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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/jonstark19 on 2024-01-23 17:50:56.

As the landscape for college football shifts, I was interested in seeing how the apparel sponsors were represented in the new alignment coming in 2024. The following is a review of the new landscape, please note that this data reflects only football providers, so certain programs with other providers for other sports (e.g. Boston College/New Balance, Houston/Jordan) will not be included.

Although not in the new group that we collectively refer to as the “Power 4”, I wanted to note that the PAC 2, Oregon State and Washington State, are both Nike schools. Notre Dame, an ACC affiliate but CFB Independent is sponsored by Under Armour.

Due to the most recent wave of realignment, the P4 now has 67 programs spread out across the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC.

Summary ACC Big 12 Big Ten SEC
Nike 11 12 9 10
Jordan 1 0 2 2
Adidas 5 3 4 2
Under Armour 0 1 3 2

Percentage of sponsors by conference:

  • ACC
    • Nike: 64.7% (Cal, Clemson, Duke, FSU, Pitt, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, UVA, VT, WF)
    • Jordan: 5.9% (North Carolina)
    • Adidas: 29.4% (Boston College, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, NC State)
    • Under Armour: 0% (N/A)
  • Big 12
    • Nike: 75% (Arizona, Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, CU, Houston, ISU, K-State, OK State, TCU, UCF, WVU)
    • Jordan: 0% (N/A)
    • Adidas: 18.7% (Arizona State, Kansas, Texas Tech)
    • Under Armour: 6.3% (Utah)
  • Big Ten
    • Nike: 50% (Illinois, Iowa, MSU, Minnesota, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, USC)
    • Jordan: 11.1% (Michigan, UCLA)
    • Adidas: 22.2% (Indiana, Nebraska, Rutgers, Washington)
    • Under Armour: 16.7% (Maryland, Northwestern, Wisconsin)
  • SEC
    • Nike: 62.5% (Alabama, Arkansas, UGA, UK, LSU, Ole Miss, Mizzou, Tennessee, Texas, Vanderbilt)
    • Jordan: 12.5% (Florida, Oklahoma)
    • Adidas: 12.5% (Mississippi State, Texas A&M)
    • Under Armour: 12.5% (Auburn, South Carolina)

Percentage of programs by sponsor in the P4:

  • Nike sponsors 42 P4 programs, 62.7%.
  • Jordan sponsors 5 P4 programs, 7.5%.
  • Adidas sponsors 14 P4 programs, 20.9%.
  • Under Armour sponsors 6 P4 programs, 8.9%.

Additions by conference:

  • ACC: 3 Nike (Cal, SMU, Stanford)
  • Big 12: 2 Nike (Arizona, Colorado), 1 Adidas (Arizona State), 1 Under Armour (Utah)
  • Big Ten: 2 Nike (Oregon, USC), 1 Jordan (UCLA), 1 Adidas (Washington)
  • SEC: 1 Nike (Texas), 1 Jordan (Oklahoma)

Other observations:

  • Nike reigns as the biggest apparel provider in college football by a wide margin with another plus added by the affiliate Jordan brand schools. Interestingly, of the 5 members of exclusive Jumpman club, only 1 can be found outside the Big Ten and SEC (UNC, of course).
  • While the Big Ten technically saw the percentage of Nike schools stay the same with the addition of 4 new schools, the Swoosh undoubtedly has more sway in the conference than it did before. UCLA is Jordan in name but counts under the Nike umbrella and Oregon, Nike U, will certainly bring more influence into the conference already populated by huge programs repping Nike/Jordan brands (Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and now USC as well).
  • Much has been made of Under Armor’s struggles in recent years, but UA maintains a presence in every conference except the ACC, which is somewhat mitigated by Notre Dame’s quasi-ACC football affiliation. Texas Tech and Utah, previously the lone UA holdouts in the Big 12 and PAC 12 respectively, now have each other as a brand partner in the conference. I missed this initially, but Texas Tech is leaving UA for Adidas.
  • In my research for this write-up, I came across a UniWatch article discussing the “Adidas Caste System”, which reported Adidas has a better quality materials and access for 6 of its football members. This information, obtained through an anonymous Adidas exec, confirmed 2 of the “top-tier” programs were Washington and Texas A&M. The Adidas rep also confirmed Rutgers and Indiana were not in that upper tier. So who are the other 4 programs in the top tier? I assume BC is not in that group as they are only sponsored by Adidas for football. That leaves 8 other programs for consideration in the top tier, but Adidas did not confirm the other 4 top tier members.
  • Apologies for any mistakes or omissions, will update if an eagle-eyed viewer alerts me.