Some of the seats looked closer to the moon than to center court at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan for this year's Final Four. Record crowds, as in over 70,000 fans, turned out for the final games of the NCAA tournament. Take a packed Allen Fieldhouse and multiply it by about 4.5. The number should come close to the attendance for the games in Detroit. This is just a little ridiculous, considering the revenue intake. It actually seems to make sense. Collegiate sports is a business, why not attempt to profit? It is hard to fault the NCAA for wanting to bring in the dollars, especially during rough economic times. Aside from the NCAA, schools should be allowed to bring in money as long as they handle the intake properly. 
Steve Wieberg and Steve Berkowitz recently brought up very interesting points in a USA Today article relating to the NCAA and out of control marketing. The article mentioned advertising and promotion done by casinos, sales of stadium names, and apparel contracts.
Gambling is often viewed as inappropriate in regards to college athletics. Some schools now allow casinos to advertise within their gyms and stadiums. Let's face it, we all know what gambling is and the possible consequences associated with it. If a casino is willing to shell out the big bucks to sponsor a college or university, why not let them? If Sony is willing to pay a school $10 million for the rights to a stadium name, why not allow for it? Adidas and KU have an eight year, $26.67 million contract in place. The money taken in from the marketing does not go just to football and men's basketball. This money goes to the athletic department and helps fund scholarships, develop non-revenue sports, and graduate kids. Essentially, it allows for schools as a whole to succeed.
Some argue that media coverage, corporate sponsorship, and even video games are taking away from the "college" feel and making collegiate athletics seem too professional. Commercialization can be dangerous, but revenue intake also allows for great opportunity. The NCAA and colleges across the country need to make sure that the "student" is priority number one, when dealing with student-athletes. To avoid the "professional" feel, make sure that education is priority #1 and do not pay collegiate athletes. Some argue that they deserve to be paid. Scholarships are the pay in this situation. A football career may last four or five years, but an education lasts a lifetime.
Schools need to make sure they handle the opportunity associated with athletic revenue in a responsible manner. By doing so, overall benefits exceed monetary returns. 70,000 fans might seem like a crazy number, but who knows, in ten years we might see 170,000 fans at the Final Four. College sports are a business and profits are a goal. As long as providing an education and teaching students is the main objective at colleges and money associated with athletics is handled in a responsible manner, the NCAA and universities should be allowed to attempt to maximize profits.
While watching the final four, I remember thinking wow look at all of those people. I think it is a promising sign in these economic times that many people are willing to buy tickets to sporting events. Additionally, I agree with many of the points that you made. First of all, colleges and the NCAA should be able to maximize their profits through sponsorships and advertising because ultimately they are only helping improve the athletics programs and the college overall. I think that it is also important to keep a focus on education for student athletes to ensure they are prepared for a life after sports. By preventing college athletes from getting paid a salary, the feel of college sports can be preserved in the future.
Yes seeing the 70,000+ in the stands was refreshing in the midst of the recession. It makes it seem like there's still hope. Yes colleges and the NCAA should try and gain all they can gain from sponsors as a means of providing for their own athletics department-and like Michael says keep a focus on the actual education aspect of it. Handling the intake properly is key. The media coverage and corporate sponsorship are not taking away from the "college feel" only enhancing what others maybe didn't see before. The revenue allows for a better selection of new athletes, allows for new followers to come to the game, and allows for a better opportunity for the actual athletes themselves. It should be used an incentive and also with precaution.
The whole time I watched the game on TV, I was just grateful that I could see the game. I'm sure the people in the way back of that arena had a hard time viewing the game. The pictures made the players look like ants. In terms of sponsors, I think appropriate sponsors should be used for the college level sporting events. You obviously would not advertise playboy or something like that at the National Championship game. I agree with many of your points, and as long as we don't start paying college athletes I think we are still ok.
I'm with Courtney on this one. There's a happy medium about how much sponsorship to allow. The players should not be walking billboards, but I don't think its wrong for a company that makes the jerseys or the clipboards or the hats to put their logo on them. When I swam in high school, the Kansas High School Athletics Association had a rule that said that each swimmer could only have one company logo per article of gear. In their efforts to protect high school athletes from this exact issue, they created a problem. This rule was more of a pain, because our caps had to be folded under to hide a second Speedo logo. This is one end of the spectrum, because it wasn't hurting anyone to have a speedo logo on each side of their cap. But it's not good to have student athletes feel like they're advertising professionally.
As i was watching the final games all i kept thinking to myself was i wonder how much that person way in the back paid for their crappy seats. They could barely even see the court. I think it is a good idea for the NCAA to capitalize on this as long as they use the money for something that will give back the athletes they are in a way exploiting for money.