Every year at the College World Series there is a competition between fanbases to see which school's fans can purchase the most Jello shots at Rocco's, the bar across the street from the stadium. It's a brilliant bit of marketing for the bar as college baseball fans flock there to be upsold on an alcoholic children's treat in the name of school pride.
College sports fans pretend it's impressive or important or funny because content, but holy crap is it dumb. And it was taken to a whole new level on Monday as the founder of Raising Canes "bought 6,000 jello shots" to push LSU over the top and set a bunch of "records." Everyone was very excited.
Of course, the only people who should be happy are the owners of the bar as some rich doofus handed over $30,000 for a bunch of drinks that probably don't even have to be made. I mean, how does one purchase 6,000 Jello shots exactly? Did the bar have to produce them all right then? It's not like they set them out on the bar to be counted. Is it even legal to sell that many units of alcohol at once to a single person? Was he simply paying for the next 6,000 requests for a Jello shot by LSU fans? And you can't seriously expect us to believe that the Guinness Book of World Records is entertaining the notion of "most Jello shots purchased" as a book-worthy accomplishment.
Now it's not even the pure athletic-adjacent drinking pursuit it was just a year ago. Rich guys from various colleges will show up in town, buy a thousand Jello shots at a time that will never actually be made, and probably get to write it off as a charitable donation on their taxes. What exactly does this prove?
This is why the College World Series Jello Shot Challenge needs some unwritten rules. No more mass purchases. Every Jello shot bought must be consumed by someone in that person's party. Shots can only be transferred to a third party when indicated by language such as "can I buy you a Jello shot?" These are the things we need to consider if we want to keep this contest a pure test of fandom. The integrity of the game across the street from the game has been compromised.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as The College World Series Jello Shot Contest's Integrity Has Been Compromised.
