I got word that the OU football team will be wearing different uniforms for this weekend’s tilt at Texas Tech.

My initial reaction was nausea, my second was bewilderment. Why should an apparel manufacturer dictate what uniform is worn by the football team at a public university?

The final reaction was outrage. The new uniforms, provided by Nike, have the brand name “Sport Combat,” with the implication that OU football players are “soldiers.”

Nike even came up with a fois-gras fed slogan, “Stake Our Claim.” Thank you Phillip Knight for your attention to detail.

Combat is part of war not college athletics. The marketing angle by Nike alone is offensive, puerile, stupid and really does not belong in college athletics. Even more alarming is that OU is going along with it all. Who is running the university?

I visited OU on Homecoming Weekend. I was not too impressed our stadium was remodeled to look like Times Square, that canned music drowned out the Pride of Oklahoma, and by the fourth quarter my eardrums were bleeding.

The argument that all this is needed to fund the other sports on campus is disingenuous.

OU offers 16 varsity sports for men and women. By comparison, Mankato State in Minnesota offers 22, Division III Mount Union College in Ohio has 19, so I have to think that very little of the $79 I paid for that end zone seat goes to provide athletic opportunities for the young men and women of Oklahoma.

I do know the OU Athletic Department has run up a ton of bond debt. The number I read in the Sporting News is $80 million. There’s the reason OU charges a paycheck for football tickets.

You have to ask first: do the new scoreboards, the Nike uniforms, and other glossy add-ons to the football program provide that much more in athletic and educational opportunities for students? Answer, no.

Second question, who is responsible for turning the football team into a sports entertainment commodity? Answer, athletic director Joe Castiglione, someone I’d like to see get fired. Like maybe today.

College football belongs on campus. It builds a community among students, alumni and town that may not be achieved otherwise. Young men want to play football, just look at all the Division II and II programs full of players who will never play in the NFL.

What does not belong on campus are corporate sponsors like Nike meddling in the extra curricular programs of a state university. May we have our college football team back?

James Hartman