By Last Updated on July 1, 2014
I was quoted today in the Wichita Eagle regarding Wichita State’s improved apparel contract with Nike. Regarding the fact that WSU’s deal isn’t for all the school’s sports and doesn’t include a cash component, here’s what I had to say:
Different apparel agreements for each sport and the absence of cash are not unusual for a lot of universities, including mid-major ones such as WSU, said Kristi Dosh, a Florida-based lawyer and author of “Saturday Millionaires: How Winning Football Builds Winning Colleges.”
“It takes that consistent appearance in bowl games or March Madness” for a university to get an apparel contract that outfits all its teams and provides a cash stipend, she said.
Dosh said that apparel deals are also influenced by which collegiate athletic conference a school belongs to. “Power conferences” such as the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference tend to have a lot of their games broadcast nationally, which means more and repetitive exposure for apparel brands.
“It’s about getting that uniform … on national television; that’s exposure for Nike, Under Armour or Adidas.”
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