The company I work for (22 years in June) competes with –and partners with– a company called International Sports Properties (aka ISP). ISP has the rights to UCLA who plays in the second game of the Final Four semi-finals tonight. Which brings me to a story I found on the Winston-Salem Journal website. A well-done profile on ISP and the “elite-college multimedia-rights niche.” (Alternate link) I learned some things about collegiate sports marketing which is now, far and away, the largest part of our business. For example, corporate spending on college-athletics programs is expected to reach $458 million this year, up from $415 in 2005.

When I joined Learfield in 1984 we had the rights the Missouri and had just acquired the rights to Iowa State and…Kansas? Anyway, sports was a small piece of what we do. No longer.