Show Your School Spirit — Purchase a Gift Card or Reloadable Card Adorned with a University Logo

In a Nutshell: Ardent supporters of college athletics aren’t shy about displaying their fandom wherever they can. University Fancards offers gift cards and reloadable cards decorated with the colors and logos of college sports teams. You can use the company’s cards to practice financial responsibility. University Fancards also provides solutions to businesses to help them manage daily employee payments.  

If you follow sports, you probably know the extent that some people go to display their fandom. College sports fans show their allegiance to their favorite schools in various ways. Some fans travel across the country to watch their favorite teams compete and cheer them on.

Fans also donate money to their favorite schools to help them finance athletic operations and attract recruits to their school. And some college sports enthusiasts amass collectible items that display their favorite school’s logo or mascot.

University Fancards offers sports fans payment cards decorated with the colors and logos of colleges and universities. We spoke with Greg Boggs, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of University Fancards, to learn more about the company’s unique products.

Boggs, named to the Birmingham Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class of 2024, started University Fancards with his father in 2015. Boggs said that during a family dinner that year, he and his father, Lynn Boggs, argued about a new business venture Lynn was considering. 

Lynn’s idea was to brand gift cards with the logos of college sports teams. Greg reasoned with his father that the concept wouldn’t lead to a successful business.

“I thought that everything related to college sports and licensing had been done already,” Boggs told us. “You can buy ping pong paddles with Alabama’s logo on them or decorative acorns with Auburn’s logo on them. So we kind of had an argument about that.”

Greg Boggs spent the month following his initial discussion with Lynn about branded gift cards trying to convince his father that the idea wasn’t new, but his research proved otherwise.

“After looking into the issue further, I had to return to my dad and let him know that his idea truly was a new territory that no one had really touched on yet,” Boggs told us.

Convinced their idea had potential, Greg and Lynn Boggs met with representatives from the University of Alabama. The school informed them that they didn’t have any partnerships similar to the one the Boggses proposed.

Boggs told us the school was interested in pursuing a business relationship with the father-and-son team, and University Fancards was born. 

Over the next two years, University Fancards began meeting with other universities to share their ideas and form partnerships with them. The company also met with retailers to reach agreements allowing University Fancards to sell its gift cards in stores such as Dollar General, Target, and Walmart.

Boggs told us the regional attractiveness of the company’s gift cards made making inroads with big-box retailers challenging. 

For example, University Fancards had to convince companies with stores in multiple states to carry different gift cards in their stores in Tennessee than they would sell in their stores in the neighboring state of Alabama.

“Initially, there was a lot of hesitation for stores to do that,” Boggs told us. “It goes outside of what they would typically do. But, after a few years, we were able to convince stores that it would be a good move for them, and the cards started to really explode in the marketplace.”

The company has experienced a lot of growth during its relatively short life. In 2018, University Fancards sold approximately 30,000 gift cards in stores. In 2023, the retail sales of the company’s gift cards increased to 180,000 cards.

University Fancards sells reloadable cards through its website. The company’s reloadable cards are suited to consumers interested in engaging in healthy financial practices. Cardholders can’t overdraw the reloadable cards University Fancards offers, which prevents them from overspending and incurring overdraft fees.

“People with debt really need to cut up their credit cards and use some type of reloadable card,” Boggs told us. “It’s a great solution because you can’t overdraft with it, and it helps you control your spending.”

If you purchase reloadable cards from University Fancards, you can create up to five sub-cards in your account. Customers can elect to receive their sub-cards in digital or physical format. Boggs said cardholders can use their sub-cards to budget for monthly expenses by allocating specific dollar amounts to each card. 

“You can use one card for a certain expense, like groceries,” Boggs told us. “And once it’s out of money for the month, you know you’ve reached your budget for that expense. It actually becomes a very useful tool.”

In addition to helping consumers manage their budgets, the company’s cards help cardholders show their support for their favorite university. 

University Fancards offers cards that showcase teams from the country’s leading athletic conferences, including the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The company offers two designs for each of the 36 schools it partners with.

If you load your cards via direct deposit, you can win tickets to watch your favorite football and basketball teams live. University Fancards has given away more than 5,000 tickets through its Gameday Sweepstakes. 

“Having access to all these sports properties gives us the ability to give our cardholders back something in return,” Boggs told us. “And we’ve done unique things, too, where we’ve taken cardholders on tours of stadiums and given them special access to events.”

University Fancards offers custom gift cards to college football players participating in bowl games. The company partners with nine bowl games to provide players with gift cards as rewards for completing successful seasons. University Fancards also helps college football players participating in the sport’s annual playoffs access stipends via the company’s products.

Professional sports teams provide players with per diems to pay for their daily expenses, including meals. A team in Major League Baseball’s American League approached University Fancards for assistance in managing the per diems it offers to its players. The company helps professional sports organizations distribute per diems and report on the payments via its Benjamin solution, which it also provides to minor league baseball clubs.

“A lot of minor league players are living off these payments,” Boggs told us. “Their per diems are essential for them to be able to live while out on the road.”

University Fancards is a relatively small company. The company’s size enables it to be agile and meet the needs of various partners. Boggs said big banks may not be able to offer the same level of customization as University Fancards in their solutions. 

Organizations can use Benjamin to distribute bulk payments instantly. Benjamin’s use extends outside of the sports arena.

“We’ve been kind of realizing that the flexibility of the software to make instant bulk payments allows for endless use cases for many different types of companies,” Boggs told us. “We’re really excited about it — it’s a game changer for businesses.”

Boggs said the company’s software provides universities with reporting features that help them meet compliance requirements. He envisions schools being able to use the company’s reporting tools to provide financial education to student-athletes in the future.

Once University Fancards has enough data, it plans to present to schools how they can help student-athletes become financially healthy.

“Being able to use some of our transactional data to promote financial wellness is something we’re striving to do,” Boggs told us. “That’s something that’s been in the back of our minds for a long time — how to use this data to help people make better financial decisions.”