Fanatics & Topps will go back to school with college deal

All those college draft picks and NIL cards from Topps will have school names and logos beginning next year

Fanatics revealed on Thursday that it has "new broad-scale college physical and digital trading card deals" with more than 100 top schools and will have exclusive rights for several years with deals that "will include both exclusive and non-exclusive co-branded trading card products, incorporating official university trademarks and featuring current student-athletes and former athletes playing in the NFL, NBA and MLB." It's a three-year deal beginning in 2023.

"Fanatics has been closely monitoring the ever-evolving NIL landscape, and we felt this was the perfect time to launch multiple, strategic college trading card programs that will allow schools and current student-athletes to create new levels of direct engagement with fans across hundreds of the top programs nationwide," said Derek Eiler EVP of Fanatics College. "There are tremendous opportunities for this untapped area of the hobby and to expand further across the collegiate sports landscape."

Among the schools are Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon, Penn State, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Duke, North Carolina, Iowa and Syracuse for starters and there will be cards for current and former players. It also already has deals with nearly 200 players, including Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young (Alabama), Stetson Bennett (Georgia), Bo Nix (Oregon), Caleb Williams (USC) and basketball players Dereck Lively II (Duke) and Nick Smith Jr. (Arkansas). On the women's basketball side, it has signed Aliyah Boston (South Carolina).

"I’m so excited to team up with Fanatics and Topps on this new trading card partnership," Williams said in a prepared release, "which will allow me to create an even deeper level of engagement with fans and collectors everywhere."

Panini America had held exclusive Collegiate Licensing Company rights since 2015, while the CLC helped facilitate the new deal with most of the schools heading to Fanatics.

Previously, any cards from Topps (above) had the team logos removed and then more recently lacked college names, too.

“This collection is the first offering of officially licensed collegiate cards featuring current athlete NIL rights. We’re thrilled at the opportunity to launch these comprehensive programs that combine premier student-athletes and elite institutions to create a best-in-class collegiate trading card product for fans and collectors,” said Dave Leiner, Topps Global VP and GM.

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