NCAA, Member Schools Continue To Work More Like A Business

Brand Says NCAA Must Keep Increasing Revenue Streams

For NCAA men's basketball, from the $591M in TV and marketing revenue "generated this season to the masses awaiting Saturday's semifinals and Monday's championship game at Detroit's Ford Field, the men's tournament and its Final Four have grown into a mega-event on the order" of the Super Bowl, according a cover story by Wieberg & Berkowitz of USA TODAY. With NCAA allowance, many schools are "courting an increasingly varied array of sponsors and advertisers and creating some discomfort in the process." NCAA President Myles Brand: "There's nothing wrong with being a business like one of the professional leagues. They're very good at what they do. But we have additional constraints." For example, college athletes are "strictly forbidden from cashing in on their renown beyond the scholarships they receive." However, college athletes are "featured in game footage that increasingly shows up on the Internet alongside sponsors' logos and products," and in some videogames, the "computer-generated likenesses of real-life, still-in-school stars are unmistakable." In addition, the NCAA has "long sought to distance itself and schools from gambling interests." That line "is blurring, however, as legalized gambling spreads and more schools are open to gaming advertising." Pac-10 Associate Commissioner Jim Muldoon noted that five of the conference's schools "accept casino ads that show up in stadium and arena signage or game programs." While the NCAA itself "won't accept advertising from 'organizations or companies primarily involved in gambling or gaming business activities,' it hasn't barred its schools from doing so." Brand said, "I think we can look for and find ways to increase our revenue streams." Wieberg & Berkowitz note schools "can't continue to raise ticket prices," so instead athletic programs "have turned to emerging revenue sources such as stadium and arena signage, naming rights, trademark and licensing fees and digital media rights and advertising." The names of venues are "increasingly for sale," and Michigan St. AD Mark Hollis likened the ad signage in stadiums and arenas to "billboard-blanketed NASCAR tracks" (USA TODAY, 4/2).

George Pyne (r) Says IMG College Continues To See Increases In Profit Year After Year

GETTING IN THE GAME: USA TODAY's Steve Berkowitz in a sports section cover story writes ESPN and CBS "remain the most important letters in the business of college sports," but IMG is "fast becoming a wide-ranging force." Both ESPN and CBS have started working with IMG, and "if you've recently purchased an item with a college's name or logo ... you've probably crossed paths with IMG." Chicago-based Navigate Sports & Entertainment Marketing President A.J. Maestas: "The name IMG really wasn't in college sports 20 months ago. It's pretty amazing how they've asserted themselves in the space. It's almost scary how fast it's happened." IMG recently "beat a variety of competitors to join CBS in selling corporate sponsorships" as part of the net's rights deal for the NCAA championships. In addition, IMG Sports & Entertainment President George Pyne said that IMG College "turned an annual profit its first year, increased the profit in Year Two and expects to increase it again this year." IMG Chair & CEO Ted Forstmann said, "We think there is lots of opportunity in college sports in general, and we're going to try to pursue those opportunities. That would mean both potentially (corporate) acquisitions, although you never know about that; adding colleges to our roster and just doing more and more and more. It's a growth business ... and we're very focused on it." However, some "wonder about IMG's influence with the NCAA executive staff at a time when the association's role in regulating the growing commercialism of college athletics is being debated by the member schools." Univ. of Iowa psychology professor Elizabeth Altmaier, the school's faculty athletics rep, believes that IMG's "circle of interests and the presence of its employees on campuses, as typically occurs at partner schools, creates a shadow." Altmaier: "I would regard that as a significant potential for a conflict of interest, and the difficulty comes about in determining who is ensuring that an actual conflict of interest does not occur -- and I don't at this point know that I could identify that person or those persons" (USA TODAY, 4/2).