It’s been a rough decade for college sports purists.
First the transfer portal and player payments were unleashed upon fans. And this summer the emerging new trend seemingly certain to sweep across the landscape and arrive in Bloomington: jersey patches.
Introducing the Culver’s Wisconsin Badgers, and the MSU Federal Credit Union Spartans.
No word yet if Culver’s is introducing a flop-burger in connection with today’s news.
In just the last couple weeks, both Wisconsin and Michigan State have announced corporate sponsor patches will appear on all of their team uniforms. And that creates a near certainty we’ll be seeing a sponsor on the Indiana teams sooner than later.
The NCAA’s Division I Cabinet approved sponsorship patches for uniforms, equipment and apparel in January, with a limit of two patches on uniforms and one on equipment. The patches cannot be larger than four square inches.
These patches provide additional revenue streams for the schools and NIL opportunities for players. The Michigan State deal has been reported to be in the 10-year, $40 million range. While the copycat nature of this trend will mean the schools competitively offset one another, it will be real money for the athletes and athletic departments.
And when it comes to jersey patches, IU should be able to land one of the more lucrative deals in college sports, with the football program currently on top of the world. A patch on Curt Cignetti’s gameday apparel alone would bring significant value. Meanwhile the men’s basketball team has one of the game’s most valuable brands. From a purely economic standpoint, the time to capitalize on these opportunities with long-term deals is now.
A year ago, Indiana announced a 20-year, $50 million naming rights deal for the field at Memorial Stadium. A near-term naming rights deal for the stadium itself can’t be ruled out. And if IU recreates the exterior of the stadium and concourse areas, additional sponsorship deals would almost certainly follow. This is real money that can be used for much needed facilities overhauls among other things.
While seeing a corporate patch on an IU basketball jersey will be hard for some to swallow, none of this is new to the eye of most sports fans. Jersey sponsorships already appear in the NBA, WNBA, soccer and other professional sports.
Eventually most will learn to ignore the patches and train their focus on the same objective as always: Winning.
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