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Judge the Jersey Sponsorship Patch LSU Will Wear Next Academic Year for Yourself

The Tigers gave fans a first look Monday morning.
LSU athletes will don a dreaded sponsored jersey patch next academic year.
LSU athletes will don a dreaded sponsored jersey patch next academic year. | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

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LSU’s uniforms are going corporate.

The Tigers have agreed to the first jersey-patch sponsorship deal in the history of college athletics, they announced Monday morning. The deal is with Woodside Energy, an Australian oil conglomerate that does billions of dollars’ worth of business in Louisiana.

“This partnership with Woodside Energy represents a monumental step forward for LSU Athletics and our student-athletes,” Tigers athletic director Verge Ausberry said in a statement. “LSU continues to set the standard and remains at the forefront of this new era of collegiate athletics, and we are excited to align athletic excellence with community impact through this historic collaboration.”

Here, via Wilson Alexander of the The Advocate, is how that will look in practice.

On the one hand, the patch is relatively unobtrusive, as the company’s colors have been altered to match the university’s. On the other—to say nothing of the rank commercialism it represents—college sports jerseys are already crowded with patches in general. Woodside Energy has SEC, Nike and American flag decor to contend with.

On the football field, the patch is scheduled to debut on Sept. 5 against Clemson, when coach Lane Kiffin takes the reins after six years at Ole Miss.


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Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .