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The NCAA is catching Super Bowl fever.
College Sports’ governing body is set to air a new PSA during pregame for Super Bowl LVIII between the Chiefs and 49ers, utilizing a spot that had previously been used for advertising the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
“We thought with all the other things we were doing in the national office — to do more for our student-athletes and hopefully change some of the image of the NCAA — that it would be a better use of that 30-second spot to talk about the holistic student-athlete model and the mental health services that are going to be available for students,” NCAA SVP of Business Performance
Brian Higgins told SBJ.
The NCAA has utilized ad space during Super Bowls in past years, but Sunday’s spot on CBS will be a new twist. When president Charlie Baker took over for Mark Emmert last year, senior staffers dove through the existing contracts the NCAA had with its partners. What they found in their deal with CBS and Turner was a slot giving the NCAA access to a PSA during Super Bowl coverage when it was broadcast on the network.
That aforementioned past spot was previously used for advertising March Madness. New leadership, though, thought it best to use this year’s commercial to more widely promote initiatives like tuition assistance, guaranteed scholarships and tutoring support, mental health support services and access to health care.
“The Super Bowl ad is going to be one of the most visible things from this scan of our contracts,” Higgins said. “But we are working on a lot of stuff in the background, other things like that to make sure that we're doing as much as we can for our student-athletes.”
