In light of a new NCAA rule, schools nationwide are clamoring to ink lucrative jersey patch sponsorships—deals that have been rumored to bring them tens of millions of dollars in some cases. But schools that previously had to share sponsorship contract details due to state public records laws are keeping the specifics of these deals under wraps.
In response to public records requests made by Front Office Sports, Ohio State and Kansas said they are not party to the jersey patch contracts, and therefore don’t have copies at all. Instead, they say, the deals are actually between the sponsor and their multimedia rights holders (MMR partners)—the private companies that broker sponsorships and other deals for athletic departments and are not subject to public records laws.
Whether intentional or not, the practice could result in less transparency about the multimillion-dollar deals that public university athletic departments strike with sponsors and other companies.
“University athletic departments seem to be increasingly diverting their deals through their MMR first in a way that some may say violates the spirit—if not the letter—of open records laws,” Boise State law professor and college sports litigation expert Sam Ehrlich told FOS.
