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Efforts to reduce alcohol advertising on sports telecasts accelerated during
the winter and spring. U.S. Representative Tom Osborne introduced House
Resolution 145 on March 9, once again calling on the National Collegiate
Athletic Association (NCAA) to voluntarily eliminate alcohol ads in college
sports telecasts. On April 1, the Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV held a
press event in St. Louis, MO, the site of the NCAA men’s basketball
tournament Final Four games, which started the following day. The Campaign
released a letter to all members of the NCAA Division I board of directors
urging those 18 college presidents to make an independent and thorough
re-evaluation of the organization’s current practice of allowing alcohol ads
on college games. We pointed out that alcohol ads appear 16 times more
frequently on NCAA games than on general television programming, and we
questioned the cozy relationship between the NCAA and the beer industry,
notably with Anheuser-Busch.
Also in April, in anticipation of the NCAA Division I board meeting at the
end of the month, CSPI issued an Action Alert that generated more than 900
emails from activists around the country to each of the college presidents
on the board. On the eve of the board meeting, the American Medical
Association issued a strong statement opposing alcohol ads on NCAA games and
released results of a public opinion survey finding that more than 70% of
Americans favor taking alcohol ads off college broadcasts, confirming
previous Campaign survey information. Allies such as the Leadership to Keep
Children Alcohol Free (Governors’ Spouses), Join Together, the American
College Health Association, and others also spread the word through their
networks, generating letters and calls to college and NCAA officials on the
issue.
No doubt in response to those efforts and others, the NCAA asked its
Executive Committee to recommend comprehensive alcohol advertising policies
for NCAA broadcasts. That action moves the alcohol advertising issue to the
highest policy-making body in the NCAA for deliberation in August.
In addition to the NCAA action on alcohol advertising, the University of
Florida became the latest major school to endorse the College Commitment.
The school’s president, Dr. James Bernard Machen, issued a public statement
on April 12, proudly noting that his school was the first in the
Southeastern Conference (SEC) to sign on. News from the major college
athletic conferences also suggests that many are beginning to take the issue
of alcohol advertising seriously. Those that will be reviewing their alcohol
advertising rules this spring – at meetings of athletic directors and
college presidents -- include the Big Ten and the Mid-American conferences.
Although this activity suggests that we’re making progress, we still have a
ways to go in achieving our goal of eliminating alcohol ads during the
telecasts of college sports contests. But the NCAA and colleges around the
country now know that their actions are being watched and that they will be
held accountable for policies that increase, rather than decrease, risk to
their students. We hope you will help us keep the pressure on the NCAA and
its member schools to take action to reduce youth exposure to alcohol ads on
college sports.
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