SBJ College: Under Armour Upheaval Part Of Market Reset

I somehow convinced her to say “I do” 30 years ago today.

Here is what's cookin' on campus.

COLLEGE SPACE HITTING RESET BUTTON

• Under Armour’s heavy-handed approach to getting out of shoe and apparel deals at UCLA and Cal left some industry experts wondering how the brand could maintain a home in college athletics. What kind of future does UA have in the space after it tried to pull out of overpriced agreements? It’s just negotiations, an insider said. The brand isn’t going anywhere.
  
  
• UA, which has 15 college deals, made some bad decisions. Practically everyone in the college space knew at the time that UCLA’s $280 million deal was well beyond what the market should yield. Nike had done a $250 million deal with Texas and a $252 million deal at Ohio State, two of the biggest brands in college sports. The top end of the market was established.
  
  
• But this is what it looks like when the collegiate market re-sets, multiple sources told me today. It’s happening in shoe and apparel, it’s happening in multimedia rights and, as my colleague John Ourand explained in the SBJ Media newsletter, it’s happening in media.
  
  
• This is the week when Learfield IMG College would typically be making millions in rights payments to its college partners, but the media and tech giant made arrangements with many of them to defer payments by 60 days, as SBJ reported a few months ago.
  
  
• Learfield and UA aren’t immune to the country’s economic upheaval. Some of the same difficult discussions are under way in college athletic departments, many of which expect to run at a deficit in 2020-21. The college space is undergoing a re-set and this won’t be the last episode like this.

Under Armour is looking to exit its apparel/shoe deals at both UCLA and Cal

BIG WEST COMMISH GETS UNEXPECTED START IN NEW ROLE

• Dan Butterly’s first day riding solo as Big West Conference commissioner is tomorrow, but he’s already begun filling vacant positions, meeting individually with staff members and moving his family to Orange County, where conference HQ is located and COVID-19 is upsetting California life on a daily basis. He and retiring commissioner Dennis Farrell have been working side-by-side, virtually, for the last month during the transition. The conference offices are closed, so Butterly has met only briefly with his staff.
  
  
• Butterly waited patiently for this opportunity -- he had worked in the Mountain West and Missouri Valley offices since 1993. When he dreamed about becoming a commissioner, never did it include managing a pandemic. He still hasn’t met face-to-face with the selection committee members who hired him. The entire process played out over video conferencing.
  
  
• Butterly interviewed from the basement of his Colorado Springs home. The first adjustment he had to make was to get rid of the board games in the background and replace them with books so he’d look smarter. Then he lost his connection in the middle of an answer during the interview. “I’m scurrying for about two-and-a-half minutes trying to re-establish the connection,” Butterly said. “When it came back, I just kept going with my answer.” He later learned that his ability to project calm in a tense situation impressed the search committee.
  
  
• The Big West’s to-do list will keep Butterly busy. The conference’s multimedia rights agreement with Learfield IMG College ends today. A media-rights agreement with ESPN has one year left. And the lease on the HQ in Orange County is up. Butterly: “There’s plenty to do, even if you don’t include Zoom meetings and wearing masks and trying to make decisions relative to the pandemic. This is not what I thought it’d be like, that’s for sure.”

Butterly last month on a video chat talked about his outlook on the student-athlete experience

SWOFFORD: SPORTS, SOCIAL ISSUES NOW INTERTWINED

• A few more nuggets from my conversation with retiring ACC Commissioner John Swofford:
  
  
• On the potential for change in this period of social activism: “This feels different. What I mean by that is I think there's an opportunity coming out of this that can be a wonderful thing for this country. We need to take a strong step forward from where we are. There's a realization of that among more people than I've ever seen before. It can't stop; it needs to keep going. The days of sports being separate from social issues in our society are over.”
  
  
• Swofford also shared the impact Ricky Lanier made on him when they were football teammates at North Carolina in the late 1960s. Lanier, the first black football player at UNC, roomed with Swofford. “I was fortunate to come along at a time of great social activism and great activists,” Swofford said. “At that time, there was a feeling that progress was being made, but obviously not nearly enough.”
  
  
• As he approaches the end of a 24-year run as commissioner, Swofford said he’s encouraged by the way conferences and institutions are working together to solve the riddles caused by COVID-19. Swofford: “There’s a more cooperative spirit in college athletics than I’ve seen, especially conference to conference. The sharing of information, the sharing of best practices, it’s going to be critical to whatever the outcome is on playing or not playing.”
  
