Univ. of Michigan interim AD Jim Hackett during a Q&A session with students last night said that the process "of evaluating which brand of apparel Michigan’s teams will wear going forward is still in its early stages," according to Max Cohen of student newspaper The MICHIGAN DAILY. adidas currently outfits the school's athletic teams. Hackett: "We’ve organized -- this is a secret -- a project team to look at the question of, there’s really three players: Adidas, Under Armour and Nike." Cohen noted the school's athletic department "has sent out questionnaires to student-athletes, and Hackett has spent time calling athletic directors at other schools to gauge their thoughts." Hackett said that if Michigan "aims to switch from Adidas, it will have to do so by the end of the year" (MICHIGAN DAILY, 4/2). In Detroit, Mark Snyder reports UM, which has been with adidas since '07, is "now entering a unique window in the contract, able to re-up the contract with written confirmation for five years at the same terms by July 31, 2015." If not, the contract is "scheduled to expire on July 31, 2016." The contract also "stated that beginning Sept. 1, 2014, U-M had 90 days to meet with Adidas to 'negotiate in good faith the renewal.'" But because Hackett is "discussing this now, it's assumed nothing came of those discussions, if they occurred." The initial contract "was to pay Michigan" $3.8M but "had a 'most favored nation' clause that stated if Adidas contracted with another school above U-M, the company had to offer Michigan the same revised terms." UM was also to receive $2.2M "worth of Adidas products annually." The equipment and apparel allowance is "now reportedly" $4.4M (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 4/2).
