Governor says NCAA "out of line" on Illiniwek

Governor says NCAA "out of line" on Illiniwek
May 11, 2006

SPRINGFIELD (AP) -- Governor Rod Blagojevich continues to keep his opinion about the University of Illinois' Chief Illiniwek private, but he said Thursday the NCAA should butt out.
Blagojevich said the decision whether the university's Urbana-Champaign campus should keep the Chief should be left to the school's board of trustees. The NCAA last month upheld its decision that Illiniwek is a "hostile and abusive" symbol and banned Illinois from hosting postseason tournaments if it keeps the mascot.
Blagojevich said the NCAA is, in his words, "out of line."
He said the proper forum for a decision is the university's board of trustees and said for him to express his opinion might, as he put it, "move the argument in an artificial way."
The trustees have not said what they intend to do in the wake of the NCAA's ban. They're meeting in Chicago on Thursday, but Illiniwek was not on their published agenda.