The #Rule

The NCAA has been working hard to solve all of college football’s biggest problems. Most recently? Banning #hashtags on fields and endzones at college stadiums. Rogers Redding, the national coordinator for college football officials explains the ruling by saying “If they have stuff on the sidelines, or on the walls around the stadium, it’s OK. The idea is to preserved the integrity of the field and not open it up to other kinds of advertising.


So, what they’re saying is that a college can’t #advertise its own program with a #hashtag on the field (as Mississippi State most prominently did in 2011 with #HAILSTATE) but the NCAA logo, conference logos and the names of commercial sponsors still get top billing on the turf?

The NCAA has just reinforced their #reputation that they don’t draw the line when it messes with #sponsormoney. I guess schools can get around this rule by creating new official logos, which are allowed on the field and incorporating their #hashtags. Though I hope it never comes to this.

Of all the rule changes over the years, I certainly don’t think this is the #dumbest. In fact I usually support the rules that outrage the masses.

For instance, in 2010, the NCAA banned messages and logos from appearing in players’ eye black. Reggie Bush would famously have 619 (native area code) scribbled into his eye black, but most people were outraged because Tim Tebow would no longer be allowed to put bible verses into his. The amount of people that called this rule discriminating really surprised me. There were tons of people outraged that it was “censorship” and what about “freedom of speech and expression.”

But let’s think about this people. If it’s okay for Bush to tout his area code, what about the satanist who displays “666” on his eye black. Think that would upset anyone?

Apparently this upset people:  http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/tebow/n13335/

Where do we draw the line? What stops a player from using that space to advertise? Or write profanity? The simple fact of the matter is, when you join an organized sport, you’re bound to a uniform, eye black an extension of that.

Hell, let’s just let players wear whatever they want on their jerseys. I can’t wait till a kid runs out with “PINK” written across his rear!

"I"m Expressing Myself!"