Last week Louisville signed a 5 year $40 Million deal with Adidas. Their previous deal paid $2.55 Million a year. That’s an increase of of $5.45 Million per year for Louisville. @Hokiesmash and I ( @TalkinACCSports ) discussed this deal on our recent podcast and significance for the ACC. I want to go into a additional details on this topic here.
From the site ACCPerscription there is a list of apparel contract deals for several collegiate programs. Louisville move to the top of the list in the ACC, and into top 3 in all of college sports. That is to be honest stunning. Surprisingly the ACC’s 2nd best football program in Clemson has just a $1 million deal, which trails all 6 ACC schools listed.
This speaks to the masterful job the Cardinal AD Tom Jurich does raising money for Louisville’s sports programs. We’ve made this point before on the blog. Louisville will make a financial commitment to excel athletically. They are aggressive and extremely creative at raising money, and the performance of the athletic programs in recent years proves it’s making a difference. There have been BCS wins in football, Final 4’s in mens and women’s basketball, and a strong baseball program.
The day Louisville joins the ACC they will have the 2nd biggest athletic budget in the ACC behind Florida State. This should be an eye opener for AD’s across the ACC. With the limited conference budgets of the Big East and AAC, Louisville flourished.
Their recent apparel deal is just another example of Louisville’s ability to raise money through other means than just booster contributions and television revenue.
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