The cost of hatred: Upside down logos and abetting the enemy

I got an email this morning from a colleague asking whether OU fans, in their urge to display their hatred for all things Texas and Longhorn, aren’t actually aiding and abetting the enemy.

If you live in Oklahoma you’ve seen them: Cars and trucks decorated with upside-down magnetic Texas Longhorn logos. I’d imagine Sooner fans celebrating the Longhorns’ loss to Alabama in the BCS title game might want to break them out this weekend.

But before you rush out to buy one, consider this: the UT athletic department gets a cut.

Royalties from the sale of Texas athletic merchandise totaled $8 million in the most recent year, more than every other college for the fourth straight year. College Licensing Company, which represents the top 200 programs nationally, pays its members about 8.5 percent of the wholesale price of each product.

So say you’d like to put this Texas Longhorns Car Magnet Decal on the side of your F-150.  Say the $12.99 decal has a wholesale price of $8.00. Buy it and you’re contributing 64 cents to the richest athletic department in the nation. Buy this $4.99 decal from Balfour of Norman, and you’ve contributed to the local economy — and Austin’s to the tune of maybe a quarter.

See, hatred does have a price.

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