MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Even a rare losing season for the West Virginia football team and a second consecutive failure by men’s basketball to reach the NCAA tournament didn’t knock the Mountaineers out of the top 20 in licensing revenue.
The Collegiate Licensing Company, IMG’s licensing affiliate, revealed its top-selling college brands for 2013-14, and WVU finished 20th nationally. The company measures annual royalties generated from merchandise sales of apparel, games, blankets, novelties and other items bearing school logos.
“It’s a sense of pride and it speaks volumes for our fan base,” said Matt Wells, West Virginia’s assistant athletics director of marketing. “Mountaineer fans are loyal, regardless of the ebb and flow of wins and losses.”
Texas ranked No. 1 for the ninth consecutive year, and Alabama was No. 2 for the fifth straight time. Football national champion Florida State jumped 13 spots to No. 8.
The five-year trend for West Virginia’s ranking:
2013-14 |
20th |
2012-13 |
17th |
2011-12 |
17th |
2010-11 |
16th |
2009-10 |
13th |
Wells credited the university’s director of trademark licensing, Marsha Malone, and her staff for finding “ways to be creative and aggressive with marketing of WVU products.” The university’s licensing revenue frequently outpaces schools with larger enrollments in more populated states.
In an email Wednesday, Malone told MetroNews:
“We are very pleased that West Virginia University has been in the Collegiate Licensing Company’s top 20 list of colleges and universities for the past several years. Considering that CLC has approximately 160 colleges and universities as clients, it’s great to be within the top 15 percent. To be consistently ranked in CLC’s top 20 demonstrates the pride and loyalty Mountaineer Nation has for West Virginia University.”
Marshall ranked 68th, up four spots from the previous year.
Note that CLC partners with most, but not all, major-college programs. For instance, Ohio State handles licensing internally, and USC joined the 2011 launch of the Dallas Cowboys subsidiary Silver Star Merchandising.
Below are CLC’s top 75 revenue generators for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014:
