Notre Dame Adds Jersey Patches: Why It’s a Vital Next Step in College Sports

For the traditionalist doomsayers who are always searching for a sign that the End Times of College Sports are at hand, here’s a provocative update: Notre Dame will have a sponsored jersey patch in 2026–27. SoFi is stitching its name into Fighting Irish athletics, in every sport.

Now the bad news for the doomsday crowd: It’s all going to be O.K. Jersey patches aren’t going to ruin anything—not on the iconic Notre Dame uniforms, or anyone else’s.

The six-year deal, valued by industry experts in the nine-figure range, is the biggest announced in college sports history. This is not an apocalyptic development. Jersey patches and other sponsorship avenues are a good thing for athletes and a necessary thing for the athletic departments trying to compensate them.

Notre Dame jerseys in all sports will feature a SoFi patch in the 2026–27 academic year. | Courtesy of Notre Dame athletics

It’s not selling out. It’s leveling up to meet the demands of a modern system that has changed with breathtaking speed.

And Notre Dame happens to have a lot to sell, with minimal downside. The gold helmets will still shine in the sun. The blue home jerseys will still look sharp. The road white jerseys will still look clean. The gold pants will endure. So will the unadorned playing surface, as the school continues without on-field advertising.

“We wanted to do this in the Notre Dame style of doing things,” Fighting Irish athletic director Pete Bevacqua tells Sports Illustrated. “Think of the 2024 season [when the Irish advanced to the College Football Playoff title game], we had patches on our jerseys almost 25% of the time with all the bowl games. We’ve crossed that Rubicon.

“But this relationship with SoFi isn’t just a patch on the jersey. It’s about helping all our student-athletes.”

The online personal finance company has taken some aggressive swings in the sports marketing world, with naming rights to the palatial stadium in Los Angeles where the Rams and Chargers play, plus serving as the official banking partner to the NBA and USA Basketball. Notre Dame is another logical promotional partner.

If you want to go big in the jersey patch world, the teams playing in the shadow of the Golden Dome offer prime apparel real estate.

“As a brand themselves, they’re in a class of one,” SoFi CEO Anthony Noto tells SI, citing Notre Dame’s unique NBC broadcast agreement and nationwide fan base. “Their positioning gives them maximum national reach, with millions of unique viewers for every game.

“Our hope [with SoFi Stadium naming rights] was to be on the most ambitious stage in the world. Notre Dame has the most ambitious athletic department in the world. It’s a university I’ve admired my entire life.”

Noto, who was a standout linebacker at Army in the late 1980s and early ’90s, is also the father of several current and former college athletes. Bevacqua says the “purity of Notre Dame Stadium was very appealing to SoFi,” citing the lack of on-field advertising or other branding. The only commercial logos within the stadium are for NBC and its streaming service, Peacock.

In touting the SoFi deal, Bevacqua cites the company’s embrace of the school’s “4 For Forever” program, which supports athletes through education, community and professional development during and after their time in uniform.

“We love the fact that they bought into our commitment to an authentic student-athlete experience,” Bevacqua says. “It’s a commitment from Notre Dame to you for your lifetime. Part of that is financial literacy, and SoFi is going to be really invested in helping our student-athletes in that area.”

Another element of the SoFi commitment: a one-year, full-tuition scholarship for one male and one female walk-on athlete “who exemplify ambition, resilience, leadership and service.”

Among other prominent athletic departments with jersey patch deals: Ohio State (which Tuesday announced a whopper deal of its own with JPMorganChase), Arkansas, BYU, Illinois, Kansas, LSU, Michigan State, Oklahoma State and California. There are many more to come. It will not lead to your favorite team looking like a bunch of NASCAR drivers.

For college sports fans who like things the way they were, please remember: The courts have ruled the NCAA’s way of doing business illegal, over and over. That opened the door for the House v. NCAA settlement, which in turn led to universities being able to directly pay their athletes. As the unintended consequences continue to spool out from that landmark ruling, it has become increasingly clear that the settlement-mandated payouts undersold what schools (and their richest donors) are willing to pay.

A current salary cap of $21.3 million for an entire athletic department isn’t going to fully facilitate anyone chasing a CFP bid. The salaries have soared well beyond that, as programs race to keep pace with market demand for stars. Player retention costs are way up. Player acquisition costs are way up. The cost of signing freshmen is way up.

Asking the same group of donors to keep funding these outlays is a dangerous strategy—eventually, they run out of money they’re willing to part with, or patience, or both. So it’s incumbent upon every athletic department to assess all available revenue streams.

That includes corporate sponsorships, and part of that realm is the jersey patch. Notre Dame just landed the biggest one yet, one that helps the school remain on the leading edge of financial commitment to winning in football (and other sports).

Don’t freak out when the first video lands from Fighting Irish preseason practice, with the “SoFi” patches on the uniforms. Don’t freak out when the Irish run out onto Lambeau Field on Sept. 6 to play Wisconsin, or at the home opener six days later against Rice.

This is modern college athletics. It’s not a sign that all is lost. As Bevacqua said, the Rubicon has been crossed. Notre Dame is big enough and successful enough to have crossed it in a golden SoFi boat.

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