An Analysis of University-Branded Beers in College Athletics: HowAgreements Between Athletics Departments and Craft Breweries Impact Beer Sales

Offered to the graduate school at West Virginia University as my dissertation in partial fulfillment of the Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) program, this paper analyzes the impact of craft beer related university sponsorships, branding, and advertising on intercollegiate athletics. College athletic departments are undergoing extreme economic changes associated with the legalization of name, image, and likeness (NIL) compensation for players, direct compensation of college athletes, and other judicial rulings. In response, athletic departments began pursuing new revenue streams and fundraising to support “NIL collectives" and enhance NIL opportunities and compensation for student-athletes. Licensing agreements allowing university branding with craft breweries to produce beers with university logos and trademarks, creating exclusivity agreements to offer its beer at the university's athletic games, and allowing the use of name for events, represents one such avenue.

The data include retail sales data from the Nielsen IQ system (NIQ), which is collected directly from craft breweries that have applicable agreements with universities, excise tax data from states that provide such information publicly, and metropolitan statistical area economic data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Estimates of linear regression models will determine if the signing of a university branding agreement increases on-premise and/or off-premise sales of those brands. An impact of branding agreements on on-premise or oG-premise sales could inform craft beverage business owners on how to approach these agreements and how they might impact their businesses. In practice, a statistically significant impact on on-premise sales without significant off-premise sales could encourage dialing back distribution efforts and focusing on sales in the taproom.