How Could New NCAA Regulations Benefit Track & Field Athletes?

The NCAA announced this week that it will introduce legislation during its April meeting that will allow Student-Athletes to capitalize off of their image and likeness. While this will disproportionately impact Basketball and Football programs, how could these new NCAA regulations benefit Track & Field athletes?

The NCAA has said, “all changes should make sure student-athletes have the same opportunities to make money as all other students, maintain the priorities of education and the collegiate experience, and ensure that rules are “transparent, focused and enforceable” and do not create a competitive imbalance. The board wants each division to implement new rules by January 2021.”

My biggest takeaway from the NCAA’s press release is “The current proposal would create an unrestricted market for college athletes to seek endorsement deals”. That could be huge for Track & Field athletes. The majority of this legislation will surely benefit Basketball and Football athletes but there is clear potential for Olympic sports to benefit from this as well. In the past, if you made the Olympics as a collegiate athlete — you couldn’t capitalize on your name and publicity outside of future earnings.

Now, an athlete can benefit from local endorsements as well as speaking engagements and licensing…