Sports briefs 6/27/06

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Chief Illiniwek likely has not danced his last dance at University of Illinois home football games and could perform at basketball games this winter because the school's board of trustees has not settled on a solution to the long-simmering debate, athletic director Ron Guenther said in a newspaper interview.

The school's teams might go through the academic year unable to host postseason NCAA events because the trustees are taking the necessary time to reach a good decision on the Chief's future, Guenther told the (Decatur) Herald & Review in an interview published Monday. The solution likely won't come before May 2007, he said.

Illinois is barred from hosting postseason NCAA events because the organization has deemed Illiniwek and the dance a "hostile and abusive" use of American Indian imagery.