Inside the first college sports uniform sponsorship deal...at Grace College

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As of right this second, NCAA institutions cannot sell sponsorship deals on their actual uniforms. They can plaster billboards on every flat surface inside a stadium, and now they can throw corporate branding on the football field, but the uniforms themselves are brand-free zones.

But just because the NCAA says it can’t happen doesn’t mean it can’t happen in college sports.

The NAIA changed its bylaws back in April to allow schools to sell uniform sponsorships. It isn’t the first time the much smaller NAIA beat the NCAA to deregulation either…the NAIA allowed athlete NIL deals months before the NCAA.

Last week, we had the first school announcing a uniform sponsorship. Grace College, an NAIA school in Winona Lake, Indiana, announced a department-wide sponsorship deal with Zimmer Biomet. For the next three seasons, every single Grace College athletic uniform will have a little Zimmer Biomet logo on it.

Why Grace College? Why Zimmer Biomet? Is this a harbinger for things to come at the NAIA level, a one-off, or something else?

I’m going to be honest with all of you. Despite regularly writing about small colleges, and despite being a born and raised Midwesterner…I had never even heard of Grace College.

So I called their AD and hoped he could explain things to me.

To understand this particular deal, you first have to understand this part of Indiana

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