Ugh ... Learfield/IMG College too?

The hits keep coming for the California Golden Bears (and the UCLA Bruins). Just days after Under Armour has threatened to terminate their sponsorship deal with Cal, it appears that Learfield/IMG College is next in line with the Bears in their sights.

Multiple reports have told The Mercury News that Learfield/IMG College is expected to ask the Bears (and UCLA) to revise if not completely terminate their multi-million dollar sponsorship agreements as well.

Though we learned much more from the onset of the Under Armour news, with them being a publicly traded company and all, the news from Learfield/IMG College is a bit murkier. They’re a private company, and though they have had furloughs and salary cuts this year during coronavirus, little else is known about what is coming from them towards Cal.

What we do know, however, are the cash figures from the Learfield/IMG College and Cal deal, as reported by Hotline, ESPN and SportsBusiness Journal:

Annual Cash Payment w/ Learfield/IMG College: $8 million
Years Remaining on Learfield/IMG College deal: 7
Total cash left at stake: $56 million

Now that’s a big deal considering the long-term effects. The Under Armour deal, though being heavily conflicted by Cal’s Athletics Department, would leave another $24.5 million on the table over the next seven years. That’d be a total of over $80 million lost over the course of the next seven years.

For a school already slated to lose millions from last fiscal year, the fiscal year for 2020 into 2021 could look even more bleak. If the figures reported from the USAToday are also factored in, it’s looking like the fiscal year 2020 could return a loss of well over $35 million.

That is also including what would be a full football and full fall/winter/spring athletics season.

This is not good news.

But it is a developing story and we’ll continue to monitor it accordingly.