UCF Signs Five Year Deal with Nike
Basketball, COMMENTARY, Gabrielle's Outlook, Sports — By Gabrielle Clark on March 19, 2010 at 7:28 pmLast October, we all heard about the Adidas versus Nike shoe scandal that almost-famous Marcus Jordan had started. Now, word has come in that Nike has signed a five year deal that allows UCF sports teams to don their famous logo for all Knightly sporting events.
While many people knew that the option of Daddy Dearest Michael Jordan coming in to settle the whole fiasco could possibly come into play, I don’t think many of us expected it to happen. Even though UCF had sought a replacement for Adidas starting last December, I thought the next step would involve something drastic like players having to supply their own gear. I know I didn’t think Nike would come to the rescue, whatever the circumstance. After all, what makes one person so mighty that they can completely change a sponsorship that was in place long before they even enrolled?
What happens when the five year contract is up, and dear old Jordan has graduated or transferred from UCF? More than likely the lucrative free advertisement that the son of the creator of their own Air Jordan brand brings will shrivel and die once he’s no longer a Knight. How will Nike react to losing that? Well, my guess is that we’d be dropped, and Nike would continue with the other (markedly better) Florida universities (UF, FSU, and UM), leaving UCF to get a new deal or grovel at the feet of a brand we were perfectly fine with before.
Now, while style-wise, I must say that Nike is easily a better choice over Adidas, however little that matters, and that new uniforms and equipment for Fall 2010 will be nice to see. But in all fairness, this only shows the power one celebrity (however famous) has over a whole university sports program, all because his offspring threw a fit.
Like I said in October, Jordan Junior could have used the Adidas opportunity to his benefit, and be a team player and show that he could adapt in spite of a personally unfavorable situation. He could make his own image, step out his father’s size 13 shadow. But since fame and fortune seems to overrule, one person’s request has spurned a school-wide fashion change that could turn sour at any moment. There’s no “I” in team, but there’s a “me” in team, and now we know that Marcus Jordan and company prefers that “me” over everybody else.
I’m sure players far better than Jordan have made their mark in UCF history, and they did so in the gear that was provided. Now we know that someone, somewhere, worked some magic with Nike, and we’ll be donning the famous checkmark come August. I’m not saying that no good could come of this, but I’m absolutely positive that none of this would have even crossed anyone’s mind had Jordan not enrolled. All UCF has to do now is get another child of a famous walking advertisement to enroll here, and get them to request yet another brand. Will UCF bend to their will too?
What do you think about this situation? Comment below and let KnightNews.com know.
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32 Comments
Just admit it. You have never been to a UCF game;
…you have no clue what Jordan’s post-season statistics are;
…and you have absolutely no clue what chain of events led to UCF picking up a lucrative contract with Nike.
Point and case: You’re not entitled to an “opinion” article. Male or female.
What you’re doing is spreading rumors about UCF sports. Some of us boosters spend a good amount of what little money we have donating to UCF Athletics, spending time promoting UCF athletics, and spreading the positive vibe.
What you’re doing here is ruining it for absolutely no reason other than what seems to be angst, because you truly have no facts.
I don’t know why there is so much animosity because of this article. For one, I do not see why you (most all of you) think that this is a “poorly written” article. Honestly, I have found enough grammatical errors in your comments to put the English language to shame. In regards to the content, you need to understand what a column is – one’s opinion and personal stance on a topic. I do not see how being a woman has anything to do with this…what day and age do we live in where that card has to be pulled, just because you disagree with this article.
I find the sentence, “I’m sure players far better than Jordan have made their mark in UCF history, and they did so in the gear that was provided”, is probably the most common sense I have heard/read in a while. If anyone seriously thinks that this had nothing to do with Marcus or his father, I would reconsider it…I mean, who brought up the whole issue?
Note that I have nothing against anyone, but I do hate petty arguments, and the whole not-wearing-Adidas nonsense was absurd, but I do wish Marcus Jordan and any athlete the best of luck for future seasons to come (and perhaps beyond).
Why are you mocking Marcus Jordan and his father. He has nothing to do with whatever UCF’s decision is on going forward with another brand instead of Adidas. I understand this article is a sports commentary/editorial but you flat out sound retarded with all of your ridiculous specualtion. Learn to write, and write accordingly. Also please stop with the bashing of the Jordan family, because they are apart of the UCF family now whether your jealous ass likes it or not.
this article is terrible. its all SPECULATION and you sound borderline retarded.
Hi I’m Gabrielle and ive never been to a UCF game nor do I even know a dang thing about the Knights so i decided to write this
PIECE OF CRAP article
…to demonstrate how much of an idiot I truly am and how I can do absolutely no research (try Central Florida Future or Orlando Sentinel for starters) before I write.
Except the whole issue that COLUMNS are supposed to be opinions based on facts. For instance, Biacnhi’s column today was about Tiger Woods and he based his opinion after stating facts.
This pile of trash is an opinion based on something made up. Thats not a column…thats a tabloid piece.
Actually, I think she’ll have a great career as a COLUMNIST. The sentinel has one too, his name is Mike Bianchi. Columnists write COLUMNS and share their opinion. They drum up debate on hot button issues. That’s what she’s done here. Good for her. If you disagree… say so.
