In a week focused on the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit, which is scrutinizing the amount of money in college sports, the University of Kentucky is about to get a whole lot richer. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the school has signed a 15-year, $210 million marketing rights deal with JMI Sports, starting in 2015-16. That’s a huge boost over the current deal, which is worth $80.5 million over 10 years with IMG.
Kentucky athletics signs huge, $210 million media rights deal
The deal is comparable to the other biggest brands in college sports.
Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
What’s even more impressive is that the deal is so much bigger despite TV rights now being counted elsewhere, because of the new SEC Network deal.
From the Courier-Journal:
Under its agreement with JMI Sports, UK's guaranteed rights fee starts at $9.1 million in 2015-16 and increases annually up to $16 million in 2029-30.
...
UK notes that Alabama signed a new media rights deal in April worth between $15-16 million annually over 10 years, giving it the third-largest deal in the nation behind Texas and Notre Dame.
More importantly, the deal could potentially help the university build a new on-campus basketball arena after recent plans for a stadium renovation fell through.
"We are thrilled to begin a partnership with the University of Kentucky that will utilize much of our expertise, including producing and distributing quality sports content, selling and fulfilling innovative corporate partnerships, developing unique campus sponsorship programs, and delivering stadium financing and project management services," (JMI Sports president Tom) Stultz said in a release.
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