CLC licensing explained: what the Collegiate Licensing Company does for brands.

CLC licensing is how most brands get permission to put college names and logos on products. CLC stands for the Collegiate Licensing Company. It's the licensing agency that runs trademark programs for the largest share of schools, conferences and bowl games in college sports. It's part of Learfield, and brands work with it through a portal called Brand Manager 360.

The most important thing to understand is that CLC runs the process, but it doesn't own the marks and it doesn't make the final call. Each school decides who gets licensed and on what terms. CLC handles the application, onboarding, artwork queue and royalty collection around those decisions. This guide explains what CLC is and what it does and doesn't decide. For the application itself, step by step, see our CLC application guide.

The short version

1. CLC is the Collegiate Licensing Company, the largest college licensing agency, and part of Learfield.
2. Schools own their marks. CLC administers licensing for the schools that hire it.
3. You apply to CLC once as a company, but each school's licensing director approves you individually.
4. CLC runs the operating layer: Brand Manager 360, onboarding, insurance and factory paperwork, holograms, design submissions and royalty reporting.
5. Not every school uses CLC. Check who manages a school before you apply.
6. After approval, the work is ongoing: monthly royalty reports, approval for every design, and a separate request for every new school and channel.

What CLC is and who owns it

The Collegiate Licensing Company is a licensing agency. Schools hire it to run their trademark licensing programs. CLC represents more than 700 schools, conferences and bowl games, which makes it the biggest agent in college sports by a wide margin.

CLC is part of Learfield, which is why you'll see it written as "Learfield CLC" or "CLC (Learfield)." For a brand, the name on the paperwork matters less than the system you'll live in: Brand Manager 360, where you apply, request schools, submit artwork and file reports.

What "agency" means here

The school keeps ownership of its names, logos and marks. It also keeps the decisions that matter most to you: whether to license your brand, which product categories and sales channels it allows, and the royalty rate, advance and minimums it charges.

CLC provides the infrastructure. One company application, one portal, one reporting format and one set of onboarding requirements, shared across hundreds of schools.

That's the big advantage for brands. Once you're set up with CLC, adding a second or tenth school is a request, not a whole new application. The catch is that being set up with CLC doesn't license you for anything on its own.

CLC vs the schools: who actually says yes

This is where most brands get confused. Here's how the work splits.

What CLC handles

• The company application (Phase 1), where CLC reviews who you are, what you make, where it's made and how you'll sell it.
• Onboarding (Phase 2): insurance, holograms, factory disclosures and manufacturer agreements.
• Invoices and agreements once a school approves.
• The operating rules: report formats, deadlines, the hologram supplier and the request process for channels and schools.

What each school decides

• Whether to license your brand at all. The school's licensing director makes this call.
• Your categories and channels. You can only sell what's on your contract, where your contract allows.
• The money. Royalty rates, advances and minimums are set by each school.
• Its style guide and brand rules, which every design is checked against.

Licensing directors weigh the same questions almost every time. Is your product incremental, or will it eat existing licensees' sales? Is there real retail demand? Is your distribution focused? Is the product actually different? Will you protect the school's name and supply chain? Does the plan speak to this school?

A "no" to any of those is how most denials happen. Our guide to why college license applications get denied covers each one and the fix.

Why the split matters

• One school's yes doesn't carry to the next. Every school is its own decision.
• One undecided school can block onboarding. CLC won't move you through Phase 2 while a named school is still pending, so follow up instead of waiting.
• CLC can't overrule a school. If a school denies you, the path back runs through that school's director, usually after a waiting period of six months or more.

Which schools CLC represents, and how to check

CLC manages the largest share of college programs, but there's no single college licensing office. Other schools work with:

• Fanatics Licensing Management, through BrandComply CAMPUS, for a set of well-known programs.
• Affinity Licensing, for many mid-major programs and most Greek organizations.
• BrandComply College and Exemplar, for a smaller group of independent programs.
• Self-managed programs, where the school runs licensing itself, often by email with its own forms.

Check before you write a single line of a plan. Each agency has its own application, its own clocks and its own reporting calendar. The CLC process doesn't transfer to the others, and a CLC agreement doesn't cover a school managed elsewhere.

The fastest way to check is our directory of 690+ schools, which lists each school's license types and how to apply. Schools do change agencies, so confirm with the school's licensing office if anything looks out of date.

What CLC handles: applications, approvals, royalties and compliance

Here's what working with CLC actually involves, stage by stage.

Applications

You apply once as a company and name the schools you want. Your application moves forward when a first school approves you. After that, each new school is a New License Request in Brand Manager 360, with a written reason and a school-specific marketing plan.

Onboarding and compliance documents

After a school says yes, CLC moves you to Phase 2. Expect:

• A certificate of insurance and a separate additional insured endorsement, sent together. CLC expects occurrence-based coverage of $1,000,000 each for each occurrence, personal and advertising injury, and product liability, written as dollar figures, with CLC's exact additional-insured wording.
• A hologram order from CLC's designated supplier. Every licensed unit carries one.
• Supply-chain disclosures for every factory that will make licensed product.
• An Authorized Manufacturer Agreement (AMA) signed by each factory, on CLC's form.
• Fair Labor Association affiliation where a school requires it.

