Report: NCAA considering allowing schools to add sponsorship logos on field

With the NCAA approving a proposed settlement that includes a revenue sharing model between schools and its players this past week, even more massive changes are coming to college athletics. That impact could apparently even extend to the way a football field looks in the near future.

USA Today reported on Wednesday that the NCAA is considering allowing schools to add sponsorship logos to their home football fields. The publication spoke with Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin at the SEC spring meetings, who seemed optimistic at the prospect.

“I believe the NCAA is going to allow us to put a sponsor logo on the field during the regular season,” Stricklin said. “That’s an obvious revenue stream that has not been there in the past. The pro sports are putting patches on jerseys. That doesn’t seem like something that’s crazy for us to consider these days.”

An association committee of representatives from all three divisions of the NCAA has already added a proposal could that could change the current restrictions against the use of commercial sponsorship logos. An NCAA spokesperson confirmed to USA Today that there is a meeting set to discuss the proposal, among other topics, on June 6.

Advertising on the football field is currently prohibited except for during bowl games and neutral site contests. Additionally, there is a maximum of three advertisements allowed in such games, one at the 50-yard line and two smaller ones placed elsewhere.

Logos on the field aren’t the only way advertising may soon make its way into college sports, however. As Stricklin alluded to, many pro sports leagues have added sponsorship patches to their jerseys in recent years.

Interestingly enough, the NFL is the only major pro sports league that currently does not allow sponsorship patched on its jerseys. That doesn’t mean the NCAA wouldn’t approve them for football, however, and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey certainly didn’t seem opposed to the notion.

“We’ve had jersey patches in bowl games,” he said. “I would anticipate there’s going to be a continuing push (for new revenues), and we’re going to have to come to some agreement in this new environment on where those limits exist.”

The approved proposal from the NCAA still needs a federal judge to sign off before it can go into effect. If it goes through, the NCAA would pay $2.8 million in damages to current and former athletes as the result of an antitrust settlement. Schools would also be permitted to share up to $20 million per year with their student-athletes.

That would open the door for players to receive a salary similar to the way they would in the pros. With that comes other changes to the game, of which could be the addition of logos to both the field and jerseys.