<strong>Nike and Adidas are using Name, Image, and Likeness collectives and independent marketing firms to deliver apparel sponsorship dollars directly to athletes at Tennessee, Miami, and other blue-blood programs, bypassing traditional team equipment deals, according to a USA Today investigation published this week. The arrangement allows brands to compensate individual players for social posts, campus appearances, and locker-room product shots while the school's athletic department continues to receive its separate institutional sponsorship check.
The mechanics are straightforward. A collective or marketing intermediary signs the athlete to an NIL contract funded by the apparel brand. The athlete posts content wearing the brand's gear, appears at youth camps in branded warmups, or allows the company to use their image in regional advertising. Payment ranges from four figures for rotation players to low six figures for projected first-round draft picks, according to two NIL advisors who have structured deals at SEC and ACC programs. The school's equipment manager still orders the same $2 million to $4 million worth of team gear under the existing institutional contract. The athlete money is a separate line item, reported to the NCAA as third-party NIL compensation, not as apparel sponsorship.
This matters because it changes the economics of roster assembly for programs with deep-pocketed collectives and strong brand relationships. A five-star recruit considering Tennessee and a peer SEC school now weighs not just the collective's cash offer but also the $15,000 to $40,000 Nike side deal that comes with it if the Volunteers' collective has structured the right intermediary agreements. Miami's collective has worked similar arrangements with Adidas, per two sources familiar with the Florida NIL market. The apparel money doesn't replace collective base payments; it stacks on top, creating a secondary revenue stream that smaller programs with regional apparel partners cannot match.
The NCAA has no rule prohibiting this. The association's July 2021 interim NIL policy permits athletes to earn compensation from any third party as long as the payment reflects fair market value for the service provided and isn't contingent on enrollment or athletic performance. Posting a photo in Nike shoes twice a month and appearing at a summer camp arguably meets that standard. What makes the arrangement notable is the coordination. Collectives at multiple programs are now building apparel brand relationships into their pitch decks, telling prospects that the Nike or Adidas money is part of the total compensation package. One collective executive, speaking on background, said his group facilitated 11 separate apparel NIL deals for current roster players last season, with brand payments flowing through a marketing agency that also handles local car dealerships and real estate firms.
Sponsors evaluating NCAA partnerships need to understand this creates a two-tier market. Programs with established collectives can now offer brands access to athlete content and appearances without the compliance friction of institutional contracts. An energy drink company or a financial services firm can route money the same way Nike does: pay the collective or intermediary, let them contract the athletes, and receive Instagram posts and campus activation events in return. The per-athlete cost is lower than a team sponsorship, and the content often performs better because it features individual faces rather than generic team marks.
What to watch: whether the Power Four conferences attempt to create guardrails around third-party NIL payments tied to institutional sponsors. The Big Ten and SEC are both reviewing how collectives interact with existing conference and school sponsorship deals, per two athletic department sources. If a school has an exclusive Adidas contract, can its athletes sign individual Nike NIL deals? Most contracts written before 2021 don't address this. Expect renegotiations during the next round of apparel renewals, which for Tennessee runs through 2027 and Miami through 2026. Also watch for smaller apparel brands—New Balance, Puma, Under Armour—to test this model at Group of Five programs where institutional deals are cheaper and athlete rosters are just as large.
The investigation arrives as the House v. NCAA settlement moves toward approval, which will allow schools to pay athletes directly starting in 2025. If that happens, apparel brands may route even more money through NIL intermediaries to avoid the settlement's revenue-sharing caps. The school can only distribute $20 million annually under the proposed framework. Nike writing checks to individual players through a marketing agency doesn't count against that number. The loophole isn't a bug; it's the product architecture.
The takeaway
Apparel brands are using NIL shops to pay athletes directly, stacking swoosh money on top of collective deals without touching team sponsorship caps.
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