Tradition Meets Revenue: Inside the $17 Million Jersey Deal Rebalancing the Buckeyes' Balance Sheets
Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork has put a price on a piece of Buckeye tradition. A white Chase logo now sits on the football jersey, part of a JPMorganChase partnership worth nearly $17 million annually, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. The football team debuted the patch against Ball State on Sept. 5. The agreement covers all 36 varsity programs, although Ohio State has not confirmed the price, which covers much more than fabric.
Chase becomes the official bank sponsor of Ohio State Athletics, gains venue branding, and serves as presenting sponsor of the 1922 Club (a private club inside Ohio Stadium). The package also includes NIL (name, image, and likeness) opportunities and financial education for athletes.
The timing paints a clearer picture of the conversation: the NCAA opened jersey space for sale just as direct athlete compensation became a recurring eight-figure expense. Preserving tradition carries a different cost when schools can sell something previously off-limits and have another substantial commitment to fund.
The Jersey Became Sellable at the Right Time
Tradition is partly the reason why Ohio State’s regular-season jerseys did not welcome outside advertising. NCAA rules restricted it, too. On Jan. 23, the Division 1 Cabinet approved up to two additional commercial logos on uniforms and apparel for preseason and regular-season competition, effective Aug. 1. Each logo can occupy four square inches. The change gives schools a new asset to sell without adding another game or another seat.
Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman, the Cabinet’s chair, explicitly connected the decision to athlete benefits in the NCAA’s announcement. “College sports are in an exciting new era of increased financial benefits for student-athletes, and the Cabinet’s vote today reflects the ongoing commitment of Division 1 members to drive additional revenues and fully fund those benefits,” Whitman said. The governing body’s explanation leaves little mystery about why this particular advertising space has suddenly become a matter of concern.
Ohio State prepared before the vote, amending its Learfield agreement in 2025 to permit patch sales. By Jan. 7, Learfield said interested brands were in discussions. The industry had begun pricing the opportunity even earlier: 2024 research by Learfield and Wasserman valued football and men’s basketball patches together at roughly $500,000 to $12 million annually, depending on the school. The sales pitch preceded permission to put the product on the field.
Other schools moved quickly, too. Illinois reached a five-year, $30 million Busey Bank agreement. Notre Dame announced SoFi on July 28, the same day as Ohio State’s announcement, with a six-year agreement reportedly worth $18 million to $20 million annually. These packages include different rights, so treating them as price tags for identical patches would be misleading. However, they do show just how quickly schools found buyers for the newly available space.
Fans hoping to inspect Ohio State’s contract face another limit. The university denied The Columbus Dispatch’s records request, explaining that the agreement sits between Chase and Learfield, a private company. “Ohio State routinely provides the contract for our partnership with Learfield in response to public records requests,” a university spokesperson told Front Office Sports. The sponsorship’s precise terms remain private, while Ohio State’s financial reports make its need for recurring revenue easier to understand.
Paying Athletes Adds a Recurring Cost
The House settlement (resolving three antitrust cases) introduced revenue sharing in 2025-26, with a $20.5 million cap. Ohio State’s allocation included $18 million in direct payments and $2.5 million for additional scholarships. For 2026-27, the cap rises to roughly $21.3 million, and those scholarships no longer count against it. “We’ll max out,” Bjork told The Dispatch in February about the coming year’s distribution. Ohio State chooses the maximum while continuing to support 36 varsity sports.
Even a department with record revenue has to consider what remains after expenses. Ohio State reported $336.1 million in revenue and $320.4 million in expenses for fiscal 2025, leaving roughly $15.7 million more coming in than going out. Football and men’s basketball were the only sports whose revenue exceeded their sport-specific costs. Supporting the rest of the program gives a new sponsorship value beyond the football jersey where fans notice it first.
Bjork described his approach on Jan. 30, when Ohio State released its financial report, six months before announcing Chase. “While there will be continued challenges to our economic model, we will strive to be best in class by continuing to innovate and stay aggressive in generating new revenue streams while also managing our expenses as soundly as possible,” he said. Selling new sponsorship rights fits a strategy the department articulated well before this particular deal.
If you line up the numbers, the scale becomes pretty obvious. Nearly $17 million approaches the $21.3 million athlete-sharing allowance and exceeds the roughly $15.7 million difference between fiscal 2025 revenue and expenses. Ohio State has not said Chase directly funds athlete payments, and the reported sponsorship value is not a measure of net proceeds. Even with those qualifications, another recurring eight-figure revenue stream deserves attention inside a $336 million department.
Ohio State Sets Limits on the Logo
Ohio State has tested commercial boundaries before. Safelite reached the field-goal netting in 2014 and the playing surface in 2022. So, moving onto the jersey brings the sponsor closer to the team’s identity (and into view wherever the team plays). Once Ohio State agreed to sell the space, the remaining negotiation concerned how much of the bank’s appearance could come with it.
Football coach Ryan Day described his action at the July 28 announcement. “I do want to say, in full disclosure, that when I first heard about it, I knew the reputation of JPMorganChase and I was excited,” Day said. “But then I saw the logo, and I said, ‘Absolutely not, we’re not doing this.’ And then Ross said, ‘No, no, it’s not going to be blue, we’re going to do it in white.’ And I said, ‘OK.’ It’s a whole different deal, because that was absolutely not going to happen.”
The bank had boundaries of its own. "JPMorgan Chase has standards, too,” Bjork said. “Their logo cannot have any red, or scarlet, as we would say around here. So it was a two-way conversation.” The agreement permits white or black patches. Chase buys visibility, while Ohio State keeps a say in how the uniform looks. You can sell room on a Buckeye jersey and still argue over the paint.
Chase also brings local connections to its first college athletics partnership. The bank employs 18,000 people in central Ohio and hired more than 1,700 Ohio State graduates in the five years preceding the announcement. Those ties help explain the fit beyond the check (a national bank gains access to a national sports brand in a community where both have substantial roots).
As of September, the new market is clearly visible on both sidelines. When Ohio State hosted Illinois on Sept. 26, the Buckeyes wore Chase and the Illini wore Busey Bank. Eight months after the rule change, a Big Ten game doubled as a meeting between two banks. Fans could follow the football without thinking about sponsorship, but the new business was right there on both uniforms.
Safelite is on the field, Chase is on the jerseys, and Ohio Stadium still carries its historic name. Asked in 2022 about selling the stadium’s naming rights, then-athletic director Gene Smith left the possibility open, while saying no effort was underway. “In today’s world, the way costs are, we’ll evaluate that,” he said. “We dipped our toe with a great partner in Safelite with the field.”
