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In the week leading up to the NCAA’s annual meeting in August, 60 Division I college presidents, 240 college athletic directors, and 101 football and basketball coaches around the country sent a letter to the NCAA and President Myles Brand, urging the Association to stop beer advertising during televised games via a three-year phase-out (NCAA bylaws do not allow hard alcohol advertising during athletic contests). Another letter signed by 100 college presidents and athletic directors in April asked for beer advertisements to stop during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. And nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent their own letter to Brand in August as well. The main assertion by the letter writers is that allowing beer ads during broadcasts is inconsistent with the values of higher education institutions.

“It's refreshing to see so many college presidents, athletic directors, and coaches standing up for what's best for their institutions, sports programs, and student athletes," George A. Hacker, Director of the Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) said in a CSPI announcement. "Even officials at many major sports powerhouses, which derive some revenue from beer advertising, recognize the hypocrisy and illogic of the NCAA's sell-out to beer peddlers.”

That many signatures is a stark representation of the level of agreement among the higher ups in NCAA institutions. In fact, dating back to 2005, more than one-third of NCAA institutions have endorsed a “College Commitment” pledge to eliminate advertising in televised college sports and have sent letters to the NCAA every year since.

It isn’t surprising that according to market research, in 2007, beer companies were the second leading advertiser behind automobiles. Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing were both among the top-five advertisers for the 2007 NCAA men’s basketball championships. All of these statistics beg many to ask the question, is it all about the ad revenue?

Whatever the reasoning is, so far, the pleadings of college presidents, athletic directors, and coaches haven’t been persuasive enough. The NCAA Executive Committee concluded at its annual meeting in August that their existing policy was fine as is currently constructed and is not in need of alterations.

“I think we've taken a very sensible, very rational, very conservative approach and we've asked that any company that advertises [alcohol] during our games continue to include the message `drink responsibly' on its ads," said executive committee chairman Michael Adams. "I think we've taken about as conservative an approach as any sport in the country.”

Hacker wrote an opinion column for the Sports Business Journal in September, maintaining that the CSPI has no plans to stop lobbying for the end of beer ads during college sports broadcasts.

”When the NCAA governing bodies convened in Indianapolis in early August, they missed an opportunity to make real progress,” he wrote. “They could have listened to the organization’s members and ended the embarrassing promotion of beer in college sports. They could have followed the lead of the Big Ten, which last year prohibited all alcohol advertising on its new, independent sports television network, asserting that such advertising was inconsistent with the Big Ten brand and those of its members.”

Mike Tyo is a junior Sports Media major at Ithaca College.