College Sports Brand Chaos and Cannibalization – The Impact of NIL and Conference Realignment

Athletics are the front porch to a university.  Win a “Natty” ─ the riches follow.  Donations flow in and admission applications climb.  Everyone wants a piece of the brand.  This landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. 

The ACC might as well be renamed the All Atlantic Conference with the inclusion of west coast “geographic” rivals Stanford and Cal.  The B1G has swelled to close to 20 teams.  The Big 12 is grabbing teams from far and wide – the deserts of Arizona to the mountains of Colorado.  All in pursuit of the almighty TV broadcast rights dollars.  It’s like a drug that is all consuming with the promise of short-term riches.  Brand traditions, borne out of decades-long battles anticipated and played annually, are in jeopardy.  Home and home battles in hoops are becoming a thing of the past with 20 team conferences. The very brand equity that’s been built over years is being discarded in the haste to get a seat at the power conference table.  It’s a chaotic time with far reaching brand implications. 

The End of Brand Rivalries

Rivalries, especially with geographic rivals, are the engine behind the passion that drives college sports fandom. (All great brands need a reason to believe and a reason to belong.)  Rivalry games have great nicknames.  They take on a life of their own that resonates with those who follow college sports. 

Oklahoma and Oklahoma State own “Bedlam.”  The “Red River” rivalry game between Texas and Oklahoma dates back to their first meeting in 1900.  Then there is the “Civil War,” the late November game between Oregon and Oregon State − the Ducks and the Beavers.  In Oregon you’re a backer of one of two quirky animals.  There’s no middle ground.  It’s part of what makes being a college sports fan great.  With realignment, these branded rivalry games, steeped in tradition, are now threatened to be wiped off the schedule.  For what?  The prospect of playing a faceless conference foe.  (Ask UCONN fans about trekking to the XL Center or Gampel to face the likes of East Carolina, Tulsa or UCF on a January night in the dead of winter.)  Nothing like Washington traveling 3,000 plus miles to play Rutgers on the banks of the Raritan in Piscataway NJ.  That is surely appointment sports TV.  Realignment has laid waste to the conference brand equity that’s been built for decades

Paying to be Part of the Brand

It’s been said countless times, college athletics is all about rooting for the name on the front of the jersey rather than the name on the back.  Brand engagement ruled the day.  You got to know and follow players as they stayed on campus for four years.  The portal was something you traveled through.  You were all in with season tickets, apparel merchandise and trips with buddies to away games. The investment was equal parts psychic and monetary.  Paying for players has long been the underbelly of college sports through the “moneydrops” from influential and wealthy boosters.  It was the avenue to becoming a program insider.  The more money, the greater the fan access.  

NIL – Name, Image and Likeness − has changed the college sports brand landscape in seen and unseen ways.  It’s morphing into pure pay for play.  Colleges are hiring General Manager’s (mimicking the professional sports world)  to oversee their sports programs as Athletic Directors are overmatched in this new NIL and portal world.  Overnight, colleges are seeking to tap deeper into donors’ pockets for NIL resources.  Gone are the days that contributions were directed to the athletic departments.  Fandom is now judged on the amount of your NIL contributions.  Are you in or are you out?  You’re talking hundreds of thousands, if not seven figures plus, to field a competitive hoop team.  The price tag for football is off the charts – the beast that drives the college sports bus.  It’s a slippery slope when you judge a fan’s brand allegiance based upon their NIL contributions.  In a very short period of time, the name on the back of the jersey is becoming far more important than the one on the front. You want a winning team?  Time to pay up.  Will booing college players (the unwritten rule never to do) become more accepted?  It’s an entirely new brand world.

The Path to Brand Irrelevance

The college landscape is rapidly spiraling toward branded haves and have nots.  It’s always been this way, only now it’s exacerbated.  The arms race is sure to leave many college programs littered by the roadside or shuttered.  Teams such as Oregon State and Washington State no longer have seats at the power conference table.  Once they held venerable brand status in the PAC 12.  Now they’re afterthoughts.   How long can schools afford to fund major college sports without the TV revenue drug?  What about the mid-major schools that provide shining moments in the NCAA Hoops Tournament?  College presidents face the task of deciding whether to disband sports programs.  This is going to be the next domino to fall in the college arms race. 

I contend that there is a glaring need for the role of a Chief Branding Officer going forward in college sports.  The brand is too important to be left in the hands of influences with no real branding experience.  It’s a critical time with far too much at stake for these powerhouse brands.

Brand or be branded.