Michigan Football: Jersey deal with MDen is great for players, fans

What the MDen partnership with Michigan football players means for you as a fan. 

Have you ever walked into The MDen and wanted to buy your favorite Michigan football player’s jersey, but did not because their name was not on the back of it?

Well, now you will have the opportunity.

The MDen, the official merchandise retailer for Michigan Athletics, announced it is now selling custom individual jerseys for Michigan Football players with their name and numbers on the back. As a result of the new NIL rules, players now have the ability to make money off their name, image, and likeness. Per those rules, the university had to sign off on players using the official game jersey and logos for their own profit.

According to the deal, each player will receive the same amount per jersey sold and will be paid quarterly. If one player is more popular than another and sells more jerseys, he will make more money. However, each player will have the opportunity to make the same amount per jersey.

Michigan football players will also be trendsetters as they will be the first college football players to profit off the sale of their jerseys.

To this point, 50 players on the 2021 roster have signed deals and their jerseys are available for order. I would anticipate that J.J. McCarthy, Donovan Edwards, Aidan Hutchinson, and Daxton Hill will be among the most popular jerseys.

My first thought was about the former players that would have benefitted from a deal like this. In particular, Denard Robinson and Jabrill Peppers would have been rich by the time they left Ann Arbor if they were able to make money off the sale of their jerseys. This will also be a great recruiting pitch for Michigan.

While the university is not part of this deal, you have to imagine that Michigan’s coaches will use this in recruiting. Think about a player like Walter Nolen.

If he came to Michigan football and wore a not frequently worn jersey number like zero and played like the All-American he is expected to be in college, he would have one of the highest-selling jerseys. Andre Seldon currently wears zero so Nolen would have to talk to him if he wanted the number when he gets on campus.

While The MDen’s deal is only with Michigan football players right, I expect that they will have a similar deal for basketball players pretty soon. Hunter Dickinson, Eli Brooks, and Caleb Houstan would be among the highest-selling jerseys.