The commercialization of college athletics has grown over recent years due to the popularity of NIL. Corporate involvement could step forward by purchasing ad space on college fields.
According to a report by Blake Toppmeyer and Steve Berkowitz of USA TODAY Sports, a committee with representatives from all three NCAA divisions will meet on June 6 to introduce a proposal that could change the organization’s strict limits on corporate logo use on college athletics fields.
Several SEC Athletics Directors were asked about the change during this week’s SEC spring meetings, including Florida‘s Scott Stricklin, who appears to be open to the change.
“That’s an obvious revenue stream that has not been there in the past,” Stricklin said. “The pro sports are putting patches on jerseys. That doesn’t seem like something that’s crazy for us to consider these days.”
The NCAA and Power Five conferences reached a deal last week which would allow programs to share revenue with its student-athletes. USA TODAY reports that “the NCAA would fund the damages pool over a 10-year period and schools would begin sharing future revenues with athletes. More than half of the money for the damages pool would come from reductions in the NCAA’s distributions to all Division I schools and conferences.”
The damages of this new agreement is expected to cost programs a combined $2.8 million which will pay current athletes, as well as former athletes who were once prohibited from earning money due to past NCAA policies. Under this proposal, student-athletes would still have the opportunity to earn compensation through NIL.
Corporations were not previously allowed to buy ad space on fields, with limitations being given to sponsors of bowl games and neutral site games. Which corporations could grace Pat Dye Field in the future?
Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__