Texas A&M agrees to 15-year, $515 million multimedia rights partnership

Could have huge NIL, revenue sharing implications

With name, image and likeness (NIL) having taken hold of college athletics in recent years, and player revenue sharing appearing to be on the horizon, the money in college sports gets bigger seemingly by the day. That is especially true today for Texas A&M, as the athletic department announced a new multimedia rights deal with Playfly Sports that will pay A&M a total of $515 million over the next 15 years.

“We are entering a new era of collegiate athletics and Texas A&M is positioned to be a strong leader,” said Trev Alberts, Texas A&M Director of Athletics. “This partnership with Playfly reflects our commitment to innovation, maximizing our revenue potential, and providing new opportunities for our student-athletes, fans, and corporate partners. Our ability to find and grow, approved, fair market NIL deals to organically grow our cap will be critically important. With a focus on NIL, premium experiences, and strategic partnerships, we are excited about the transformative impact this collaboration will have on our programs, our university, and the entire Aggie Network.”

According to TexAgs’ Billy Liucci, this new deal nearly doubles A&M’s annual multimedia rights payout (previously with Learfield Sports), from $18 million to $34 million. It is the largest such deal in college athletics.

So you’re probably wondering, what exactly does a multimedia rights deal entail? For that, we turn to Matt Brown and his “Extra Points” newsletter:

“Multimedia rights aren’t broadcast rights and don’t typically have anything to do with broadcasting sporting events. It’s a catchall term for an athletic department’s sponsorship and advertising rights. That includes everything from radio rights to the signage around arena scoreboards, to licensing revenue, athletic department websites, and more.

Even for low-major schools, that represents a lot of potential inventory, in a variety of different categories. While many schools sell this inventory themselves, the majority of D-I schools work with third-party companies to help package and sell this stuff. You might have heard of some of these companies…JMI, Van Wagner, Playfly, and the largest, Learfield.”

Playfly has partnerships with 25 other college athletic programs, including Auburn, Baylor, LSU, Penn State, Maryland, Michigan State, Nebraska, USC, Virginia and Virginia Tech.

The bottom line is that starting in the 2025-26 academic year, it appears that athletic departments will be permitted to distribute up to $20.5 million directly to student athletes in the form of revenue sharing payments. This is thanks to an NCAA anti-trust settlement reached last year, which you can learn more about here. And according to Ross Dellenger, this deal may even create ways to exceed that $20.5 million cap.

College sports has been big business for a while now, but athletes are about to get the biggest piece of the pie they’ve ever gotten, and justifiably so. But that money has to come from somewhere. It’s why A&M athletics got a lot leaner staff-wise shortly after Trev Alberts took the helm less than a year ago. It’s why they ended 2024 with a $22.7 million surplus. And it’s why this deal is of massive importance for A&M going forward as they look to compete at the highest levels of college athletics.