Miami athletics returns to Nike in record-setting deal

Sebastian Font
3 min read

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So b4 I post my thorough breakdown, here’s On3’s take:



OK, why is this a good thing for us? Obviously, the $$$ is important, but the notoriety and recruiting implications may be even bigger.

Oh—and I forgot to mention this earlier: remember those “upgraded” Adidas uniforms we’ve been getting? High school teams have them, too!! 😂 I literally blew a gasket standing on the field and seeing D1/P4-level uniforms being worn by high school kids. Wild.

Now, back to the point.

I’ve been warning for a while that Nike is positioning itself to become the premier NIL brand, and that was going to increasingly impact recruiting. Adidas athletes have already been going to Nike schools, while virtually every Nike NIL athlete has been landing at Nike schools. The lone major exception I’ve seen is Tyran Stokes going to Kansas.

Miami returning to Nike changes that equation.

1. Recruiting:​

This immediately opens the door to the elite Nike high schools—Mater Dei, East St. Louis, DeSoto, St. John Bosco, Santa Margarita, etc.

And this isn't just football -

It creates a major recruiting avenue for basketball because EYBL is, by far, the most influential AAU circuit in the country. The overwhelming majority of elite basketball prospects come through that circuit, and it’s Nike. Most of those players ultimately gravitate toward Nike/Jordan schools, with a handful going to traditional Adidas blue bloods.

Now Miami is back in that ecosystem.

2. The NIL Difference:​

This is probably the biggest part. Nike’s NIL infrastructure is on another level compared with Adidas and Under Armour. I’m not talking about a few commercials and free gear.

I personally know three current high-school Nike NIL athletes—one of them extremely well—and Nike gave all three their own shoe to design, customize and sell through Nike.com. All three sold out immediately, and the athletes received a portion of the profits.

Now imagine Miami being an official Nike Blue Ribbon program alongside schools such as South Carolina, LSU, Alabama, Georgia, USC, Oregon and Clemson.

That creates opportunities for our athletes to develop exclusive NIL relationships with Nike that can potentially extend into their professional careers, although obviously the terms and compensation change once they turn pro.

And for the record, this has nothing to do with Toney’s /// deal. That's separate, although his agreement may be year-to-year.

Guys like Sears and Lennear—and I was just with Lennear’s teammate last Friday—have Adidas NIL agreements that are strictly for high school. Once they reach college, they can renew, switch, or pursue something completely different. Think Chris Henry Jr.

3. The Miami Brand:​

This deal also means:
• More NIL opportunities
• Better recruiting access
• Better fan gear—both quantity AND quality
• A much stronger shoe/cleat presence
• Greater exposure through Nike/Jordan’s South Florida network
• And, yes, Nike will be redoing the IPF

With the number of South Florida influencers connected to Nike and Jordan Brand, our footwear presence could eventually start looking more like Oregon.

4. Nike's Elite Football Schools:​

In no particular order—and excluding Jordan Brand schools—I'd expect Nike's core priorities to include:
• Miami
• LSU
• Alabama
• Clemson
• Tennessee
• Ohio State
• Florida State
• Auburn
• South Carolina
• Oregon
• USC
• Kentucky

And PSU made this decision pretty easy for Nike.

Nike wasn't particularly concerned about Tennessee leaving. Penn State hurt. It's the first time I've seen Nike put out a farewell tweet like that for a school outside of the Tiger Woods situation—and Nike still refuses to rename his building!

Nike's original “Core 4” were Penn State, Miami, USC and Florida State.

-FSU got paid.

-USC got paid.

-PSU prematurely jumped ship because their AD was heavily Adidas-oriented.

At that point, I figured Miami was eventually coming home.

That's why I started chirping about it, until a certain poster confused my intel/corrections with me being a fanboy. 😂 So I backed off.

And I'll admit it: for a minute, it looked like I might be wrong. I fully expected us to re-sign with Adidas, but I repeatedly said it wasn't done—and explained why.

Did Adidas spent a ton of money on Penn State and Tennessee? Yes. Did Adidas also pursue Utah? Yes. And if I understand correctly, TAMU hasn't renewed either. (Something to keep an eye on especially w several high profiles TAMU players being Jordan/Nike athletes & TAMU having a separate Nike deal for T&F).

But Adidas made a fatal assumption: they thought Miami was theirs because of the relationships they had built in South Florida, including Miami-Dade and Inter Miami.

