Inevitable sponsored jersey patch will be worth it for the Sooners no matter how anti-traditional

Sponsored jersey patches were the talk of college football on Tuesday after Ohio State and Notre Dame both inked monstrous deals to rep a company logo on their iconic jerseys. Don't think for a minute that a patch won't soon be added to the Oklahoma Sooners' crimson and cream jerseys. And it should.

It was staggering when it was reported Tuesday morning that Ohio State reached a new corporate partnership with JPMorganChase for $17 million annually that the Buckeyes can use toward revenue share to pay student-athletes and other athletic needs. The deal includes all sports, but the largest chunk is expected to go toward football, which will be the case for just about every university that gets a deal like this.

As massive as Ohio State’s number seemed, Notre Dame then outdid the Buckeyes with its deal with SoFi Technologies that’s worth up to $20 million annually. Again, for all sports but will mostly benefit football, which gets the most publicity for SoFi’s pricey advertisement.

The instant reaction to these corporate logos being added to jerseys as advertisement has been disgust. As is to most changes in college sports today.

The thought of a corporate logo with a different color than the school’s being plastered on jerseys seems like an eyesore as college athletes could look like NASCAR drivers between logos of their sponsor, conference, school, apparel brand and maybe even NCAA or College Football Playoff.

It will most definitely be ugly at first glance. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be worth it. And eventually, we’ll all get over it and forget an extra patch is even on the jersey before the 2026 football season even reaches conference play. The benefits, though, will hopefully still be obvious.

Oklahoma will soon follow the branded logo trend and it will be worth the eyesore

There’s no doubt the Sooners and just about every university in the country will don one of these jersey patches soon, likely by this fast-approaching football season. It’s a necessary evil to compete in college sports today, like having GMs and adding transfers, which were also unheard of a decade ago. Funding an athletic department, especially a competitive one, is more expensive than ever while now having student-athletes on payroll on top of keeping up with facilities and everything else needed to not get left behind.

College football technically has a roster cap for revenue share of about $21 million. However, you can listen to coaches speak in press conferences and know rosters still cost more than that.

Oklahoma is a blue-blood college football program with an athletic department even more successful than the likes of Ohio State and Notre Dame. Its brand and logo with the interlocking O and U is also just as recognizable across America. That all means the Sooners are in position to reach a deal with a corporate sponsor just as lucrative as Ohio State and Notre Dame, if not even more if a company really wants to go all out.

Read more: 5 company logos that could soon be on Oklahoma jerseys

Say the Sooners don’t surpass or reach Notre Dame’s historical (for now) deal. Estimating OU to get at least $15 million a year is still a safe bet to expect. Athletic director Roger Denny now has Ohio State and Notre Dame's figures as leverage when negotiating a deal.

Now put that in perspective. All the money wouldn’t go toward football, but again just an estimate, say $10 million goes to Brent Venables and general manager Jim Nagy to build their roster. That, theoretically, basically pays for a starting offensive line. Most fans would agree they’d much rather see an ugly patch on a jersey than their quarterback get sacked.

Or what if Patty Gasso gets even another million to spare? That's the ace that fans have been saying the Sooners were missing this past season.

This is another change to college sports most fans will despise and yell it’s ruining this once pure form of sport. And in a way they're right. But winning trumps tradition. OU fans can start bracing now for a logo to inevitably be on crimson soon and get ready to welcome it instead of revolt.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow