Michigan State Can't Be Presented Without Comment: Unchecked

Michigan State's sponsorship is yet another advertisement for major college sports as a big business.

The Michigan State Spartans presented by Rocket Mortgage doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. In fact, it kind of goes the other direction and makes me gag.

Move over, Sparty.

Michigan State has announced the basketball team will be known by a new name in the Breslin Center https://t.co/AtfWLtHte6

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 12, 2021

Trust me, I understand sponsorships. I participate in plenty. And if you’d like this space to be brought to you by your company, please don't hesitate to reach out. However, it feels just a little bit different when the shameless plug comes not in the pros, but by a college team, as we all know the players won’t get a cut.

Okay look. If the Michigan State men’s basketball team has a god damned presenting sponsor, the players ABSOLUTELY should be getting a cut of that money. This is as cut and dry as it gets in this stuff, come on. https://t.co/Wy09ge2pPy

— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) March 11, 2021

One would think a supposed institute of higher learning would better understand how this sounds away from the Breslin Center, where the presenting deal is in effect. Let’s be honest, there was no damn way I was gonna write all that on a bracket anyway. Though I suppose there could now be a double meaning when someone bets the house on Tom Izzo and the Spartans.

You can no longer say that the Michigan State men’s basketball team finished below .500 in conference play this season.

You have to say that the Michigan State men’s basketball team Presented by Rocket Mortgage finished below .500 in conference play this season.

— Scott Bell (@sbell021) March 11, 2021

And I’m sure there could be positives from this for both students and athletes depending on how the undisclosed financial terms of the deal are used. But at present it certainly feels like a negative for the university’s name, image, and likability; given this is essentially an advertisement for major college sports as a big business, whose participants remain “amateurs."

"We do not believe amateur athletes should be paid, as college basketball should be solely about the love of the game," says the Michigan State Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage. https://t.co/HMzYMYkfvq

— Brady Klopfer (@BradyKlopferNBA) March 12, 2021

So, I couldn’t let Michigan State be presented without comment. And I never again want to hear anyone try to sell me on the notion that college basketball is played for the love of the game.