SEC opens the door for college stadium booze sales

For years, college stadiums have played host to a rite of passage.

That right of passage begins in dorm rooms and sorority houses on campuses across this great land.  Hungover, on a Saturday morning, groups of students gather to prepare for the university’s football program to take the field.

The rite of passage, however, comes when it’s time to keep the party going inside the stadium.  Intrepid youngsters across America will then begin engineering their plan to sneak booze into the stands, either through ingenious flask designs or simply knowing where security isn’t going to put a hand.  (Ladies have always had the advantage here).

If you are successful in staving off the hangover while cheering on the team and eating a hot dog, you have succeeded in this rite.  If you are caught and escorted from the stadium, even better.  You’ve not only completed the ritual, but you’ve gained a little notoriety in the process.

The SEC, the king-daddy of all NCAA football conferences, has a new idea that will put the time-honored tradition to rest.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey announced Friday the conference is set to lift its ban on stadiumwide alcohol sales Aug. 1.

“Schools will have autonomy,” Sankey told reporters. “This now an opportunity for institutions to make responsible and appropriate decisions [about alcohol].”

And while Sankey seems to think that these schools will keep the alcohol within restricted “suite” areas, school such as Vanderbilt have been successfully selling beer to the public at baseball games for years.

This added revenue will likely dredge up a sore subject for the SEC, however, regarding how wealthy the schools and athletic departments are becoming while offering the student athletes themselves no opportunity to capitalize on their own notoriety.