On Wednesday, Tennessee announced it will end its partnership with Nike at the conclusion of the current academic year and return to Adidas on July 1, 2026. The Vols wore the three stripes for their 1998 football national title and for five of their eight national titles in women's basketball, and Adidas offered an anticipated eight figures annually in cash and gear.
All that is well and good, but that's not why Tennessee is leaving Nike for Adidas.
"(NIL) was at the forefront of my mind," Tennessee AD Danny White told Yahoo.
In a first-of-its-kind deal, Adidas will explicitly work to create NIL deals for Volunteer athletes as part of this new 10-year agreement.
"The role of a college athletics sideline partner has changed dramatically in the 11 years since we last partnered with Tennessee Athletics," said Adidas VP Chris McGuire. "Adidas is establishing a new standard for investment in NIL with this partnership that will sustain UT's powerful athletics program as the university continues competing for championships for years to come."
Since the NIL era came into being in 2021, schools have worked to leverage their relationships into cash for their athletes. At first this was largely conducted at arm's length through collectives, but the passage of the House settlement to where now, all things being equal, an athletics department would rather facilitate a deal than run it through the collective. Many schools have now signed marketing agreements with their multimedia rights holders (think Learfield) to put their athletes in advertisements. Now, Tennessee has leveraged another key vendor into its attempt to stay one step ahead of the competition -- and on the right side of the NIL Go enforcement arm.
And as McGuire told Yahoo, Adidas now has a vested interest in making sure Tennessee keeps winning.
“The arms race was originally about facilities,” McGuire said. “Now it’s gone to rev-share and NIL. We want to make sure we provide opportunities to our partners that are competitive in the marketplace so they'll have competitive teams on the field.”
Adidas acknowledged it will be learning as it goes through the Tennessee deal but, if successful, it's expected that other programs will insist upon similar treatment from Adidas or their competitors. More than 20 Power 4 programs have apparel deals expiring within the next two years, according to Yahoo.