NCAA’s March Madness Rules Are Limiting Team Social Media Content, And Schools Are Pushing Back Now

Maybe you have noticed over the past few days of March Madness that your favorite team has not been posting original content from NCAA Tournament games that you’re used to seeing during the regular season. 

You have probably seen posts from schools like Virginia, Duke and Nebraska poking fun at the fact they are not allowed to create their superb content that usually provides a behind-the-scenes look at a monumental win. 

There's a reason for it all, and it comes down to licensing that the NCAA owns and contracts out to TNT Sports, with help from a company called Veritone. The sides signed an extension nearly ten years ago that runs through 2032 for a total of $8.8 billion. 

Thanks to a lucrative contract that the NCAA sold to TNT Sports, all content that comes from the ongoing tournament must come from the media company's social accounts, not television coverage. 

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So, those highlights you are accustomed to seeing during a game that provide an inside peek of your favorite team are not going to be created by the school's content creator, unless the university is willing to pay a separate licensing fee for social media usage. 

Outside of Instagram or Facebook, you are not going to see a cinematic recap of a win, or any big plays that occur during a game. 

Now, if a school wishes to post their own recorded highlights from a game, they can purchase the right to do so by paying a $5,000 fee, which is essentially the school sublicensing game footage that can only be done twice per game, though zero footage can be posted during the actual game. 

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This is the reason why you've seen some schools take a few jabs at the NCAA over its control of what is being posted on social media. 

On Saturday night, following Nebraska's win over Vanderbilt to clinch its first ever Sweet-16, the Cornhuskers social media team had a little fun with the ongoing restrictions by using what was clearly a "pirated" looking recap of the final minute of action to highlight their win over the Commodores. 

You can actually see the video loading, with the dreaded circle of doom, during the highlight package that was clearly posted by an account called "NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Game Winners", according to the YouTube page description. 

Clearly, Nebraska wasn't too worried about catching a copyright claim, given they weren't the ones who posted the original video. 

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Let me be clear, I don't blame the NCAA or Turner Sports for being possessive with their content, given how much money both have at stake with the ongoing tournament. And, none of this is new, though the NCAA has eased up on its overall restrictions. 

If schools are worried about losing some of their lore from in-game or post-game footage that fans have grown accustomed to, they can purchase rights to publish in-game and press conference video for a $5,000 fee. 

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And, if they really want to highlight their social media creators, they can pay $15,000 for rights to the entire NCAA Tournament, though that footage cannot make its way to X (Twitter) or TikTok pages. 

As for some schools, it's obvious that they have paid to post on social media for their fans, with Duke seemingly being a good example. But, teams are still not allowed to post any type of content during games. 

As you can also see, some schools are posting the in-game footage after the conclusion of each contest.

So the option is there for schools, if they are willing to pay. Obviously, this has been a touchy subject for some, while others have stayed silent during the tournament about the lack of footage from their paid creators. 

While some fans who have noticed this on social media might feel these restrictions from the NCAA and Turner Sports, I would argue that the $8.8 billion that the television network is spending on media rights over the next eight years gives them every right to be overly protective of any type of content that comes out of the ongoing tournament. 

Sometimes, you have to pay to play the content game, which Turner Sports is clearly doing, even if fans are missing out on some fantastic social media footage.