STARKVILLE, MS – September 27, 2025 – Power T helmet and Orange Nike jersey during the game between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Tennessee Volunteers at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, MS. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics
In the last month, we’ve seen two prominent athletic departments from the SEC announce historic partnership deals. Louisiana State University and the University of Arkansas have both announced partnerships that will see sponsorshop logos placed on all of their sports uniforms, beginning in the 2026-2027 athletic calendar.
LSU will be partnering with Woodside Energy for its uniform sponsorship, while Arkansas has struck a deal with Tyson Foods. Both companies will have their logos stitched on the uniforms of every team the athletic departments has to offer.
The question is less so if other programs will follow, but more so when we see the next announcement. In a world where every program is looking to increase its revenue to financially support its programs, the original move from LSU in February came as no surprise. Arkansas following up just a few weeks later was also no surprise, and sort of serves as a confirmation that this could be the next big trend across college athletics.
There are no reports on whether the University of Tennessee and AD Danny White are looking for a partner to put its logo on the Volunteers’ uniforms next season. But if they are, one prominent college football voice has made his prediction for the direction that Tennessee might go with it.
On3 Sports’ Andy Staples gave his prediction for one company that each power conference team could link up with in the near future. His guess for Tennessee was Pilot.
“Pilot already pays for its logo to be on Tennessee’s field, but the Haslam family hasn’t turned down many opportunities to financially support the Volunteers,” Staples writes. “Pilot founder Jim Haslam was a captain on Tennessee’s 1951 national title team.”
As Staples mentions, Pilot and the University of Tennessee have already announced a major multi-year partnership regarding the naming rights of Tennessee’s football stadium. The agreement saw that Neyland Stadium and Shields-Watkins Field would both keep their traditional and historic names, but that Pilot would be the stadium’s overall sponsor. The tagline of the Neyland Stadium renovation projection was, “Neyland Stadium. Home of the Vols. Proudly preserved by Pilot.”
Pilot’s on-field sponsorship logo at Neyland Stadium. Photo by Ryan Schumpert/Rocky Top Insider.
The partnership also designated Pilot as the official travel stop of Tennessee Athletics, and there is signage and branding pointing back to Pilot across the stadium. Pilot’s logo is also painted onto Tennessee’s field.
It would make all the sense in the world for Tennessee and Pilot to extend their partnership to the Vols’ uniforms in some way. Perhaps it will happen in the near future. As Woodside Energy did for LSU, though, it would be nice for Pilot to color match it’s logo to Tennessee’s uniforms. Tyson Foods and Arkansas didn’t have any problem with this because of the red nature of Tyson Foods’ logo, but Woodside Energy adopted a new purple-and-gold color scheme for the patch on the Tigers’ uniforms.
Another contender for a potential Tennessee uniform partnership is Food City, which partnered with the university on a 10-year arena naming rights deal for the former Thompson-Boling Arena back in the fall of 2023. The rebrand now refers to Tennessee Basketball’s playing venue as “Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.”
Here’s a look at what both LSU and Arkansas’s uniform sponsorships will look like, beginning in the 2026-2027 athletic year.
LSU Athletics
Photo via @LSUsports on X.
LSU Football’s Woodside Energy uniform patch. Photo via @LSUFootball on X.
Arkansas Athletics
Today, we’re proud to introduce a new partnership rooted in tradition, impact and the future of Razorback Athletics. 🐗
In collaboration with @TysonFoods , Razorback student-athletes will debut a new jersey
patch next season. Representing our shared commitment to Arkansas.
See… pic.twitter.com/w9joTzhpm2
— Arkansas Razorbacks 🐗 (@ArkRazorbacks) March 4, 2026
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