To Jordan G: that is an insult to the fine people at TMZ. At least TMZ digs and uncovers facts.
Personally i never knew this site existed until someone sent me a link to see how pathetic this writer is. Good news is that i will never be back and am ashamed that this is a source of UCF content.
Pathetic, cowardice, pompous and exactly zero factual basis of licensing in general or licensing in this particular situation.
You write bad and you should feel bad!
Can Andrew or Cliff do something about this girl? This is terrible.
Usually people get internships that help them in their future careers. Unless this chick wants to work for TMZ…she is destroying her career. Hope she’s going to the gym daily and is able to pick up her “MRS” degree. Can’t see her being a contributing member of society on her own.
Worst article ever. Absolutely no factual basis. Conjecture only, and questionable and flawed logic used to back it up. Last time I ever visit knightnews.com. That is all
Last time I visit Knightnews if this chick is not banned from posting this kind of crap.
Middle Tennessee, Tulane and countless other much smaller, less appealing universities have contracts with Nike. I don’t see why it is such a shocker that Tribble could sign a contract with Nike since we are the 3rd largest school in the nation with 200,000 alumni.
This girl is ignorant.
This is a terribly written article. The writer should probably not write about sports anymore due to the obvious lack of knowledge in how the game is played.
Wow, I must say that this is one of the few times I am embarrassed to be a UCF grad. I graduated in 1990 and have worked my up to an executive role in a forturne 500 company an I always do my best to hire UCF grades. You maam would be the complete opposite, do all of us UCF grads a favor and just transfer to another school, any other school. For God sake, please do not tell anyone you ever went to UCF, it devalues all of our degrees.
God….this was obviously written by a woman. What dribble.
This article is terrible. I hope the writer is not a journalism major because this is so poorly written, I have to believe they should consider exploring other options. Additionally, this article is not based on fact in even the slightest sense of the word.
Theres one, maybe two good sports writers on this website. This clearly is not one of them. I rather you guys avoided the topic then have written such garbage. No knowledge of the sport or situation.
The person who wrote this has no knowledge of basketball obviously. All the stories on here are starting to sounds more and more like jokes rather than sticking to the actual news story. Hire someone that knows sports to work on here instead of a group of college nerds. By the way, who gives a DAMN about this..we all know Nike is better than Adidas and most people prefer Nike over anything else. So plain and simple we’re just going to be making a lot of merchandise profit from this whole thing come next school year. Ps: our boring ass football uniforms finally get a facelift too
Wow this is just awful. First of all, called UF, FSU and Miami ‘better universities’ really pisses me off. You have no idea where UCF will be in 5 years in regards to football.
You’re a horrible writer who needs to do more research on your topic. Last time I ever read KN.
Honestly one of the worst written pieces I have ever seen. Find a new hobby other than writing about something you have no clue about. And if this isn’t a hobby and you got paid for that POS article the joke is on whoever wrote the check
Pretty bad… I don’t think anyone thought we would not have a new deal in place other then you… Previously, Adidas was bidding to get the deal from us, competing with other companies like Under Armor, etc. As Adidas is a better name and usually higher paying then Under Armor, we could have suffered a slight loss of money and slightly worse gear, but a ton of schools were competing to sponsor UCF. Sponsoring UCF means sponsoring everything done on athletics territory, including having their logo in the arena for every single event, on every single employee shirt in there, etc, athletics or not. As UCF Arena is one of the nicest in the state for its size and nicest in Orlando, and UCF is the third largest university in the nation, and still growing, tons of companies are dying to sponsor us, even if our sports teams aren’t the best.
Leave it to a woman to screw up a sports story…
Whoever wrote this truly has no idea how licensing works to any extent. Please have someone who understands sports at all write about this because this article is a slap in the face to sports coverage.
How what a horribly written piece. Writer obviously has zero experience or knowledge of how licensing works.
what a terrible post, whoever wrote this is a piece of shit that is just jealous of Jordan
Go Knights has it all right. UM’s facilities are garbage compared to what UCF has. You’d think that being a UCF publication, you’d have more knowledge of UCF. Jordan plays hard every game, and UCF deserves a great apparel contract. I just don’t see what’s so hard to understand. Also, the Adidas gear this year looked the same as it did the year before. We needed a reason to get out of that contract.
There are so many more factors that go into apparel deals outside of what you are saying here. UCF is the third largest university in the nation and, while currently only in c-usa, we get EXTENSIVE coverage from ESPN and CBS-CS. I don’t know if Jordan had anything to do with Nike signing this deal with us, but neither do you, so in the meantime lets lay off one of the few players who are worth a damn on our basketball team.
First, UCF sells tons of gear. While this is great news, I don’t see why the Nike deal is so shocking. Wake is a Nike school, and UCF sells more in merch than they do. So, what’s with the pessimism? UCF plays in a $100 million building; the other schools in fla do not. We should have a lucrative Nike contract.
He had a right to demand for his promised goods. This is only a big deal because you’re making it a big deal.
His contract said he would be allowed to wear his shoes. Would you not of bitched if as you got accepted to UCF you were promised full ride, and then because of greed that contract/promise was broken?