If TCU football upsets Georgia on Monday, here’s where you can get your CFP champions gear

Brayden Garcia
Amanda McCoy/amccoy@star-telegram.com

A championship game is a conundrum for sellers of merchandise that capitalize on the winners. It’s a boon when the hometown team wins. But what if they lose?

For Academy Sports + Outdoors, who has 107 stores across Texas and another 20 in Georgia, the College Football Playoff National Championship matchup between No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 TCU at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, Jan. 9 is a textbook example of the problem.

Knowing TCU fans will want “Champions” gear as soon as their Horned Frogs hoist the trophy, the many Academy stores in North Texas have had to stock up on merchandise. In their Georgia locations, they have had to do the same.

In Fort Worth, the frenzy to secure TCU gear will be off the charts.

It’s understandable that TCU fans are excited. This is the Horned Frogs’ first ever appearance in the championship game since the College Football Playoff era began in 2014. The last time TCU won a national collegiate football title was back in 1938.

It has been a special season for TCU — from Max Duggan’s meteoric stardom to the thrilling humbling of the Michigan Wolverines in the Fiesta Bowl.

Horned Frogs merchandise has been flying off the shelves at the TCU campus bookstore in advance of the national title game.

If TCU loses to Georgia on Monday night, fans can expect pre-made “National Champions” gear to never see the light of day.

What happens to merchandise of losing team?

Academy stores will send back the “National Champions” merchandise to its vendors if TCU loses, said Tyler Sumrall, senior public relations specialist with the company.

Typically, for major sporting events and championships, merchandise vendors produce winning items for both teams so they’d have a product to sell immediately after the game. This means only one team’s merchandise will be widely available across local and online retailers. The other team’s merchandise will basically disappear.

“All we know is we send it back to the vendor, and what they do with [the merchandise] is up to their discretion,” Sumrall added.

Several Academy stores have already received stocks of the winning merchandise, with more gear on the way as the game draws close.

However, don’t look for the gear just yet, Sumrall said. The game has not been played.

For Academy, there’s only two options: If TCU win’s Monday night then stores will stay open late to sell championship gear both in-person and online. But if TCU loses to Georgia, then the Horned Frogs championship merchandise will be sent back to the vendor, Sumrall said.

Academy does not manufacture its merchandise, so the vendor has final say on the product, Sumrall said.

Store employees don’t know design of the merchandise

Employees won’t know what the TCU or Georgia championship gear looks like until after Monday’s game. Each team’s design is kept secret and Academy employees themselves won’t get a peek at the design until they’re laying out the gear on store shelves, Sumrall said.

Academy has 107 stores in Texas and 20 in Georgia, meaning that the same rules apply for stores in the Peach State. If TCU wins Monday night. When that happens, then Georgia stores will ship back their winning Bulldogs merchandise, Sumrall said.

The list of North Texas Academy stores that are planning to stay open late Monday are:

  • Fort Worth- 6101 Bryant Irvin Road

  • Burleson- 12700 South Freeway

  • Keller- 5836 North Tarrant Parkway

  • Weatherford- 326 W. Interstate 20 Frontage Road

  • White Settlement- 1701 South Cherry Lane

How long theses stores stay open will depend on the fans.

“[Stores will] stay open until the last customer served or until we run out of product,” Sumrall said. “It’s a really fun experience, we’ve done it for teams all over our footprint.”

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