Red Raider barking up wrong tree

Texas Tech has banned the sale of a T-shirt bearing the likeness of Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick hanging the dog mascot of rival Texas A&M.

The red and black shirts, with text that says “VICK ‘EM” on the front in an apparent reference to the Aggies’ slogan “Gig ‘em,” was created by a Texas Tech student who was trying to sell them before Saturday’s game in Lubbock, Texas.

The back of the shirt shows a football player wearing the No. 7 Vick jersey holding a rope with an image of the mascot Reveille at the end of a noose. Vick, who pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges, is suspended indefinitely by the NFL.

Texas Tech officials late Tuesday announced the fraternity that sold the shirts was suspended temporarily and will face judicial review for allegedly violating the solicitation section of the students’ code of conduct.

The creator of the shirt, Geoffrey Candia, told The Battalion, Texas A&M’s newspaper, for Tuesday’s editions that the university prohibited sale of the shirts on campus through his fraternity. He said he originally had wanted to give 50 percent of the proceeds to an animal defense league in Lubbock “because we knew there would be a controversy about the shirts, you know, animal rights, stuff like that.”