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Why Central Michigan 'Chippewas' nickname is OK with local tribe, NCAA

Detroit Free Press sports intern George Stoia asked the players at MAC media day in Detroit if they wanted a piece of the defending champion Alabama. Detroit Free Press

Central Michigan president Bob Davies has seen the ugly.

As the vice president for university relations at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from 2006-09, he encountered a problem: the school's use of the nickname "Indians" coupled with a non-existent relationship with indigenous people.

"That particular university saw it as a transaction," he said Monday. "It was an athletic mascot, not a partnership. It was not done out of full respect.