Growing College Marketing Deals Raise Questions Over Corporate Influence

College athletic marketing deals may soon "extend beyond the playing fields," raising a "fresh round of questions in the ongoing debate about corporate influence on campuses," according to Matthew Kish of the PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL. A review of the multimedia rights deals for roughly 90 of the country's top public universities shows that companies are "buying the right to plaster logos on seemingly every flat surface near an athletic event." Universities "defend the deals as the cost of doing business in the arms race of college sports." The companies "selling the sponsorships simply say sponsorships are nothing new and any deal that’s bad for the university is bad for them." The average athletic department in a Power Five conference will get $6.1M for its "advertising and sponsorship rights this year." Schools in the Group of Five conferences average $1.6M. The "gap will widen" by roughly $1M over the next five years. IMG College and Learfield are the "dominant players in the industry" and account for roughly 90% of the contracts. IMG College partners with roughly 75 universities and Learfield partners with around 120. Both "argue what they do is hard to replicate inside an athletic department." Because IMG College and Learfield are national companies with numerous university deals, they can "package advertising opportunities and sponsorships for corporate heavyweights who want to get in front of students at a handful of universities." IMG College President of Media Tim Pernetti said that one of the "next frontiers is possibly controversial 'campus rights' that would enable sponsorship deals across the university, not just its athletic department" (PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/10 issue).