Ohio State's Massive JPMorgan Deal Hides in Plain Sight
Ohio State University's athletic department has secured an eight-figure annual sponsorship deal with JPMorgan Chase, worth nearly $17 million per year. The partnership, which includes a jersey patch sponsorship, was announced earlier this week but did not disclose the full terms of the agreement. According to ESPN, the nation's largest bank will pay Ohio State nearly $17 million per year as part of the partnership.
The announcement notes that the deal is structured as a partnership between JPMorgan and Learfield, a sports marketing company that handles corporate sponsorships for athletic departments across the country. Learfield maintains exclusive rights to sell sponsorships that include corporate patches on uniforms under its multimedia rights deal with Ohio State.
Ohio State has used this type of arrangement for other major sponsorship assets in the past, including a field sponsorship deal with Safelite at Ohio Stadium in 2022. The terms of that deal were not disclosed.
Sponsorship deals are a significant source of revenue for Ohio State's athletic department. According to its financial statement provided to the NCAA, the department reported $42.8 million in revenue from royalties, licensing, advertising, and sponsorships during the 2025 fiscal year. This is in addition to other major revenue streams such as ticket sales, contributions, and media rights.
The settlement of three antitrust cases last year allowed schools to begin directly sharing revenues with their athletes for the first time. Ohio State is due to disburse the maximum allowable amount of $21.3 million to football, men's and women's basketball, and women's volleyball players during the 2026-27 academic year.
Jersey patch sponsorships are becoming increasingly popular revenue sources for athletic departments in the near future, with three other Big Ten schools having announced deals this summer, including Illinois, Michigan State, and Wisconsin. The Chase logo will appear on the uniforms of all 36 varsity sports at Ohio State beginning this fall.