USF Athletics Announces Eight-Year Partnership With Adidas

As first reported by Collin Sherwin, USF officially announced a new eight-year partnership with Adidas as the official athletic footwear, apparel and accessory brand of the Bulls on Wednesday.

According to the USF release, the deal officially begins July 1, 2018, and extends through the 2025-2026 season.

Adidas will supply the school with custom uniforms, apparel, footwear, and accessories for all of the Bulls’ 19 varsity teams. The deal gives USF a guaranteed promotional product allotment of $2.8 million each year throughout this eight-year agreement, plus $150,000 cash. The grand total over the eight years is $23.6 million.

USF joins in-state rival Miami and fellow American Athletic Conference member East Carolina as Adidas schools. Others include Indiana, Louisville, Nebraska, Kansas, NC State, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, and NC State.

The new deal with Adidas has plenty of bonuses and incentives for each sport.

Football:

• $50K for finishing in the top 25 in football, $100K for top 10 and $200K for top 5
• $500K for a national championship; $250K for making the title game
• $100K if they make the College Football Playoff

Men’s Basketball:

• $10K for conference championship
• $300k for national title; $150K Final Four; $50K for Sweet Sixteen

Women’s Basketball:

• $10K for conference championship
• $150K for national championship; $75K Final Four; $25K for Sweet Sixteen

How does this USF contract compare to other schools in The American with new apparel deals?

The University of Cincinnati agreed to a ten-year deal in 2015 with Under Armour that will pay them $47 million ($10 million cash, $37 million product) over the life of the contract.

The University of Connecticut signed a five-year, $32.45 million extension with Nike in July which will give the school $9 million in cash over the lifetime of the deal. In five years UConn will make more than USF will in their eight year deal.

What do those schools have that USF doesn’t? Cincinnati and UConn both have successful, well-known men’s basketball programs, and of course UConn has women’s basketball. USF only has a successful women’s team.

It’s not about Power 5 or Group of 5 status, either. Former Big East member and current Big Ten member Rutgers signed a deal with Adidas earlier this year, and it’s much worse than the Bulls’ deal. They received a six-year deal worth $10.2 million, with just $75K in cash that must be used for marketing purposes.

UA had the right of first refusal on the deal. But according to Collin, they did not even attempt to match the Adidas offer. It says a lot about the brand worth of a school when the company you’ve been with for almost a decade doesn’t even want to match an offer that’s basically the same as your current deal

USF needs to figure out what it wants out of their athletic department because that school in Orlando is lapping them with each passing day. No more half-assing it — jump in completely and become a top-tier university in athletics or get out of the game.