The five-year, $30 million deal between Illini athletics and Busey Bank does not include a logo on the Gies Memorial Stadium playing field or State Farm Center court.

July 27, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — Maybe one of Bret Bielema’s favorite sayings is the proper way to describe the future of private corporation sponsorships with University of Illinois athletics because Illini personnel could argue the best is yet to come.

At the Monday afternoon media conference inside the Smith Center announcing a five-year, $30 million deal with Busey Bank for a jersey patch logo and the placement of logos on the signage all around Illini playing facilities, Illinois athletics Josh Whitman confirmed in an answer to IlliniGuys.com that the Illinois home playing surfaces will not feature the blue and white Busy Bank logo.

Whitman said Monday he and other Illini athletics personnel would “hope to” be able to announce a playing surface logo sponsorship deal with another private company before the start of the fall athletics schedule begins this coming month.

The Busey Bank jersey patches are the first prominent corporate sponsorship deal at Illinois since the $60 million naming rights deal with State Farm Insurance for 30 years that started in April 2013 for the basketball arena, which was previously called Assembly Hall, as part of a major $165 million modernization and renovation project.

The NCAA’s Division I Cabinet, of which Whitman is currently the chairman, approved sponsorship patches for uniforms, equipment and apparel in January, with a limit of two patches on uniforms and one on equipment. The patches cannot be larger than four square inches. The NCAA legislation allows for university athletic departments to negotiate sponsorship agreements in three new areas: jersey patches, playing surfaces and playing equipment not related to the jersey itself (football helmets, protective equipment, baseball/softball catcher’s chest protector, basketball arm sleeves or headbands etc.).

“This is focused exclusively on the jersey patch. The playing surfaces will be addressed separately,” Whitman said. “We are working on (a playing surface logo sponsorship deal) as we speak…that would be a positive step for us but more to come on that in the future.”

By limiting the scope of this sponsorship deal with Busey Bank to jersey patches, a logo on the sideline apparel worn by Illinois coaches, including Bret Bielema, Brad Underwood and Shauna Green and signage on Illini athletics facilities, Whitman and the university athletics department personnel are able to diversify its pool of revenue instead of negotiating a larger sum to have Busey Bank occupy multiple money avenues.

Illinois is the third Big Ten Conference program that has announced a jersey patch sponsorship contract after the University of Wisconsin and Michigan State University agreed to deals with Culvers and MSU Federal Credit Union respectively. In the Wisconsin Badgers/Culvers sponsorship deal announced late last month, UW athletics agreed to have the blue and white Culvers logo not only as a patch on its athletics jerseys but also have the logo on its playing surfaces specifically at football’s Camp Randall Stadium and Kohl Center for basketball, hockey and volleyball. Michigan State’s deal with MSU Federal Credit Union did not include the MSUFCU logo at Spartan Stadium, Breslin Center or the Munn Ice Arena.

Earlier this spring, the University of Memphis formally announced a patch deal with their biggest corporate sponsor, FedEx. The University of South Florida also announced a patch deal with Tampa General Hospital. Wyoming also announced a deal with Tallgrass, an energy infrastructure company. Arkansas announced a further partnership with Tyson Foods and Louisiana State University confirmed a jersey patch deal was done with Woodside Energy, an Australian petroleum exploration and production company that has operated in offshore Louisiana for nearly two decades. Earlier this month, the Big 12 Conference announced a multi-year partnership with Monster Energy to make it the entitlement partner for regular-season football and basketball.

Despite Illinois splitting up its sponsorship opportunities in all three ways, Sports Business Journal college sports reporter Ben Portnoy referred to Illinois’ most recently announced deal with Busey Bank, which was brokered by Learfield, as “among the most significant in the country”.

Unlike the private donation by Illini booster Larry Gies in Sept. 2025 resulting in the name change to Gies Memorial Stadium, which was specifically earmarked for improvements to the stadium and other facilities upgrades, Whitman said Monday the $30 million from Busey Bank would go “toward the general fund”. This July 2026 answer from Whitman could easily be interpreted as Illinois finding additional pay-for-play revenue for its various team’s roster budgets throughout the five-year agreement.

The short nature of the five-year agreement with Busey Bank allows for the dollar figure to be renegotiated in 2031 as the financial market value further settles in regards to such sponsorship deals.

“Assuming things go as planned, I can’t think of a reason (a jersey patch deal with Illini athletics) wouldn’t continue (beyond the five-year agreement),” said Van Dukeman, chairman and chief executive officer of First Busey Corporation. “One of the things that was important to [Busey Bank], as I’m sure it was important for [Josh Whitman], was to be partnered with something that has a stellar reputation and, for us, the University of Illinois has that.”

In short, as the transactional nature of college athletics rosters becomes more and more prevalent, more logos and more money are coming to places Illini fans have never seen before.

“I would remind people that if you look back in time over the last several decades, there have already been corporate patches on jerseys. We’ve had a Nike swoosh on our jerseys for the last 30 years and nobody has thought a lot about that,” Whitman said. “We’ve had corporate sponsors incorporated into a patch on the uniforms with a bowl game when we’ve played in those. This, today, is probably just the next step in that continued evolution.”