• TV Week, Wednesday, August 6, 2008 9:15 AM

More than 100 college coaches are appealing to NCAA President Myles Brand this week to eliminate alcohol ads in college sports telecasts. Anheuser-Busch and SAB Miller, for instance, are among the top five advertisers in CBS' telecasts of the "March Madness" college basketball tournament.

The coaches say they are "troubled by the prominence of alcohol advertising, mainly beer ads, in televised college sports" and offer a proposal to phase out alcohol ads over three years, "gradually and relatively painlessly." The appeal is backed by 59 college presidents and 239 athletic directors.

Currently, the NCAA limits alcohol advertising to beer and low-alcohol wine coolers and allows one minute per hour of any telecast to be devoted to alcohol ads. Any decision to eliminate alcohol advertising could affect the rights fees the NCAA receives for media telecasts.

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