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NCAA strict about trademark sayings Thursday, Feb 7, 2008 By Harry King LITTLE ROCK - Handcuffed by the NCAA, businesses need some advertising alternatives when folks flock to town next month for a weekend of big-time basketball. The NCAA has a long list of trademarks, and the ruling body of collegiate athletics asks local entities to monitor the use of those clich?s embedded in our psyche. With the NCAA basketball tournament in North Little Rock, the local request went to host University of Arkansas-Little Rock. The letter says the NCAA stand is supported by federal regulations. The regulations prohibit any use of NCAA tickets in sweepstakes, promotions or contests, "or any other unfair attempt to associate with or exploit the goodwill of any NCAA championship event." Only NCAA corporate partners can use tickets in giveaways. In particular, the letter mentions "Final Four" and "March Madness," and says the prohibition includes "the display of any commercial identification within an NCAA championship bracket." It is not clear whether that applies to an office pool bracket printed on company stationery. The two pages worth of trademarks include "Final Four," "Elite Eight," "Sweet Sixteen," "Selection Sunday," and "The Big Dance." In lieu of those, may we suggest, "Quintessential Quartet," "Opulent Octagon," "Car Keys, Please," "Picking and Preaching," and "Throwdown Hoe-down." Well, probably not. Anyway, the NCAA is in complete control, all in name of uniformity - a fact that is evident in the lengthy guidelines forwarded to officials who are responsible for the first- and second-round games at Alltel Arena on March 21-23. It is that insistence on compliance that produces a consistently good show whether the venue is Anaheim, Birmingham, Omaha or North Little Rock. For instance, the media buffet is to be the same at each of the eight sites with hot dogs or hamburgers, sandwiches, green salad and dressing, chips, apples, bananas and cookies. Oh, and, condiments - specifically, ketchup, mustard and mayo, with no room for horseradish or some other out-of-the-ordinary spread. Cognizant of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the NCAA gave its blessing for inclusion of a non-meat item. Each of the participating teams will receive a 100-page manual with details about the hotels, transportation, police escorts. Included will be three or four pages of local restaurants, broken down to include familiar dining chains and local favorites with sub categories for Italian, American, Asian, etc. In particular, the NCAA pays attention to the hotels. For the players, the Tournament is a business trip with the arena as the workplace, their hotel as home base and no time for sightseeing. Win or lose, they will remember their accommodations and how they were treated. Tournament manager Andrea Nunez says the people at the four hotels that will host the teams understand all that. The NCAA is so persnickety that it probably seeded the hotels along with the teams. Distribution of the 550-ticket allotment is at the discretion of the participating school and there are various considerations. Each school is allowed a dozen cheerleaders sans tickets, but members of a dance squad must have a ducat. The cheerleaders are restricted to a particular area and must be seated during the action. Volunteers will instruct the cheerleaders and enforce the rules. Mascots are welcome, but only one, and the Tiger of Memphis cannot interact with the Razorback pig or the red blob from Western Kentucky. Back in December, NCAA representatives watched the Arkansas-Appalachian State game, paying attention to the operations and sharing their critique with UALR reps. Both compliments and criticisms will be taken to heart. If I had known the Indianapolis people were at the game, I would have asked for an audience and tried out a couple of those substitute slogans. ------- Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com. |
