Texas Tech and Under Armour Agree to Four Year Extension

Texas Tech announced a new four year extension with Under Armour, which will extend their agreement through June 30, 2024.

“Under Armour has been a tremendous and loyal partner with Texas Tech for over a decade now, and we are excited to extend that relationship,” Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt said. “Under Armour continues to be among the top brands in the world, providing innovative products for our student-athletes to utilize on a daily basis. This is a valuable partnership for us as an athletics program.”

Avalanche Journal’s Don Williams has a bit more detail, including that the detail that this deal is for at least $12.9 million total. As Williams notes, this is much smaller in comparison to what UCLA signed in 2016, 15 years for $280 million, and with California the same year for 10 years and $85.6 million. This is a weird deal in that Under Armour is a company that is clearly struggling, going from a a high of $103 a share to just $9 yesterday, it’s a four year deal, which is short in comparison to the UCLA and Cal deals.

This just doesn’t seem like a significant amount of money in comparison, an average of just a shade over $4 million a year while UCLA and Cal are getting anywhere between $18 and $8.5 million. That’s a significant difference. But we’re also in the middle of a pandemic, so I’m just not sure how to critique the negotiations here. Does Texas Tech get more uniforms rather than cash? I really don’t know, but I’d love for someone from the athletic department to sell me on this other than Texas Tech has had a long-standing partnership with Under Armour. The fact that Texas Tech could be facing severe budge shortfalls because of the pandemic, you’d think there would be a better deal out there than this.

And maybe the short-term nature of the deal is an indication that there’s an ability to get out the contract depending on Under Armour’s financial situation. You just wonder why and if there was ever any negotiation for Texas Tech and other apparel companies.

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