The good Butler Bulldog must loiter outside Detroit’s arena because of NCAA rules

No. 10 Butler takes on No. 7 Arkansas on Friday afternoon in the NCAA tournament’s first round in Detroit. The Bulldogs have a very real chance of charging far into this year’s Big Dance, and their lovable mascot, Butler Blue III, has accompanied his very good boys to Detroit in support of the team’s campaign to do just that.

There’s just one problem, though: as a living, breathing mascot, Butler Blue III isn’t allowed inside Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit, because the NCAA prohibits live mascots from in-person attendance during the Big Dance’s opening rounds. Here’s Trip, as he’s known, tragically loitering around the entrance at Little Caesar’s Arena, because the very mean NCAA won’t let him flop around inside the building.

Should Butler advance to the Final Four, the team can petition the NCAA to have their very good bulldog on the floor in San Antonio.

Stupid NCAA. Sure, there’s every possibility that Trip could, um, mess up the floor on a neutral site’s hardwood and delay game action, but to that point we counteroffer the following:

Let Trip in. He’s already passed the most grilling of interviews, after all.