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“When the University of Tennessee athletic department switched its apparel provider from Nike back to Adidas last summer, the biggest clue as to why was hidden within a sentence seven paragraphs into the university’s announcement.

Tennessee’s new 10-year partnership with Adidas, effective July 2026, “will offer unprecedented NIL opportunities for student-athletes across all 20 of the university's varsity programs,” according to the announcement.

In college athletics' name, image and likeness (NIL) era, these symbiotic relationships have a new twist: Power conference NCAA schools and apparel providers are negotiating contracts to include money earmarked for NIL, allowing schools to legally facilitate endorsement deals for athletes without exceeding revenue share limits.”

» Title. “Lucrative outfitter contracts between big-name sports apparel companies and college athletic departments are nothing new. Universities get discounts on product and the cachet of being associated with blue-chip brands; brands get to see their logos on television and build relationships with generations of loyal fans.”

» Reality Check. “The scope of what these relationships look like has changed,” said Chris McGuire, Adidas vice president of sports marketing for North America. Now, it’s about who can inject cash into NIL to secure more above-the-cap dollars for a program's athletes.”

» State of Play. “Pat Flynn, a former Under Armour and Learfield employee and founder of College Athletics Management, a company that consults with athletic departments and brands, predicted that this practice will become the new normal. “NIL has pumped new life into apparel deals,” Flynn said. “The apparel companies are getting smarter in the fact that, OK, now schools need us to help on the NIL side a lot more than all the apparel and cash we had to provide (to athletic departments) in the past. We can really serve a true purpose with NIL.”

» The Final Word. “How can we partner with them to assure that as they look at the talent needed for their rosters, we’re right there with them?” McGuire said. “And it reciprocates, right, because these are all tremendous athletes that we want to be associated with our brand.”

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