  
• What does retirement hold for the 71-year-old with six grandchildren (and one on the way)? “People keep telling me that I should write a book. That remains to be seen,” he said.

GOOGLE EXEC: TALK TO YOUR FANS

• Google’s advice to college administrators: Even though there aren’t any games right now, talk to your fans, listen to their concerns and stay connected. A school’s communications and marketing message should be driven by that fan feedback. “Gather as much information from your existing fan base as possible, do surveys, actually talk to your fans,” said Google Head of Industry/Ticketing & Live Events Michal Lorenc, who shared some of those insights earlier today on LEAD1’s webinar series about re-opening. “How do you address concerns in your marketing messages? How do you get people excited? These are all about staying connected.”
  
  
• Most schools start their fiscal year on July 1 and it’s likely they’re projecting financial losses for 2020-21, Lorenc said. So, where are the opportunities for incremental revenue growth? Lorenc identified two areas that could be beneficial.
  
  
  1. Make full use of the facilities. “Think of all the concerts and performing arts that have been rescheduled,” he said. “There aren’t enough venues in America to facilitate that many events. That will drive a lot of interest from promoters like AEG and Live Nation. There’s going to be opportunity there and athletic departments are going to be more willing to rent out venues.”
     
     
  2. Create content. Whether it’s bite-sized video generated for social media or full-game replays on other shared platforms like YouTube. Lorenc: “There’s pent-up demand for entertainment and people cannot fulfill it by going to games. YouTube is experiencing record traffic, so there’s demand there. Continue with the 3-5 minute sort of snackable content, but don’t be afraid to put old games in their entirety or maybe something that’s been sitting in the archives on YouTube. Definitely lean on video and social media to keep fans engaged.”
     
     
• Lorenc added: "In the data-driven world of Google, a couple of weeks can mean the difference in several percentage points. For example, the public’s enthusiasm for live events around late May was indicating significant pent-up demand. A month later, the responses looked very different after the most recent COVID-19 spike has changed consumer opinions. Staying engaged with the fans is important, especially now when they’re getting used to watching live events from the sofa."
  
  
• More Lorenc: “Companies are cutting travel and entertainment, meaning group ticket sales could disappear for a couple of years. … More people are probably going to watch the game from home versus watching it live from the stadium.”

SPEED READS

• Amid the pandemic, Iowa plans to trim $15 million from its athletic budget for the 2020-21 school year. Hawkeyes AD Gary Barta in a statement late this afternoon said that the savings will occur in operating expenses and in salary reductions, including a 30% cutback of his his own salary. Barta added that the forecast assumes that football and basketball games will occur in their entirety -- and with fans in attendance.
  
  
• When the rebooted Central Collegiate Hockey Association returns in 2021-22, the seven-team D-I conference will have a live streaming provider, reports SBJ’s Mark J. Burns. Through a new multiyear deal with Austin-based streaming outfit FloSports, every regular season and playoff game hosted by a CCHA school will be available -- both live (globally) and on demand. All seven CCHA schools, which are currently in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, have counted FloHockey.tv as a content provider. Select CCHA games in the future may also be available on local linear TV. Monthly plans begin as low as $29.99, and discounted annual plans are priced at $150, both of which provide subscriber access to all of FloSports’ offerings.
  
  
• SEC officials confirmed that the conference is "still working through a plan for the league’s 2020 Media Days." The Tuscaloosa News' Cecil Hurt notes the SEC "had announced earlier that the annual event would be held virtually instead of in Atlanta on July 13-16 but no new date has been confirmed."
  
  
• The Big South Conference and Canon U.S.A., have extended their sponsorship arrangement. Canon provides consumer, B-to-B and industrial digital imaging solutions. As the conference's  official imaging partner, Canon will continue to activate on an integrated, year-round marketing presence and exclusive rights to events and channels throughout the year. Canon also provides the Big South and its member institutions imaging tools and education programs to enhance their live sport broadcasts. The extension was negotiated by Van Wagner, who manages the Big South’s marketing program.

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand and SBJ Esports with Adam Stern and Trent Murray. Also check out the SBJ Unpacks newsletterevery Monday-Friday night, as we look at how the sports industry is being impacted by COVID-19.

Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).