Patterson signed Learfield deal after procurement officials rejected sole-source rationale

MURRAY – Murray State University’s 10-year multimedia rights partnership with Learfield Communications was publicly hailed as a transformational deal for Racer athletics when it was announced in December. But records obtained by The Murray Sentinel show the deal moved forward after MSU’s own procurement office twice refused in writing to approve Learfield as a sole-source provider.

The refusals came months apart from two officials who led MSU’s procurement office: Beth Ward, then director of Procurement Services, in July and interim director Darcie Liddle in November. President Ron Patterson later signed the agreement and issued a memo justifying the sole-source designation with a claim attributed to procurement that is at odds with records MSU produced in response to multiple open records requests submitted by The Sentinel.

Records cited in this story come from three open records requests The Sentinel submitted to Murray State, including requests for 2025 Board of Regents meeting materials, contracts between the university and Learfield, and correspondence related to athletics contract procurement and the Learfield agreement from July 1 through Nov. 30, 2025.

The records raise a central question: whether Murray State was required to seek competitive bids before signing the Learfield agreement.

Under Kentucky's Model Procurement Code, public universities are generally required to solicit competitive bids for contracts above $100,000. A sole-source designation is an exception to that requirement – it allows a university to bypass the bidding process and award a contract directly to a single vendor. To qualify, the vendor must be the only known capable supplier of the goods or services in question.

Patterson took office as Murray State's president on July 1, 2025. Nine days later, he sent a memo to Ward laying out his case for a Learfield deal. The memo, written on Department of Athletics letterhead, argued that the proposed agreement was not subject to procurement procedures at all.

In the memo, Patterson maintained that the proposed Learfield agreement "does not involve a purchase of goods or services" and therefore "should not be subject to any procurement procedures." He offered sole-source paperwork only as a fallback, noting that if the university insisted the deal go through procurement, the attached documentation supported a sole-source exception.

Ward responded the following day with a formal interoffice memo that rejected both of Patterson's positions.

On the question of whether Kentucky's Model Procurement Code applied, Ward was unequivocal. While Learfield would not be paid in a traditional manner, she wrote, the company would be compensated through the proposed revenue share agreement – compensation dependent on the use of Murray State's assets that she estimated would well exceed the $100,000 annual threshold. She cited a similar arrangement with Risepoint, formerly known as Academic Partnerships, as precedent.

On the sole-source question, Ward concluded that Learfield did not meet the statutory definition. Under KRS 45A.095(1)(b), a sole-source designation requires that there be only one known capable supplier of a commodity or service. Ward named four competitors in the multimedia rights sales and management industry: JMI Sports, Playfly, Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment and Peak Sports Management – the last of which already had an active contract with the university.

"While Learfield may be the largest of these firms and have ownership of other entities who could provide benefit to the University,” Ward wrote, “those qualities may make them a preferred source, but do not meet the threshold as defined by statute as a sole source.”

Her recommendation: issue a request for proposals (RFP) through the university's normal bid process, timed to coincide with the expiration of MSU's existing contract with Peak Sports Management on May 31, 2026.

A few days later, Ward took her concerns a step further. In an email to both Patterson and general counsel Robert Miller, she reported that she had done additional research and found that two other Kentucky universities – Northern Kentucky University (NKU) and the University of Louisville – use Learfield, but in both instances the contracts were competitively bid.

The records produced in response to The Sentinel's open records requests contain no Learfield-related correspondence from August through October 2025. By the time the records pick up the thread again in early November, Ward had retired from Murray State, effective Oct. 15, and Darcie Liddle, a senior purchasing agent, had stepped in as interim director.

On the evening of Sunday, Nov. 2, Director of Athletics Nicholas “Nico” Yantko emailed Patterson and Miller with an attached draft letter of agreement for the Learfield deal. The draft was dated Oct. 15.

"This will be expanding our current partnership with Learfield," Yantko wrote, noting that MSU already worked with two Learfield subsidiaries – SIDEARM Sports, which manages the athletics website, and the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), which handles campuswide licensing.

Yantko also disclosed that MSU had already told Peak Sports Management it would not extend its contract, and that details around an early termination were being worked out with a target date of Dec. 1.

Miller responded the following morning with a revised version of the agreement.

On the morning of Friday, Nov. 7, Josh Brunner, a senior associate athletics director, emailed Liddle and Miller with a draft sole-source document for Learfield along with contracts from the University of Louisville and Western Kentucky University (WKU). He noted that the office was also working on obtaining a contract from NKU.

Liddle responded later that morning. She attached Ward's July 11 memo and told Brunner that Ward's departure had not changed the analysis.

"I understand this is a conversation that was conducted recently with Beth Ward," Liddle wrote. "Even though she may no longer be with the University, the reasons for why Learfield does not qualify as a sole source still exist."

Liddle also noted that Peak's contract remained in effect through May 31, 2026, and reiterated Ward's recommendation that an RFP be timed to coincide with its expiration.

After Brunner asked to speak by phone, Liddle sent a more detailed response that afternoon laying out her position plainly.

"Sole source means only one vendor can provide the item or service. There are multiple vendors in the MMR arena," she wrote. "In good conscience I cannot sign off on a sole source application."

She offered two paths forward, both involving a competitive bid process, and asked: "What seems to be the rush to get this in place?"

Brunner pushed back, arguing that Learfield's existing relationships with MSU through CLC and SIDEARM Sports justified at minimum a “single source” designation. Both CLC and SIDEARM are Learfield subsidiaries.

In response to a records request for Learfield contracts, MSU volunteered the CLC agreement – a product licensing contract covering branded merchandise with no connection to multimedia rights – but did not provide an agreement with SIDEARM.  

