Early Update
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008Ladies and Gentlemen -
Before I depart for a brief hiatus I wanted to leave you all with another story from the
“Here we go again Department” and this is no April Fools.
On the evening of Friday April the 11th, the University of Alabama had planned to have a pep rally before the spring football game in Bryant Denny Stadium involving the football coaches, players and the Million Dollar Marching Band.
This pep rally was to be followed by a live performance (concert) by country music star Alan Jackson.
As you might imagine, this event had been planned for months.
Eighteen months to be precise.
STOP!!!
The NCAA stepped in on Friday 28 March 2008 with “concerns that student-athletes (namely football players) could be potentially used to promote the Alan Jackson Concert.”
The President of MSL Entertainment, Mr. Shawn Garrity, who sponsored the event at the University of Alabama and 16 other university spring football games had this to say concerning the situation.
“The issue over player participation has caused confusion among the schools during this critical window of time in which they had left to properly promote the event. With valuable time being lost awaiting NCAA clarification, we felt it was in the best interest of all parties involved to allow our participating universities and their marketing partners more time to adequately prepare for this event, the largest college football celebration in history.”
The NCAA “spokesperson” responded with the following statement:
“NCAA rules do not allow student-athletes to participate in any promotional activities or appearances for a commercial venture. NCAA rules also do not allow student-athletes to receive free or reduced benefits, such as free concert tickets, that are generally available to the student body. These rules are in place to maintain amateur status of student-athletes.
According to our discussions with MSL Sports Entertainment, the company wanted to use the appearance of football student-athletes as part of the event. In addition, the organizers did not want to require the student-athletes to pay admission to the event.
While it has been stated that the organizers have been planning this event for a year and a half, they did not contact the NCAA to ensure compliance until last week. ”
So football players being introduced on the stage of a concert (without buying a ticket) is a NCAA violation? Even if the event is to promote an event FOR the University?
O.K., so let me understand this…….”NCAA rules also do not allow student-athletes to receive free or reduced benefits, such as free concert tickets, that are generally available to the student body. These rules are in place to maintain amateur status of student-athletes.”
That is kind of funny because I remember Dwayne Jarrett from U$C who lived in a $4500.00 a month apartment in southern California for a year and a half for “free” and the NCAA determined that “Dwayne didn’t know that he had to pay rent” and allowed him to continue his career at U$C.
And who can forget (Other than the PAC 10 and the NCAA) Reggie Bush’s momma and step-fathers rent free mansion and the free plane trips, cars, the clothes, the cars and the clothes. You get the picture.
This is a good time to remind you all that NCAA stands for……..
National Coalition Against Alabama.
“Hootie” Snitch will take over the column until I return.
Stay tuned I understand he has something “for the ladies” later on this week.
Be afraid - be very afraid.
RTR
MEB