Nike is paying the Colorado athletic department $2.5 million to wear their equipment this year

Outfitting college athletic programs is a big business.

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Christian Clark
Nike is paying Colorado a lot of money just to wear their clothes. (sazzers/Flickr)

Nike is paying Colorado a lot of money just to wear their clothes. (Flickr)

Outfitting college athletic programs is a big business.

Nike, Adidas and Under Armour are set to pay out roughly $300 million to different university athletic departments in 2016, according to the Portland Business Journal.

Athletic apparel companies pay for each school’s athletic gear in addition to an annual cash payment.

This year, Nike is shelling out $1.755 million to provide the University of Colorado’s athletic department with apparel. Nike is also giving CU $750,000 in cash, which brings the total cost of outfitting the Buffaloes in only Nike gear to $2.505 million.

And that is nowhere close to the most lucrative deal out there.

Big 12 giant Texas is getting $9 million in cash (!!!) and $3.85 million worth of equipment and clothing this year. That’s a grand total of $12.85 million.

Starting in 2017, UCLA will also get a $9 million annual cash payout from Under Armour.

The money pumped in and out of college athletics only continues to swell. Which makes it even crazier that college athletes won’t see a dollar of the cash payouts athletic departments are getting.

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