South Carolina adds corporate field logo. Are jersey patches next?
South Carolina unveiled a major partnership on Monday, showing off the first field/court logo in the school’s history.
The Gamecocks entered into a five-year agreement with Blanchard Machinery, which includes a pair of Blanchard logos being painted on the 25-yard lines of Williams-Brice Stadium.
Though the financial terms were not disclosed, South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati proclaimed at a press conference Monday the deal is the “largest individual investment to our athletics program.” At the same presser, Blanchard Executive Vice President Rozier Blanchard said he hopes their financial investment is a “kickstarter” for South Carolina’s $350-million Williams-Brice Stadium renovation.
As the Gamecocks navigate the NIL era of college athletics while undertaking a massive capital project, it should be no surprise Donati is searching for new revenue streams.
And one that might be on the horizon? Corporate jersey patches.
“It’s probably coming,” Donati said. “I made the comment earlier — 10 years ago, selling beer in a stadium seemed so foreign. Now there’s probably 10 stadiums in the country that don’t do it.”
The reason schools didn’t sell beer in their stadiums for so long was because there were rules against it. Same with this. The NCAA has yet to approve schools from adding corporate jersey patches — which would be worth millions annually for SEC football programs.
If that becomes legal, expect many schools to add sponsored jersey patches. LSU has basically already formulated its jersey-patch plan, ready for whenever the NCAA gives the green light.
“It’s gonna be much more commonplace,” Donati said.
The Gamecocks AD referred to the NBA’s jersey patches, an idea that seemed like a wild money grab when it was first introduced in 2017. And within two years, nearly every team in the league had sold ad space on their jerseys.
To Donati, it’s only a matter of time before that spreads to the NCAA and, thus, South Carolina.
“Crystal ball five years from now,” Donati said. “I think it’ll be pretty widespread across college athletics.”
Donati added that South Carolina hasn’t had any conversations yet regarding jersey patches, a sentiment echoed by Nick Kistler, the general manager for Gamecock Sports Properties (Learfield).
He said South Carolina has yet to even get an official valuation on what a jersey patch might cost. Part of that is because — along with the pending NCAA approval — apparel companies (Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, etc.) haven’t addressed how that would work.
“It is just agreements that are in place with performance apparel partners,” Kistler told The State. “There needs to be some things worked out at that level before schools can start to pursue that.”
This story was originally published August 12, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
