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Before we dig into today’s story, I have an exciting announcement. We’re thrilled to welcome UTEP as another program now using the Extra Points Library.
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I’d like to temporarily take a step away from politicians and pending litigation to crack open the history books for some important #context on what’s going on today.
To do that, let me pass the mic. Today’s story comes from Jim Watkins, an assistant professor in the sport studies program at Mississippi State.
Of course the SEC tried to stop Lane Kiffin. Ever heard of Wally Butts?
by Jim Watkins
In 1893, the Georgia Tech football team’s roster included a somewhat unlikely star: 33-year-old graduate student Leonard Wood, who had been a surgeon in the United States Army and received a Medal of Honor for his efforts in the campaign to capture Geronimo.
In his dissertation about the early years of college football in the South, University of Mississippi history lecturer Matthew Bailey wrote about the drama Wood’s play sparked. He “enrolled in graduate classes to assist in the development of Georgia Tech’s team” and proceeded to lead it in an utter beat-down of Georgia, after which fans of the team in Athens reportedly pelted Tech players with sticks and rocks.
According to Bailey’s research, there was an immediate outcry from fans about Georgia Tech’s roster composition. (Wood wasn’t the only non-traditional student on the team.) An editorial in the Atlanta Constitution accused Georgia Tech of enrolling students who would never get their degrees, purportedly because they were only enrolled to play college football. Soon afterwards, Charles Herty, a professor at Georgia who also founded the school’s football team, met with representatives from several other schools and ultimately formed the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, or the SIAA. It was the first governing body to oversee college sport in the South’s history.
The SIAA grew and evolved in the decades that followed, and it at some point included nearly all of the teams in today’s SEC. Now, more than 130 years after Georgia Tech’s questionable recruiting had its moment in the spotlight, members of the conference began this season locked in a fight that doesn’t feel all that different. As Lane Kiffin’s LSU Tigers fought to give two roster spots to players who were previously on NFL preseason rosters, the SEC tried to enforce its prohibition on players who have signed professional contracts and its ban on intraconference transfers outside designated windows. The players sidestepped this with a preliminary injunction.
As a result, the SEC announced it had scheduled a vote on whether it would kick LSU out of the conference. Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) declared the idea “bone deep down to the marrow stupid.” LSU backed down and decided not to let either athlete play.
The SEC has never actually removed a school, despite a long history of player eligibility disputes. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t found other ways to drop the hammer on coaches looking to bend the rules.
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A bi-weekly look at the rapidly changing licensing landscape in college sports, as part of a paid sponsorship with Desert Cactus.
In 2024, Northern Arizona took alternate jerseys one step further when it unveiled an alternate identity: the Astrojacks. The Lumberjacks went cosmic, a tribute to Flagstaff's astronomical history, embracing a new name, logo, color scheme and storyline. The concept won awards and brought national media coverage to the program — and its success raises a key question every program should be able to answer before it embarks on a creative campaign: Are we working on a single novelty drop or a secondary brand that needs its own trademark registration, product roadmap and retail plan?
Maybe that seems like a lot of work. But any program looking at a campaign as a one-off is missing the bigger picture; commercial windows are brutally short. Launch a viral uniform, and you'll see a sales spike — for days, if you're lucky, and sometimes only for hours. Schools need to plan in advance so they don't miss the moment, with fast-track approval paths specifically carved out for special-edition releases. They should also try to build something bigger.
Consider one potential business model: scarcity. Tulane wore Mardi Gras-themed uniforms at its home opener Saturday against South Alabama, and it offered a limited run to fans, with jerseys retailing for $504 and helmets for more than $2,500. The items sold out almost immediately and generated nearly $300,000 for the Green Wave Talent Fund, an NIL vehicle. In this case, the "moment" jersey served as a fundraiser, and it worked.
There's also the opposite approach: low-cost, high-volume fan accessories (shirts, flags, sitckers, pom-poms) released for a a uniform moment. Penn State's "white out" game has led to sales of more than 30,000 t-shirts, plus all kinds of accessories to match the theme. There's a huge market, and it rewards licensees built to make fast, cheap, high-quality items.
Viral moments can work — but as the Astrojacks show, the schools that ace the assignment focus on continuity and keeping fans engaged. Tennessee's "Smokey Grey" alternate falls into that category, as the school brings it back across seasons, with a 2024 "Volunteer State" edition and a 2025 "Volunteer Spirit" tribute to the armed forces. "Smokey Grey" is part of the story of the Tennessee brand, and that consistency helps licensing partners plan in advance and lay a foundation that maximizes success.
Headquartered in the Chicago area, Desert Cactus is a fast-growing e-commerce company specializing in officially licensed and custom merchandise for more than 650 colleges and universities.
