NCAA to decide whether schools can display on-field sponsor logos

The June 6 vote comes off the back of a landmark settlement, which will allow schools to directly pay student-athletes through a revenue-sharing model starting in the fall of 2025. 

The NCAA has been tiptoeing around a pay-for-play model for decades. Various antitrust lawsuits forced the organization to accept this reality or face the destruction of its entire existence. 

Starting in 2021, student-athletes were allowed to make money off their name, image and likeness after the NCAA faced intense political and legal pressure. However, NIL was never going to be the end of the compensation debate in college athletics. 

It was a rushed Band-Aid on the gaping wound of the NCAA's financial model. A revenue-sharing evolution was inevitable, with current and former student-athletes' continual denouncement of the illusion of amateurism. 

Allowing on-field sponsorships requires the NCAA to admit that its moving farther away from that illusion with each passing day.

The NCAA's current rules for on-field sponsorship are extremely strict. Only postseason and neutral-site title sponsors and sponsors with stadium-naming rights are allowed to display their logos on the field during NCAA-sanctioned events.

Schools must tap into other revenue streams in order to adequately compete and sustain the post-settlement landscape. The NCAA will be forced to alter their stance, yet again, to make way for the pro-sports business model overtaking college athletics. 

Administrators are looking to take advantage of that model. At the spring meetings for the Southeastern Conference, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said that he believes "the NCAA is going to allow us to put a sponsor logo on the field during the regular season." 

Stricklin made numerous comparisons to professional sports when discussing jersey patches and fantasy sports as well. Because of the adoption of the revenue-sharing model, embracing other practices of professionalism is inescapable. 

Amateurism is dead. Furthermore, the NCAA's recent and potential actions demonstrate that it has been for some time.