How a Utah Business Can Sponsor Local Sports Coverage

A Utah business that wants its name beside local sports can buy three different things. A school's athletics department, or the company holding its rights, sells sponsorship of the teams themselves. A media outlet can sell sponsorship of its coverage. And an athlete can sign a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal. Different people sell each one, and different rules govern each one.

This guide covers the second: sponsoring coverage. It points to the right place for the other two. It is general information, not legal advice, and the Federal Trade Commission guidance linked in the sources is the authority on disclosure.

What does it mean to sponsor sports coverage?

A coverage sponsorship pays a publication to put a business's name beside a defined piece of its work: one feature, a recurring series, or a weekly roundup. The business gets a credited place next to the reporting. It does not get to decide what the reporting says.

That second part is the point. The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics tells journalists to "distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two," and to "deny favored treatment to advertisers, sources, donors or other special interests." A sponsor's name beside credible coverage borrows that credibility. Coverage the sponsor could edit would have none left to lend.

How is that different from sponsoring a team?

Team sponsorships, the kind tied to a school's own games, venues and broadcasts, are sold by the school or a company that holds its multimedia rights. They are not sold by the outlets that cover the team.

• Utah State. Utah State Athletics extended its multimedia rights agreement with Learfield on Dec. 22, 2022, through 2033. The school said Learfield's Aggie Sports Properties team "will remain solely dedicated to Utah State." Interim athletics director Jerry Bovee said the extension would "more than double the financial benefits of the previous agreement."
• Utah. On July 10, 2026, Utah Athletics announced it had reached an agreement with JMI Sports "to conclude its multimedia rights partnership, clearing the way for the department to proceed in the creation of Crimson Brand Partners." JMI's partnership had begun in 2024-25 after a competitive bid. Utah's athletics site now lists Crimson Brand Partners staff, including partnership-marketing roles.

A school's name and logo belong to the school. Utah State's brand standards say that "any third party that wishes to use the university's logos, trademarks, images, or other indicia will require a license." Sponsoring a publication's coverage of the Aggies does not give a business the right to put the Aggies' logo in its own advertising. That needs the school's permission.

Where do athletes fit?

Paying an athlete to promote a product or service is an NIL deal, a third purchase with its own rules. College deals are reported to the College Sports Commission's NIL Go platform, Utah law bars some categories, and a business tied to the athlete's school gets a harder review. Our guide to local NIL deals for Salt Lake City businesses walks through each step, with the official sources.

A coverage sponsorship should not quietly include an athlete. If a campaign needs an athlete to appear, post or endorse, that is a separate agreement between the business and the athlete, made under those NIL rules.

How does the FTC say sponsored content should be labeled?

The FTC's guide to native advertising, published in December 2015, says: "An ad is deceptive if it promotes the benefits and attributes of goods and services, but is not readily identifiable to consumers as an ad."

For content that is advertising, the FTC lists "Ad," "Advertisement," "Paid Advertisement" and "Sponsored Advertising Content" as terms likely to be understood, and warns against "Promoted" or "Promoted Stories," which it calls "at best ambiguous."

The guide then addresses sponsor credits. It says that, "depending on the context," consumers "reasonably may interpret" phrases such as "Presented by [X]," "Brought to You by [X]," "Promoted by [X]" or "Sponsored by [X]" to mean "that a sponsoring advertiser funded or 'underwrote' but did not create or influence the content." Our reading for a coverage sponsor: a "presented by" credit describes a sponsor that paid for coverage it did not create or influence. If a sponsor writes or approves the content, a credit line no longer describes what happened, and the advertising labels above are the safer choice.

Social posts carry their own rules. The FTC's guidance for creators says a disclosure "should be placed with the endorsement message itself." It tells creators not to "assume that a platform's disclosure tool is good enough." In a video, "the disclosure should be in the video and not just in the description." That guidance is written for influencers, but the same logic suggests a sponsored Reel should name its sponsor on screen, not only in the caption.

When a person endorses a product, the Endorsement Guides apply. The FTC's FAQ on them says that if there's a connection between an endorser and the marketer "that a significant minority of consumers wouldn't expect and it would affect how they evaluate the endorsement, that connection should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously."

What should a coverage sponsorship spell out?

Put these in writing before anything runs:

• The exact pieces. Which feature, series or roundup the credit covers, how many pieces, and the dates.
• The credit. The wording, and where it appears on the site and in each social post. Use wording that matches what the sponsor did, with the FTC passage above in mind.
• The editorial line. The sponsor does not preview, approve or edit coverage. If the news turns against a team the sponsor likes, it is still reported.
• Logos. Whether any school marks appear, and who holds the license if they do.
• Athletes. That none are part of the deal, or that any athlete appearance is a separate NIL agreement.
• Reporting. What will be counted, from which tool, and for which dates. Page views, post reach and link clicks, each with a date range, tell a sponsor more than a follower total.
• Price and term. The fee, what it covers and when it ends.

How Beehive Athletes handles sponsorship

Beehive Athletes sells coverage sponsorships, so this section describes our own offer. We sell two formats. The first is a supported-by story package: one feature, one Instagram Reel and one carousel, with a disclosed credit. The second is a presented-by credit on a defined run of a recurring series. Sponsors never preview, approve or edit coverage. Every sponsored piece is labeled on the page and in the post. Nothing promises positive coverage, reach or sales, and athletes are not part of a sponsorship. Each run ends with a recap of what was published and how it performed. Details are on our Utah sports partnerships page.

Key facts:

• Three different purchases: a school sponsorship (from the athletics department or its rights holder), a coverage sponsorship (from a media outlet) and an athlete NIL deal (with the athlete).
• Utah State: sponsorships run through Learfield and Aggie Sports Properties under an agreement extended through 2033 (Dec. 22, 2022).
• Utah: announced on July 10, 2026, an agreement to conclude its JMI Sports multimedia rights partnership and create Crimson Brand Partners.
• School logos: Utah State requires a license for any third-party use of its marks.
• FTC labels: depending on the context, the FTC says consumers may read "Presented by" or "Sponsored by" as a sponsor that funded but did not create or influence content; for advertising it lists "Ad" and "Sponsored Advertising Content," and calls "Promoted" "at best ambiguous."
• Social posts: the disclosure goes with the message and, in video, in the video itself; a platform's tool alone may not be enough.
• Athlete deals: a separate NIL agreement, covered in our local NIL business guide.