JMI President Details Extension with UK and NIL Involvement

The News of the Week broke during Tuesday’s Champions Blue LLC. Board Meeting at Kroger Field when UK announced an extension with JMI Sports through 2040. Following the meeting, we heard Mitch Barnhart’s side of the story. On Thursday, we got JMI’s perspective on the situation.

JMI President Paul Archey spoke with Tom Leach, the play-by-play broadcaster for JMI, to answer a few basic questions about the arrangement, which should give fans a better idea of how the two entities will operate in the revenue-sharing era of college athletics.

JMI’s Role in NIL

Alarm bells started ringing in the heads of Kentucky fans when they learned that all NIL operations will be moving in-house as a part of JMI’s NIL Suite. Mark Pope built an impressive roster in conjunction with Club Blue. If it isn’t broke, why fix it?

Archey made it clear that JMI will have no part in roster management. The goal is to streamline the process in order to ensure Kentucky student-athletes strike the most lucrative deals in a timely manner.

“We’re not a general manager at all. We’re not involved in roster management or the recruitment of athletes, only just with the respect as it would relate to their NIL value and getting some NIL deals. It’s changed because the system has changed, starting with the House settlement and the new rules in place starting July 1, every deal over $600 has to pass through NIL Go,” said the JMI President.

“So we’re best positioned because of our relationships with brands. We have over 200 brand partnerships with the University of Kentucky. It’s turnkey for us in that respect. We’re best positioned to take advantage of what I like to call hot markets. You only have a limited amount of time as an athlete. You have a great performance, hit a home run to send you to the College World Series. Well, you’ve got five days until that hitter could also go 0-4. How do you take advantage? We have built-in partnerships to allow us to take advantage of those types of opportunities, but also the brand prominence of the University of Kentucky on a local and regional level.”

He added, “We have more long-term partnerships, the value of those partnerships, than any other school in the country, and that puts, in this rev-share model, very low risk on Kentucky.”

The most crucial aspect for this to succeed is that this rev-share model succeeds. NIL Collectives successfully filed suit to continue operations. Those collectives can still live in the “pay for play” world. The only way for that to change is for the House settlement to be codified by Congress, via the SCORE Act.

Why Extend an Agreement Through 2040?

Kentucky fans feel snake-bit by long-term contracts. That was the case for John Calipari until he made a move to Arkansas. Some football fans certainly feel that way about Mark Stoops’ enormous buyout. Unlike those deals, Archey believes this long-term deal is much more financially lucrative.

“Why is that a good idea? Because the way the deal is structured, we’re moving from a straight guaranteed agreement to a guarantee with revenue-share that is much more lucrative for the University of Kentucky athletics,” he said.

The projected $465 million figure that was floated around in press releases is only a projection for the totality of the deal. It does not include future assets that do not currently exist, like the proposed entertainment district on campus, which could also include a lucrative naming rights deal.

“That’s what’s great about this deal. It’s set up to keep Kentucky at the forefront of multimedia rights, sponsorships, (and) partnerships,” said Archey. “It doesn’t contemplate what has not been developed yet. Furthermore, if you believe college athletics is going to continue to grow, and you’re a big brand, which Kentucky is, they share in 80% of net revenues, which is a far greater percentage than the current deal.”