Online retailers are "marketing commemorative T-shirts" for Saturday's Ohio State-Univ. of Miami football game, calling it the "Ineligibowl," according to Susan Miller Degnan of the MIAMI HERALD. The AllCanes retail store near UM's campus is "selling T-shirts making fun of former OSU coach Jim Tressel, who knew about" recently uncovered violations by his players "but withheld information from the NCAA." One shirt reads, "Tressel's Tattoo & Pawn." There also is an "anti-Miami T-shirt making its rounds nationally" on the heels of several current and former Hurricanes players being implicated in a similar scandal. The "It sucks to be U" T-Shirt was "worn en masse" at UM's season opener earlier this month against Maryland. AllCanes GM Harry Rothwell said, "The Tressel T-shirt is not selling quite as well anymore because of the old stereotype of throwing stones from glass houses. The interesting thing will be on game day, how much time the broadcasters talk about the infractions instead of the game itself" (MIAMI HERALD, 9/14).
DON'T PRESS YOUR LUCK: West Virginia Univ. AD Oliver Luck in an open letter to WVU fans wrote, "During the opening game of the 2011 WVU football season, one of the ESPN cameras showed a young man wearing a blue t-shirt with 'West F##### Virginia' on the chest. ... I think you would agree with me that this is not the image of our University and our state that we want to promote." Luck continued, "I would like to ask you to help me convince people who are wearing these t-shirts to reconsider their choice of attire. ... I would like to request that if you see someone wearing one of these t-shirts that you politely ask him or her to change or to cover it up" (SCOUT.com, 9/12).
