Colleges across the country are inking lucrative uniform sponsorships, but Texas Tech's endorsement focus is on the newly-dubbed Galaxy Stadium ... for now.
LUBBOCK - The Big 12 Conference's landmark sponsorship with Monster Energy continues to look like one of the least successful partnerships in the booming market of uniform advertising, at least so far.
In a collaboration with the conference as a whole, where Monster sponsors the football and basketball seasons with jerseys and on-field branding, each institution nets only a return of approximately $1 million each academic year from the deal.
For such vast and visible signage, that's nothing more than loose change. It's a major missed opportunity for something more lucrative.
That's more and more evident as institutions ink their own sponsorships, such as Ohio State partnering with JPMorganChase for jersey patches on every one of the Buckeyes' athletic teams. The deal is worth at least $15 million annually, not to mention how it is unique from any other school.
Notre Dame signed for even more by partnering with SoFi Technologies for a reported $18-20 million each academic year.
For Texas Tech, they've hopped on this new wave of marketing not through uniform branding, but in stadium names rights.
Just as AT&T's contract has ended for its naming of Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas Tech announced the naming rights agreement with Galaxy, a leader in data center infrastructure that already has a location in West Texas.
Monster Energy logos will be throughout the newly-dubbed Galaxy Stadium, but so too will the branding of the venue's new namesake.
According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, the school has said that a Galaxy logo will be placed under Texas Tech's midfield Double T, in cooperation with the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel's new rules for three on-field advertisements.
Senior associate athletics director Robert Giovanetti also told the paper that Learfield, Tech's multimedia rights partner, "has a separate sponsor on board for one of the other two logos on the field."
"We have one done," Giovannetti said. "I don't think it's been announced yet by Learfield. Learfield has taken the lead on that. That'll be pretty quick."
And about the possibility of other sponsorships, say, in the form of jersey patches?
"We've received significant interest," Giovannetti said, "and we're just vetting all of those. Obviously, we want to take our time and get a partner that we feel was going to be worth the long-term investment. But we don't have anything pending right now."
You can argue that Texas Tech has been an innovator in the way it attacks revenue sharing, NIL and transfer portal progress. It sounds as though they'll be falling in line when it comes to this latest trend of jersey sponsorships, as well.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we have one," Giovannetti said about a patch agreement, "but I don't know if I'd use the term 'expect'. I think we understand the value.
"We understand the importance. We understand that we need to monetize where we can, but I think we want to make sure we have the right partnership and we get the right price for it."
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