Miami AD Blake James said that the lawsuit filed by Ed O'Bannon "was behind" the school's decision to limit jersey sales to two numbers and added that adidas "supported the move, even if it results in lower sales because fans may not be interested in the numbers that are available for purchase in a given year," according to Christy Cabrera Chirinos of the South Florida SUN-SENTINEL. UM is "one of a growing number of schools making the move to somewhat generic numbers." James on Friday said of the school's decision to limit jersey sales to No. 1 and No. 15, "Adidas was 100 percent supportive of it. They believe in it. I think Adidas is fully committed to the collegiate model and there was no pushback or question from them at all." He added, "It's something that I feel is fair. If we're looking at college athletes and their student experience and not looking to create a situation where there's talk of 'Are we making money off individuals that they're not being a part of?' I thought the fairest thing to do was to establish our policy. ... I feel better from an athletic director's perspective that we're not necessarily looking at we're using certain numbers to leverage more money for us individually that the student-athlete's not sharing in" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 8/8).
ADDITION BY SUBTRACTION? Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock, when asked if his school might also limit the numbers on jersey sales, said, "With the O’Bannon case and all that, that’s the best way to do it. It makes sense in 2015 to do No. 1 and No. 15. ... Even in my career coming up, that was one thing that I did pause and think on and say, you know, that No. 10 jersey we’re selling at Missouri, Chase Daniel’s jersey, that’s solely because of him. So that one kind of resonated with me. And I’m embarrassed to tell you, I have not, I did a while back, but I have not gone to the bookstore to check, or ask, but I’ll make sure we do that. It’s safer and better just to do No. 1, or if you have a championship in a certain year do that, but not to reflect the numbers of the players until we get that piece figured out." In Virginia, David Teel notes VT sells several jerseys online, most of which fans "associate with former players." Among them: Logan Thomas (No. 3), Tyrod Taylor (No. 5), Michael Vick (No. 7), Frank Beamer (No. 25) and Ryan Williams (No. 34) (DAILYPRESS.com, 8/10).
