There’s a lot of noise right now around Kentucky’s relationship with JMI Sports, NIL, and how revenue sharing is going to work going forward. Rumors and anonymous sources are part of the landscape, but it’s worth separating that from what’s actually documented and on the record.
This is a facts-only look at what Kentucky and JMI have publicly said and signed. We will let you draw your own conclusions.
JMI has been Kentucky’s multimedia rights partner for more than a decade
JMI Sports became the multimedia rights partner for UK Athletics in 2014. That deal made JMI responsible for corporate sponsorships, marketing and a wide range of campus and athletics inventory, things like signage, naming rights and in-venue advertising.
In August 2025, Kentucky and JMI announced an extension of that partnership through 2040. The extension is estimated to be worth more than $465 million and stretches the agreement from its previous end date of 2034. It also shifted the financial model: roughly 80% of net revenue from the multimedia rights inventory now flows back to UK and its Champions Blue fundraising arm…