Liddle rejected the existing relationship argument, noting that other universities use SIDEARM with different multimedia rights vendors – citing Virginia Tech, the University of Georgia and the University of Kentucky as examples. She also pointed to a situation involving another vendor, Anthology, in which the university had been required to competitively bid a contract for a different software product from the same company.

"I am not saying we can't eventually set up a contract with Learfield," Liddle wrote, "but I am saying there is a correct way to accomplish this."

Miller, who was cc'd in email chain, responded that afternoon, saying he would be glad to attend a meeting on the issue. Later that day, Brunner sent a brief email saying the group was ready to move forward with a July 1 start date.

On Nov. 11, four days after Liddle's written refusal, and with no further communication from the procurement office, Patterson wrote a memo designating Learfield as a sole-source provider and signed the letter of agreement the same day.

Patterson cited a different legal authority than the one Ward had analyzed. Ward concluded the contract was subject to Kentucky's Model Procurement Code under KRS 45A. Under that framework, commodities, equipment or services available from a sole source require a written determination by the purchasing officer.

Another exception, for limited goods or services that cannot reasonably or practically be obtained through competitive sealed bidding, requires a determination by the “executive director of the Office of Material and Procurement Services,” according to 200 KAR 5:309. Ward and Liddle had refused to approve a sole-source designation.

Instead, Patterson cited KRS 164A.575(1)(h), a higher education statute that allows noncompetitive procurement for commodities, equipment and services which, "in the reasonable discretion of the board, are available from only one source."

The memo’s concluding language tracks the statute closely, stating that "the conditions of KRS 164A.575(1)(h) are met because, in the reasonable discretion of the board, the services described herein can only be obtained from one source."

The statute places that discretion with the board, and Murray State’s Board of Regents is the university’s governing board. The board's own Delegation of Authority, approved at its Aug. 29, 2025, meeting, reserves the approval of "major contractual agreements that affect the overall operation of the University" to the board.

Patterson signed the Learfield agreement on Nov. 11. The Board of Regents met in December, before Murray State publicly announced the partnership Dec. 22.

No Board of Regents vote on the Learfield agreement appears in any board meeting materials obtained by The Sentinel.

Patterson also referenced a memo from Yantko in support of a sole-source designation. No separate Yantko memo appears in any records produced in response to The Sentinel’s requests.

“According to Director Yantko, Learfield is the only company able to offer all of the following business lines to the University: merchandise licensing, website management and hosting, multimedia rights sales and management, ticket sales and service, stadium seatbacks, digital marketing, NIL services, and venue signage displays,” Patterson wrote. “By working with Learfield, the University is able to take advantage of collaboration, synergies, and best practices as well as proprietary business intelligence and data analytics programming the University cannot obtain from other companies.”

Patterson’s final justification for the sole-source designation is not supported by the records MSU produced to The Sentinel. His memo stated that “both Western Kentucky University and the University of Louisville previously designated Learfield as a sole-source provider of multi-media rights management per Murray State's Office of Procurement.”

The draft sole-source justification form attached to Brunner's Nov. 7 email states only that Learfield has "state agreements" with NKU and WKU – not that either university designated Learfield as a sole-source provider, and the document contains no mention of Louisville.

Ward, in her July 15 email to Patterson and Miller, reported that NKU and Louisville use Learfield but that in both instances the contracts were competitively bid – the opposite of a sole-source designation.

The Louisville contract Brunner submitted as supporting evidence is a 2014 agreement between the university and a Learfield subsidiary. It contains no language indicating a sole-source designation, and it was signed by the university's director of purchasing, indicating it went through that university's procurement office.

MSU produced the Louisville contract but withheld the WKU contract on the grounds that it was marked confidential and contained trade secrets. A contract from NKU, which Brunner indicated was being obtained, does not appear in any records produced in response to The Sentinel's requests.

Patterson's memo attributes the WKU and Louisville findings to "Murray State's Office of Procurement." Ward was director of Procurement Services during the July correspondence, and Liddle was serving as interim director in November. Neither made that finding. Instead, both rejected the sole-source rationale.

The signed agreement was not sent to Liddle's office until Nov. 17, when Miller forwarded it to her as a completed transaction.

The Sentinel asked the university to provide any documentation supporting Patterson's claim. No such documentation was provided, but Executive Director of Marketing and Communication Shawn Touney emailed a statement on behalf of the university.

"The justification for a sole source designation is based primarily on the vendor’s uniqueness and its ability to provide a connected suite of services," Touney wrote, adding, "Cross-campus communications occur in multiple ways including email, in person, and via phone."

The agreement Patterson signed in November runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2036. Learfield will pay MSU 60% of adjusted gross revenue above a property expense threshold of $550,000 in the first contract year, increasing 3% annually. Learfield retains the first $550,000 or more generated each year before MSU receives any revenue share.

If adjusted gross revenue exceeds $2 million in a contract year, MSU is entitled to the greater of either the revenue share percentage or a guaranteed rights fee beginning at $850,000 in year one and increasing incrementally through year six.

Learfield will make a one-time capital subsidy payment of $500,000 to MSU on July 15, 2026.

Under the agreement, MSU must provide free office space for no fewer than three Learfield staff members within or adjacent to the athletics department, including standard equipment, technology infrastructure and internet access at no cost to Learfield. If Learfield determines additional employees are necessary, MSU must provide additional space.

The pricing and packaging of all sponsorship inventory available to Learfield under the agreement is at the sole and absolute discretion of Learfield.

The Sentinel's reporting on Murray State University athletics is ongoing.