An "agreed-upon contract" between Univ. of Kansas athletics and Adidas "could still change" in the wake of the company's involvement in the college basketball corruption scandal, according to Jesse Newell of the K.C. STAR. KU Associate AD/Public Affairs Jim Marchiony on Thursday said that the school had "two considerations with the new Adidas contract as it stands now." The two parties have an "oral agreement, meaning details are still being finalized," and the "process of hashing out finer details can take weeks or even months." But this week’s revelations are a "second factor and could potentially add another hurdle." KU revealed last week that it had "agreed to a 12-year extension with Adidas." The new pact would provide $191M in "sponsorship and apparel." Marchiony added that KU has "remained in contact with Adidas." The scandal also has raised questions about the Adidas-Louisville deal (K.C. STAR, 9/29). In K.C., Gary Bedore notes Kansas basketball coach Bill Self on Thursday was "asked to address the serious topic of corruption in recruiting unearthed by the FBI." Self said, "It’s been a tough week for college basketball. It’s been a dark week there’s no question, but I’m not sure that it (won’t) trigger things that will make this better. It’s not going to be in the immediate future. ... I just hope the future’s soon as opposed to down the line." Self also said that "anybody in the sport or anybody who follows college basketball closely, 'knows that shoe companies and agents and financial guys are involved in the recruiting aspect to some extent because obviously shoe companies provide AAU programs shoes.'" Self: "You have too many third parties involved" (K.C. STAR, 9/29).
