Envision your college team's favorite uniform.
Perhaps its Alabama's famed crimson and white, Georgia's 'silver britches' or Ohio State's scarlet and gray. Maybe it's Penn State's blue jerseys against those understated white helmets and pants or Tennessee's pantone-151 orange.
Now, envision those same threads with up to two - TWO - commercial patches from corporate advertising "sponsors" for every single regular-season contest.
Football. Basketball. Baseball. Softball. Gymnastics.
All of them. All of them fair game.
The NCAA decreed as much Friday, when college athletics' governing body formally cleared the final hurdle for schools to place commercial patches on their official uniforms -- except in postseason championship contests.
"College sports are in an exciting new era of increased financial benefits for student-athletes," said Illinois' Josh Whitman, the school's athletics director and the NCAA's Chairman of the Division I Cabinet. "and the Cabinet's vote (Friday) reflects the ongoing commitment of Division I members to drive additional revenues and fully fund those benefits.
"This also continues the NCAA's efforts to expand flexibility in areas of NCAA rules, thereby allowing schools and conferences to set standards that reflect their values and serve their unique needs. This important policy change is another step forward in advancing that philosophy and providing members with increased flexibility."
The move isn't limited to merely uniforms and apparel; rather, it also extends to the respective equipment utilized in each individual sport.
Per the NCAA release:
"Effective Aug. 1, all Division I teams will be permitted up to two additional commercial logos on their uniforms and apparel and one additional commercial logo on equipment during the preseason and regular season, with an additional commercial logo on uniforms and apparel for conference championships. The patches will be limited to a maximum of 4 square inches per logo."
The move mirrors, again, the decisions of America's various pro sports leagues, with the NBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer; the NFL, famously, does not allow commercial patches on its game uniforms but does allow teams to sell those marketing patches on practice uniforms.
Might Notre Dame, which just this decade formally partnered with Guinness to make it the official beer of the Fighting Irish, add the company's harped logo to some of its teams' uniforms?
How about Auburn and famous alum Jimmy Rane, owner of Yella Wood, add those distinctive Yella Wood logo patches to the Tigers' uniforms?
Danny White sold Tennessee's basketball arena naming rights to regional grocery store chain Food City, and Kroger now owns the field naming rights at the University of Kentucky. Grocery carts on uniform sleeves, anyone?
The permutations are endless, except for the NCAA ending this change at no more than two patches per respective uniform.
It's widely viewed as a necessary measure as NCAA member schools at college athletics' highest levels seek to fund their revenue-sharing agreements, which formally began last year with the onset of the House Settlement. Teams could distribute from up to $20.5 million in revenue-sharing funds to its student-athletes, minus scholarship costs, in the 2025-26 year.
That figure increases each of the next four years, per terms of the House Settelement, before it is expected to again be revisited.
While the NCAA won't allow teams to carry those uniform patches into its championship competitions, it did reveal that those kits aren't guaranteed to remain commercial-logo free:
"The Cabinet also supported NCAA staff efforts to explore possible policies for teams to wear commercial patches during NCAA Championships, in collaboration with NCAA corporate marketing and media rights partners."