For anyone familiar with the NCAA’s long history of prohibitions on athletes, the TV ads featuring Gonzaga star Drew Timme in a casino are jarring.
In one ad, Timme-wearing his Bulldogs uniform-dribbles a basketball amid slot machines at Northern Quest Resort & Casino in Spokane, Wash., as fans admire his trademark mustache. In another, Timme wears a Gonzaga sweatshirt to the roulette table and advises the man sitting beside him, “I like No. 2.”
“Your jersey number,” the man responds. “Isn’t that a little on the nose?”
Timme’s series of commercials for the casino are a vivid sign of how much things have changed recently in college sports-in terms of both marketing opportunities for athletes and their relationship to gambling.
