Inside Nebraska Athletics’ relationship wtih Adidas

The German sports apparel company was making its first foray into college athletics — and landing a deal with Nebraska was as big as it gets. Since then, Adidas’ fortunes within the collegiate space have ebbed and flowed. Notre Dame, UCLA and Tennessee were three of the other marquee brands that partnered with Adidas later in the 1990s; all three have since moved to a new apparel sponsor.

Even amid decades of change and rising profits, the Nebraska Athletic Department’s partnership has persisted. The initial contract was for a five-year term and was eventually extended and revised through 2005.

The athletic director who signed off on the 2005 deal, Steve Pederson, was long gone by the time Nebraska extended the agreement in 2013. Tom Osborne might’ve negotiated the agreement, but Shawn Eichorst signed off on the five-year extension — only for Bill Moos to be in charge the next time the deal was altered.

The latest agreement between Nebraska and Adidas, an 11-year, $128 million sponsorship deal that began in 2017, is now over halfway to its completion. 

As NCAA revenues and the national collegiate landscape have changed significantly in the years since, how has Nebraska’s Adidas deal held up?

The financial value of Nebraska’s agreement with Adidas comes in many forms, namely its yearly sponsorship payments and the equipment and apparel that is distributed to teams. A marketing budget, fixed at $750,000 for the duration of the deal, is also a yearly fixture. A minimum yearly royalty payment of $500,000 is also provided by Adidas for its sales of apparel using the university’s logos.

Sponsorship agreements can be structured differently depending on the needs of each individual university, and Nebraska’s is unique. While many other schools opt to receive a portion of the overall financial package in a lump sum once the new contract begins, Nebraska’s agreement spreads out the total financial value over the duration of the contract and increases year-over-year.

Two of Adidas’ other prominent collegiate partners, Kansas and Louisville, took a different approach.

Louisville signed a 10-year, $160 million agreement in 2017, and that deal included yearly compensation of $10 million from 2018-21 before it dropped to $7 million per year from 2021-28.

As for Kansas, a 14-year, $196 million agreement signed in 2019 provided an influx of cash early on. Its yearly sponsorship payments came in at $12.6 million in 2020 and 2021 before dropping to $5.1 million in 2022 ahead of yearly incremental raises.

As the top Adidas brand in the Big Ten, Nebraska’s deal structure also differs from that of two major Nike-sponsored programs — Michigan and Ohio State. Echoing a similar agreement that Nike signed with Texas, Ohio State received $20 million of its funding up front, while Michigan opted for a $12 million payment. The Wolverines are a Jordan brand, though the company is owned by Nike.

Here’s how Nebraska’s deal stacks up financially:

The physical product that Adidas supplies Nebraska with each year includes uniforms, equipment, clothing, supplies and other essentials.

Broken down by sport and also including other aspects of the Nebraska Athletic Department, here are Adidas’ yearly product allotments for Nebraska obtained from a public records request:

Most sports’ yearly product allotments remained consistent over the three-year period, with a $13,000 increase to the softball team’s yearly allotment and $12,000 increases for soccer, bowling and rifle standing as the largest rises. Volleyball is the only sport to have its product allotment decrease, from $90,000 in 2022 to $80,000 over the next two years.

The vast majority of the year-to-year increases stipulated within the contract are contained within the “equipment” category. Adidas allocated $461,511 to the category during the 2022 fiscal year, rising to $743,511 in 2024.

Equipment costs only trail football ($1,840,000) as the largest expense, followed by a $420,000 yearly staff allotment. Baseball ($360,000), track and field ($315,000), men’s basketball ($207,000) and softball ($175,000) follow as the next-most expensive sports in terms of Adidas’ product allotment.

Nebraska is in a unique position as “an elite Adidas university program” as spelled out directly in its contract.

As for what that means? “Athletics is considered by Adidas to be in a ‘position of prominence’ within Adidas’ programs supporting intercollegiate athletics,” reads the immediate definition. The contract may be vague, but in practice, the benefit is that Nebraska’s year-to-year apparel changes are given higher priority than those of many other schools.

For example, Nebraska was one of 13 Adidas-sponsored schools whose logo and team colors were used to produce custom Adidas Ultraboost shoes. NU’s yearly alternate uniforms are another example of this relationship.

Unlike many other major collegiate programs, Nebraska’s current agreement with Adidas does not include incentive payments based on team performance. However, the previous contract which ran through 2017 did include such payments.

In 2015, Nebraska received a $10,000 payment for its men’s indoor track conference championship and a pair of $50,000 payments for national championship triumphs by the Nebraska bowling and volleyball teams that season, documents received via a public records request show.

The men’s track team hit two $10,000 performance incentives in 2016 by winning conference championships during both the indoor and outdoor seasons, while the NU volleyball team also reached a $10,000 incentive with its conference title. The Nebraska baseball team reached an NCAA tournament regional that season, also worth $10,000 via its Adidas contract.

