Louisville AD Tom Jurich said that the school has a "new sponsorship contract with Adidas" worth $160M over 10 years, according to Jeff Greer of the Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL. The deal "comes at a time when Louisville was nearing the end of its contract with Adidas." That agreement "ran through this coming school year, with a one-year extension option," and was worth $39M over five years (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 8/25). In Louisville, Eric Crawford notes the deal is the "fourth-largest in the history of college sports." UL's deal "would trail only" the UCLA-Under Armour deal (15 years, $280M), Ohio State-Nike deal (15 years, $252M) and Texas-Nike deal (15 years, $250M). Sources said that UL's new deal will be "completely in cash, with the school purchasing all gear from Adidas." How that "breaks down in a cash vs. apparel breakdown isn’t available." Jurich, who has "proven a shrewd negotiator in the past, positioned Louisville as a prime property for adidas, which has suffered the loss of some key properties -- most notably Michigan, Notre Dame, UCLA and Tennessee -- in the past three years." With this deal, UL would "become the flagship adidas property." Nebraska recently approved an 11-year, $128M deal, worth $64M in cash and $64.7M in apparel (WDRB.com, 8/25).
PUNCHING ABOVE THEIR WEIGHT: Also in Louisville, Tim Sullivan writes for a school "besieged by financial issues, the Adidas deal arrives like a last-reel cavalry charge with the fort under attack." Moreover, a school whose constituency is "largely confined to a handful of contiguous counties has closed a deal that compares favorably to universities with much larger footprints in far more populous places." Some of UL's "bonanza is a reflection of the recent boom in apparel rights." It is "difficult to dispute the broad success of Jurich’s stewardship, the first-rate facilities he has gotten built or the brand equity behind the Adidas deal" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 8/25).
