A significant NIL opportunity has opened for Georgia Tech athletes. On Wednesday, Adidas announced that it will offer NIL deals to all athletes at the 109 Division I colleges contracted with the sports apparel brand. That would include Tech, which entered into a six-year agreement with Adidas in 2018.
Adidas becomes the first major sports brand to create such a wide-ranging NIL program, which will be unrolled over the next year, beginning with affiliated power-conference schools (including Tech) and historically Black colleges and universities this fall. They will be followed by the remainder of the 109 Division I schools that Adidas is contracted with, a partnership that covers roughly 50,000 athletes.
“One of the primary reasons that we were so excited and proud to partner with Adidas beginning back in 2018 was because of their innovative practices and commitment to athletes,” Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury said in a statement. “This NIL program, which will benefit all Georgia Tech student-athletes, is a perfect example of Adidas’ forward-thinking approach to college athletics. All of us here at Georgia Tech are grateful to Adidas for instituting this first-of-its-kind program to benefit our student-athletes.”
The brand-ambassador deals will center on payment for social-media posts, an endorsement arrangement that has been common since the NCAA granted athletes at member schools the right to be compensated for the use of their name, image and likeness, starting in July 2021. Athletes also can take part in a program in which they would be paid a percentage of sales that they drive to the Adidas website or app. The news release did not disclose details about the amount of compensation.
Through February, almost one-third of Tech’s 400-plus athletes have entered into NIL deals that have been valued at more than $175,000 in cash and products/services. The deal that drew the most publicity was a deal by television technology brand TiVo, which offered every member of the Yellow Jackets football team a $404 debit card and one of its streaming devices, among other gifts, in exchange for social-media posts touting TiVo products. The offer was accepted by 90 members of the team.
Daily Jackets: The AJC presents a daily look at one news item about Georgia Tech athletics to start your morning.
About the Author
