CHICAGO - Chief Illiniwek will likely no longer be the official symbol of the University of Illinois after this year, according to a published report.

Citing unidentified university sources, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday that the university tentatively plans to drop the controversial American Indian mascot at the end of the men's basketball season this year, leaving open the possibility that the school's teams could host NCAA events in the spring.

The NCAA has deemed Illiniwek and his dance a "hostile and abusive" use of American Indian imagery, and Illinois is barred from hosting postseason NCAA events.

The athletic association placed Illinois on its list of noncompliant schools last August and has upheld its decision through two university appeals.

In June 2004, the university's Board of Trustees adopted a resolution establishing a process to seek what it terms a "consensus conclusion" regarding Chief Illiniwek's future.

It set no timetable for reaching that conclusion and maintained as late as June of this year that the process is ongoing.

A university spokesman said Thursday that no decisions have been made about the Chief's future.

"Various possible scenarios have been put forward by everyone from proponents to opponents of the tradition, newspaper columnists and others, but the Board of Trustees continues to work on its consensus conclusion process," said Tom Hardy, the director of university relations.

According to Thursday's Sun-Times report, the university has tentative plans to transfer ownership of the chief to an alumni group.

That group, informally known as the Council of Chiefs, is made up of 27 former students who played the chief in the past.

Steven Raquel, a spokesman for the group, said its members look forward to helping decide the chief's future.

"If the tradition is going to continue, it is in the best interest of fans and the university that it be entrusted to the people who know it best," Raquel said. He appeared as the chief during the 1992-1993 school year.

The tradition on the Urbana-Champaign campus of having a student dress as "Chief Illiniwek" began in 1926. Clad in buckskins and headdress, Illiniwek dances at halftimes of home football, basketball and volleyball games on the school's flagship 39,000-student campus.

The university is set to celebrate the 80th anniversary of his first appearance this fall.