SBJ College: The jersey patch draft

Happy (early) Fourth of July. Hope everyone gets to kick their feet up, find their nearest body of water or golf course and get to enjoy a few adult beverages over the holiday weekend.

Cheers!

With a holiday weekend coming and inspired by a bit of news this week, I thought we’d have a little fun here in the college newsletter this evening.

Wisconsin announced that Culver’s will be the jersey patch sponsor of Badgers football, men’s basketball and men’s hockey on Tuesday. The fast-food giant is a staple in the state and across the Midwest.

That got me thinking: What are a few other schools with obvious, or fun jersey patch sponsors that could have similar synergy?

These were a few of my ideas (yes, I accept any and all consulting fees):

Coastal Carolina: Visit Myrtle Beach

Coastal Carolina has been known to lean into the fun and whimsy that comes from a weekend on the beach. Why not make it more official?

The school already has the teal “Surf Turf.” Let’s get Visit Myrtle Beach involved and add to the tourism flare with air brush football helmets and a boardwalk-styled sideline.

Georgia: Coca-Cola

This one is easy. Georgia has plenty of major companies in its backyard, but Coca-Cola feels like the most obvious answer. Can that jersey patch include a few of the polar bears we all love so much around the holidays? That’s innovation that excites.

Alternative: Augusta National Golf Club (yes, I know they wouldn’t go for this in a million years, but a guy can dream, right?)

Indiana: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The reigning national football champions are getting widespread attention, but racing is in the fabric of the state. The Pacers have leaned into the motorsports motif with a few alternate jerseys. Let’s get the Hoosiers in on the action with a racing stripe jersey patch.

Kentucky: Buffalo Trace

I know you technically can’t have alcohol sponsors for jersey patches, but let’s not let rules get in the way of common sense. I picked Buffalo Trace, but you could go with just about any of the distillery stops along the bourbon trail for this jersey patch. Maybe you rotate it each week?

Anyways, this thought exercise is making me thirsty. Might be time to grab one of those giant rocks out of my fridge and pour myself a glass. …

Maryland: Old Bay Seasoning

Crab cakes and football — that’s what Maryland does.

I’m leaning into that. As a D.C. native, I am plenty familiar with the ways of crab season on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. I keep Old Bay stocked in my kitchen at home here in South Carolina.

Hard to imagine Mike Locksley’s football team ever losing a game with an Old Bay jersey patch affixed to the Maryland state flag-inspired Under Armour jerseys they so often sport. Perfect symmetry.

Nebraska: Runza

I have admittedly never set foot in a Runza, but if we’re following the Culver’s-Wisconsin track, this makes too much sense. Runza, a fast-food giant across the state, was founded and is headquartered in Lincoln. Seems like an easy marriage to me.

Notre Dame: Vatican City

The connections between Notre Dame and the Vatican are self explanatory. Plus, we’ve got a pope who’s into sports, while Notre Dame is headed to the holy city for basketball games against Villanova later this fall.

Surely Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua can get Pope Leo on the phone to discuss adding the coat of arms of the Holy See — a central insignia on the Vatican’s flag — to a Fighting Irish football jersey, right?

Editor’s note: I also considered Pope Leo’s beloved Chicago White Sox as a patch sponsor here à la MLB’s sponsorship of golfer Cameron Young, but this felt more natural.

Stanford: Google

Given the lengthy list of prodigious ex-Stanford students, this could go a million different ways. Peter Thiel’s PayPal? How about Netflix? Co-founder Reed Hastings is a Stanford grad. SpaceX? Elon Musk briefly attended the school before dropping out.

I landed on the easy answer here: Google.

Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are Stanford alums. That’s plenty of Silicon Valley ethos to give them the nod here.

Texas Tech: Literally any oil company based in West Texas

Pick your poison on this one. The obvious answer is Double Eagle Energy Holdings — co-founded by Red Raiders booster Cody Campbell — though oil and gas companies are a dime a dozen in this part of the country.

One other alternative is Masked Rider Capital, the Lubbock-based firm run by billionaire Texas Tech grad Dustin Womble (Yes, the same Womble’s whose name appears all over campus).

Utah: Deer Valley Resort

Let’s continue leaning into regionality here. A couple of my college buddies live in Salt Lake City, and their consistent refrain around October is that they can’t wait for ski season. We here at the SBJ College newsletter hear you loud and clear. Skiing sponsor it is!

Vanderbilt: Grand Ole Opry

There is more to Nashville than just Broadway. I’ll side with that sentiment here — though I do love an evening in the Broadway honky tonks.

The Commodores have aspirations of being Nashville’s team, so let’s lean into the music scene.

Years ago I toured Vanderbilt’s campus as a prospective student (no, I did not get in), but my family went to the Grand Ole Opry one night for a show. Genuinely one of the coolest venues out there. This would rock. *Exits stage left*

Washington: Starbucks

Washington AD Pat Chun has mentioned to me a handful of times the major companies that call Seattle home are obvious partners for the school to lean into sponsorship-wise. That said, let’s go with a Seattle OG.

I made my first trip to Seattle a couple years ago and I was genuinely shocked to see how long the line was at the original Starbucks down by Pike Place Market. Easy to forget behemoths like that start small, too.

For it being the middle of the offseason, last week saw a flurry of business-centric announcements in the college sports world.

