The Univ. of California has selected Under Armour to be its shoe and apparel provider as part of a lucrative 10-year term deal which will be announced Friday afternoon. Financial terms of the deal, which will begin July 1, 2017, were not available. However, sources indicated Cal’s new deal will be among the 10 richest in the country. The top apparel deal is Nike’s 15-year, $252M agreement with Ohio State; schools around 10th nationally make $4-5M annually in gear and cash combined. Cal’s previous deal with Nike paid around $2M annually in merchandise and cash. Nearly all of the value in the Nike deal is in equipment and apparel, while the new UA arrangement will have a larger cash component. The UA contract comes at a time when Cal is facing significant budget pressure across the university. The Cal athletic department finished with a $9M shortfall in fiscal '15 and the new revenue from the UA deal is expected to help offset that. Cal becomes UA's 34th D-I all-school partnership and the company's second school in the Pac-12, joining Utah.
