More Problems Than I Can Solve

Joan Niesen is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated.  In the mega issue devoted to the upcoming baseball season, there was a small blurb devoted to Joan's recent encounter with the NCAA.

A couple weeks ago, she was at the St. Louis sub-regional, covering the first two rounds.  Pretty quickly after she unpacked her water bottle, a NCAA rep told her that she "should not have been let into the building with her own water bottle".  You see, the NCAA had a policy that the only courtside consumption that could take place had to be out of NCAA-logo cups that also had a logo of a corporate partner.  Kudos to Joan for not giving in and revealing the corporate partner during the article (and thus giving said corporate partner free advertising).  And apparently Joan wasn't the only victim--as she attested to in the article, several coaches were also asked to take their water bottles and pour them into NCAA-specific cups to appease the powers that be.

Shake your head.  Shrug your shoulders.  Go ahead.  Take a second.  I don't blame you.  Be amazed at the short-sighted nature of it all.  But don't lose sight of why this is really a problem, other than the obvious (a greedy approach by a collection of megalomaniacs).