Key Takeaways
- Huntington Bank announced two Texas sports partnerships in 11 days, pairing a 10-year University of Texas agreement with a statewide high school football campaign.
- The Dave Campbell’s Texas Sports campaign recognizes six schools per week and ends with a 64-school postseason bracket decided by fan voting.
- Huntington operates more than 1,400 branches across 21 states and says it has done business in Texas for nearly 20 years.
- Vertical Sports Advisory led category strategy, property evaluation and negotiations for Huntington on the high school football sponsorship.
Huntington Bank spent 11 days in late summer building a Texas sports portfolio from both ends of the age curve. On August 21, the bank announced a 10-year agreement making it the Official Bank Sponsor of University of Texas Athletics. On September 1, it announced a high school football sponsorship with Dave Campbell’s Texas Sports reaching communities across the state. Neither deal’s financial terms were disclosed. Taken together, they show a national brand treating school-age sport as a distribution channel into a market rather than as a philanthropic add-on.
Two Texas Announcements
The University of Texas agreement, announced August 21 from Austin, names Huntington the Official Bank Sponsor of UT Athletics across all sports and the Official Bank Sponsor of The Texas Exes, the university’s alumni association founded in 1885 with more than 120,000 members worldwide, according to the release. Longhorn Sports Properties, a division of Learfield, developed and manages the sponsorship.
Eleven days later, Dave Campbell’s Texas Sports named Huntington the presenting sponsor of its statewide Capital of Texas High School Football campaign, along with presenting sponsorship of Dave Campbell’s Friday Night Football, the outlet’s weekly coverage package built around one of the biggest Texas high school games of the week.
The company has been direct about why. “We couldn’t be more excited to be growing our presence in Texas, and there’s no better partner to be doing so with than the University of Texas,” said Huntington Chairman and CEO Steve Steinour in the August announcement. Brant Standridge, Huntington’s president of consumer and regional banking, described the approach in the same release as showing up locally, investing in relationships and supporting initiatives important to the state.
Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is a $284 billion asset regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, and a top 10 U.S. commercial bank, according to company materials. It was founded in 1866 and operates more than 1,400 branches in 21 states. The bank says it has operated in Texas for nearly 20 years and expanded its presence over the past year through partnerships with Veritex Community Bank and Cadence Bank.
What Does a High School Football Sponsorship Reach That a College Deal Cannot?
The two agreements do different jobs, and the difference is geographic.
The University of Texas package concentrates on one campus and one alumni base. It includes renaming Gate 8 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium as Huntington Bank Gate, season presenting sponsorship of Texas Volleyball, presenting sponsorship of the Texas Longhorns mobile app, presenting sponsorship of the new Longhorn City Limits Speakeasy, and marketing integrations for student-athletes, per the release.
The Dave Campbell’s campaign distributes across the state instead. Fans nominate their own school and hometown, six schools are selected each week through a combination of fan nominations and Dave Campbell’s editorial picks, and results are published across DCTX social platforms all season. Huntington will also join Dave Campbell’s for a season-long road tour visiting communities across Texas, highlighting local traditions and leadership.
That road tour is the part a broadcast package cannot replicate. It puts bank representatives in towns where a national brand has no existing relationship, using an occasion the community already cares about.
“Youth sports and specifically, Texas high school football, brings communities together in a way very few things do,” said Dale Song, CEO of Vertical Sports Advisory, which served as Huntington’s strategic advisor on the partnership. “Huntington wanted to be part of that in a genuine way, and there is no better partner in this state than Dave Campbell’s.”
Inside the Capital of Texas High School Football Campaign
The campaign runs on a two-phase structure designed to sustain attention across the full season.
Phase one is the weekly recognition cycle described above, which gives the program a fresh set of communities every week from kickoff through the end of the regular season. Phase two begins with the postseason, when a 64-school bracket featuring communities from across Texas is unveiled and fans vote through multiple rounds to determine which school earns the title of 2026 Capital of Texas High School Football.
“It’s the students, bands, cheerleaders, coaches, administrators, parents and generations of fans who make Friday night the heartbeat of communities across our state,” said Robel Melesse, Senior Director at Dave Campbell’s Texas Sports, in the announcement. “Partnering with Huntington Bank gives us the opportunity to celebrate that passion all season long.”
The rights holder brings scale to match. Dave Campbell’s produces more than 2,000 live-streamed games annually alongside studio shows, newsletters, podcasts, a live-scoring app and the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine, according to the company.
For Huntington, the format converts a sponsorship into participation. A nomination requires a fan to name their own school and town, and a bracket round requires them to come back and vote again.
The University of Texas Agreement Anchors the Statewide Play
The college deal supplies the credential the high school program then carries into local markets.
