Tennessee runs onto the field before an NCAA college football game against Georgia, Sept. 13, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — You’ve heard about the patches coming soon to a college football jersey near you. You’ve seen the corporate logos cropping up on football fields from South Carolina to the University of Washington. Talent fees on season tickets, league-level deals with the likes of PayPal, naming rights revenue not just for a stadium but for the playing field within the stadium.
All of this is now standard fare for universities scrambling to keep up in the sprawling and expensive industry that college athletics has become. For the latest year available (2024), the 352 Division I members of the NCAA alone reported generating nearly $20.5 billion in revenue.
The problem is that, on average, most Bowl Subdivision athletic departments at the top of the food chain also reported losing money.
Finding fresh dollars is critically paramount for departments becoming more creative by the day. Universities are not just slapping corporate logos on uniforms and facilities but building entertainment districts that can be lucrative far beyond game days. They are executing mind-boggling CFO-level reorganizations that are no longer unusual.
