Marketing intercollegiate athletics programs has long been a tricky endeavor, as professionals in the field negotiate around amateurism rules and whether student-athletes can participate in promoting their own institutions.

With e-mail, the Internet, new-media technology, and streaming radio and video online all occurring since the NCAA last examined its amateurism and promotional-activities rules, many in the membership said the time had come to revisit how to feature student-athletes’ names, images and likenesses in promoting conferences, institutions and teams.

“The conventional means of promoting intercollegiate sports have changed drastically in the last 10 years and will continue to evolve as communications vehicles become more universal,” said Chris Plonsky, director of women’s athletics at the University of Texas at Austin and chair of an NCAA study group on student-athlete names and likenesses.

She said newspapers and other printed publications have shifted resources toward the Web, and local television newscasts dedicate only a few minutes a day to sports stories.

“It is more likely that college sports fans listen to Internet radio broadcasts rather than over-the-air, especially if they are distanced from their alma mater or favorite team,” Plonsky said.

Advances such as Internet radio broadcasts and live video streams on the Web cost money — something athletics departments don’t always have without the help of outside sponsors who can pay to promote intercollegiate athletics in return for advertising — and the benefit of being associated with the positive image of college sports and higher education.

Current NCAA legislation, though, complicates compliance officers’ efforts to determine what is and what isn’t a rules violation. Thus, in October 2006, Plonsky and the study group began to determine how to update the bylaws to accommodate technology without ruffling the Association’s amateurism principles.

The group included members of the Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet’s agents and amateurism subcommittee and other compliance and marketing experts from the membership. Its charge was to:

• Develop recommendations that appropriately provide greater flexibility to feature student-athletes in promotions;
  
• Provide opportunities for institutions, conferences, nonprofits and educational entities to form positive relationships with sponsors and media partners that share Association values; and
  
• Replace outdated, often inflexible and overly bureaucratic NCAA legislation with more modern rules that are clear and easier to apply.
  

After nearly a year of work, the study group recommended three legislative proposals that are now in the cycle as Proposal Nos. 07-25, 26 and 28. Supporters say they provide the flexibility institutions need without allowing student-athletes to endorse products or services. The legislation also retains institutional control over the use of student-athlete names and images to ensure that the promotion is consistent with the mission and values of intercollegiate athletics.

But some people worry that the proposals cross a line, which is why Plonsky’s group and others have devoted plenty of time educating about how they would be applied.

The proposals

Proposal No. 07-25 applies to institutional, charitable, educational or nonprofit promotions. It requires that a promotion clearly identify the connection between the sponsor and the entity.

The promotion must not directly encourage use or sale of a product or service, and a re-production of the product or service may not be included in the promotion. However, the proposal does allow for the appearance of apparel and equipment as long as such items are shown in their normal use (for example, a soccer team poster featuring a team picture in which the members are wearing Nike uniforms or Reebok shoes and the company’s logo also appears under language explaining the company’s relationship to the institution). Sports-wagering entities are precluded from participating in such a promotion.

Proposal No. 2007-26 addresses the use of a student-athlete’s name, image or likeness in commercial advertisements or promotions. In coming to this recommendation, study group members believed they struck a balance between the importance of commercial sponsors to successful athletics program and upholding the principles of amateurism for all student-athletes.

The proposal allows current student-athletes’ names or likenesses to appear in commercial promotions provided that within the promotion there is no direct endorsement of a product or service by the student-athlete, the institution, a conference or the NCAA. The appearance of the names, images or likenesses also must be only through competition footage, audio or photographs. In addition, the relationship between the commercial entity and the institution, conference or NCAA must be clearly explained in the promotion.

The proposal increases the flexibility of an institution, conference or the NCAA to strengthen its relationship with a commercial sponsor, but it still requires the institution to have the final word on whether the promotion or ad is appropriate. Again, the promotion or commercial must include no encouragement to use or purchase products or services of the co-sponsor and must not be associated with sports wagering.

An example of an acceptable promotion under the legislation is an Enterprise Rent-A-Car ad that uses only competition footage, does not encourage using Enterprise and explains that Enterprise is a corporate partner of the NCAA. Current promotions by Enterprise and other entities use footage only of former student-athletes. Under this proposal, competition footage of current student-athletes could be used.

The final proposal is 07-28, which allows a media entity to feature a student-athlete’s name, image or likeness in promoting the coverage of a competition in which the student-athlete’s institution will or may participate (or has previously participated). The student-athlete’s appearance is once again limited to competition video, audio or photographs.

For example, promotions for a Bowl Championship Series game, which usually begin before the participating teams are decided, would be able to include footage from the previous year’s matchup, even if the student-athletes who competed in the game are still currently enrolled student-athletes.

Why they are necessary

Plonsky said the package of proposals would allow for broader promotions of intercollegiate athletics that will, in turn, generate revenue to fund the enterprise without compromising bedrock principles.
“The truth is, collegiate athletics are self-funded,” she said. “It takes nonconventional revenue sources to offer broad-based, gender equitable programs. That does not mean that sponsors and commercialism rule. Rather, they can help an institution’s overall athletics agenda.

“When a business or sponsor participates in a promotion, message, commercial or an event broadcast, they are lending support to the endeavor. Indeed, in most cases, they are paying for the communications vehicle by which the general public receives attention about the team or the event.”

Mike Rogers, a law professor at Baylor University and the school’s faculty athletics representative, said the legislation modernizes amateurism and promotions rules in a way that benefits everyone. Rogers, a member of the study group, said members met with companies that serve as sponsors and media partners for institutions, conferences and the NCAA to discuss the current legislation’s limitations and how to balance their interests with preserving amateurism.

“The sponsors don’t want student-athletes holding up products and endorsing purchases,” he said. “Student-athletes will not be endorsing products. The legislation is modern, clearer and easier to apply. The Association and all of its members, large schools and smaller schools, will benefit. This effort is something to be proud of — it involved hard work by the study group and many hours of service by the NCAA staff.”

The debate

Critics believe the legislation escalates the over-commercialization of intercollegiate athletics and pressures student-athletes to allow their images to be used for an institution’s financial gain.
Supporters counter that the changes help tell the story of intercollegiate athletics through new technology and leverage the popularity of sports like football and men’s basketball to create exposure and revenue for Olympic sports and women’s programs.

Leslie Wurzberger, associate athletics director for marketing at the University of Washington and a member of the study group, said the legislation will allow marketing professionals to be “creative and resourceful” in meeting the challenges of promoting the less well-known programs on campus.
“The great stories about our student-athletes and the great experiences fans have when they come to our events are not exclusive to the revenue sports,” she said. “However, they seem so at times because we simply don’t have enough opportunities and resources to share them. The flexibility these proposals provide can help us with these efforts without compromising our values.”

The bottom line for many supporters is clear: With the passage of this legislation, institutions will retain control over the messages and how student-athlete names, images and likenesses will appear in commercials or promotions.

“This is partnership at its best, and intercollegiate athletics depends on the generosity and belief of broadcast and advertising sponsors, whose financial contributions directly underwrite conference budgets for championships and institutional budgets for student-athlete experiences,” Plonsky said. “They are trying to work with us to tell our story in ways that are interactive, pleasing and beneficial to the public.”

For more information, or to view examples of promotions and advertisements that would be acceptable under the new legislation, visit www.ncaa.org.