I recently met up with my parents at my grandmother's house and my dad gave me some interesting news. McMurry University recently lost one appeal that they filed with the NCAA and still have one more chance to appeal a decision made by an NCAA committee. The decision being appealed is one that will make McMurry change the mascot that has been a part of its history since the very beginning. It has always been the McMurry Indians, yet the NCAA is trying to change that. The Florida Seminoles have appealed the decision and had it granted, yet McMurry has not.

Now, I don't know any of the specifics of the court case; I only know what the ARN stated in their article, which was that McMurry's portrayal of Native Americans had been found offensive. Actually, it said that the fans at the games had been using imagery that was degrading to Native Americans and the decision might have nothing to do with what the university itself had done.

Now, I come from a high school that uses Indians as its mascot and I can fully understand why the people attending the university are fighting the decision, what do they want the mascot to change to. This mascot is part of the school's history.

Is the NCAA going to make Notre Dame change its mascot from the Fighting Irish because it's perpetuating the stereotype that Irish people are all brawlers? No, the Fighting Irish is such an integral part of the school that there is no way that it will ever be changed.

The same goes for the Aggies at A&M. The Aggie always bears the brunt of the joke and is shown as a dullard, yet the fact that the name is for agriculturists is never brought up in all of the NCAA's dicussions of degrading stereotypes.