Partly cloudy and continued very
warm and humid, with a high of
85-90 and southerly winds 5-15
mph. Partly cloudy tonight with a
low near 70 and mostly sunny
Saturday with a high in the upper
80s.
X
June 20, 1986
College fflUMet
By Jonathan Taylor
Staff Reporter
College athletes are prohibited by
National Collegiate Athletic Associa
tion rules from endorsing any products
or appearing in advertisements, but
they still do ... in a roundabout way.
What they do is called 'promotion' by
equipment company jexecutives and it
happens every time a collegiate athlete
goes on the playing field wearing a
product featuring a name brand logo on
it. So whenever a Nebraska diver springs
off the board in her Speedo swimsuit,
or a Husker split end catches a pass in
his Converse turfshoes, that means
exposure for that company and its
products.
Such promotions, however, are not
done for free.
For the Converse Shoe Company,
about $35,000 is riding on the assump
tion that when the Cornhusker football
team takes the field for its games this
season, you'll at least recognize what
brand of shoes the players wear.
That amount is approximately how
much Converse is paying the Nebraska
Athletic Department irr free shoes,
scholarships and just plain cash to go
with their brand, rather than another,
such as Nike, which Nebraska had
previously been wearing for four years.
The NCAA says indirect promotions
like that are OK.
Although the NCAA Executive Com
mittee frequently discusses such in
direct product endorsements, so far,
subtle advertising techniques like pay
ing schools with nationally-recognized
and highly-visible teams to wear one
brand of shoe exclusively is not a
violation, said Steve Mallonee, a legis
lative assistant for the NCAA.
In fact, he said, "That's good bus
iness judgment."
If an equipment manufacturer wants
to sponsor a team, "there is nothing
wrong with that," Mallonee said. But,
he said, the problems occur when the
manufacturer wants to use a picture of
a college team in an advertisement.
Direct use of a team or coach in
advertisement is a violation, Mallonee
said, because it threatens a student
athlete's eligibility.
Indirect advertising may be an on
going "issue" with the NCAA, Mallonee
said, but it is unlikely that any rules
prohibiting it will be passed in the
future.
That's reassuring to companies like
Nike and Converse who bank on their
promotion investments paying off.
"Promotion does sell hGtes'for
company," said Bob Knollhp Conver$! ,
sales and promotions representative f
for Kansas and fibraski; s i ? ' 8 1 1 ; j
He said, for example .thai Converse ',
sells "tons more" basketball shoes
simply because basketball stars like
Julius Erving and Larry Bird wear its
product. Because of the increased sales,
Knoll said, "those advertisements are
actuality."
Using the most visible and well
known athletes and teams to promote
products "is just the way the system
works," he said, and shows how
competitive the shoe industry is.
Karin Morland, cleated promotions
manager for Nike, agreed.
"Nike looks at the best representa
tive in each conference to use them as
Flatwater Festival
this weekend at UNL
Special Section
y y fi Daily n
J) mTrp (Q F ?
a marketing tool," Morland said. Heavily
sponsoring more than one team in a
marketing area, she said, would be an
expensive redundancy.
"Obviously, we don't need to outfit
the entire conference in our shoes,"
Moreland said.
Despite the emphasis by companies
to set up contracts with the most
successful teams, two Nebraska ath
letics coaches said they don't think the
system is unfair.
Colleges with better athletic pro
grams deserve to get good deals on
products, said Gary Pepin, men's and
women's track coach. "That's the way
the world works," he said. "The
achievers have more opportunities than
the non-achievers."
Football coach Tom Osborne said
the product promotion contracts are no
different than television contracts col
lege athletic departments make.
Although the entire Big Eight foot
ball conference may get money for
appearing on television, he said, those
teams that appear more often get a
bigger percentage of the deal than the
rest. "Rewards go with having a suc
cessful program," he said. '
"Say your team goes on a bowl game;
you receive a pretty healthy transporta
tion allotment, watches and the oppor
tunity to oractice more," Osborne said.
"Is that unfair?"
And because of the money athletic
departments can save, neither coach
has any qualms about having their
teams used to indirectly promote manu
facturers' products.
Tight budgets play a major role in
both coaches' decisions of which manu
facturer they sign a contract with. For
the football team, Osborne said its
contract with Converse is "a situation
where a lot of people benefit."
In return for the exposure the
Huskers will give Converse this season,
the athletic department gets 500 to 700
free pairs of shoes, scholarship money
for graduate students and non-athlete
minorities and cash "endorsement
compensation" for the assistant coach
es. While companies like Nike and Con
verse do offer all coaches the use of
their products, Osborne said he turned
down the money and receives no
compensation other than, "a few hun
dred dollars of Converse clothing," he
selects from a catalog.
In all, Osborne said, the Converse
contract saves the athletic department
$35,000 to $40,000.
Pepin said he'd like to save the
athtfc department that much money:
tpfeut the team has not been winning ;
jBiougfa iri the past few years to attract
kycfr lucraiivet sponsorships. ! , .
i uWhilfi the football team has played
in a bowl game every year for the last
17, the men's track team has not
finished in the top 10 in the past five
years. The women's team past NCAA
champions has not won the indoor
title for the past two years.
Because of those records, Pepin
said, the track team receives only
discounts on shoes. Coaches get nothing
free. Unlike Osborne, Pepin has to seek
out manufacturers to compare equip
ment prices and find the best deals.
"Anywhere we can find a place to
save some money," he said, "we will try
to do that."
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
s ran
"Saving money on equipment is
important to the track team," Pepin
said, because it leaves more money to
be used to travel to meets." 1
; Offering schools fre pr, discounted
products -may eliminate financial bur
dens for . those, ; institutions, ;iTf4 . but
serious drawbacks exist for both college
athletes and consumers.
Mike Heyl, manager of the downtown ,
Lincoln Athlete's Foot, said the big
bucks offered to schools can cause a
conflict of interest for financially
pinched schools who go with the money
rather than product quality.
Bjit both coaches and company reps
said that is not the case.
Osborne said that although the
Huskers "got a better deal in terms of
shoe," the football team switched from
Nike to Converse because players
compared the shoes last spring and
preferred Converse. He said when the
e
Bryant finds challenges
in multiple daily duties
Sports, page 6
for tike
team went shopping for shoes last
spring, "we wanted what we thought
was the best shoe not the best
deal."
I Pepin stressed quality over money as
reii.
"We try to provide the best, quality
product we can buy for the best price,"
he said. "We're not going to put a pair
of shoes on an athlete that would hurt
the athlete's foot."
Morland of Nike said there is no
conflict of interest because schools
have the option to buy any shoe they
want. No one is forcing them to go with
a particular company, he said.
"They have a budget to work on," she
said. "They're out to get the most for
their dollar."
Knoll said that despite the schools'
emphasis on saving money on equip
ment, safety and performance of the
'L.V
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Kurt EberhardtDaily Nebraskan
athlete always takes precedence.
But in the end, Knoll said, the
consumer is always on, the losing side
ofjJer promotions gmiej., "The shoe
companies have created -a nightm?re,"
he? said, by spending largf amounts' on '
. promotions, .to garner contracts with ,
the major athletic programs ffri the'
country. The cost of promotion, he said,
is ultimately picked up by the con
sumer. Heyl said companies like Converse
and Nike pay for the benefits they give
to athletic programs by raising the
price of shoes sold in stores like his.
Manufacturers may add 25 to 50 cents
to the price of shoes, confident that
their promotional investment will in
crease demand despite the price in
crease, Heyl said.
'All it really boils down to is bus
iness," Heyl said.
"5
J.
