I have read conflicting reports regarding the status of this issue but that does not change my mind about how it ought to turn out. Here is what I believe to be the current state of the play:
The Center for Science in the Public Interest organized a petition drive to get the NCAA to disallow beer advertising on collegiate sporting broadcasts/telecasts.
Counting university presidents, athletic directors, basketball and football coaches, there are about 300 signatures on this petition.
The NCAA considered this matter and decided not to ban such advertising.
What is not clear to me is whether or not the NCAA will reconsider this same issue at some future meeting or if this is over for the time being.
The last point here is not important to me. What is important to me is that for the moment the NCAA actually got something right proving that even a stopped clock tells the correct time twice a day. At the moment, the NCAA has advertising bans on gambling establishments, cigarettes and guns. The cigarette ban is somewhat superfluous since there is a Congressional ban on that too, but I’m sure it makes the NCAA feel as if they are doing something to strengthen the moral fabric of the country by adding their own imprimatur to that cause. However, to ban beer advertising would be nothing more than a symbolic and futile gesture.
Let me be clear about this:
1. College kids – even ones who are underage – drink beer.
2. They have been drinking beer for a long time.
3. They will continue to drink beer for a long time into the future.
4. The presence or absence of beer advertising on college sporting events has exactly nothing to do with collegiate beer consumption.
Were the NCAA to ban beer advertising, you can be sure that they would pump up their chests and present this to the country as a strong moral stand on the part of the organization. In reality, what it would actually be is a futile gesture that makes it appear as if the NCAA is doing something to reduce underage college drinking – - which they would not be doing.
Memo to NCAA Honchos:
1. If you assert that you are trying to control underage college drinking with this advertising ban, be prepared to be held up as preening fools every time there is evidence of rampant underage college drinking. Estimated frequency of such evidence would be about once a month.
2. If you are really “against” underage college drinking, do something about it; do not settle for a grandstand play.
Moreover, while I am at being clear about things, the Center for Science in the Public Interest is a misnomer. Some of their “science” is pseudo-science not markedly more rigorous than creation science. To be sure, many of their causes are not in the public interest but are indeed in the Center’s interest in the Center’s cash flow.
With college football season starting soon, there are some interesting things to note about the upcoming season. On September 6, Minnesota goes on the road to play an out of conference game. That is unusual. Granted, they are going to Bowling Green, which is not to be confused with a Top 20 team, but at least the Gophers agreed to go on the road here.
Speaking of Minnesota, their other three non-conference games will be Florida Atlantic, Montana State and Northern Illinois. All three of these riveting games will be carried on Big Ten Network. Please remember these programming notes the next time you read about some Big Ten Network person telling you about how it is such a shame that the cable companies will not put BTN on basic cable and by the way also pay BTN a premium fee to carry the programming. This is football; this is one of the premier college sports for BTN to carry; nevertheless, not many folks are going to watch these three games. So imagine the audiences for Minnesota versus Colorado School of Mines in women’s basketball. [I made that up; do not tell me they have not scheduled each other.] The reason BTN is not worth a big price to cable companies is simple; there’s too much programming on it that is of zero interest to anyone not related by blood or marriage to the participants in the event.
I wonder why Carthage doesn’t schedule Troy in football. Imagine all the sacking that would happen in that game…
Michigan opens up this year against Utah – in Ann Arbor of course on August 30. Meanwhile, Appalachian State is moving on to look for bigger conquests in a season-opener this year. They will travel to LSU on that same day in an attempt to reprise their stunning upset from last season. With the surprise factor gone, I think that will be most difficult for them to accomplish – - but wouldn’t it be fun to have another season go the way last one did?
In fact, the most delicious irony would be for Ohio State to lose a shocker on opening weekend just so the gloating Buckeye fans from last year can hear it from Michigan fans and get their shame faces on before yet another shellacking in a BCS title game. However, Ohio State opens against Youngstown State. Despite the fact that fans will pay full price to see what almost assuredly amounts to an exhibition game, looking for an upset here is like Ponce de Leon’s quest for the Fountain of Youth.
Finally, this comment from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald points to the futility of purging beer consumption from college campuses:
“Parting thought: The University of Florida was named the nation’s No. 1 ‘party school.’ A UF spokesman downplayed the dubious news, but nobody could hear him because there were a thousand drunk students behind him going, ‘WOOO-HOOO!’’ ”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…