Partnership Represents an Innovative Model to Maximize Revenue Generation and NIL Growth Opportunities for Illini Student-Athletes Leveraging Learfield Impact NIL Services
CHAMPAIGN, Ill.– The University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics and Learfield, the media and technology company powering college athletics, announced a long-term first-of-its-kind partnership today. The reimagined partnership embeds Learfield's sponsorship and Learfield Impact NIL services and staff directly into the Illinois Athletics Department, combining them into a single, cohesive team. The combination of these services and the tight integration of resources will drive sponsorship revenue and grow NIL opportunities for student-athletes during a pivotal time in college athletics. This partnership extends Illinois Athletics' 12-year relationship with Learfield through a multi-year agreement.
"There is a new era of college sports, and this is the perfect opportunity for us to reimagine our business with an innovative approach at a time when revenue and NIL services are paramount in our industry," said Josh Whitman, Director of Athletics at the University of Illinois. "This model gives us the experience, momentum, and expertise from Learfield with tightly integrated operations into our athletics department. This groundbreaking partnership positions us for success and will benefit our student-athletes and fans."
Tom Moreland, Illinois Athletics' Chief Commercial Officer, will oversee strategy and revenue generation for the integrated team. Rob Louthain will continue as General Manager driving sponsorships, revenue, real NIL opportunities for student-athletes, and brand partner activation. Learfield's dedicated, on-site staff will continue to grow sponsor partnerships, optimize local and regional sponsor opportunities, and drive revenue for Illinois Athletics.
"We are excited to reimagine a new partnership model with Josh and his talented team to help grow their business to address the rapidly evolving of landscape of college athletics," said Kim Damron, Learfield's President of Sports Properties. "This partnership allows us to closely collaborate and deliver revenue growth and next-level Learfield Impact NIL services in lockstep with the Illinois athletics department."
As part of the agreement, Illinois Athletics will leverage Learfield Impact, the industry-leading NIL services driven by people, content, and technology solutions. The partnership includes additional NIL business development leaders and a Learfield Studios content creator. These NIL experts along with Learfield's Compass NIL platform provide a powerful combination of NIL dealmaking, student-athlete storytelling, and integrated technology to maximize NIL opportunities for Illinois athletics and its student-athletes.
Illinois will continue to leverage Learfield's Fanbase, the largest data platform in college athletics. Illinois Athletics has over 2.3 million fan profiles in Fanbase, enabling it to learn fan insights, develop profiles to engage Illini fans, sell more tickets, and maximize brand partner opportunities. Fanbase also includes over 28 million fan records across the Big Ten conference, offering unmatched fan insights and benchmarking data. Additionally, Fanbase provides Illinois Athletics with the tools and opportunities to understand the value of sponsorship assets and provide real-time reporting of sponsor activation after each game on campus.
Illinois is the sixth most populated state in the country, and the Illini brand stretches from coast to coast. To continue to grow brand partnerships nationally, Illinois Athletics will continue to work with Learfield's corporate partnership team, which has relationships with the world's most prominent brands and agencies. This team will continue to bring global brands and next-level sponsorship opportunities to the athletics department, joining their long-successful partnerships with brands including Invesco, State Farm, and many more.
Illinois Athletics will also continue to take advantage of Learfield's digital marketing solution, Fan365, which will deliver brand partner messages to Illini fans every day of the year based on their affinities and interests. Illinois has achieved significant success with Fan365 digital campaigns to engage fans and elevate brand partner awareness.
To complement this collaborative model, Illinois Athletics will continue to tap into Learfield's enterprise-wide solutions, including CLC for licensed merchandise, Paciolan for ticketing and fundraising technology, SIDEARM Sports for its fan engagement platform, and Learfield Amplify for seating solutions. By combining these enterprise-wide solutions, Illinois Athletics generates more customer data, which fuels fan engagement and drives revenue growth. In the last three years, Illinois grew the number of new accounts through Paciolan ticket transfers by 400% and doubled its gross sales for licensed merchandise through CLC.
About Learfield
Learfield is the media and technology company powering college athletics. Through its digital and physical platforms, Learfield owns and leverages a deep data set and relationships in the industry to drive revenue, growth, brand awareness, and fan engagement for brands, sports, and entertainment properties. With ties to over 1,200 collegiate institutions and over 12,000 local and national brand partners, Learfield's presence in college sports and live events delivers influence and maximizes reach to target audiences. With solutions for a 365-day, 24/7 fan experience, Learfield enables schools and brands to connect with fans through licensed merchandise, game ticketing, donor identification for athletic programs, exclusive custom content, innovative marketing initiatives, NIL solutions, and advanced digital platforms. Since 2008, it has served as title sponsor for the acclaimed Learfield Directors' Cup, supporting athletic departments across all divisions.
About Illinois Athletics
A charter member of the Big Ten Conference and NCAA, the University of Illinois enjoys an illustrious history and tradition in intercollegiate athletics. Illinois supports 500 student-athletes competing in 21 sports at the varsity level. Illinois Athletics boasts the second-most conference championships of any Big Ten school with 261 all-time and has crowned 23 national championship teams. Fighting Illini Athletics has experienced widespread success under the direction of current Director of Athletics Josh Whitman, highlighted by Illinois Football's school-record tying 10-win season in 2024 and victory in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, and Illinois Men's Basketball standing as the winningest team in Big Ten play over the last six seasons and advancement to the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Illinois finished 31st in the recently concluded Learfield Directors' Cup race for the 2024-25 season, its highest finish in the last 10 years, while amassing 731.5 points across 15 sports, its highest point total since 2011-12.
