Will Texas put sponsorships on uniforms? "Not a chance," Chris Del Conte says.
Inside Texas asked UT athletics director Chris Del Conte the question on everyone’s minds after the Texas Longhorns announced a partnership with Humann that will put its logo on DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, the Moody Center, UFCU Disch-Falk Field, and other playing surfaces for the Longhorns: was there any discussion in this process to add any advertiser or partnership to on-field uniforms?
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“Not a chance,” Sarkisian said. “That to me, and I want everyone to hear, that’s sacred ground.”
Del Conte and other figures involved with the partnership with Humann reiterated countless times that Texas was not actively seeking a partner for an on-field sponsorship. Del Conte over and over said that Humann’s backstory that has Nobel Prize-winning roots in the University of Texas System and the athletic department’s regular usage of their products were an important reason he changed his tune regarding on-field sponsors. His statements hinted at a belief that the partnership had an altruistic aspect to it considering the stated health benefits of Humann products.
But he understood why the question came and didn’t see a need to go to that level of corporate intrusion.
“That question’s been asked,” Del Conte said. “I’ve seen it in the NBA, I’ve seen it in the WNBA, I’ve seen it in soccer. That was never a discussion with me. We at the University of Texas have our partner in Nike. We never went down that path. It was strictly how do we tell this particular story. I think you saw people unlocking logos on fields, and that became this new wave of ‘oh we’ve got to do that.'”
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Del Conte also pushed back on the idea that this was just another funding avenue, whether for the athletic department or for NIL purposes. He highlighted it as an opportunity to display some of the scientific developments that have gone on at the university.
“In this ecosystem, I am fine,” Del Conte said. “We did not need this deal. I did not need this deal to make this work, to make this new era of college athletics work. When people are looking to go do this and say we need that to offset what NIL and revenue share looks like, that’s not what we needed. That’s not what we needed at the University of Texas.”
More updates and notes from Del Conte and other decision-makers can be found here.
