Analysis by Patrick Gotimer in SRM 435 (section 1)
Johnny Manziel has been, is, and will continue to be the star of NCAA Football (at least until the NFL Draft).
Texas A&M is taking full advantage of the Heisman Trophy winner by using his face and name to increase the university’s visibility. In December 2012, the university already had a billboard in the infamous Times Square with a picture of Johnny along with the phrase “They call him Johnny Heisman.” (Rovell, 2012).
According to an August 22nd tweet by Reporter Darren Rovell, the fundraising department of Texas A&M Athletics raised $20,000 by auctioning off the right to sit with Manziel at dinner (Rovell, 2013).
The latest episode of “Johnny Mania” took place September 14th against the top-ranked Crimson Tide. The game that took place at Texas A&M’s home facility, Kyle Field, was a rematch of the 2012 game in which the Aggies upset Nick Saban’s powerhouse program.
While the game received and deserved national attention, it did not appear to be a rematch of Alabama and Texas A&M, rather the Crimson Tide versus Johnny Manziel and CBS is probably to blame for that.
CBS set aside a camera that would be strictly focused on Johnny Manziel. The goal of having Manziel always front and center was to catch any and everything Manziel did. Manziel has become so popular that CBS was obligated to set aside a camera for Manziel specifically. Mr. Football is not helping the situation either (Deitsch, 2013).
But all of the marketing attention of Johnny for Texas A&M and the NCAA is not positive. This is because the marketing attention he receives shows a good, well-behaved Manziel and the media attention shows anything but a well-behaved Manziel.
It may not seem fair but Manziel is under the microscope. Media is constantly following him so everything Manziel does is scrutinized.
In June of 2012, Johnny was arrested for disorderly conduct and possession of a fake ID. While this was pre-Heisman Trophy, it never would have surfaced had Manziel not become so popular.
A year later, Manziel made headlines for his off-field antics again after he used Twitter to post “Shit like tonight is a reason why I can’t wait to leave college station…whenever it may be.” He was responding to a parking ticket he received at Texas A&M but understandably, A&M doesn’t want their famous quarterback to be talking about leaving A&M as soon as possible (Newsday, 2013).
In January, Manziel was photographed with a bottle of alcohol. Under-age drinking happens consistently across the country and this actually was not the case; under-age persons can drink with consent of their parents if their parents are present and Mr. and Mrs. Manziel were at the club. Regardless, Johnny received a considerable amount of criticism for the photo.
Manziel was even ignorant enough to attend a University of Texas fraternity party. The University of Texas happens to be one of Texas A&M’s rivals and Manziel was easily recognized and escorted from the fraternity house while students threw beer at him (Newsday, 2013).
Lastly, and probably most notable was Manziel’s antics that showed during the Texas A&M opener. Manziel was suspended for the first half of the game versus Rice University for allegedly selling memorabilia he signed for a profit of $10,000 (Rovell, 2013). Once Manziel entered the game in the second half, he was quickly side lined for taunting a Rice defenseman after having already signaled at another Rice athlete that he would not sign an autograph for him.
Because of Manziel’s behavior, Peter King from Sports Illustrated issued this comment:
But Manziel, to many teams right now, would be undraftable because they’re scared of his mood swings and off-field questions. But it only takes one team out of 32 to fall for him. And some team will, unless he self-destructs between today and draft day (Daniels, 2013).While Johnny has the right to do what he wants, his actions will continue to be scrutinized if he is not careful which will hurt the reputation of Texas A&M, the NCAA, and himself.
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The game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Texas A&M Aggies will be one of the most watched college football events of the year. CBS, who has ties with the SEC will be making its first television appearance of the 2013 football season with this huge game. CBS will be adding an extra camera to solely focus on Johnny Manziel, which they will call the Johnny Cam. No matter what is going in this game, whether Johnny is playing or is drinking Gatorade on the bench, this camera will solely focus on him, and him only. Craig Silver, coordinating producer of college football for CBS Sports, said that this camera will not be a distraction to the purpose of the game. Silver claims that this camera has nothing to do with any of the off the field media attention that Johnny received over the past offseason. He promised that it wouldn’t turn into the Manziel show, but viewers will get their fair share of the former Heisman Trophy winner (Deitsch, 2013).
From a sports marketing view, I think that CBS has gone overboard and ruined the integrity of this game just to gain more hype and attract more viewers. CBS turned the Alabama vs. Texas A&M game into the Alabama vs. Johnny Manziel game. That’s not only disrespectful to the rest of Johnny’s teammates, but it’s disrespectful to the rest of the college football world. CBS wants to promote Johnny Manziel and have a camera follow him for all the wrong reasons. He has been the most talked about college football player this offseason not because he was the former Heisman Trophy winner, but because of all the trouble he was getting into and the suspected “illegal” activity he was caught doing. Instead of focusing on what is important about college football such as the environment, the passion and loyalty of the fans, and the drive of the players to represent their school, CBS has decided to turn this in to the E channel and have their main focus on a drama filled Johnny Manziel. Not to mention that previously in the season Johnny received a lot of criticism for his unsportsmanlike gestures he made to the other team.
I believe that Sports networks are trying to turn these Educational Institutions into business organizations just to make an extra dollar. Their success rate in turning their marketing and promotions attempts into added viewers and popularity is quite impressive, but it’s gone about the wrong way. If this was the NFL, I would have no problem with it because all of the players are paid to receive this attention. College players are not allowed to receive a dime. Nothing can be sold by any university or business that has a college players name on it, so companies like CBS should not be allowed to market a single player just for the benefit of themselves. Not only did CBS market an unpaid athlete to gain attention, but they promoted the athlete who accumulated more criticism for his behavior this past offseason than any other athlete in sports beside Aaron Hernandez.
To sum up this article and how it applies to our class, I think this is a good example of what’s wrong with college sports these days. The extremes that Networks and Universities go to so that they can make an extra dollar is ridiculous. It has been completely forgotten that these people are student-athletes, not professionals, and that how they need to be marketed. We have learned that integrity is one of the most important qualities is this business and as a consumer myself, I’ve lost a great deal of respect for CBS and Texas A&M. I already didn’t have any for Johnny Manziel.
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