Dixie State, one of the newer members of Division-I athletics, is changing its name.
This is good. Even leaving aside the whole question about when and how to acceptably use the name Dixie, this is going to be a lot less confusing, because Dixie State is in Utah.
Yes, Dixie State is in Utah.
It actually makes some sense. Dixie State (soon to be…Utah Tech, perhaps?) is in St. George, Utah, down near Zion where the climate’s mild and Las Vegas is two hours closer than Salt Lake City. Back when the Mormons were settling Utah, the region became referred to as “Utah’s Dixie,” being in the southern part of the state and placing some economic importance on growing cotton. It was first settled in the 1850’s. Dixie was a thing back then.
So, that’s where we’re at. When you see Utah Tech on the bottom line playing some buy game and you say, “I’ve never heard of Utah Tech before,” it was Dixie State. And if you hadn’t heard of Dixie State, well, disregard all this.