The problem? They didn't generate enough goodwill with Miami itself. For the last 4–5 years, we've finally started being treated like the brand we are.

From what I understand, Adidas did attempt to counter; but, once you're talking about $57M/year tied into three programs, the Nike offer was reportedly far beyond what Adidas could match.

And this is part of a broader trend I've been watching for years. I said several programs were going to flip back to Nike:

  1. Cincinnati — back with Jordan/Nike
  2. Cal — back with Nike
  3. UCLA — flipped to Jordan
  4. UTSA — flipped to Nike
  5. Rice — flipped to Nike
  6. Sacramento State — back with Nike (thanks, Mike Bibby)
  7. Auburn — flipped to Nike
  8. South Carolina — flipped to Nike (thanks, Ms. Wilson)
And now...

Miami is coming home. 🟠🟢

That's bigger than uniforms.



@Rellyrell

have one question, can or would we be able to be a part of the jumpman series with Nike?
 
So b4 I post my thorough breakdown, here’s On3’s take:



OK, why is this a good thing for us? Obviously, the $$$ is important, but the notoriety and recruiting implications may be even bigger.

Oh—and I forgot to mention this earlier: remember those “upgraded” Adidas uniforms we’ve been getting? High school teams have them, too!! 😂 I literally blew a gasket standing on the field and seeing D1/P4-level uniforms being worn by high school kids. Wild.

Now, back to the point.

I’ve been warning for a while that Nike is positioning itself to become the premier NIL brand, and that was going to increasingly impact recruiting. Adidas athletes have already been going to Nike schools, while virtually every Nike NIL athlete has been landing at Nike schools. The lone major exception I’ve seen is Tyran Stokes going to Kansas.

Miami returning to Nike changes that equation.

1. Recruiting:​

This immediately opens the door to the elite Nike high schools—Mater Dei, East St. Louis, DeSoto, St. John Bosco, Santa Margarita, etc.

And this isn't just football -

It creates a major recruiting avenue for basketball because EYBL is, by far, the most influential AAU circuit in the country. The overwhelming majority of elite basketball prospects come through that circuit, and it’s Nike. Most of those players ultimately gravitate toward Nike/Jordan schools, with a handful going to traditional Adidas blue bloods.

Now Miami is back in that ecosystem.

2. The NIL Difference:​

This is probably the biggest part. Nike’s NIL infrastructure is on another level compared with Adidas and Under Armour. I’m not talking about a few commercials and free gear.

I personally know three current high-school Nike NIL athletes—one of them extremely well—and Nike gave all three their own shoe to design, customize and sell through Nike.com. All three sold out immediately, and the athletes received a portion of the profits.

Now imagine Miami being an official Nike Blue Ribbon program alongside schools such as South Carolina, LSU, Alabama, Georgia, USC, Oregon and Clemson.

That creates opportunities for our athletes to develop exclusive NIL relationships with Nike that can potentially extend into their professional careers, although obviously the terms and compensation change once they turn pro.

And for the record, this has nothing to do with Toney’s /// deal. That's separate, although his agreement may be year-to-year.

Guys like Sears and Lennear—and I was just with Lennear’s teammate last Friday—have Adidas NIL agreements that are strictly for high school. Once they reach college, they can renew, switch, or pursue something completely different. Think Chris Henry Jr.

3. The Miami Brand:​

This deal also means:
• More NIL opportunities
• Better recruiting access
• Better fan gear—both quantity AND quality
• A much stronger shoe/cleat presence
• Greater exposure through Nike/Jordan’s South Florida network
• And, yes, Nike will be redoing the IPF

With the number of South Florida influencers connected to Nike and Jordan Brand, our footwear presence could eventually start looking more like Oregon.

4. Nike's Elite Football Schools:​

In no particular order—and excluding Jordan Brand schools—I'd expect Nike's core priorities to include:
• Miami
• LSU
• Alabama
• Clemson
• Tennessee
• Ohio State
• Florida State
• Auburn
• South Carolina
• Oregon
• USC
• Kentucky

And PSU made this decision pretty easy for Nike.

Nike wasn't particularly concerned about Tennessee leaving. Penn State hurt. It's the first time I've seen Nike put out a farewell tweet like that for a school outside of the Tiger Woods situation—and Nike still refuses to rename his building!

Nike's original “Core 4” were Penn State, Miami, USC and Florida State.

-FSU got paid.

-USC got paid.

-PSU prematurely jumped ship because their AD was heavily Adidas-oriented.