Here were a few headlines you might’ve missed:

Oklahoma State adds intriguing jersey patch sponsor: If there’s a more interesting jersey patch partner out there than what Oklahoma State announced last week, I haven’t seen it.

The school unveiled what will be a three-year sponsorship deal with the Osage Nation that will see the tribe represented on all 19 OSU sports beginning this fall. The agreement is a fascinating twist in corporate sponsorship efforts and marks a notable difference from most schools out in the market selling similar assets.

The deal, of course, included some notable symmetries between the Osage Nation and Oklahoma State as talks progressed. Kimberly Pearson, CEO of Osage Casinos and Hotels, is an OSU grad. Osage Principal Chief-Elect Joe Tillman played football at Oklahoma State from 1978-1981.

“The Osage Nation obviously has a long, long history in the state of Oklahoma in our country, but also in a relationship with Oklahoma State that goes back decades and is much more significant than simply a sponsorship partnership around a jersey,” Learfield EVP Andrew Wheeler told SBJ. “That’s really what this reflects, decades of partnership. This is a very high-profile way to recognize that partnership and to tell some stories around what that looks like for a proud people and for a proud state.”

Allstate adds SEC to Power Four sponsorship cohort: Perhaps no sponsor has done more in college sports over the last few years than Allstate. The company announced a deal last week that it’s sponsoring the SEC for a new set of initiatives that center on women’s sports.

Allstate’s Good Hands nets have long been a staple in college football. This move, however, means the company will now have deals in place with each of the Power Four conferences and is another step in helping boost the visibility of women’s sports.

Big 12 tabs Monster as media days sponsor: No one ever called Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark shy when it comes to corporate sponsorship.

The league announced last week that Monster will be the naming rights sponsor of the league’s football media days. It’s an expansion of the Big 12’s deal with Monster that began last year.

The event will feature a co-branded Monster Energy Big 12 Football Media Days logo on all signage, while Monster’s promotional team will be on site with samplings and giveaways. Monster effectively replaces Microsoft Copilot, which served as a presenting partner of last year’s Big 12 Football Media Days.

It’s a busy time in the apparel world.

Tennessee is switching from Nike to Adidas. Penn State is making the same move. South Carolina is going from Under Armour to Nike. Wisconsin, too, recently re-upped with Under Armour in a massive deal.

I caught up with Tennessee AD Danny White to discuss the Vols’ transition to Adidas that begins this week.

Answers have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

SBJ: Can you walk me through the genesis of this change and why you considered it?

Danny White: “We started the conversations just feeling like we were in a position of strength and the data would support that. We led the nation in attendance the last three, four years in a row. We’re the No. 1 [Collegiate Licensing Company] school in the country in terms of merch sales. We have a broad reach in terms of television ratings, one of the top in the country. We felt like it was a good opportunity with our contract coming to an end to recalibrate and find a partner that sees us for what we know we are, which is a force in college sports. And we found that partner in Adidas.

“What I found in talking to Adidas and John Miller, their CEO, and his team, they’re very innovative. They’re ahead of the curve to their peers in the NIL space. They were a year ago when we first started talking to them, and even more so now. They’ve made college and high school a priority and within that priority they’ve made Tennessee a huge priority.”

SBJ: What are some of the finer points of this deal that really stood out?

DW: “Unique opportunities for our student athletes to be a part of national ad campaigns, to be a part of product testing and their innovation lab. College is a high priority for them. That provides a platform for Tennessee student athletes to do some really cool things and to partner with Adidas in ways to build their own brand.

“We saw a lot of alignment in what we’re both working on, what we’re both prioritizing. As we roll this thing out, our fans are going to see some really cool, exciting new uniforms and new looks. I’m really looking forward to rolling out a bunch of gear to our teams and our staff in the month of July.”

SBJ: When you look back at these kinds of deals from your time at Buffalo or UCF to now, what are the biggest changes in what you’re looking for? NIL? Something different?

DW: “Any contract of this kind — it doesn’t necessarily just have to be apparel, it could be [multimedia rights] — there’s definitely numbers that back up how important we are to a potential partner. The investment is important and we feel like with the size of our fan base, we should be a really high priority. Adidas made that abundantly clear in the numbers that are in the contract.

“Also, I remember visiting their headquarters in Portland and they had checkerboards in the end zone of their practice field in the middle of the complex. The statue out front had a Peyton Manning orange jersey on it. Obviously, those are sales-y things, but it was symbolic of deeper meaning.

“The more we talked to them of how much of a priority we would be, how it aligns with their goals to compete in the marketplace, we felt like we could really help them do what they want to do and they can help us do what we want to do. It just felt like a lot of ingredients of a healthy partnership.”

SBJ: How much were corporate jersey patches discussed as part of this deal? Is that something you foresee Tennessee doing?

DW: “We’re always going to evaluate every opportunity to generate more revenue. We know how important that is, but brand association with something like that has to be the right brand. In any apparel deal moving forward, it’ll always be a topic. But those guys have been great to work with.”

• Washington State signed its most significant sponsorship deal in the athletic department’s history, a five-year, $8.43 million deal with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation that will touch everything from jersey patches to content series and youth clinics in tribal communities.
• Arkansas’ two-year search for a naming-rights sponsor for its football stadium concluded with CommunityAmerica Credit Union signing a 13-year deal.
• In the latest SBJ Facilities newsletter, SBJ’s Bret McCormick examines if Kentucky can tap mixed use development to better connect the campus and bring in more housing for students.