Then comes an invoice and an agreement to sign. CLC takes check, ACH or wire, not credit cards. A school's approval expires after 90 days if the paperwork isn't finished.

Channels and categories

Categories and sales channels are approved separately from the license. CLC uses one Distribution Channel Request per channel, and a distributor needs its own request. Ask only for the channels you'll actually use. Selecting every channel is a denial reason on its own.

Design approvals

Every design is submitted in Brand Manager 360 and approved before production. Even a small color correction gets resubmitted. A new school expects your first artwork within about 30 days of approval, and a denied design has a 10-day window to be resubmitted. Our product approval guide covers how to get designs through in fewer rounds.

Royalties and reporting

CLC royalty reports and payments are due monthly, by the 20th. Each royalty-bearing line needs the design's UPI (the unique product identifier from its approval), and each retailer needs a CLC retailer code. You use CLC's Excel template without changing the headers.

How CLC keeps the program honest

The reporting and the holograms do most of the policing. Sales in a channel that isn't on your contract show up as error lines on your report, so CLC sees them before you do. Missed reports lead to late fees, held artwork approvals or a lost license.

File a royalty report every month, even when you sold nothing. A missed zero report is one of the easiest ways to get artwork held or a license put at risk.

License types and what they mean for your brand

"A CLC license" usually means a standard trademark license, but schools offer several types, and not every school offers all of them:

• Standard trademark: the core license to put the school's names and logos on products, in the categories and channels you're approved for. Most brands start here.
• NIL: pairs the school's marks with current athletes' names, images and likenesses. The athletes' rights are secured separately, usually through a group licensing partner.
• Promotional and premium: for giveaways, corporate gifts and promotional items, not products sold at retail.
• Alumni and pro player: products featuring the school's former athletes, including players now in the pros.
• Specialty collections: separate approvals for specific marks and collections, such as vintage logos, anniversaries, campus collections and co-branded lines.
• Conference: conference marks and championship products, licensed across member schools.

The type you hold decides what you can design. A standard license doesn't automatically cover a vintage logo or an athlete's name. Each school's page in our directory lists the license types it offers.

What a CLC relationship looks like after approval

Getting approved is the start of the work, not the end. A running CLC program has a steady rhythm:

1. Monthly royalty reports and payments, by the 20th, every month.
2. Design submissions for every new product, colorway and correction.
3. New License Requests as you add schools. There's no application fee to add schools once you're set up. When a school approves, it invoices a royalty advance, and that advance comes back at every annual renewal.
4. Channel requests as you add retailers, marketplaces or distributors.
5. Annual renewals, where your sales record and reporting history become your case for continuing and expanding.

Across the industry, royalties commonly fall in the 8–18% range of wholesale, but each school sets its own rate and minimums. Read your agreement before you price a product.

The brands that grow cleanly with CLC keep tidy records, report on time and ask for expansion with real numbers in hand. A strong reporting history makes your next New License Request easier to approve.

When CLC isn't the right door

CLC is the right starting point for a lot of brands, but not all of them. Look elsewhere when:

• Your target school is managed by another agency or runs licensing itself. Apply through that program instead.
• You want Greek organizations. Most are handled by Affinity Licensing.
• You want pro leagues or entertainment properties. Those run through entirely different licensors and systems.
• You want current athletes on product. The school's marks may come through its licensing program, but the athletes' rights are secured separately.
• Your category is locked by an exclusive at the schools you want. Ask for a narrow lane, such as a direct-to-consumer-only license or a capsule, or choose an adjacent category.
• You're not ready yet. If you don't have occurrence-based insurance, a company code of conduct, or any proof of retail demand, fix those first. A denial usually means waiting six months or more to try again.

FAQ

What does CLC stand for?

CLC stands for the Collegiate Licensing Company. It's the licensing agency that runs trademark programs for the largest share of colleges, along with conferences and bowl games.

Is CLC part of Learfield?

Yes. CLC is part of Learfield, which is why you'll see it called Learfield CLC. Brands work with it through the Brand Manager 360 portal.

Does CLC approve my license, or the school?

Both play a role, but the school makes the call. CLC reviews your company application and runs onboarding, but each school's licensing director decides whether to license your brand and on what terms.

Which schools does CLC represent?

More than 700 schools, conferences and bowl games, though not every school. Some work with Fanatics Licensing Management, Affinity Licensing or other agencies, and some manage licensing themselves. Check a school's page in our directory before you apply.

Does it cost money to add schools through CLC?

There's no application fee to add schools once you're set up. When a school approves you, it invoices a royalty advance, and royalty rates and minimums are set by each school.

Does a CLC license cover schools managed by other agencies?

No. Each agency runs its own application, agreements and reporting. A CLC setup only covers the CLC schools that have approved you.

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CLC's rules, forms and deadlines change, and each school adds its own requirements, so check the latest guidance from CLC and your schools before relying on a specific detail. If you'd rather have a team run it, Onbase handles license acquisition from the first application to signed agreements, and runs submissions, royalty reports and compliance once you're licensed.