Inside the NIL hack funneling Nike, Adidas money to NCAA powers' athletes

NCAA Division 1 schools have found creative ways to funnel more NIL money to their athletes. Apparel companies are among their biggest partners.

When the University of Tennessee athletic department switched its apparel provider from Nike back to Adidas last summer, the biggest clue as to why was hidden within a sentence seven paragraphs into the university’s announcement.

Tennessee’s new 10-year partnership with Adidas, effective July 2026, “will offer unprecedented NIL opportunities for student-athletes across all 20 of the university's varsity programs,” according to the announcement.

Lucrative outfitter contracts between big-name sports apparel companies and college athletic departments are nothing new. Universities get discounts on product and the cachet of being associated with blue-chip brands; brands get to see their logos on television and build relationships with generations of loyal fans.

In college athletics' name, image and likeness (NIL) era, these symbiotic relationships have a new twist: Power conference NCAA schools and apparel providers are negotiating contracts to include money earmarked for NIL, allowing schools to legally facilitate endorsement deals for athletes without exceeding revenue share limits.

“The scope of what these relationships look like has changed,” said Chris McGuire, Adidas vice president of sports marketing for North America. “Initially, ‘the arms race,’ was all about facilities and how could the financing from apparel deals help them build better facilities to attract the recruits.”