NCAA Refuses to 86 Alcohol Ads

The NCAA is rejecting calls to alter its policy allowing beer and wine-cooler spots on college-sports telecasts, saying the policy is already conservative enough. The NCAA currently allows alcohol advertising for products that don't exceed 6% alcohol levels -- effectively limiting commercials for alcohol to beer and wine coolers. It also allows only 1 minute per hour of any telecast to be devoted to alcohol ads. The NCAA Division 1 executive committee announced its decision to reaffirm the current policy today after a meeting in Indianapolis. The Center for Science in the Public Interest says that according to TNS Media Intelligence, Anheuser-Busch and SABMiller spent nearly $30 million to advertise during the 2007 NCAA March Madness basketball championships. Further limits on alcohol ads could have threatened the size of the rights fee the NCAA generates from that and other telecasts, potentially impacting scholarship money and school revenues.