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Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel sees plenty of benefits to adidas deal

On3 imageby: Brent Hubbs08/15/25Brent_Hubbs
Randy Sartin-Imagn Images | Sep 30, 2017; Knoxville, TN, USA; General view of \"Checkerboard Neyland\" before the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium
Randy Sartin-Imagn Images | Sep 30, 2017; Knoxville, TN, USA; General view of "Checkerboard Neyland" before the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium

On Wednesday, Tennessee announced a new 10 year partnership with adidas that will start in July of 2026. 

The partnership is a different structured deal with undisclosed terms. It’s a deal that will have a financial impact on the Tennessee athletes. 

Adidas separated themselves significantly,” Tennessee AD Danny White told Volquest. “I think they have dynamic leadership in their new president in North America, John Miller.  He understands the college space. College is a huge priority for them, and the University of Tennessee is an enormous priority for him. He’s got a really dynamic leadership team. They’ve been heavily involved in NIL since its inception. They have an entire division focused on NIL. They have student athletes from all over the country, some of which compete for our teams right now that are signed up with their NIL program. So there’s a lot of reasons why we feel like they’re the best partner for us as we march into the modern era of college sports. 

Friday following Tennessee’s second scrimmage of the pre-season, head coach Josh Heupel said the partnership will help his football program. 

“We’re fortunate, had a partner that wanted to make us their flagship school,” Heupel said. “That’s going to happen in a lot of different ways and going to be a benefit to our football program. But this athletic department as a whole too. Had an opportunity to come talk to some other guys and I think everybody’s really excited that, again, we’re going to be the flagship school for them and it’s going to provide a lot of unique opportunities for our players both on and off the field.

I think as recruits look at who we have partnered with and the opportunities it’s going to provide our players on and off the field. I think It’s going to be a strong showing and something that will be really inviting to them.”

Adidas’ goal is to be inviting to recruits and to current players in roster retention. 

“Tennessee will always be a priority for us,” Chris McGuire, the Vice President of Sports Marketing for Adidas North America, told Volquest. “We are excited to welcome them back into the brand. We are excited about what the future holds. We will continue to invest into NIL. We have an affiliate program where all student athletes can participate and essentially become an NIL athlete for Adidas. We are going to continue to roll out other programming around NIL to make sure we are doing our part to help attract some of the top recruits across all sports for the University.”

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