In January, the NCAA approved commercial patches for uniforms, and the rule became effective in August. This summer, athletic departments ranging in size and success from Northwestern and Illinois to Ohio State and Notre Dame have reached sponsorship deals for jersey patches, and the deals have almost unanimously been for the entire athletic department, pooling all the sports together for the largest possible deal.
Florida State took a different tack with its jersey patch deals, the first (presumably) of which was announced in a university press release on Friday. Reliaquest, a Tampa-based cybersecurity firm founded by 2000 Florida State grad, Brian Murphy, will adorn the uniforms of FSU basketball beginning in the 2026-27 season.
Financial details of the agreement were not announced, but it will likely be a lucrative deal that helps Luke Loucks guide the Seminoles to ACC contention.
Reliaquest’s logo will not, however, adorn the Seminole football team’s uniforms when they take the field this fall. While this deal is a monumental win for Loucks, who has garnered legitimate momentum for the men’s basketball program as the heir to Leonard Hamilton, it’s another example of the dysfunction and the lack of outside belief in athletic director Michael Alford and Mike Norvell to turn around FSU football.
No jersey patch deal will set FSU football even further back
As if Florida State’s revenue-generating efforts weren’t already far enough behind college football’s power players, failing to land a jersey patch deal before this upcoming offseason would be disastrous. Reliquest was the obvious fit as a partner, but Murphy’s company has seemingly balked at a deal that was almost undoubtedly presented.
Rather than pooling the entire department together, FSU is now being forced to take a bespoke approach, which may maximize the upside for FSU basketball but is a negative for the department and its crown jewel program.
Maybe Ohio State and Notre Dame are wrong. Maybe there is more money to be made with a sport-by-sport approach. But forgive me for siding with those two departments and their athletic directors, Ross Bjork and Pete Bevacqua, over FSU and Alford. Alford has botched the NIL era at every turn, and while this appears to be another mistake, it’s more aptly described as a natural consequence of his mismanagement.
There is actually a chance that pooling assets together isn’t always the best way to get the biggest deal. The SEC and Big Ten are fighting hard for Congress not to allow the NCAA to do that. However, that’s because they’re operating from a position of strength, where their properties in that deal would be more enticing than the ACC's and the Big 12’s, so equitable distribution of those revenues could cost them.
Florida State football is not operating from a position of strength. Alford assured that by diverting the program's funds toward stadium renovations and a new football facility, just as the rest of the sport began spending money where it makes the biggest difference, on the roster itself. He made it worse with his belief that the revenue-sharing cap established in the House v. NCAA settlement would be strictly enforced. And that position will only be weakened as the rest of the sport adds jersey patch revenue to its financial war chests.
If the plan is to wait until Norvell is fired and a new coach is hired to sell the excitement of a new era with a jersey patch deal, it’s not a terrible one. But should the person who put FSU in this mess really be the one to try to clean it up?
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