[UPDATE] F'ing Nerd State Rep. Wants to Ban Alcohol Licensing by State Universities

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With much fanfare, LSU and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette joined a growing trend of allowing brewers to pay them for making “official beers.”

Reading that news in his Shreveport kitchen, Democratic Rep. Cedric Glover said he was appalled. “It struck me deep in my heart. This is wrong.”

For health reasons, for moral reasons, for religious reasons, Glover said he vowed at that moment to use one of his five allotted bills in a legislative session that’s supposed to focus on fiscal matters, to ban public universities from licensing "official" alcoholic beverages. His House Bill 610 also would forbid LSU and UL-Lafayette from renewing the contracts with local brewers when they expire.

Bayou Bengal Lager supports LSU and Ragin’ Cajuns Genuine Louisiana Ale is the official beer for UL-Lafayette.

“Why would we have wanted to officially license and brand and tie an alcoholic beverage to a school?” Glover said. Louisiana doesn’t allow anyone under the age of 21 to drink, and that age limit applies to most every student on most campuses.

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“It’s nonsense. Glover likes to throw stones,” LSU President F. King Alexander said. “He’s never been a fan of LSU.”

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In Glover’s letter, he said it was “certainly disappointing to see LSU President Dr. King Alexander respond in such a personal and petty way” to the proposed bill.

Glover also said Alexander’s argument that LSU sees 15 percent in revenue from the sale of its licensed beer should strike “a bitter and ironic chord with his students.”

“LSU and other colleges have been and continue to rake in billions of dollars from the blood, sweat, broken bones, and dreams of youngsters who are not even old enough to legally buy beer,” Glover said in the letter. “The universities’ return is much higher than the tuition, room and board invested through scholarships. Yet these same young people cannot legally earn a single red cent from the tickets, television, tailgating and all the purple and gold paraphernalia that bears their names.”

Glover said that "the start of a fair deal" would be for those who “actually provide the sweat equity” to see a share of all revenue generated by college athletics.

“So if the king of LSU wants his cut of the beer money, let's make sure the kids get theirs, too,” Glover said.

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