In the future, NCAA requires all amateur athletes to remain in an 8x8 box, in order to retain their amateur status

At the beginning of my freshman year, there was a movement to try and get our preseason best player, Drew Stanton, on the early Heisman ballot. I mean, we believed he was going to be the greatest QB we've ever had. As part of that, someone made a bunch of "Drew Stanton for Heisman" T-shirts. Later in that year, after our season had started to collapse, and Stanton was injured...again... another group of people started a facebook group, along with T-shirts for sale, entitled "Brett Swenson for Heisman". Both shirts were fun, we realized that the odds of these winning the Heisman extremely low (for our poor kicker, absolutely no chance). Let's fast forward to this year.

It's after week 4 of the college football season. We now have a running back, the great Javon Ringer, with a legitimate, although small, chance to win the Heisman. And of course, I joined a "Javon Ringer for Heisman" facebook group and have received at lease one message saying that, surprise surprise, "Javon Ringer for Heisman" shirts are now on sale. I never planned on buying one anyway, but it's nice to know that the tradition still loves on. Well, so I thought. A few days ago, I got a message from the head of the group with this message (note: The bolded part is what I'll be focusing on for the rest of this post).

"hey guys, I guess the alumni club leaders got this email...so just make sure you arent buying the T-shirts or selling anything along these lines
===================

Dear Alumni Club Leaders,

Michigan State University was contacted this morning by the Heisman award organization regarding a t-shirt sale to promote Javon Ringer as a Heisman Trophy candidate. One of our regional clubs had been asked to forward an email solicitation from the individual promoting the sale. The sale of this t-shirt immediately jeopardizes Javon Ringers status as an amateur athlete. The Heisman award organization made it known that Javon’s candidacy for the Trophy would also be in jeopardy if the sale continues.

Please do not participate in any promotional activity regarding the sale of a Javon Ringer t-shirt. I have contacted the individual identified on the email solicitation and asked him to immediately stop the promotion and sale of the merchandise.

Thank you."

As it was explained to me, the problem is with Ringer's name being used in any sort of marketing. Because using a name is violating this idea of naming rights, which amateur athletes cannot have, this is a violation. To put it plainly, this means that if a fan uses his name in anyway way that might make money for someone, it's illegal. How stupid! This is awful! (As a sidenote, to avoid any rule violations, I will now refer to Javon Ringer as Spartan RB #23. Don't want to violate rules by posting his name in a public blog). Here's some of my reasons why.

#1) Why should an athlete be punished for a fan's thing, especially when the athlete has no knowledge of it and is not making money on it? I mean, as far as I know, Spartan RB #23 had no idea of any T-shirt designs, and was certainly not making any money off of it. He probably is flattered that we want to have him win the Heisman, but it's probably not much more than a passing thought, to be honest. So the NCAA is planning to punish a guy for doing nothing on his own? Yeah, that sounds logical. He is not responsible for doing anything, this isn't sanctioned by the University, why should the NCAA even bother?

#2) It isn't like Spartan RB #23 is gaining anything on campus or in his future because people are using his name. Guess what? Everyone on MSU's campus knows who Spartan RB #23 is, and how good he is. Everyone in the Big Ten realizes that Spartan RB #23 has the potential to get 200 yards on them. And everyone in the NFL knows is frantically figuring out how good of a prospect Spartan RB #23 is. So what is a few hundred T-shirts tops going to change. Speaking of how he got so big...

#3) Wait, doesn't ESPN among other places make money by analyzing these athletes, promoting these athletes, etc.? This is not a critique on ESPN. I would not want to hear analysis concerning Spartan RB #23, or Missouri QB #10, or any number of other athletes. It'd be confusing. Heck, they probably couldn't show anything, wouldn't want people to actually see on TV how these players are doing. But doesn't it seem a little hypocritical to you? Why would the NCAA allow ESPN to make money off these players by showing the games, analyzing the athletes, showing highlights, etc., yet they won't let a kid make a few bucks off a T-shirt to which there is no way it will benefit the athlete in question? (Wait, I know the answer to that. I'm guessing that the reason why the NCAA allows ESPN to function starts with a $).

Maybe the T-shirts are against the letter of the rule (though, I doubt it violates the reason why the rule was put in place). But, in my opinion, if there are rules to prevent shirts like this, a fun thing for fans, than maybe the rule should be changed. At least, I'd say so. Somehow, I doubt that'll happen.