“The University of Texas is one of the state’s most iconic and trusted institutions, and together we can do more to support the people, communities and culture that make Texas such an important part of Huntington’s future,” Steinour said.
Chris Del Conte, vice president and Lois and Richard Folger Athletics Director at Texas, framed the agreement as strengthening the Longhorns network and creating new engagement opportunities across the fan base. Lucas Motta, vice president of Longhorn Sports Properties, said Huntington asked the property to think about how the sponsorship could improve the fan experience wherever fans consume Texas Athletics.
Huntington’s Texas leadership carries university ties that connect the two announcements. Vice Chairman Dan Rollins and Regional Group President Billy Braddock are both University of Texas alumni, according to the August release. Braddock is also the executive quoted in the Dave Campbell’s announcement, where he noted watching his two sons play high school football in Texas.
The bank has tied both deals to a single brand idea. “At Huntington, our brand promise begins with a simple word: Welcome,” said chief marketing officer Vijay Konduru. “Our sponsorship of Huntington Bank Gate brings that promise to life.”
Where the Road Tour Goes After the Gate Opens
For youth sports operators and rights holders, the useful detail is structural. Huntington did not treat high school football as a community relations line item running alongside the real sponsorship. It bought the property with dedicated advisory support, attached presenting sponsorship of a weekly editorial franchise, and committed to physical activation in communities across the season.
The University of Texas agreement runs 10 years. The Dave Campbell’s campaign runs one season, ending when fan voting closes on the 64-school bracket and one Texas town is named the 2026 Capital of Texas High School Football.
Source: Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, Texas Football Staff, September 1, 2026, https://www.texasfootball.com/article/2026/09/02/huntington-dctx
Source: Huntington Bank, August 21, 2026, https://ir.huntington.com/news-presentations/press-releases/detail/1012/university-of-texas-athletics-and-huntington-bank-announce-landmark-10-year-partnership
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Disclosure: YSBR founder Cameron Korab is a co-founder of Vertical Sports Advisory.
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How big is the youth sports market?
American families spend approximately $54 billion annually on kids’ sports and recreation, according to the YSBR and Kinetica Group Youth Sports TAM & Parent Spending Report, with organized sports alone representing a $40 billion-plus market. The average family spent $1,016 on a child’s primary sport in 2024, up 46 percent since 2019, per the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, and market research projects the global youth sports market will reach approximately $114 billion by 2032 (Business Research Insights).
How many kids play youth sports in the United States?
Approximately 27.3 million children ages 6 to 17, or about 54.6 percent, played organized sports in 2022-2023, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health as reported by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play. High school sports participation reached a record 8.26 million athletes in 2024-25, per the NFHS.
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Youth Sports Business Report was founded by Cameron Korab, a sports marketing veteran with more than a decade in the industry and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Korab also co-founded Vertical Sports, a sports marketing advisory serving brands across youth, college, and pro sports.
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Hosted by Cameron Korab, founder of Youth Sports Business Report, Jr. Sports Marketing features candid 1-on-1 conversations with the brands, athletes, leagues, and innovators building the future of youth sports. Each episode breaks down how the smartest brands are activating, building equity, and winning with youth sports families. If you’re an operator, founder, investor, or marketer trying to understand where this space is headed, this is your show.
Youth Sports Marketing Questions, Answered
Where can brands sponsor youth sports? Brands can sponsor youth sports through local leagues and clubs, tournaments and events, facilities and complexes, governing bodies, and national platform programs. Sponsoring a child’s own program is the most powerful entry point: 81 percent of parents say it captures their attention, outperforming TV, social media, and pro sports sponsorship, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study conducted by YouGov Sport.
How much does youth sports sponsorship cost? Youth sports sponsorship costs range from a few thousand dollars for a local league or team sponsorship to six and seven figures for regional facility naming rights and national platform programs. The environment is welcoming at every level: 84 percent of parents hold net positive sentiment toward brands sponsoring youth sports, with negative sentiment under 5 percent, per YouGov Sport research. Most brands start with a pilot activation, measure engagement, then scale.
What is the ROI of youth sports marketing? The data is striking: 80 percent of parents say they would choose the brand that sponsors their child’s youth sports program when comparing two similar products, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study by YouGov Sport. A 2026 EMARKETER and DICK’S Media survey found 84 percent of sports parents say that role influences their purchase decisions, and 60 percent spend more on game and practice days, driving loyalty across categories from dining to travel to automotive.
Ready to build a youth sports strategy? Vertical Sports is an Advisory+ delivering integrated expertise across all levels of sport. Youth, College, Pro. Every Fan, Every Level. Brands and youth sports organizations can reach the team at info@verticalsports.us.
