The booming business of college athletics was never more apparent than the scene happening in the back channels at the University of Miami in late August.
The Hurricanes were preparing for the football season. Mario Cristobal’s team was coming off a runner-up finish in the national championship game, losing to Indiana. The Adidas vs. Adidas football title game took center stage. And here was Nike, months later, coming off the top rope with a surprising $198.5 million term sheet for Miami.
Manny Cadre, the chairman of the Board of Trustees at the University of Miami, must have performed a cartwheel after putting his signature at the bottom of a five-page offer sheet that was presented by Nike’s Ann Miller, vice president of sports marketing.
Miami was Nike’s first all-sports school.
The sneaker company desperately wanted it back.
“Like all things,” Miller told me in mid-September, “I’m a competitor.”
Miami is a private university. Its athletic department business dealings aren’t subject to public records requests. But I’ve obtained the Nike-Miami contract. The document provides a fascinating glimpse at the revenue pouring in at the top of college athletics. And other schools, particularly those already in Nike’s portfolio, have been clamoring since the beginning of the football season to get the terms.
I have them.
The 10-year deal between Nike and Miami includes: