If there’s one thing college football doesn’t need, it’s a race to sell beer for the cheapest price possible, but that’s exactly what we’re seeing play out in real time.
On Thursday, Tulane’s Green Wave posted a photo on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that the university’s Yulman Stadium sells the cheapest beer in college football. Students took to the comments section to confirm that the stadium slings brews for $3 a pop. The post, which was intended to promote the team’s season ticket package, sparked a flurry of similar posts from other college football teams claiming to offer even cheaper brews at their respective stadiums.
The primary one-upper was the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Ragin’ Cajuns, who posted that their team’s stadium offers $2 Natty Lights. The next day, both the University of Pittsburgh’s Panthers and BYU’s Cougars took to social media to tout their offers, too. Admittedly, the Panthers’ post was a lamer attempt at doing the feuding teams one better, as it only boasted the freshness of its stadium’s Iron City Light beer and not the price. The Cougars, on the other hand, took a more clever approach to the meme, touting itself as having the “coldest chocolate milk in college football.”
The back-and-forth comes at a time when beer sales at college football games are more commonplace than ever before. For ages, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) had strict laws regulating alcohol sales, as most college students are under the legal drinking age. But those rules are in flux, and 55 of the 69 Power Five conference schools now serve booze in their stadiums’ public sections, according to a recent study from Associated Press. It doesn’t hurt that these sales have helped generate substantial revenue for participating colleges and universities; in November 2023, ESPN reported that the University of North Carolina has tallied up $4 million in alcohol sales since introducing the practice in 2019.
What will come of all this cyber trash-talking? Probably nothing. But if tailgating isn’t enough to get football fans properly sauced up once the season hits, $2 Natty Lights will surely up the rowdiness factor.
