Under Armour Now Wants To Dump Two Big Contracts

Both PAC-12 schools

This week apparel company made it clear that things are not going so well: they tried to pull out of two collegiate deals, first a massive deal with UCLA and then PAC-12 stable mate Cal.

Its stock has fallen from a high of $50 to $9.00. On Wednesday it closed at $9.57. Under Armour lost nearly $600 million in the first quarter, laid off thousands and closed all their stores.

With all that and the news from the PAC-12 schools, a lot of other schools are concerned. Among the many schools they sponsor are Boston College, Notre Dame, Utah, Auburn and Maryland.

BC is worried, as is Navy: the Middies have an appointment to talk to Under Armour on Thursday.

Utah, by contrast, seems fairly optimistic.

The company was founded by Maryland alum Kevin Plank and he has always seemed passionate about his school. The Terps are an Under Armour school but their contract is for just $17.1 million - a full $262.9 million than the Bruins got.

That’s really a huge gap. So much for the UCLA of the East.

Pretty clearly Under Armour has some serious issues. Nike is much bigger though and seems unlikely to get into serious trouble. Adidas has deep roots in Europe and beyond. They will get by.

But what happens if Under Armour goes away or just radically cuts back their collegiate deals? They have contracts with a lot of universities who will suddenly have a hole blown in their already chronically weak budgets.

Take it one logical step further. What if, say, Nike had cut a personal endorsement deal with Zion Williamson when he was at Duke? What would that do to Duke’s arrangement with Nike? What if he had (gulp) signed with Under Armour?

With NCAA reforms on the way, possibly mandated by law, something like that could easily happen soon. And with Under Armour seemingly in real trouble, that would mean Nike and Adidas could soon pick off their schools for a song, further depressing athletic department revenues around the country.

The entire apparel structure that has come to buttress college sports could tumble more quickly than anyone would believe.