Texas is the latest to school to sign a deal with Panini

Panini continued its blitz of signing exclusive deals with major universities on Wednesday when it announced it had inked a multi-year agreement with the University of Texas. Panini will be able to use the university’s trademarks and Longhorns logos in its trading card products starting in 2015. As part of the deal Panini will release a number of products that exclusively feature the University of Texas and its athletes.

“We are very happy to have The University of Texas join Panini as an exclusive partner. The Longhorns have such a great heritage and continue to produce top student-athletes that go on to very successful professional careers,” said Mark Warsop, Panini America CEO in a company press release. “We look forward to getting started and producing great products for Longhorns fans.”

“We underwent a thorough evaluation of the trading card category and it was clear that Panini was the best positioned to best represent The University of Texas and produce compelling Longhorns trading card products for our fans,” said Craig Westemeier, Associate Athletics Director at the University of Texas at Austin. “We are looking forward to a great partnership.”

Texas is the latest school to sign with Panini as the trading card company now holds the trading card rights to over 225 universities and colleges. These deals come at a time when Upper Deck is nearing the end of its deal with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), which holds the rights for several major schools including Notre Dame, Duke, North Carolina and Tennessee.