Published: Thursday, 11/12/2015 OSU defends Coors billboards; alcohol to be sold at basketball, hockey games BY DAVID BRIGGSBLADE SPORTS WRITER COLUMBUS — The Ohio State football team’s win over Michigan in 2002 did more than send the Buckeyes on their way to a national title. It compelled the then-nationally ranked party school — No. 12 according to Playboy magazine — to lead a national campaign for alcohol reform in college athletics. After the booze-fueled, off-campus riots that followed the big win, the university gave the stiff arm to beer companies. Ohio State imposed a blanket ban on alcohol sponsorships, even taking an $85,000 annual pay cut on its radio deal to keep the game broadcasts suds-free. Former OSU athletic director Andy Geiger at the time called it “hypocritical for college athletics to decry the negative impact of alcohol while accepting millions in advertising revenues from beer companies.” More than a decade later, however, the taps are dripping back open. In a move that has evoked double takes across the state, billboards and store displays are popping up that all but declare Coors Light as the preferred beer of Buckeyes football. On the corner of Monroe Street and North Huron Street in downtown Toledo, a new Coors Light billboard features the trademarked Ohio State logo, along with the message, “The Silver Bullet” — the well-known nickname for both the beer and Buckeyes’ defense. The joint MillerCoors and Ohio State Sports Network ads are part of the university’s 10-year, $110 million contract with IMG College and RadiOhio — a record deal in 2009 that outsourced the school’s marketing and media rights — and comes amid a changing climate. As schools search for new revenue sources, once-sacred lines are becoming increasingly blurred. Ohio State could also soon join the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University among the more than 30 major colleges that sell beer to the general public at football games. …
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