Back in February, LSU lifted the lid on the jersey-patch sponsorship era of college athletics by inking a deal with Woodside Energy—an Australian oil conglomerate. With all due respect to Woodside Energy, however, it seems reasonable to guess that few Tigers fans have gone to Perth to buy oil in recent years.
The same cannot be said of Wisconsin’s new jersey patch sponsor.
Culver’s has agreed to place its insignia on the Badgers’ football, men’s basketball and men’s hockey jerseys, it announced Tuesday morning.
“There are few things more quintessentially Wisconsin than Culver’s. This partnership is a natural fit for our jersey sponsorship—it’s a beloved brand among Badgers and a longtime partner of Wisconsin athletics,” Badgers deputy athletic director Mitchell Pinta said in a statement.
Culver’s was founded—and is still headquartered—a stone’s throw from the University of Wisconsin
The fast-casual chain—extremely popular in the Midwest, and particularly in its home state and Illinois—was born in the village of Sauk City, about a 40-minute drive from Madison. The chain’s current headquarters are located in a nearby village, Prairie du Sac.
There are five Culver’s located within the Madison city limits in all, and any Badgers fan worth their salt will shower you with memories of post-victory Culver’s trips if asked.
To hear Wisconsin tell it, the Badgers need the money
“Chancellor [Jennifer] Mnookin and I are aligned on significantly elevating investment in our [football] program to compete at the highest level,” then-Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh told ESPN’s Pete Thamel in November. “We are willing to make an investment in infrastructure and staff. As important is our ability to retain and recruit players in a revenue share and NIL era.”
Both Mnookin and McIntosh have left the university since then, but the point stands. The commercial age has been a mixed bag for the Badgers’ flagship men’s sports teams.
In football, Wisconsin has yet to gain a foothold under coach Luke Fickell, who enters his fourth full season with a 17-21 record after going 57-18 at Cincinnati. Men’s basketball coach Greg Gard has fared significantly better, but the Badgers haven’t made it to the NCAA tournament’s second weekend since upsetting No. 1 seed and 2026 NBA champion Villanova to reach the 2017 Sweet 16. In men’s hockey, Wisconsin hasn’t won an NCAA tournament game since losing the national championship to Boston College in 2010.
Jersey patch sponsorships are inherently obnoxious, turning athletes into “walking advertisements” as the great Eduardo Galeano once wrote. However, if you’re going to add one—especially in the ostensibly more public-minded world of college sports—it’s best to bring in a business familiar to your fans.
As the Badgers’ press release noted, we’ll see the patches for the first time when Wisconsin opens its football season against Notre Dame on Sept. 6 (note here that some teams should stay far away from patches, and the Fighting Irish are one of them). Despite the blue-red color clash, if jersey patch sponsorships are indeed here to stay, let’s hope the Badgers’ move starts a trend.
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