How NCAA tournament expansion could reshape college basketball
A look at how expanding the NCAA tournament could change March Madness, conference strategy and the future of college basketball.
- The NCAA has lifted its ban on television advertising for energy drinks and hard liquor during its championship events.
- This policy change was driven by a need for more revenue to fund the expansion of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
- Despite the new advertising rules, the NCAA still prohibits schools from providing energy drinks to athletes as caffeine is a banned stimulant.
To help protect college athletes from vices like vodka and Red Bull, the NCAA has long banned advertising of such products during broadcasts of its championship events, including the NCAA basketball tournaments.
The NCAA once even nixed a proposal by 5-Hour Energy to sponsor the name of a bowl game, leading that bowl game to go out of business. But times have changed, starting July 1, when the governing body for college sports opened the door for spirit and energy drink companies to advertise television commercials during NCAA championships.
The NCAA abandoned its previous principles for a reason — money. The NCAA confirmed to USA TODAY Sports it changed its advertising policy as part of its agreement with television companies to expand the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments from 68 to 76 teams starting in March 2027.
“The NCAA Division I Board of Directors changed these policies to maximize the revenue the Association returns to member schools as they are investing more and more in student-athletes on their campuses,” said Dan Gavitt, NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball. “The change also brings NCAA Championships in line with most schools and conferences which have been selling alcohol during events and accepting alcohol advertising and sponsorship for some time now. The NCAA will continue to prohibit sports betting and daily fantasy advertising.”
The NCAA also is allowing more alcohol ads than before
The NCAA previously banned advertising during its championship events for alcohol products that exceeded 6% alcohol by volume (ABV), which included many beer products but excluded liquor and many wines.
The NCAA also previously restricted beer ads to be no longer than 60 seconds per hour of NCAA championship programming. Now there is no ABV limit. And the alcohol commercial limit has expanded to up to 120 seconds per hour, effective July 1.
At the same time the change marks the latest twist in a long, strange history between the NCAA and energy drinks, which still are forbidden in another way. NCAA schools aren’t allowed to provide them to student-athletes because caffeine is listed as a banned stimulant that could cause a player to flunk an NCAA drug test if consumed in high quantities.
Why the NCAA changed its advertising policies
It’s about money. The NCAA is getting an extra $300 million from television companies over the next six years because they agreed to expand the NCAA basketball tournaments.
To be able to pay for a bigger March Madness, a television company such as Warner Bros. Discovery needed to be able to sell more commercials for it — a job that becomes much easier and more lucrative if energy drinks and liquor products are allowed to be included.
Warner Bros. Discovery previously televised early-round men’s tournament games on truTV and stands to benefit from the change, as will CBS (which also televises the men’s tournament) and ESPN (which televises the women’s tournament).
The NCAA confirmed its advertising policy became part of the negotiations to expand the basketball tournaments as a result. The final contract was approved by several NCAA panels, including the Division I men’s and women’s basketball committees.
The NCAA agreed to the change in part because the NCAA now will be able to award more than $131 million in new revenue distributions to member schools that participate in the basketball tournaments over the final six years of the NCAA’s broadcast agreements.
“The rapidly accelerating need to feed the financial beast continues to lead the NCAA and its business partners to increased commercialization,” said David Carter, founder of the Sports Business Group. “This hasn’t just been the case with college sports as pro sports has also found itself embracing advertising and sponsorship categories once deemed inappropriate or illegal like alcohol and gambling.”
What does this NCAA advertising policy change affect?
The NCAA said it allowed energy drink ads on a trial basis for the 2026 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments before the ban was permanently lifted July 1. The lifting of the ban applies only to television advertising during NCAA championship events such as the basketball tournaments, the Frozen Four in hockey and the College World Series in baseball and softball.
Individual schools and conferences previously were not subject to this ban. For example, the Celsius energy drink company has had sponsorships with Oregon, Colorado, Washington and others. In 2024, Buckeye Vodka became a sponsor of Ohio State athletics. The Big 12 Conference on July 7 announced an “entitlement” sponsorship with the Monster Energy drink company that was not related to the lifting of the separate NCAA ban for NCAA championship events.
Likewise, college athletes were not banned from endorsement deals with energy drink companies, such as the one between Colorado football star Travis Hunter and Celsius.
Why the NCAA previously banned liquor and energy drink ads
The NCAA wanted to promote healthy values for its member schools and athletes. Hard alcohol and energy drinks didn’t jibe with that.
The NCAA’s advertising policy states it is “designed to encourage those advertisements and advertisers that support the NCAA’s ideals and exclude those advertisements and advertisers… that do not appear to be in the best interests of higher education and student-athletes.”
In 2016, Mary Wilfert, then-associate director of the NCAA’s Sport Science Institute, gave an online presentation to athletic trainers and athletic department staff. The presentation warned them about energy drinks, saying too many of such drinks could contribute to gastric upset, sleep disturbances and heart palpitations.
“The energy drink buzz is a false energy,” read one of the slides presented by Wilfert.
That time when a bowl game was canceled because of it
The International Bowl in Toronto went out of business after its last game in 2010 because the NCAA forbade a title sponsorship of the game by 5-Hour Energy, the game’s chief executive told USA TODAY Sports.
The College Football Playoff and the Pac-12 Networks also canceled an ad campaign with the energy drink Xyience in 2016 after receiving questions about it from USA TODAY Sports. Back then, they didn’t want to appear out of step with NCAA guidelines even though they technically weren’t required to abide by them. Such a stance now appears quaint by today’s standards.
Energy drinks “have become so endemic to the college experience and beyond, the marketing fit — and the money that comes with it — is just to tempting to pass up,” said Carter of the Sports Business Group. “And the fact that there is likely to be modest push back from the public at large should lead to even broader acceptance of energy drinks as marketing partners throughout college athletics.”
Such products still can’t advertise at NCAA championships
The NCAA confirmed that such previously banned products still are not allowed to advertise at NCAA championships with onsite signage. Nor can those companies be an official NCAA sponsor.
Onsite signage is exclusive to official NCAA sponsors, which includes Coca-Cola.
An energy drink would not be eligible to be an official NCAA sponsor because of Coca-Cola’s exclusivity with beverage products, the NCAA confirmed.
The lifting of the ban therefore applies to TV commercials during NCAA championship events.
And that’s where the likes of CBS and TNT will quench their thirsts to pay for a bigger March Madness.
But there are still limits to what can be in their commercials.
With alcohol advertising, the NCAA still requires TV ad be “respectful” and “free of gratuitous and overly suggestive sexual innuendo” and with “no displays of disorderly, reckless or destructive behavior.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com