I could throw a beer bottle at my TV set every time I hear college athletes referred to as STUDENT athletes. This always reaches its most nauseous crescendo during the post-game interviews at the Big Dance, when two STUDENT athletes are brought in to face the press, and this guy intones, "The STUDENT athletes will now take questions." The STUDENT athletes then mumble a few answers, and the guy intones, "Okay, that concludes the session with the STUDENT athletes."
Bah! Humbug! We all know college athletics is now about billion-dollar TV contracts, huge corporate sponsorships, escalating ticket prices, mind-boggling salaries for coaches and lucrative rewards for all the administrators who force-feed us phrases like STUDENT athletes. Truth be told, we should refer to them as the REVENUE-PRODUCING student athletes.
Which leads me to an article in today's local paper about the new deal Under Armour just signed with Cal. For years Nike dominated this market, insinuating their logo into college athletics when we were all suppose to believe that college athletics was about amateurism, but now Under Armour is giving Nike a real run for their "amateurism" thanks to maybe the two most heralded athletes of this year, Steph Curry and Jordan Spieth. If you'd bought one hundred shares of Under Armour stock when it went public in 2005, you'd have paid $1300. Today, you'd have 800 shares at $47 a share, or about $37,600. That's a 29-bagger--not a bad return on your investment. I believe Under Armour's deal with Cal amounts to some $48 million in cash and product, versus an amount with Nike that seems to have been under $5 million.
So what? So this: Is it time our athletic department sit down with Under Armour? We've got a dynastic football program and a dynamic new football coach, and a basketball program that will likely be heard from on the national level in two years, if not next. I've always said, "Once a Montanan, always a Montanan;" Montana far transcends state lines. Seems to me we've got some leverage here, and an up-and-coming Under-Armour David company eager to slay the Goliath Nike. Hey! I'll negotiate for us!
Bah! Humbug! We all know college athletics is now about billion-dollar TV contracts, huge corporate sponsorships, escalating ticket prices, mind-boggling salaries for coaches and lucrative rewards for all the administrators who force-feed us phrases like STUDENT athletes. Truth be told, we should refer to them as the REVENUE-PRODUCING student athletes.
Which leads me to an article in today's local paper about the new deal Under Armour just signed with Cal. For years Nike dominated this market, insinuating their logo into college athletics when we were all suppose to believe that college athletics was about amateurism, but now Under Armour is giving Nike a real run for their "amateurism" thanks to maybe the two most heralded athletes of this year, Steph Curry and Jordan Spieth. If you'd bought one hundred shares of Under Armour stock when it went public in 2005, you'd have paid $1300. Today, you'd have 800 shares at $47 a share, or about $37,600. That's a 29-bagger--not a bad return on your investment. I believe Under Armour's deal with Cal amounts to some $48 million in cash and product, versus an amount with Nike that seems to have been under $5 million.
So what? So this: Is it time our athletic department sit down with Under Armour? We've got a dynastic football program and a dynamic new football coach, and a basketball program that will likely be heard from on the national level in two years, if not next. I've always said, "Once a Montanan, always a Montanan;" Montana far transcends state lines. Seems to me we've got some leverage here, and an up-and-coming Under-Armour David company eager to slay the Goliath Nike. Hey! I'll negotiate for us!
