The Ohio State University and Learfield announced Wednesday a multimedia rights extension with Learfield that could represent the most lucrative agreement of its kind in the country.
According to Learfield's announcement, Ohio State Sports Properties stands among the nation’s top organizations in sponsorship revenue with prominent brand partners spanning the country. Learfield will continue to serve as Ohio State’s revenue generation partner, delivering solutions across integrated sponsorships, NIL services via Buckeye Sports Group, and next-level partnerships, including jersey patches and other premium assets.
“It’s a critical juncture in college athletics, and this is the ideal time to lock arms with Learfield, to continue to provide best in class opportunities and lead Ohio State Athletics for a long time into the future,” said OSU athletic director Ross Bjork. “Learfield’s expertise brings a full range of capabilities that allow us to continue to maximize the largest sponsorship program in the country through even more commercial activity that impacts revenue and further capitalize through innovative sponsorships and NIL strategies, which help strengthen our entire athletics program. We are proud to continue our long-term affiliation and transformational partnership with Learfield and continue to maximize the Ohio State brand power here in Ohio and across the country.”
Ohio State Sports Properties, Learfield’s local team in Columbus, will collaborate closely with Ohio State Athletics to grow incremental revenue streams through centerpiece sponsorship assets, according to the announcement. Ohio State was an early adopter in signing a field naming rights partner, naming Safelite Field and adding on-field logos at Ohio Stadium in 2022. Ohio State is embracing a similar innovative approach to future emerging assets, including engaging brands that are highly interested in pursuing a jersey patch partnership with Ohio State in anticipation of the NCAA rule change. As one of the most celebrated schools in college athletics, boasting 36 sports, a jersey patch opportunity with Ohio State would represent one of the most highly coveted sponsor partnerships in college sports, the announcement stated.
"At the center of this bold partnership is Buckeye Sports Group (BSG), Ohio State’s first-of-its-kind, full-service NIL initiative announced following the House v. NCAA settlement," per the announcement. "Built to operate at enterprise scale, powered by Learfield Impact, BSG was launched alongside an expansion of NIL leadership and on-campus resources to further strengthen industry-leading support for student-athletes. Through this integrated model, Learfield Impact delivers dedicated NIL leadership, access to deal facilitation and compliance technology via Compass NIL, and creative content campaigns designed to help student-athletes build, monetize, and manage their personal brands. Ohio State is a leader in NIL activity with Buckeye student-athletes participating in over 650 NIL activations with 100-plus brand partners across multiple sports, collaborating with regional and national brand partners such as Beats by Dre, Chipotle, Rite Rug, Spectrum, Door Dash, and Anduril, the presenting sponsor of Defend the ’Shoe, an original content series produced by Learfield Studios. To build upon its momentum, BSG has also established an Advisory Board, comprising significant donors and strategic partners, to maintain cutting-edge NIL programs that serve the dynamic needs of Ohio State Athletics and its student-athletes."
As reported by Sports Business Journal, exact financial details of the deal were not immediately available. According to Ben Portnoy of SBJ, the agreement includes a three-year extension through 2036 and will see the parties enter a revenue sharing relationship designed for Ohio State and Learfield to capitalize on one of college sports’ most prominent brands and sponsorship machines.
“It was a chance, given the whole landscape, to redo the whole deal based on the structure [and] create a revenue share model,” Bjork told SBJ. “It’s easy to race out and announce a big headline of a guarantee number. Well, based on the fact that we’re the biggest gross revenue partner in the country, I think people can deduce that this will be the largest deal towards Ohio State, toward any collegiate property. Now, it’s going to be on us to perform.”
Ohio State had previously agreed to a lengthy deal with Learfield (then-IMG College) in 2019. The parties amended that contract on five separate occasions, including as recently as October 2024, according to documents obtained by SBJ.
Three of those amendments specifically addressed changes to the revenue sharing structure between Learfield and Ohio State (exact terms were redacted), according to Portnoy.
The latest deal is again expected to amend financial terms, along with accounting for the extension of the partnership from 2033 to 2036.
“When we mapped out this new structure, it was about creating a partnership where, of course, Ohio State’s going to win, but also Learfield wins,” Bjork said. “As the property that has produced the biggest amount of sponsorship, multimedia revenue of any property in the country, we win on the upside, but also Learfield gets rewarded because the property continues to grow.
“From my standpoint, it was really important that we incentivized Learfield, but we were also incentivized to provide more assets, be way more flexible, be way more innovative, new inventory, new lines of business.”
Per Portnoy's reporting, Ohio State’s new deal with Learfield also includes the continued work of Buckeye Sports Group, an NIL-centric initiative designed to drive added dollars toward athletes.
“It’s really about taking the traditional sports property installment and expanding it meaningfully so that you have equal measures of commercialization of the athletics department and revenue generating opportunities for athletes,” Learfield president/CEO Cole Gahagan said, as reported by SBJ. “That’s what we’ve installed at Ohio State, at Wisconsin, Oklahoma and other schools, and I think it represents the future of traditional [multimedia rights] service installations on campuses.”
