The Lake County Captains are going to poke some fun at the NCAA on July 2.
The Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians are hosting "Mark Emmert Fan Appreciation Night." The entire evening will feature giveaways with a distinct NCAA theme.
The announcement of the promotion comes a day after the NCAA president said the following against paying college athletes while testifying in the O'Bannon v. NCAA trial:
"To convert college sports into professional sports would be tantamount to converting it into minor league sports," Emmert said on Thursday. "And we know that in the U.S. minor league sports aren't very successful either for fan support or for the fan experience."
What are the giveaways? Click here for a full list, but we'll go through some highlights.
• In honor of the unlimited food and snacks ruling for athletes by the NCAA that goes into effect in August, four college students will get an all-you-can-eat wristband and tickets to another game.
• Some fans will receive copies of college football and basketball video games while others will get cards of players who only spent a year in college. (Given that college sports video games may be a thing of the past, those could be worth some money.)
• Anyone who participates in in-game promotions will not win anything. Rather, "they will have the satisfaction of just having the opportunity to participate."(Emmert characterized college sports in his testimony as the "social glue" of college campuses.)
• One of those fans will be the Big Captains Superstar (do we have to spell out the acronym?) via a media vote combined with a computer algorithm.
• A "Captains Booster" will be in at the game and will be giving $100 handshakes out to any person in a college jersey.
The ballclub also extended an invitation to Emmert to attend the game. We think he'll pass on the opportunity, but on the off-chance he did decide to attend, it'd go a long way to showing that he and the NCAA have a sense of humor.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg
