Ohio State and Michigan officials canceled a planned partnership with SBC Communications Inc. Wednesday that would have changed the official name of OSU’s annual season-ending clash to the SBC Michigan-Ohio State Classic. The move came a day after the two schools agreed to terms with SBC – terms that, according to The Columbus Dispatch, would have given each school $530,000 over the next two years.
The OSU and Michigan directors of athletics should be commended for realizing the harm such a moniker could have on the rivalry, which is a staple of autumn life on this campus.
“As we attempted to move forward, it became apparent that this agreement could detract from the great tradition of the game itself,” OSU director of athletics Andy Geiger said in a joint statement with Michigan Wednesday.
Despite an ever-increasing corporate presence on college campuses, collegiate athletics are still the domain of the student athlete. As pressures to pay college athletes and make the game more commercial come to bear on the university, The Lantern hopes an increasingly vigilant eye will be focused on how and when university officials partner student athletics with corporate sponsorship.
While funding from corporations is an asset to our athletic program, such agreements should be monitored closely and entered into only after careful consideration. When sponsorship begins intruding on unique aspects of OSU – regardless of the amount of money involved – those aspects of campus life are changed forever. Tampering with events unique to the campus has a detrimental effect on the university traditions OSU strives to maintain.
The OSU-Michigan rivalry not only fosters solidarity among the campus and surrounding community every November; it helps tie the student body to past Buckeye classes through the common thread of shared experience. To alter that experience is to alter commonality among alumni and allow outside intrusion into the life of the campus.
Would the university allow sponsorship of commencement? Should beer logos be emblazoned on the corners of our diplomas?
Of course not, and the OSU-Michigan rivalry should be no different. It too, is a right-of-passage for students. In fact, nowhere is the OSU presence more immediately felt nationally than on gameday of the OSU-Michigan battle. Few outside the campus sphere will ever witness an OSU commencement, but many will see how the campus represents itself Nov. 20.
What image will the university’s student body project? Kudos to the department of athletics for allowing the student body to make that choice and not a faceless corporation.
