IMG College and the NCAA have agreed on a multifaceted 10-year deal that will significantly deepen their relationship.
The new arrangement between the two comes with several components, including sales for the men’s and women’s basketball coaches associations and ticket sales and marketing for select championships. That’s in addition to IMG College’s current business with the NCAA, which includes publishing and licensing.
All of those rights are wrapped into one overarching, 10-year contract between IMG College and the NCAA.
Mike Kohler, the former general manager of the Houston, Arizona State and California properties for IMG College, will move to Indianapolis, where he will oversee all sales for the coaches associations — the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. NABC and WBCA sponsors include Allstate, Capital One, Coca-Cola and UPS, among others. All of the sponsors are also NCAA
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corporate partners and champions, who typically integrate coaches into their NCAA marketing.
Working from an office in the NCAA’s headquarters, Kohler will hire his own sales staff of three or four and they will report up through Andrew Judelson, IMG’s national sales senior vice president.
“Not having all of these rights divvied up among several rights holders, like they have been in the past, really drives up the potential for the NCAA brand and for the revenue,” said Ben Sutton, IMG College chairman and president. “Our relationship with the NCAA is vitally important and something we take great pride in. It’s a 40-year legacy business that dates back to the days of Jim Host, who pioneered this business.”
FishBait Marketing held the rights to the coaches for the past 11 years and turned the NABC and the WBCA into a $5 million-a-year business through corporate sponsorships. FishBait submitted a joint bid with Learfield Sports for the NABC/WBCA business, and Van Wagner bid as well, industry sources said.
FishBait still has the rights with the American Football Coaches Association, while also selling corporate sponsorships for the ACC and the Football Bowl Association.
Sutton and Jason Lublin, WME-IMG chief operating officer, worked together on the NCAA deal, as did Janeen Lalik, IMG College’s vice president of business development.
The NCAA was represented by Mark Lewis, executive vice president of championships and alliances, and Keith Martin, managing director of marketing and broadcast alliances.
“When you look at all the pieces we have here and IMG’s capabilities and resources, we just thought they were best positioned to grow the NABC and WBCA,” Martin said. “They have made quite a commitment.”
NCAA ticket sales and marketing will be managed by IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions, a joint venture between IMG College and Learfield. Martin said IMG Learfield will sell tickets across eight to 10 championships, ranging from preliminary rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament to women’s basketball and volleyball.
“Serving the NCAA across marketing, sales, licensing, ticketing and publishing will bring the association a broad array of IMG capabilities,” Lublin said.
