NC State joins an elite group of institutions including Notre Dame, Tennessee, Kansas, Wisconsin, Louisville, Michigan, Indiana, Cincinnati, Texas A&M, UCLA, Mississippi State and Nebraska who have such agreements with adidas.
"After months of discussion about moving our 23-team department to an all-sport sponsorship, adidas emerged with the best proposal for our athletes, coaches and University," said Yow. "The innovative product line at adidas is tremendous and we are pleased about the considerable cost savings we will realize through this expanded partnership."
Whether you're a fan of adidas or not, this is clearly an important step forward for NC State athletics. Currently we have various programs wearing Nike gear, adidas gear, Under Armour gear, Majestic (I think) in baseball's case, and it's damn near impossible to create a consistent brand across all sports under those circumstances. Now we can at least count on some consistency in terms of presentation.
The deal is going to save NC State about $1 million annually, and as James notes here, it's a short term deal which means NC State won't have to wait around longer than they'd like to seek out a more lucrative contract with what should be a stronger athletic department after a few more years of Debbie Yow's leadership.
I'm looking forward to seeing what adidas comes up with for the non-revenue sports currently wearing other brands. They had just better not mess up the baseball team's uniforms.