Hlas: Iowa a holdout on stadium-wide beer sales ... for now

Ohio State University recently announced it would start selling beer throughout Ohio Stadium for Buckeyes football games, but noted $50,000 of the profits would fund an academic study of how the presence of alcohol affects campus events.

Life is a funny, funny thing.

Anyway, University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld says his school isn't ready to follow the lead of Ohio State, which is following the lead of Big Ten schools Minnesota and Maryland, and over 30 other FBS schools including Texas and West Virginia.

'This is a campus that's trying to drive down binge drinking and we're really going to offer alcohol at our athletic events?' Harreld asked in a story The Gazette's Scott Dochterman reported last week. 'Come on. No, it doesn't feel right. It's not a core value.

'I hear sometimes from some certain fans who believe that we should (sell alcohol throughout the stadium), and I ask them why. They always say the revenue and the money, and I kind of do the math in my head and I think relative to the risk involved for our community and everything else and the increased security forces and all the rest.'

Those are statements filled with logic and common sense. However, they can't change the fact the UI has embraced alcohol usage with at least one arm when it comes to Hawkeye sports.

For the last 10 years, alcoholic beverages have been available to those who sit in Kinnick Stadium's premium seating, the suites and club seating. Those people of culture and influence apparently are far more able to handle the effects of beer and wine than the great unwashed who sit in the grandstands.

Also in 2012, the UI athletic department entered a 4-year marketing agreement with Anheuser-Busch allowing for logos for the company's products and Iowa's Tigerhawk to share space as long as the message 'Responsibility Matters' was visible.

Then there's tailgating. Like almost everywhere else college football exists, people drink at tailgates. There isn't an athletic director working today who would want to see what would happen to his football team's attendance if consuming alcohol at tailgates were forbidden and enforced.

But though it may be hypocritical for Iowa and others not to sell alcohol to all inside its stadiums, doesn't something still seem wrong about Ohio State and the two dozen or so schools that do so at on-campus stadiums?

Their students probably won't account for much of the sales since the beer will be high-priced and students are the distinct minorities at most major-college games. But can you sell 'Responsibility Matters' if you're selling the product? Can you discourage your students from binge drinking if potential binge-drinkers are buying directly from you?

But college football has a drinking culture that isn't going away. Maybe Ohio State is smart to cash in on it.

In 2014, OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith said he was against alcohol sales at Buckeyes home football games.

'I haven't proposed it, and probably won't,' Smith said. 'Don't feel we need to.'

But last August, Smith said this as the school allowed alcohol sales in the club and suite levels:

'There's a changing landscape around resources. We need to think about other opportunities to generate revenue for our athletes and our institution.'

Joe Blundo wrote this in Monday's Columbus Dispatch: 'Ohio State football crowds have always struck me as more in need of anxiety medication than beer.'

Maybe that's next.