RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Ohio State and Notre Dame joined the ranks of schools with corporate jersey sponsors on Tuesday.
Ohio State announced a deal with Chase Bank worth up to a reported $17 million. Chase's logo will be on the jerseys of all Ohio State sports teams starting with the 2026-27 season.
Not long after Ohio State's deal was announced, Notre Dame said that it had made a deal with SoFi to have a patch on the Fighting Irish's football jerseys next season and beyond. According to Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger, that deal is worth between $18-20 million per year.
Notre Dame has partnered with SoFi as its official jersey patch sponsor. The six-year deal with SoFi is expected to be the most valuable jersey sponsorship deal in college athletics history at an average of $18-20 million annually, sources tell @YahooSports . pic.twitter.com/01R6I2XCBx
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) July 28, 2026
The deals come as schools are looking in ever-increasing directions for revenue in the NIL era. After the NCAA allowed schools to sell logo space on fields and courts, the governing body gave athletic departments the green light to sell jersey space starting with the 2026 football season.
Beginning Aug. 1, teams are "permitted up to two additional commercial logos on their uniforms and apparel and one additional commercial logo on equipment during the preseason and regular season, with an additional commercial logo on uniforms and apparel for conference championships." The patches cannot be bigger than four square inches.
That means schools in the Big 12 will be able to have an additional patch along with the Monster Energy logo. The conference announced this summer that it had signed a reported $20 million deal with the energy drink company that included a jersey patch for each school.
The language of the NCAA's rules means leagues can — and will — sell space on team equipment and apparel for championship games and conference tournaments.
It also means that the revenue gap between the biggest and smallest athletic departments in Division I will only keep growing. Simple supply and demand dictates that schools like Ohio State and Notre Dame will be able to command far more money for jersey patch deals than teams in Conference USA or the MAC.
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