💸 Meet the College Team That Saved $668K By Ditching Their Uniforms

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It’s happening.

A few weeks ago, I issued a public call for help for a new series I was hoping to launch on YouTube, and I’ve just locked in the shoot for the first episode. More on that at the end.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: Meet the College Team That Saved $668K By Ditching Their Uniforms

📉 Biggest Loser: Behind the Fall of Under Armour: From No. 2 to Losing $1M per Month

🏆 Winner’s Circle: How a Former Eagle’s WR Plans to Change Officiating Forever

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🗞 The Big Story

One college football team just saved over half a million dollars in the most genius way possible, and it’s giving them an advantage that almost none of their opponents have.

NIL Disparity: By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard the stories of top programs like Ohio State and Texas spending upwards of $20 million in NIL to build their rosters, but what hasn’t gotten as much coverage is just how much less NIL money non-Power Four schools actually have to work with.

For example, last year, the total NIL funding for all nine teams in Conference USA was just $4.1 million, averaging less than $600,000 per school.

That’s why one of those programs had to get creative this year in an effort to double its NIL fund, and the result is one of the coolest college football stories I’ve heard this year.

Cutting Costs: See, for schools like Oregon, rolling out a new uniform combination every week is a drop in the bucket in terms of costs, but for a school like Middle Tennessee State, that total can add up fast, especially when they’ll likely only wear those uniforms once per season.

That’s why this year, the Blue Raiders' new GM decided to get rid of four helmet variations, limiting the team to just one game helmet and one practice helmet, saving the school $500,000 as well as cutting two uniform variations, which will save the school $84,000 each, for a total savings of $668,000.

Now, this change alone has more than doubled the school’s estimated NIL fund this year, but there’s a catch with this new infusion of cash: players have to earn it.

According to Front Office Sports, players can earn anywhere from $2,000-$4,000 every month by doing things like:

• Visiting the local farmers' market and meeting with vendors

• Appearing in local TV commercials

• Selling tickets to fans

As the school’s GM points out, this is what NIL was actually intended for. And even though the Blue Raiders finished just 3-9 last year, thanks to this new approach to paying players, they’re coming into the season with their best recruiting class in over a decade.

I wonder when other small schools will start to catch on?

📉 Biggest Loser

What the hell happened to Under Armour?

Just 10 years ago, it was the second most valuable sports apparel brand, behind only Nike; however, the company is now losing a million dollars every month.

Let’s dig in.

The Rise of Under Armour: Last week, I wrote about the impressive rise of Under Armour and its founder, Kevin Plank, who went from selling $17,000 worth of shirts out of his car to building a $200 million company in just 8 years.

In fact, by 2015, the company appeared to be unstoppable; it had endorsement deals with the MVPs of every major sports league:

• NFL: Cam Newton

• NBA: Steph Curry

• MLB (NL): Bryce Harper

• NHL: Carry Price

• PGA: Jordan Spieth

And had just completed its $710 million acquisition of three emerging tech companies:

• MapMyFitness ($150 million)

• Endomondo ($85 million)

• MyFitnessPal ($475 million)

See, at the time, Plank’s vision for Under Armour was simple: he wanted to create the best performance products in the world, which included a new Connected Fitness platform that he believed would transform the apparel company into an innovative tech company.

However, after peaking at a valuation of $20 billion in 2015, the cracks started to show, and it wouldn’t be long before the company took a nose-dive that they’re still recovering from today.

Sports Authority’s Bankruptcy: The first warning sign that Under Armour was in trouble came in 2016, when one of its largest retail partners, Sports Authority, filed for bankruptcy and closed all 450 of its stores. This was not only a huge blow to Under Armour’s sales, but it also meant that the market suddenly became flooded with discount products, damaging the company’s positioning as a premium brand.

But their problems didn’t stop there.

Because after spending over $700 million to acquire three different tech companies just a few years prior, Under Armour found itself struggling to monetize its 200 million users, causing it to post its first-ever quarterly loss as a public company in 2017, leading to layoffs, restructuring, and even Plank stepping down as CEO in 2019.

However, that didn’t even turn out to be the worst part.

Because not only was Under Armour now struggling to keep up with its massive costs after such quick expansion, but it had leaned so far into optimizing its gear for performance that it started to lag behind other brands in the area of style and cultural relevance, giving way to new, upstart brands like:

• Alo

• Lululemon

• Hoka

• On Cloud

Plank’s Return: That’s why, after cycling through five CEOs in five years, Plank returned to the company in 2024 with an attitude that can be summed up in one statement:

“We are simply doing too much stuff.”

However, with tariffs now threatening to cut the company’s already limited profits in half this year, and without a clear direction for what’s next, it seems that the once-iconic brand might have even further to fall.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

This former Eagles’ wide receiver might have just solved the biggest problem with NFL officiating, but not in the way you might think.

Jeremy Bloom: This is Jeremy Bloom, a 5th-round draft pick in 2006, who spent three years in the NFL, playing for the Eagles and the Steelers, before being cut in 2008. Now, if you’ve ever heard of Jeremy Bloom, it’s probably not for his time playing football, because before he was ever drafted, he was already:

• 1x world champion skier

• 2x Olympic skier

• 10x World Cup gold medalist

• National Ski Hall of Famer (2013)

And after a brief career on TV, Bloom became the CEO of the X Games in December 2024.

However, earlier this year, he launched a company with the co-founder of Google, which might end up being his most impressive accomplishment yet, and it has already captured the attention of the NFL, NBA, and almost every other major sports league.

Jeremy’s AI Startup: Even though most sports currently utilize some form of technology to help with officiating, this technology can usually only make objective, binary calls – such as whether the ball is past the first down line.

However, Jeremy’s new company, Owl AI, utilizes artificial intelligence to make more subjective judgment calls without the risk of human bias. In fact, his technology is already being tested at the X Games to score various events and has been shown to differ hardly from human judges.

And since his software is already analyzing every angle of the action, it’s also able to provide commentary in as many as 40 different languages simultaneously.

Now, Jeremy will be the first to tell you that his goal isn’t to replace human refs completely; instead, he wants to provide oversight where there might be a pattern of missed calls. A feature which has already caught the attention of leagues like the NFL, who Jeremy says could use his technology to help ensure that there’s no conflict of interest in a world where gambling is creeping into every aspect of major sports.

To read more about how Jeremy was already able to raise $11 million for a company with no formal pitch deck or business plan, check out Chris Smith’s piece in the Sports Business Journal.

⏱️ In Other News

• The price of 16 oz of beer at every NFL stadium

• RIP Ryen Russillo x Ringer

• NFL ads are 23x more effective than any other ad

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

In a few weeks, I’ll be spending the day as a member of a minor league grounds crew, but I need your help with the packaging:

Thanks in advance! 🤞🏻