"the bowerman award"--they cant be serious?

[quote]What I know wrote:

Nike paid for and designed the award for the 1st year. Subsequent awards are to be furnished by the coach's association. So most likely Nike had some say in the naming of the award. Also the designer of the award is a former U of O athlete.

well, if nike is paying for and designing the award, they must be doing so because someone, somewhere in the nike/oregon camp sees this as a great financial investment.

and the actual designer is an ex-oregon athlete?

sorry everyone...there is way more back-story here than meets the eye, and it's called capitalism that has thoroughly corrupted our beloved sport. please, finally, see this event no different as nike pushing out the old and bringing in lanana at oregon, nike cornering the market in hosting every ncaa and usatf track meet it can, and autzen stadium suddenly becoming host of top ten football teams.

Why would Nike design an award just to give it to their athletes.... That makes no sense in your little conspiracy theory. It would only increase their demand increasing deals from other sponsors to pull them away from Nike if that were actually possible. And as far as them being closely associated with Oregon..... Duh the starter of the entire company was the coach there why would they not be close? I think GATORade should change their name too. Too specific to UF.

Bowerman was a person?! I thought it was named after Nike's Bowerman series of running shoes.

I am just curious... why all the bickering? Why not just ignore the name of the award and accept the fact that the greatest NCAA Track athlete for the year will finally be honored with something other than a national title? I mean... football's Heisman quickly became something completely separate from the national championship... hopefully the Bowerman Award can follow suit. While it is obvious that the prestigious awards like this will be received by "big names" year in and year out... maybe this is a track award that can finally build some credibility, just like the "Heisman" did.

because the name of the award sucks. that coach used PEDs. every time they give it people will laugh and crack jokes. it's another scandal we don't need.

The should name the award, The Lance Armstrong Award, to encourage drug free competition.

what does autzen stadium have to do with anything. oregon is a school on the rise, enrollment has skyrocketed in the past 3 years like you wouldn't believe. that typically happens to successful athletic schools.

or isn't any of that. they almost lost their fb coach to usc last week because little schools in the middle of nowhere don't pay squat. the or fb coach did a good job this yr and went to the rose bowl. but the or ath dept exc for t/f & xc sucks the big one. even then an or t&f xc alum hasn't won a iaaf outd wc or sum oly medals in ages. it's quite diff for ark, tx, lsu, usc, ucla t/f alums, they bring back medals, dozens and dozens of medals.