Iowa is at least willing to consider putting a sponsor on its uniforms.
That’s the clearest takeaway from Beth Goetz’s comments in July, after Ohio State Athletics announced a new partnership with JPMorganChase that made Chase the jersey patch partner for the Buckeyes’ 36 varsity programs. The deal also made Chase the official bank sponsor of Ohio State Athletics and, according to the announcement, brought in new resources to support student-athletes through NIL opportunities, boost competitive success and create academic partnerships across the university.
Ohio State football has already shown off what the Chase patch looks like on its uniform.
So could Iowa follow a similar path?
“Yeah, absolutely something that we’re exploring,” Goetz said in July. “Since that rule change, I think it’s really important that we take advantage of those opportunities to continue to generate revenue. I think our hope is, as we saw with the John Deere relationship, which is just a great partnership, great alignment, that we want to move forward in that direction, but want to make sure it aligns with a partner that’s going to share our values and lift our brand as we lift theirs.”
Iowa has already moved further into that space. In October, the school announced an extension with John Deere through the 2026 season, and that agreement included the company’s logo being added to Duke Slater Field at Kinnick Stadium. The updated branding was visible during Iowa’s final three home games of the 2025 season.
Goetz pointed to that partnership again in November, calling John Deere “just an incredible fit in terms of representing the state of Iowa.” She added, “We’ve got a lot of great sponsors, but I think that was just the perfect fit for us to launch on the field. So, we’re excited about that partnership and what else it might lead to.”
If Iowa does decide to add ads to jerseys, Goetz said the school has not settled on whether that would mean one company across all sports or different partners by sport.
“I think at the end of the day, that’s really just a business decision about who your partners might be,” Goetz said in July. “So we’re really open to looking at it in any way.
Obviously, we have some great sport brands that might be appealing to different sponsorships and sponsors and corporate engagements, depending on their personalities, so to speak. But we’ll see how the conversations play out.”
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