NCAA final four undisputed champions!

2018 is already shaping up to be a huge year for college sports. College football programs across the country are playing annual Spring games to jam packed stadiums. College basketball recruiting is already at a fever pitch with tournament games already underway. The ratings have come in for the NCAA tournament and every party involved in the profit sharing should come away overjoyed with the numbers for this year’s tournament. And all these arrows are pointing up for 2018.

Some of the biggest payouts of the year will go to 3 individual schools, The Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Texas respectively. These schools combined signed deals with Nike that total over $650M and last well into 2030. Ostensibly the money these deals generate will go back into the budgets of the school’s athletic departments but will also be used by the institution’s general funds.

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These aren’t cash only deals, however, as there are allowances for equipment and athletic apparel in addition to the payouts. These deals are a boon to athletic departments as each school received a cash payment upfront. Ohio State and Texas received $20M off the top and Michigan got $12M. Interestingly enough, Texas also gets an extra million dollars a year on their deal because former player, and NBA superstar Kevin Durant, has his own apparel deal with Nike.
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Nike isn’t the only company inking schools to huge apparel deals, competitors like Adidas and Under Armor get in on the action as well. All of this just goes to show that while colleges and universities all claim to champion the cause of “amateur athletics” they are definitely raking in money hand over fist..

Here are some very interesting links to the dollars and "sense." 

• Thebestschools.org
• NCAA.orgcommittedtofairness
• ForbesBusinessSportsMoney​