Husker baseball again made an NCAA regional in 2017 to reach its $10,000 incentive, plus another $7,500 from its regular-season conference championship. Former Nebraska baseball coach Darin Erstad also reached a $20,000 performance payment by winning Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Once Nebraska’s new contract with Adidas kicked into effect, the performance incentives ceased. But what would it look like if such bonuses still existed for Nebraska? Kansas’ apparel deal with Adidas, which was updated recently in 2019, is good of an example as any.

In football, Kansas would reach a $25,000 incentive for winning national coach of the year, $75,000 for reaching the College Football Playoff and $100,000 for an undefeated regular season. Winning a conference championship or reaching a New Year’s Six bowl game would be worth $125,000 each, while potential playoff performances scale up. Kansas would earn $250,000 for a semifinal finish, $500,000 if it falls in the title game and $1,000,000 if the Jayhawks were to lift a national title.

Such a scenario is more likely for Kansas in men’s basketball, where a $1,000,000 incentive also exists for a national championship, $500,000 as national runner-up and $250,000 for a Final Four appearance. Kansas could also take home $150,000 with a conference championship, $100,000 for winning coach of the year or $75,000 for finishing as conference runner-up.

Adidas’ financial support of Nebraska athletics goes beyond just the required payments spelled out in its contract. Documents received from a public records request show several invoices over the last few years where Adidas’ marketing funds assisted Nebraska. Among the one-time payments were:

* $2,192.11 in November 2017 for the supplies and materials needed to construct a Nebraska football tifo (a choreographed fan display).

* $4,105.43 in November 2017 for flags used during the 1997 Nebraska football team’s reunion weekend.

* $40,000 in co-marketing funds used for the development of the light show app for the 2017-18 men’s basketball season.

* A $25,000 sponsorship of the catch a punt student promotion at Nebraska football’s 2018 spring game.

 * $15,000 in November 2018 for funding of the men’s basketball gear wall project.

* $50,000 in co-marketing funds to license the song “RK Huskers” by Tech N9ne.

 * $48,000 in co-marketing funds for Waka Flocka Flame’s performance at Husker Hoops opening night on Sept. 30, 2022.

* $25,000 in funding for the More is Possible rally, held Oct. 8, 2022.

* $8,409.61 in September 2022 to cover Nebraska’s expenses to send five athletes to the 2022 Ally Summit.

* $7,235.23 to cover Nebraska’s expenses in sending athletes to the 2023 Ally Summit.

As the national college football landscape changes with shifting conference allegiances, apparel deals have transformed too over the past decade.

According to a 2015 report by FootballScoop, Nike sponsored just over half of the nation’s FBS programs at the time. Its dominance of the collegiate apparel market was even more stark at the Power Five level, where 44 of the nation’s 64 power-conference programs were sponsored by Nike.

Nearly a decade later, Nike remains the major player nationally. Of the new Power Four conferences — the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC — Nike now controls over 70% of the market. 42 power-conference programs wear the Nike brand, while its Jordan Brand now sponsors a host of recognizable programs including Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma and UCLA.

Adidas is a distant second in terms of its pure numbers, though the company has little hold in the highly valuable SEC. Mississippi State and Texas A&M are its only brands within the conference.

Under Armour remains involved in the collegiate athletics space, though its efforts appear more likely to decrease than increase. The company notably ended several apparel agreements early, with UCLA and California among the affected schools. The 10-year, $100 million contract that Notre Dame signed with Under Armour last summer ensured the company still has a marquee brand, though.

Notre Dame’s deal being worth $10 million per year means the school is one of few to reach that lucrative yearly total. Kansas, Louisville, Michigan, Nebraska and Ohio State are the other programs nationally whose deals are known to be in a similar range.

Notably absent from the list is Alabama, perhaps the biggest brand in college football at the moment. The program’s apparel deal with Nike, signed in 2013, paid just over $5 million per season through 2025. Had its deal been up at the same time Nebraska’s was in 2017, Alabama might’ve inked a much more lucrative deal — but its extension was mistimed.

Any talks of an extension are likely still several years away with Nebraska’s Adidas deal running through 2028. As spelled out in its current agreement, Nebraska officials will meet with Adidas representatives early in 2027 to negotiate a renewal of its contract.

A three-month negotiating period provides Adidas with the first opportunity to keep hold of Nebraska. If the two parties have not entered into an agreement by the end of that period, Nebraska will be free to enter into negotiations and sign a deal with any other apparel competitor.

For now, Nebraska’s long-standing relationship with Adidas doesn’t appear to be changing.

“Adidas has supplied our student-athletes, coaches and staff with quality product and excellent support, and provided our fans with an outstanding variety of apparel options,” athletic director Trev Alberts said in a statement. “The relationship has helped enhance the Nebraska brand and made the ‘N’ recognizable across the country and around the world.”