Buckeyes in Nike Uniform
Those who are football fans but aren't fans of corporate branding, merchandising and advertising in college sports are unhappy about the recent announcement that Ohio State University's football team will wear sportswear by Nike this season when it plays against its all-time rival, University of Michigan.
OSU is one of 10 programs that will receive a "special" Nike uniform this year. The other universities are Alabama, Boise State, Florida, the University of Miami, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Texas Christian, Pittsburgh, and Oregon State.
Nike supplies the sportswear for free, all of which bear the Nike logo.
Without a doubt, this is priceless advertising for the corporate giant; those playing the sport will benefit as well. To many, this is a win-win situation, but for those who are wary of Nike's ubiquitous presence, aggressive advertising, and questionable corporate practices, this is anything but a win-win situation.
At the heart of the problem is money, or rather, the constant need for it and the subsequent lack of it. All sports teams in any level of school need sports gear and sportswear. On top of the cost of buying sports gear and clothing, soccer and football fields, basket ball courts, tennis courts, gyms of any size, all require a good deal of money to maintain (utilities, physical repairs and maintenance). Then, there's the cost of paying coaches, administrative and janitorial staff.
If and when there's enough money, then colleges, high schools and grade schools won't need to depend on corporate sponsorship.
Those who criticize Nike for its sponsorship and criticize schools for accepting corporate sponsorship are sports fans who haven't come up with a better solution on how to solve the problem of funding sports without resorting to corporate sponsorship.
Isn't it a collective failure that budgets for sports get cut whenever there's a deficit in the school's annual budget? Whenever grade schools and high schools experience a deficit, one or a few of the following programs get cut: sports, arts, music, theater.
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