It's finally over

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Chris Jackson

After months of, um, well, I have no idea what they were doing for months, but the UA and Nike finally signed a fat $7 million contract.

Now I just hope the whole thing fades into the background so everyone can get on with their lives in and out of the athletics department.

The contract, for the un-informed, deals with Nike providing all the equipment for the 15 Division I sports teams at UA except the softball and swimming and diving teams, which have separate endorsement contracts.

The detractors of all this come in two groups. Group one bemoans the horrible conditions in which people in Southeast Asia work in Nike factories. Group two, which is smaller but equally vocal, bemoans the commercialization of college sports.

To group one, I say keep up the fight, but you might want to change the direction of your anger. In the end Nike can only do what the governments of countries like Vietnam and Indonesia allow it to do. So quit yelling at Nike and start griping with the boys in Jakarta and Hanoi.

To group two, I say don't panic. It's not going to be Nike-McKale Arena anytime soon. Sure, ASU sold out, but that's ASU.

Good things will actually come out of this. First off, this paper will no longer have to devote entire pages to people griping back and forth. But while our gain isn't exactly the public's, I think everyone will enjoy reading about something other than the latest protest of the week.

Now we can have our protester groups go after other things, like the fact the UA Mall is going to look like Afghanistan, one big crater, in the coming years.

For the various teams, things will range in terms of how good the deal will be for them. For some, like football, the deal doesn't mean much since everyone from Ortege Jenkins to Axel Trainer is already decked out in the swoosh from head to toe.

For the small, non-revenue sports like cross country, the deal is a huge bonus. Instead of having to spend most of the budget on buying new shoes, which cross country runners do go through quite fast, the team will now just get those shoes automatically through the Nike deal. The team will now have more money to spend on training and traveling, the other two big costs for sports teams at UA.

There probably will be howls of protests from the two groups in the coming days as the deal is officially announced to the public.

Then it will all fade into the past, and life will go on.

For some people, it'll go on a little easier than before.

Chris Jackson is a junior majoring in journalism. He can be reached via e-mail at Chris.Jackson@wildcat.arizona.edu.