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The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a change allowing commercial sponsor advertisements on football fields for regular-season games in all three divisions, starting with the 2024 season.
College athletic departments are scrounging for cash wherever they can these days — and the NCAA just afforded schools a lifeline.
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a change on June 6 allowing commercial sponsor advertisements on football fields for regular-season games in all three divisions, starting with the 2024 season.
The new rule will allow corporate advertisements in three spots: a single advertisement centered on the 50-yard line, in addition to no more than two smaller, flanking advertisements elsewhere on the field. Each will be allowed on a game-by-game basis or for an entire season.
College athletic departments need cash now.
The framework settlement in the House, Hubbard and Carter cases is set to allow universities to share in the neighborhood of $22 million annually with athletes through broadcast rights, ticket sales and more. Most within college sports expect schools in the Power Four, and especially in the Big Ten and SEC, will spend up to that optional cap number in order to remain competitive.
That $22 million figure, however, creates the need for more revenue quickly assuming Judge Claudia Wilken signs off on the framework agreement in the coming months. College athletics have largely operated in a world in which they spend most if not all of the money they bring in. That leaves athletic departments pulling any kind of levers they can to find additional sustainable revenue sources.
On-field sponsorships won’t fix the entire problem, but those within the industry suggest they could provide schools anywhere from the mid-six figures to $3 million annually. It also remains to be seen whether the NCAA will consider jersey patch advertisements — which have become increasingly mainstream in professional sports and would unlock another potential stream of revenue.
“That’s an obvious revenue stream that has not been there in the past,” Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin said of on-field sponsorships. “Pro sports are putting patches on jerseys. That doesn’t seem like something that’s crazy for us to consider. We need to look at [new revenue streams].”
Beyond on-field sponsorships, administrators have quietly considered cutting sports and senior staff members to alleviate pressure on athletic department budgets when they might have to start sharing revenue as soon as the 2025-26 academic year. Texas A&M University, for example, cut more than a dozen senior staff in a move that’s expected to save the department more than $2 million annually.
This article originally appeared in The Sports Business Journal.
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