Diplomacy Edict for Stanford Band

There will be no Grad Night celebration at the NCAA West Regional today, when Stanford faces Cincinnati’s diploma-challenged basketball program.

The Stanford band, notorious for its outrageous pranks, has been ordered not to wear graduation gowns mocking the woeful graduation rate of the Cincinnati basketball program, a band spokesman said Wednesday.

“We got word from our athletic department that the NCAA has ordered us not to wear graduation gowns,” said Aram Cretan, a sophomore trumpet player.

The Bearcats’ graduation rate was 0% in 2000, 33% in 1999, 0% in 1998, 0% in 1997 and 0% in 1996, according to NCAA records.

Stanford officials were unable to say who gave passed along the edict to the band. NCAA officials sifted through their hefty bureaucracy, but could neither confirm nor deny the order.