Going shopping

Are you the type of person that sees an advertisement that uses a Hollywood star or famous athlete and think, “I need to get some of that stuff because I just love the actor (or athlete) and they wouldn’t lie about the product they are talking about?” I always think that for the right amount of money I might even like some of the stuff they are selling and of course be their new spokesman.

The Name, Image and Likeness or NIL has allowed us to hear the voices of college athletes that aren’t talking about the last or next game to be played. Sure it’s great that these kids are making some money. I’m sure you’ve seen the ads during Gonzaga basketball games in the last two years. Now I love Anton Watson but I’m not going to buy a take and bake pizza because of him even they I might like the ad. I also need to like the pizza.

Drew Timme’s fun casino commercials were great but I never went to the casino near Spokane and if I did it would not have been because I might see him there or that I would have so much fun dropping money into slot machines or betting on Black Jack that it was going to be the best time of my life. I’ve been to the casino but I left with most of the money I started out with.

I’m not influenced by commercials to buy insurance even though I might get a laugh and some are pretty well written and staged. The pro football player might have a career in acting after he retires and maybe influencing a bunch of people to call Jake the insurance agent who also might get a gig acting in romantic comedies down the road.

I really don’t mind the athletes getting paid to do commercials but a lot of them are now trying to get deals before they sign on to play for the school. The school wants them to score touchdowns or baskets and win games but somewhere along the line a guy they played AAU ball with tells them to go to a school with a big market base in order to make millions while still in school. Some of these athletes don’t have the personality to do anything more than play basketball or football.

So we see kids get recruited out of high school and play for a year or two and make big improvements then put their name into the transfer portal and find a business that is a big donor to the school that can influence athletes to play for their alma mater. Just a few years ago that would have been enough to put a team on probation. How much money did these schools lose in the past by not getting a chance to play in a bowl game because their star athlete got caught driving the local car dealer’s Ford Mustang to school?

The expression ‘Money is the root of all evil’ is spot on in college athletics right now. When teams leave a conference because of big TV contracts very little is discussed about other conference teams’ futures. Now the Midwest to east coast teams can always find teams to join their conference. The west is different with vast states that lack large population bases that TV needs to sell ads so that more than just the people in the stadium can watch the game. Pullman and Spokane are not considered large metropolitan areas where many Cougar fans live and therefore don’t tip the scales much when these big advertisers want to sell their products on a cable network especially when there are now only two teams in the conference.

The NCAA could have said that these mega conferences are going to be the downfall of a lot of athletic programs. But obviously they see the dollar signs too and I really don’t think they care. What happens if the Pac 2 Mountain West experiment doesn’t work out? Nobody wants to hear the Big Sky mentioned. So I guess we need to be on board with the marriage between these two conferences and hope it works out because if you want to shop for a new place to play a lot of those doors are closed.

I honestly think the west needs this merger and it can grow along the way. WSU and OSU really don’t need the arrogance of USC dictating how the conference needs to be run. In the long run I think most Cougar fans will be happy not to travel long distances to watch WSU play an away game. I think it’s good to shop locally.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].