There has been a lot of talk on sports networks, radio stations, and blogs about the college sports conference realignment as of late. The catalyst to the conversation and controversy of the impact on business and revenue began when the University of Nebraska announced they would be leaving the Big XII for the Big Ten. This soon followed announcements by several other major programs jumping ship from their respective conferences looking to join something bigger and better.<\/p>\n
While we could spend hours talking about the implications this realignment has on the different universities revenues from television rights, there are some definitive winners and losers on the footwear and apparel front as well.<\/p>\n
It’s no secret that collegiate licensed apparel and goods is a multi-million dollar industry. ?We saw how important and cutthroat the business side of endorsement deals is with education institutions last fall. In detail, the conflict involving Marcus Jordan’s refusal to wear Adidas shoes though his school was officially outfitted by The Three Stripes comes to mind. Some brands stand to win and lose big with the imminent dissolution of the Big XII and schools jumping to different conferences and markets.<\/p>\n
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The University of Texas has been the top selling university license for the past five years and continues to top the list each quarter. ?With UT moving to a bigger and better stage in the “PAC-16” super conference, Nike will come along for the ride specifically on the teams jerseys and shoes. If the rumors do come true, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado will also be new members of the major conference endorsed by Nike. ?Up and down the west coast, Nike has dominated apparel contracts with top institutions currently outfitting nine of the ten PAC-10 teams (UCLA is currently with Adidas).<\/p>\n
Under Armor, a relatively new player to the college endorsement game, stands to make some big strides if all the chips fall where they are currently rumored to be played. Texas Tech, the 24th largest selling university license, became the first major Texas school to be outfitted by the sporting goods brand making a strong representation for the label on the football front. ?If Texas Tech joins the PAC-10, this will be Under Armor’s first school in the conference to wear their brand and potentially give the brand more exposure through the rumored TV network deal.<\/p>\n
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Nebraska, with a statewide population of less than 1.8 million and the 12th least populated state, is the 13th largest collegiate license in revenue generation. Nebraska is a key partner for Adidas, with loyal fans across the state. With Nebraska making the move to the Big Ten (which actually has had 11 teams for two decades), it will be the fifth team in the conference endorsed by Adidas. Don’t be surprised if Adidas begins to focus their efforts for advertising on the Big Ten Network with the conference having the greatest percentage of Adidas outfitted teams from any major conference.<\/p>\n
Though there are gains for Adidas with Nebraska making the move to the Big Ten, they will lose some ground with the uncertainty of Kansas. Rumors have swirled of the Big Ten expanding to 16 which may include the Jayhawks. In addition, the Mountain West Conference is attempting to invite the school into their party as well. Whatever the case may be, Kansas is a premier basketball partner for Adidas and currently the school is sitting on the sidelines. ?While the school may be fielding offers, it is without a doubt a concern at Adidas that one of their top basketball partners will still have major exposure in seasons to come.<\/p>\n
In the end, the conference realignment talk has been an interesting one for the past week, but something we as fans of college sports have known for quite a long time is that business has a major influence on the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There has been a lot of talk on sports networks, radio stations, and blogs about the college sports conference realignment…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[618],"tags":[],"cultivate_rss":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n