Ole Miss leaves Nike for a $20 million a year adidas deal
TLDR: Ole Miss is leaving Nike for adidas on a 7-year deal worth more than $20 million a year starting in 2027, according to Brett McMurphy, which would make it one of the richest apparel deals in the country.
This had been rumored for weeks. Thursday afternoon, McMurphy told everyone how big it was going to be before he had the number.
Ole Miss expected to have one of nation’s most lucrative deals, sources told @On3
A couple of hours later the number came out, and it's real money. At 7 years and more than $20 million a year, the deal comes to roughly $140 million or more. That's huge for a school in Oxford, Mississippi that's spent its whole time in the SEC watching the bigger brands in the conference cash the bigger checks.
Ole Miss’ deal w/@adidas is for 7-years, worth more than $20 million annually, source told @On3
It also ends a long run. Ole Miss has been a Nike school since 1999, and that contract runs out in June 2027. The adidas deal reportedly starts July 1, 2027 and goes through 2034, so the Rebels have 1 more full season in the swoosh before the 3 stripes take over.
The money is what matters most. Schools are paying players directly now in the revenue-share era, so every dollar the athletic department brings in counts, and apparel deals are one of the few big revenue sources a school can actually go out and negotiate. The reports also say adidas is putting far more toward NIL for Ole Miss athletes than Nike did, reportedly around 10 times as much. When the fight for players comes down to who can pay, that matters more than the logo on the polo.
Adidas has been spending all year. Tennessee and Penn State both left Nike for adidas in 2026, and Miami is going the other way, leaving adidas for Nike. Ole Miss would be just the 4th adidas school in the SEC, after Texas A&M, Tennessee and Mississippi State. Yes, that means the Rebels and their Egg Bowl rival will wear the same brand, and fans on both sides are going to hate that.
Next up is the official announcement, then the uniform talk, which is the part fans actually care about. Penn State and Tennessee mostly kept their looks after switching, so don't expect the powder blue to disappear. For now, Ole Miss gets one of the biggest apparel checks in college sports, and Lane Kiffin's old program keeps paying like it plans to stay near the top of the SEC.
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