At that point, I figured Miami was eventually coming home.

That's why I started chirping about it, until a certain poster confused my intel/corrections with me being a fanboy. 😂 So I backed off.

And I'll admit it: for a minute, it looked like I might be wrong. I fully expected us to re-sign with Adidas, but I repeatedly said it wasn't done—and explained why.

Did Adidas spent a ton of money on Penn State and Tennessee? Yes. Did Adidas also pursue Utah? Yes. And if I understand correctly, TAMU hasn't renewed either. (Something to keep an eye on especially w several high profiles TAMU players being Jordan/Nike athletes & TAMU having a separate Nike deal for T&F).

But Adidas made a fatal assumption: they thought Miami was theirs because of the relationships they had built in South Florida, including Miami-Dade and Inter Miami.

The problem? They didn't generate enough goodwill with Miami itself. For the last 4–5 years, we've finally started being treated like the brand we are.

From what I understand, Adidas did attempt to counter; but, once you're talking about $57M/year tied into three programs, the Nike offer was reportedly far beyond what Adidas could match.

And this is part of a broader trend I've been watching for years. I said several programs were going to flip back to Nike:

  1. Cincinnati — back with Jordan/Nike
  2. Cal — back with Nike
  3. UCLA — flipped to Jordan
  4. UTSA — flipped to Nike
  5. Rice — flipped to Nike
  6. Sacramento State — back with Nike (thanks, Mike Bibby)
  7. Auburn — flipped to Nike
  8. South Carolina — flipped to Nike (thanks, Ms. Wilson)
And now...

Miami is coming home. 🟠🟢

That's bigger than uniforms.

The UCLA **** Nike has been 🔥🔥🔥

Do you think this opens the door for UM to bring on new sports that we don't have? Men's Golf, Softball? We have a women's golf squad and they just got some dope adidas golf stuff, but Nike is way more prominent in golf than adidas. I'm excited to see what Nike does there.
 
You don’t care about how the brand looks when millions of eyes are watching? You don’t care when college football’s most iconic cfb announcer is laughing at adidas jersey & pant quality when discussing our program? There’s a reason why brands like Disney have the strictest visual branding policies out there.

I Don’t even need to go into the countless reasons already discussed in this thread highlighting adidas complete incompetence as it relates to their execution (lack thereof) of a football uniform.

A uniform is extremely important to a football program. Both performance wise and branding
No, I don't believe a football team's performance is affected by their uniform.
 
No, I don't believe a football team's performance is affected by their uniform.
Cleats aren’t a major factor in performance? Loose Jersey fit leading to pads popping out left and right isn’t a performance issue? Pants being way too big is not a performance issue?

Are those listed above the reasons between wins and losses? Probably not, but you want all things running at optimal levels for a big boy program. Uniform execution is one of those factors you want running optimally. Adidas misses the mark on that and has from the moment they got involved in American football.
 
Cleats aren’t a major factor in performance? Loose Jersey fit leading to pads popping out left and right isn’t a performance issue? Pants being way too big is not a performance issue?

Are those listed above the reasons between wins and losses? Probably not, but you want all things running at optimal levels for a big boy program. Uniform execution is one of those factors you want running optimally. Adidas misses the mark on that and has from the moment they got involved in American football.
What you wrote and what I put in bold is all I'm trying to say. Just personal opinion, don't really care. Love my Canes but we have some ugly *** colors - it is what is. I'd sign with a Chinese sports brand if it meant the most money.
Oregon has the "flyest" uniforms and they're with Nike who you say has optimal levels for a big boy program. They've never won. Of course a million other things factor into that but yeah never understood people in this forum crying about sock colors, cleat colors, or any of that. It is what is man.
 
What you wrote and what I put in bold is all I'm trying to say. Just personal opinion, don't really care. Love my Canes but we have some ugly *** colors - it is what is. I'd sign with a Chinese sports brand if it meant the most money.
Oregon has the "flyest" uniforms and they're with Nike who you say has optimal levels for a big boy program. They've never won. Of course a million other things factor into that but yeah never understood people in this forum crying about sock colors, cleat colors, or any of that. It is what is man.
You’re right on Oregon. But Indiana just broke a 15 year run of Nike schools winning a national title in football. Before Auburn won one wearing under armor in 2010 there was another 15 year run by Nike.

Big boy programs wear Nike. We are now a big boy program it’s only fitting we made the move
 
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