Forget the NIL era; this is now the infomercial era of college football.
We are rapidly descending to watching games on Saturdays that were once played inside hallowed cathedrals, which will now be referred to as Slap Chop Field inside My Pillow Stadium.
Not to mention, Flex Seal will present these traditional Saturday marquee matchups. We will all be impatiently staring at our television or phone screens to scan a QR code on the jersey of our favorite teams so we can score a $10 coupon off your next purchase of Cialis or whatever commercial that has the people singing and dancing about their “problems.”
After pimping themselves out for stadium naming rights and field rights, college football has now fully dived into its era of placing sponsor patches on jerseys.
As soon as the NCAA Division I Cabinet voted this January to approve jersey patch sponsorships, the floodgates opened with schools agreeing to corporate patch deals.
LSU was at the forefront of this movement as it locked up a massive deal with Woodside Energy. The Tigers receive a large chunk of change, and Woodside gets their logo featured on all 21 of LSU’s competition apparel.
In the months since, patch deals have been announced at a furious and somewhat desperate rate.
Wisconsin (Culver’s), Michigan State (MSUFCU), UNLV (Acesso Biologics), Vanderbilt (STM Concrete), Kansas (Ripple), Illinois (Busey Bank), and even McNeese became the first FCS team to strike a deal with Navarre Chevrolet.
Ohio State then stepped up with a massive $17 million per year deal with JP Morgan Chase, and even Notre Dame — with their obsession with tradition — cashed in with a $20 million per year deal with SoFi Technologies.
There was also Monster Energy becoming the title game sponsor for an entire conference when it agreed to deposit $20 million per year into the Big 12’s bank accounts.
It doesn’t seem to matter where the schools get the money. From XRP cryptocurrency to construction materials, as long as the check clears is all that matters.
The argument for slapping patches on jerseys is that athletic departments are under immense financial pressure in this new era of revenue sharing with athletes. To offset those costs, many are willing to sign off on multi-million-dollar jersey patch deals with corporate partners.
As it stands right now, the legislation is only allowing schools to display up to two additional commercial logos on uniforms and one on equipment during the regular season and postseason. But an extra logo will also be permitted on uniform apparel during conference title events.
To be fair, jerseys of your favorite college football team are already rocking the conference logo and brand logo, as well as the school’s logo or name. That’s been the case for many years.
So is adding one or two more patches going to stop you from watching? Probably not.
We already see jersey patches being incorporated into professional sports.
Have die-hard fans of the Houston Astros or Atlanta Braves stopped watching their Major League Baseball teams because of a sponsor patch on their sleeves, or NBA teams with jersey patches like the Oklahoma City Thunder that have a sizable Love’s sponsor patch?
Nope, and those are larger and look far worse than what is being sewn on college uniforms for this season.
But there is a legitimate fear of over-commercialization of college teams, which may dilute team identity.
If you can make $30 million off one or two patches, why not add a third or fourth? Why not slap an ad logo on the helmet?
Instead of Buckeye stickers being placed on helmets for Ohio State players earning tackles or scoring touchdowns, those can be used to hawk insurance or miracle diet plans.
As the late-night pitchman enthusiastically states, “But wait, there is more!”
Why not remove the name on the back jersey and replace it with a sportsbook website address?
Or have the towels hanging in each player’s belt sponsored by ShamWow? Or place a big old logo on a lineman’s backside and have it be for Shake Weight?
The possibilities are endless!
Who is ready to see some sort of mid-level Group of Six school desperate to stay relevant simply change the name plate to “This Space for Sale?”
Or team uniforms starting to look more like the race uniforms of a NASCAR driver?
Even though it is only one or two small patches on a jersey right now, does anyone honestly believe in college football’s never-ending thirst for more and more money that the rest of the uniform won’t be pimped out?
The answer is a resounding NO.
But for the majority of those fine folks who worship at the Saturday mega churches known as college football, they don’t care about jersey patches.
If it means their favorite team is going to make the College Football Playoff or win a national title, they would be more than okay with every inch of the uniform being slapped with labels.
They will gladly buy replica jerseys covered in said patches, and then gladly donate money to those brands if it means their team wins.
Because fans don’t care what it costs to win, even if it means selling their team and their own soul along the way.
That is a money-back guarantee if there ever was one.
Raymond Partsch III is the co-host of “RP3 & Meche” which is broadcast weekdays (11-1) on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette and 104.1 Lake Charles — Southwest Louisiana’s Sports Station.
