Tre’Jean Watkins
Picture this…
You’re an alumnus of a nice school, let’s say the University of Tennessee. You had a wonderful experience there, made some lifelong friends, attended some fun events, did some things you weren’t supposed to do, and even met your wife there.
Now fast forward 20 years.
You’re working a good job, well enough to support your family. Three kids, one is off to college, attending the same school you love. The others are younger, but you have high hopes for them and their future. You and your wife are still going strong and have plans for vacations in the future.
Life…is…great.
After a long week of work, you sit down in front of your TV to watch a big game between The Vols and the University of Georgia, It’s the biggest game of the year so far and although the work week was long, you finally have some time to yourself, some time to watch your alma mater play a big time college football game.
However, your joy is quickly sapped because after only 2 minutes of actual game time, you get six commercials, most of which are corny advertising shots by plastic corporations that want every ounce of free attention you can spare.
Maybe there’s one from Walmart, maybe there’s another from the 50 million AI companies that are popping up everywhere these days — that Claude ad with the MF Doom “All Caps” instrumental makes me angry every time I see it — or maybe it’s another ridiculous Amazon Prime ad that looks catchy and appealing, but has the soul of wallet sucking corporate sludge.
As you continue to watch the game, the constant commercials and corporate slop take a toll on you. More commercial breaks go by, until you finally take a deep breath and ask yourself, “What in the world happened to college sports?”.
Corporate Infestation
Seriously, how has something as tribal and energetic as college sports been taken over by private entities?
Ads on the field, corporations sponsoring club seating — priced ridiculously high by the way — important games being “sponsored” by said big time company, “The college football playoff final presented by GEICO” or something like that.
It’s exhausting.
This isn’t to say corporate entry into collegiate sports is new; it’s been that way since modern TV advertising was created as a concept, then built upon throughout the 80s, 90s, 2000s, and the 2010s.
But I don’t know if it’s just me being aware, but since the 2020s began, there’s been a barrage of corporate overreach into collegiate sports.
Maybe it’s just companies fully tapping into a constant and still growing market; perhaps it’s just the introduction of social media and the constant barrage of advertising you see there, which, combined with TV advertising, makes for a nasty one-two punch of corporate overreach.
Whatever it may be, there appears to be some disconnect between the intended appreciation of collegiate sports and the reality we live through today.
That Feeling Isn’t Going Away
What makes this feeling so significant is the fact that it’s not going away anytime soon.
Corporations have already sunk their teeth into college football and basketball, paying for constant eyes on their ads. But not only that, they’ve attached their brands to apparel deals, naming rights to conferences, bowl games, and even the field goal nettings have corporate branding.
For basketball, there are apparel deals, commercial run time, and much more, especially regarding the sport’s greatest collegiate spectacle, March Madness.
Add in NIL as well — which is another oyster of its own — and you’re faced with the grim reality of the already exhausting present form of corporate overreach, as well as the potential for further evolution of the concept in the future as companies get more creative with advertising, and collegiate governing bodies try to come up with more ways to create revenue and profit amidst a deteriorating economy.
The only way collegiate sports can escape from this vortex is if they stop focusing on revenue or get privatized. Neither of which is even close to being a possibility, especially the privatization of collegiate sports, since that would require players to be named as employees officially, which then opens up a new can of legal tuna regarding benefits and such.
Or, in other words, corporate mumbo jumbo.
So enjoy this feeling, if you can, at least because it’s not going away, not anytime soon, and maybe ever.
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