Beer will be sold during the upcoming college football season "to average fans at 20 of 119 major college venues -- twice as many as 10 years ago," according to Randy Peterson of the DES MOINES REGISTER. West Virginia this season is "selling beer at football games to everyone of legal drinking age" for the first time. WVU AD Oliver Luck said, "We're expecting to profit around $1 million." Iowa's three largest universities -- Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa -- sell alcohol "in their stadiums only to people sitting in luxury suites, and it’s likely to stay that way for a while." Iowa AD Gary Barta said, "We could tomorrow make hundreds of thousands more if we chose to do it, and while I can never predict the long-term future, I have not had any conversations or entertained the idea of opening that concept. That’s the college model I’m most comfortable with." Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard "is more open-minded." Pollard said, "I’m torn on the idea of making it available to everyone in the stadium. While I was once against it, I also realize that it’s clearly a significant revenue stream in a day when we have to create revenue." Peterson noted the NCAA "has no rule preventing alcohol sales at regular-season events," but it does ban "sales and advertising of all alcohol at its 88 championships." Northern Iowa AD Troy Dannen said, "I'm not saying it’s going to happen next year or the year after that. I don’t know when. I do know that my challenge is to get off our books as much state money as possible, and I’m not going to replace it with TV revenues or luxury seating" (DES MOINES REGISTER, 8/7).
