of institutions banned from postseason play after a final appeal to the NCAA Executive Committee was denied in April. The North Dakota Board of Higher Education authorized the lawsuit last summer.

The suit accuses the Association of breach of contract, unlawful trade restraint and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. It seeks an injunction against application of the policy and ultimately a determination that the policy is illegal.

The Division III Management Council is recommending defeat of a 2007 Convention proposal that would place a cap on the division’s size, saying that a pair of proposals sponsored by the Division III Presidents Council — combined with a continuing moratorium on accepting new members — also effectively would halt membership growth for at least the near future.

The Council recommended that the Presidents Council formally oppose the North Coast Athletic Conference-sponsored membership-cap proposal at the January Convention.

For more information, see page 23.

The Division II Management Council took positions on three membership proposals slated for the 2007 Convention at its October 16-17 meeting in Indianapolis.

The Council supported a measure that would require a two-thirds majority vote to reduce equivalencies in a given sport, but Council members noted their preference for a Presidents Council proposal that would require the same super majority for any equivalency adjustment, not just a reduction.

The Council did not support the other two membership proposals. One would specify that a four-year college transfer who participated on the previous four-year institution’s club team would not be charged with a season of competition. The other calls for eliminating skill-instruction limitations, particularly those on the number of student-athletes permitted

The Division I Management Council amended policies related to distribution of the Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund to conferences to exclude expenses related to athletics development from permissible uses for the funds.

The decision was the result of an extensive review of two years of fund-use data by the Conference Commissioners Association. The review found that institutions often requested funds for what was described as athletics-development purposes, such as attending basketball camps.

Specifically included in the prohibition would be fees and other expenses for: participation in sports camps and clinics; private, sports-related instruction; other athletics-development experiences such as greens fees or batting cage fees; and participation in a foreign tour. Institutions would continue be able to pay for passport fees.