Why are college football programs suddenly putting corporate patches on their uniforms?

You might be wondering why two of the premier programs in college sports — Notre Dame and Ohio State — announced deals Tuesday to put corporate patches on their sacred uniforms.Don’t overthink it. It is always about the money.Professional soccer teams set the tone years ago and NBA teams (2017) and Major League Baseball teams (2023) followed suit in recent years. The NFL still doesn’t allow it on gameday uniforms, but has allowed sponsorship patches on practice uniforms since 2009.The Irish and Buckeyes (Ohio State brought in a record-setting $336 million in revenue during the 2025 fiscal year) are among the biggest breadwinners in the college game, but still have bills to pay when it comes to roster construction.There never seems to be enough money to go around as the price of building a championship-contending roster keeps soaring.Why are schools doing this now?The rules changed. Before the NCAA adopted a new policy in January, the primary commercial logo permitted on most uniforms was major apparel manufacturers’ marks from companies such as Nike, Adidas and Under Armour. The new policy approved broader commercial logo use, with changes taking effect Aug. 1.

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