The IMG agency’s college sports division, IMG College, has agreed a 12-year multimedia and commercial partnership with West Virginia University in the US.
The agreement is designed to bring new national and corporate support and brand recognition to the university’s athletic program. It is effective with the 2013-14 academic year and is guaranteed to pay to WVU more than $80m (€61.5m) over 12 years, plus revenue-sharing opportunities over the length of the partnership.
The partnership includes management of local game broadcasts and coaches’ shows for radio and television. IMG will partner with West Virginia Media Holdings to develop television inventory, including coaches shows and other ancillary programming to be determined.
West Virginia is one of last major schools to handle multimedia and sponsorship sales in house. WVU joins several other Big 12 Conference schools which have partnerships with IMG College, including Baylor, Kansas, TCU and Texas.