Is Your College More of a Media Giant? 7 Shocking Ways They're Cashing In on Your Tuition!

As college sports continue to break viewership records, the entertainment ecosystem around them is rapidly expanding. Athletic departments across the United States are enhancing their creative capabilities, producing multimedia content aimed at attracting top-rated recruits, deep-pocketed donors, and new fans.

However, not all programs are created equal. A select few—most notably **Clemson University** and **Louisiana State University (LSU)**—are transforming their athletic department content teams into robust revenue generation hubs. This shift indicates a promising future where storytelling infrastructure becomes nearly as critical as physical facilities in college athletics.

Content can be disseminated and monetized 24/7 in ways that traditional assets, such as ticket sales and stadium sponsorships, cannot, making it a valuable asset for these institutions.

Clemson: Fully In-House

In 2023, Clemson University unveiled a 12,000-square-foot extension to its already expansive **Poe Indoor Practice Facility**. This new space, complete with two photo studios, two video studios, a podcast studio, and multiple editing bays, resembles a Hollywood production lot more than a college campus. This design aligns with Clemson's ambition to elevate its content creation.

The **Clemson Athletics Branding Institute**, or “The CAB,” is a manifestation of the university's commitment to content creation. **Kevin Richardson**, VP of content at **Clemson Ventures**, explains, “We look completely different than any other program, and that’s on purpose.” Launched in mid-2024, Clemson Ventures operates independently from the university's traditional governance, reporting to a chief executive and a board of directors.

In less than two years, Clemson Ventures has amassed a 900-hour content library featuring behind-the-scenes documentaries, athlete-centric original shows like “**House Call**,” and various sport-specific podcasts and branded series, including “**Clemson Versus presented by Gatorade**,” where college athletes engage in lighthearted challenges.

Richardson emphasizes the importance of content longevity: “Most content teams will make one piece of content, share it on social media, and then it kind of dies. It doesn’t really get repurposed again.” To combat this, Clemson has secured distribution agreements with **Gray Media**, **ACC Network**, and **ESPN** to extend the life cycle of its content. A recent licensing deal alone generated several million dollars in guaranteed advertising revenue for Clemson Ventures, in addition to licensing fees.

Clemson Ventures also acts as a full-scale production agency for individual **NIL** (Name, Image, Likeness) deals, allowing brands to collaborate with athletes directly on-site, generating additional revenue streams.

LSU: Bigger Studio, Bigger Stars

In contrast, LSU's content operations remain within the athletic department but are uniquely expansive. Known as “**The Brand**,” LSU’s creative unit employs approximately 60 full-time staff members alongside 90 part-time student interns and graduate assistants, focusing on various functions, including photography, video production, graphic design, and NIL services.

**Zach Greenwell**, LSU’s deputy athletic director for external affairs, describes their operation as a hybrid between a front office and a marketing agency, serving both the university's broader brand and its student athletes. The scale and specialization of The Brand rival those of professional sports franchises, allowing staff to focus on their strengths and provide individualized attention to athletes from the moment they join the program.

LSU has produced standout athletes like **Joe Burrow**, **Angel Reese**, **Flau’jae Johnson**, **Livvy Dunne**, and **Paul Skenes**, leveraging their individual brands to enhance LSU's overall valuation and revenue potential. Greenwell notes, “The LSU brand is already extremely strong, but the presence of individual athletes with their own brand power can exponentially increase our valuation and revenue-generating capabilities.”

Like Clemson, LSU monetizes its content through ad sales, broadcast distribution, and its own **streaming platform**, LSU+. While The Brand isn’t set up as a standalone profit center just yet, it significantly contributes to the university's extensive commercial portfolio, even playing a vital role in a multimillion-dollar partnership with **Woodside Energy** for jersey patches.

“College athletics didn’t change for decades, and now it seems to change every five minutes,” Greenwell states. “The power of brand, for both schools and athletes, is going to be more important than ever before.”

The Next Generation

As **Clemson** and **LSU** set the pace, other universities are also entering the fray with innovative setups. For example, in February, **Oregon** announced a new initiative, **@GoDucksW**, designed to highlight the achievements of women athletes. **Ian McFarland**, Oregon’s assistant athletic director of creative and digital media, noted, “We were looking at places like ESPN or Barstool that have a main brand account and then so many branches underneath it, and wanted to do something like that.”

Similarly, **UConn** recently partnered with digital media company **Overtime** to create a content studio on campus, where members of the women’s basketball team will produce branded content during **March Madness**.

Today's recruits arrive on campus as digital natives, often having already established personal brands online. This familiarity with media appearances and content creation is a standard part of their collegiate experience, akin to practice or attending classes.

“They really do love it,” says McFarland. “And they’ve gotten so good at it; they know how to pose, they know what to do.” While financial specifics regarding athlete compensation remain undisclosed, it's evident that they are increasingly benefiting from the funds generated by their appearances, whether through direct NIL payments or revenue-sharing agreements.

As these athletic departments continue to innovate, they remain cautious about content overload. “We don’t want to do stuff just to do stuff,” notes McFarland. “Even with revenue generation in mind, we’re going to keep asking ourselves, ‘Why are we doing this? Does this actually serve our audience?’”

For Richardson at Clemson Ventures, the answer is clear: “There’s only so many tickets you can sell, but content is infinite. Through it, we can create new fans every day.”