Forbes: Michigan-Nike is 4th most valuable NCAA apparel deal

Submitted by Communist Football on

Forbes just came out with its annual list of the most valuable college athletics apparel deals. Michigan's ranked fourth on the basis of the average annual value of the deal. The most interesting tidbit from the article is that the big deals to Michigan, Texas, OSU, et al have meant that there isn't much money left for big apparel deals for the second tier of schools and below:

"A few years ago, Adidas made some bold moves in paying Kansas, UCLA, and Michigan a lot of money to wrestle it from Nike," Jonathan Jensen, professor of sport administration at the University of North Carolina, explained. "The result from that was Nike being forced to fork over big bucks to get Ohio State and Texas to renew and Michigan to switch back." 

The fallout from Nike's counter to Adidas is that there isn't much money left for anyone else wearing the swoosh — and according to Jensen, Nike likely feels secure in their position. The schools that are outside of the pantheon of elite athletic programs, said an industry source who asked to remain anonymous, feel limited in their options for more cash, which many athletic departments desperately need.

Here are the top 5 (the article lists the top 20):

Rk / School / Contract / Annual value / CashProduct

1. UCLA 2017-32 $12.76 million $9.00 million $3.76 million

2. Louisville 2018-28 $10.96 million $7.90 million $3.06 million

3. Texas 2017-31 $9.76 million $7.50 million $2.26 million

4. Michigan 2016-31 $7.79 million $5.12 million $2.67 million

5. Notre Dame N/A $7.5 million N/A N/A N/A

OSU is 7th, Wisconsin 8th, Indiana 16th, and Maryland 17th. No other B1G schools in the top 20.

Communist Football

September 11th, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^

Forbes also put out its list for the most valuable football programs. Texas A&M is first, Texas second, Michigan third. Interesting tidbit from that article is that Alabama spends $16 million more than Michigan does on football or other things (presumably a lot of that is on its additional off-field analysts and staff, though it could be that Alabama depends on football for more of its university-wide budget): 

Michigan edges out Alabama for third on our list; both have averaged $127 million in football revenue over the three most recent years for which financial data is available, but the Wolverines come out ahead in our ranking thanks to greater profits in that time ($75 million to $59 million). Alabama actually ranks just tenth in team profit, since no other program comes close to matching the Crimson Tide in spending: Alabama football spends an average $68 million per year, a staggering 22% more than any other team in the nation. Ohio State rounds out the top five with $120 million in average annual football revenue.

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DairyQueen

September 11th, 2018 at 6:11 PM ^

Well #1 it's Texas, football is king there, and #2 they have a university "system", so their student population alone is nearly 70,000 students (thus, lots of student/family  rev, lots of donors, lots of monetary routes), also with the amount of oil money going down there, it's insane (fracking has re-blown up their economy), and donors like to grease pockets for future leverage/favors.

However. without looking more into the number crunching that would be my guess. 

Texas and TAMU also have the largest endowments of any public university by far. UT has a larger endowment than Stanford which is a private, which is insane.

UofT has basically 2.5x the endowment that Michigan ($11 Billion vs $26 Billion) has. Which is crazy considering their research expenditure is almost nothing, and UM's has been #2 in the country for the past 3 or so years.

They're basically stockpiling cash. Lol, our economy is so ubelievably broken.

Also for reference, here's a great perception reference to ponder:

People are so used to seeing "x-amount Million or Billion" (gallons, dollars, people, etc.) and thinking it's a lot either way. And it is. Think of 1 Million seconds vs 1 Billion seconds. 1 Million seconds breaks down to ~11 days, but 1 Billion seconds turns out to be ~31 years.

1VaBlue1

September 11th, 2018 at 11:17 AM ^

Huh??  OSU is literally #5!  Last time I studied math, the number 5 was still in the top 5 of all whole numbers.  Did Common Core change that?  I haven't studied math in a long time...

 

(LOL!! /s)

EDIT:  I looked at the most valuable team list posted earlier - so we looked at different lists.  You are correct, good sir!!!

FauxMo

September 11th, 2018 at 10:32 AM ^

Huh, UCLA and Louisville are first and second. That's weird, given that neither are stellar programs in football, but have a reputation for shenanigans in basketball recruiting. How...odd... 

MgoKY

September 11th, 2018 at 11:36 AM ^

Makes sense from an across the board standpoint...not sure, but believe it covers other sports like basketball, baseball, soccer, etc.  Baseball team is consistently near the top, and soccer just beat #2 Duke, I believe.   They need the $ if you look at how much they spend too...legal or not.  For a good read, just google the stuff going on in the AD, as I believe the IRS is beginning an audit.  

jblaze

September 11th, 2018 at 11:16 AM ^

Forbes' website is a disaster to read, but how is the cash value for UCLA so much less than the "Annual value"? I mean they are a similar sized school to the rest, so I'm assuming it's not just in free jerseys and equipment.

Also, we should have hired Louisville's AD, because whomever it is/ was that negotiated the contract is a boss.

UofM626

September 11th, 2018 at 1:21 PM ^

As much as I like that we are at Nike w Jordan, I feel like we got hosed a bit. We left a lot more money on the table from other apparel companies. 

Rumor was Under Armour coveted Michigan for years and offered 30% more in cash if I remember correctly. Also w what Adidas is doing w there branding I wonder if we should of stayed. Adidas clothes and shoes are amazing w what they are doing w there materials, I’ve seen ASU material up close a few times the last 2 years when I walk the facilities and have to say the product just seems better now. The Jordan brand is awesome but we will always play 2nd fiddle to NC, and now they have 3 other schools w Jordan as well so it’s not that special anymore imo.