Texas A&M Athletics just broke the bank with record-shattering media rights deal
Texas A&M Athletics inks $515 million deal with Playfly Sports, notching largest media rights deal in college sports
Texas A&M Athletics isn’t playing around when it comes to finding revenue streams in the new era of college sports. The Aggies showed just how serious they are with this latest move.
Up until now, Texas A&M had had a lucrative media rights deal with Learfield, one that brought in $18mm per year. With that contract expiring this year, however, it was clear that there was a big opportunity— one that AD Trev Alberts just cashed in on big time.
You read that right, folks: the Aggies nearly just doubled their yearly income from their media rights deal. This, of course, is the in-house A&M deal, so it goes on top of what the Aggies are already getting from the SEC TV deal.
As opposed to the previous, 10-year deal, the Aggies have inked a 15-year agreement with Playfly. A significant piece here from the official announcement is that part of the “dynamic custom strategy” that Playfly will execute is “Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL)”.
This is a deal that will not only increase the NIL opportunities for A&M athletes— and the payouts to go along with those opportunities— but brand awareness and national standing of Texas A&M Athletics more generally. In other words, it’s a big deal. Literally!
This is a pretty seismic moment for Texas A&M Athletics. This is the kind of thing that can springboard them to the forefront of collegiate athletics in terms of revenue generation and overall stature. This is a great move by Trev Alberts and the entire athletic department, and one that will pay huge dividends headed into the future— in more ways than one.
