Jersey patches on college uniforms? More sponsors could be coming soon with new Learfield iniative
While jersey patches are still prohibited under NCAA rules, college leaders have spent months considering a change to permit them on football and men’s basketball jerseys.
sports.yahoo.com
The evolution of college sports into a more professionalized entity may soon take another step: jersey patches.
While jersey patches are still prohibited under NCAA rules, college leaders have spent months considering a change to permit patches on football and men’s basketball jerseys and even on the uniforms of game officials.
In anticipation of a rule change, in fact, the industry’s multi-media rights giant, Learfield, plans to announce an initiative, Performance Partner Alliance, to help deliver a jersey patch solution for its schools.
Why is a solution necessary? Jersey patches are not only, for now, against NCAA rules, but apparel partners such as Nike, Adidas and Under Armour have existing contracts with schools that prohibit other branding on jerseys and uniforms. It’s an untapped source of revenue at a financially stressful time for athletic departments moving into the age of athlete revenue sharing.
Learfield’s new alliance program is intended to provide apparel brands with significant enough value that they enable schools to add sponsorship logos to game and practice jerseys. Uniforms would continue to feature official apparel logos and conference logos as well.
“We’ve been at stagnation with arguably one of the most valuable aspects of college athletics — jersey patches,” Cole Gahagan, president and CEO of Learfield, told Yahoo Sports. “There is seemingly little to nothing anyone can do to actually get it moving. Activity has to start somewhere. We’ve got a responsibility to kick off that activity.
“The (apparel) performance partners are the first groups that you have to address. The NCAA is the other partner that must agree to this.”
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Committee meets in January with an agenda that includes a review of all playing rules related to commercial logos. While a vote is not necessarily expected, the group will continue to discuss the topic and is trending toward a change to the policy, eventually.
For months now, the FBS conference commissioners have held discussions about the topic, with several of them speaking publicly in support of overturning the policy to permit patches.
“The time has come for us to have a significant conversation around this, but we need to be thoughtful because there are a lot of layers to this, legal and otherwise,” said MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, the most veteran of FBS commissioners. “We need to understand all the ramifications before we jump.”
There is big money at stake.
Learfield’s estimates for jersey patch values range widely, as little as $500,000 annually for schools to as much as $12 million for the top power conference programs, Gahagan said.
For years now, professional leagues have generated millions on jersey patches. In the NBA, franchises make $10-20 million annually, according to figures from the sports marketing firm Wasserman.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, a former New York talent and pro sports executive with experience in such matters, supports permitting jersey patches.
“Any conversation that involves value creation for our members needs to be on the table and we need to be thoughtful about it,” he said. “These are opportunities to create value.”
Learfield’s alliance program is predicated on the biggest apparel brands agreeing to the deal. Those brands have remained mostly silent on their intentions if patches are permitted, though Nike sent a letter in September to its school partners reinforcing that third-party sponsorship patches to game and practice uniforms are prohibited under their contracts.
Learfield’s plan is to leverage its Wasserman-backed methodology to measure the valuation and impact of jersey patch sponsorships for each of its schools and create sponsorship packages. The company will then deliver corresponding marketing assets, including name, image and likeness elements to each school’s official apparel brand.
A big piece of the program is pairing athletes with apparel companies for marketing opportunities under the NIL umbrella.
“This is all in the effort for the brands to feel as though the value is significant and worthy of getting on board with jersey patches,” Gahagan said.
Schools need cash more than ever.
Starting next July, schools are permitted to share millions with their athletes, at least $20.5 million, in a capped revenue-sharing model that is part of the consolidation of the NCAA’s House settlement. The concept — paying players directly — has schools more willing to dip into commercialization more than ever as they seek to increase revenues to offset the additional athlete compensation costs.
