A couple of weeks ago, we wrote that Texas Tech football season can't get here soon enough. In addition to the usual reasons to look forward to the fall, there was the more-than-usual amount of stupid conversation that's characterized this summer. Next week, practice starts and maybe we can move on from that.
A couple of news items that broke Tuesday, July 28, don't fall into the aforementioned nonsense bin, but there is a degree of silliness to what stirs up debate these days. First, Ohio State announced a new partnership with JPMorganChase that includes jerseys patches for all 36 Buckeyes teams. Ohio State athletics will get about $17 million a year for the sponsorship, according to reports.
Shortly thereafter came reports that Notre Dame had
reached an agreement with SoFi Technologies that will have the SoFi brand on all Fighting Irish uniforms for the next six years. SoFi is expected to pay Notre Dame about $18 million to $20 million per year for the sponsorship rights.
I remember when we referred to June and July as college-sports realignment season.
Now we're into jersey-patch one upmanship.
Look for a wave of these over the next several weeks, though Notre Dame's will be hard to top.
The people at Texas Tech tell me there's nothing ready to announce this week regarding sponsor patches on the Red Raiders' uniforms. I feel sure, though, that'll come to fruition soon, this season as likely as not. Kirby Hocutt made clear two years ago that Tech athletics would explore all sorts of avenues for non-traditional revenue. The Tech AD and his team over at the Whitacre Center have already made good on some of the biggest ideas they workshopped.
They talked about a stadium concert and got George Strait. For two nights. That netted $4 million or more.
They noted naming rights were about to expire on Jones AT&T Stadium, and now it's Galaxy Stadium — for a reported $75 million over five years.
They announced an extension through 2037 with Learfield, establishing Texas Tech Athletics Partners LLC for the express purpose of developing corporate sponsorships and athlete NIL opportunities.
We're still waiting for that competition barbecue cookoff on the football stadium parking lot. Deputy AD Jonathan Botros mentioned that had been pitched to Tech athletics at one point.
The NCAA's Division I Cabinet in January approved sponsor logos on uniforms, apparel and equipment, effective Aug. 1. Announcements of the Ohio State and Notre Dame jersey patch sponsorships touched off rounds of social-media debate about the appropriateness of those logos on team uniforms. The suggestion mostly being: Stitching corporate emblems into team uniforms is a bridge too far.
Sounds to me like a college-sports exercise in first-world problems. I'm not too worked up about jersey patches, in other words. I probably won't be when Texas Tech inevitably makes its big reveal. It's a necessary concession in today's game and fairly unobtrusive.
There's no sponsorship logo Texas Tech can add to a jersey that's going to disfigure it more than some of the full uniforms the Red Raiders trotted out during the Tommy Tuberville and Kliff Kingsbury regimes. Every few Saturdays, an eyesore. Remember the Lone Star Pride get-ups, your Red Raiders with a dash of blue? The Never Quit outfits? The White 'Ombre uniforms that looked as if someone had stumbled and sloshed a bucket of paint onto the clothing racks?
Measured against those abominations, putting a jersey patch on an otherwise traditional uniform gets a pass from me.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: We can live with jersey patches on Texas Tech football unis | Opinion
