The Effects of Marketing Individual Players on the NCAA

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 22^nd 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 14^th 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.