An apparel contract pays a school, the school’s teams wear the brand, and the money goes to the athletic department. Athletes wear the logo and receive nothing from the contract directly.
Under Armour’s renewal with Wisconsin contains a provision that changes that structure.
The Wisconsin renewal
Wisconsin’s renewal with Under Armour runs 10 years at a reported total value of $104.5 million, agreed in November 2025. It includes an annual commitment of $175,000 toward NIL opportunities for Wisconsin athletes.
According to reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, several parts of the contract also contain a provision allowing the university and Under Armour to redirect funding that would have gone to the university into NIL instead.
The provision reportedly applies to a $3 million one time signing bonus, a $3.8 million annual rights fee, and $75,000 in annual marketing funds. As an example of how it could work, Under Armour could direct $2 million of a year’s rights fee to the university and allocate the remaining $1.8 million to fund NIL opportunities with Wisconsin athletes.
The conditions
Any reallocation in a given year requires both the university and Under Armour to agree. Neither party can do it unilaterally, and nothing in the reporting indicates either is obligated to do it at all.
Distribution is also discretionary. Wisconsin deputy athletic director Mitchell Pinta has said several factors influence how much funding gets redirected in a given year, and that several factors influence which athletes on which teams receive it.
In short: the amount is not fixed, the decision is annual, and the recipients are determined by the school and the brand.
Why this is worth knowing
Institutional sponsorship money and individual NIL have generally been separate. The school or conference sells the asset, the athletic department collects, and the athlete’s own earnings come from elsewhere. The same structure governs jersey patches, which we covered in Jersey Patch NIL Deals Are Here.
A redirect provision creates a path between the two.
Every Division I school has an apparel deal. What differs is whether a contract contains a reallocation mechanism, who decides annually, and how athletes and teams are selected.
Wisconsin announced the renewal alongside Badger Athlete Partners, an expanded initiative focused on driving NIL opportunities for Wisconsin athletes.
The other Under Armour story: signing athletes directly
Redirect provisions run through schools. Under Armour is also going straight to athletes, and increasingly before they arrive on a campus at all.
In January 2026 the brand announced its first high school NIL class on Instagram, six signees it called the Click Clack Class after its cleats. Terms were not disclosed. The group:
- Joey O’Brien, safety, Notre Dame signee out of La Salle College High School in Pennsylvania, a PIAA 6A state champion, Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year and national All American
- Ryder Lyons, quarterback, BYU signee
- Zion Lee, edge, Maryland signee
- Jireh Edwards, safety, Alabama signee
- Easton Royal, wide receiver, 2027 Texas Tech commit
- Eric McFarland, wide receiver, 2027 prospect
Lyons is the one who shows where this is really going. He signed with Under Armour in September 2025, months before the class was formalized, while still a senior at Folsom High School in California. He was reported as the youngest member of a brand roster that includes Cam Ward, Justin Jefferson, Zay Flowers, Stephen Curry, Bryce Harper and Kelsey Plum.
Look at what he brought to the table. More than two million Instagram followers and nearly 300,000 on TikTok, a commitment announced live on a national show, and a feature length documentary on YouTube. Under Armour was not only buying a quarterback. It was buying an audience that already existed.
That is the honest read on the individual tier. It rewards distribution as much as production.
What Notre Dame proves
O’Brien’s case cuts both ways at once.
Under Armour has outfitted Notre Dame since 2014 and signed a 10 year extension in 2023 that carries the partnership into the 2030s. So a Notre Dame signee joining Under Armour’s first high school NIL class looks like the system working in a straight line: brand outfits school, brand signs school’s incoming star.
Then look at the rest of the roster in South Bend.
Heisman Trophy finalist Jeremiyah Love signed with New Balance in 2025. Jordan Faison, Kyle Hamilton, Michael Mayer, Audric Estimè, Benjamin Morrison and Riley Leonard have all signed with Rhoback. Those are Notre Dame athletes, at a school Under Armour pays to dress, wearing entirely different brands in their own deals.
That is the whole thing in one program. Your school’s apparel contract does not determine, limit, or guarantee your individual deals. It is an agreement between other parties. Sometimes it aligns with your own, as it did for O’Brien. Often it simply does not, and that is not a problem to solve.
Contracts end
An apparel contract does not last forever. South Carolina left Under Armour for Nike on July 1, 2026, ending a partnership that began in 2007. The Nike agreement was announced the previous August, runs 10 years and was reported at $70 million. The athletic department donated roughly 25 pallets of leftover Under Armour gear to state surplus.
Your deal does not have to end with theirs
MiLaysia Fulwiley signed with Under Armour at the end of her freshman season at South Carolina. The school was an Under Armour school at the time, so she could wear her own custom shoes in games. When she transferred to LSU in April 2025, a Nike school, she kept the Under Armour partnership.
The shoes on the court followed the school. The deal followed her.
Alignment between an athlete’s brand and a school’s is a benefit when it exists, and it is not permanent. Contracts expire, athletes transfer, and neither event ends a personal agreement.
The short version
Redirect provisions vary by contract. Where they exist, the annual decision and the selection of teams and athletes sit with the school and the brand.
A stated NIL figure in a contract is not necessarily the full extent of athlete funding, and the reverse can also be true.
Under Armour and adidas both signed uncommitted high school prospects in their most recent classes. State association rules on NIL vary widely. You can track the current class on our high school recruit tracker.
A school apparel contract is an agreement between a company and a university.
Fans can also back athletes directly through verified, compliant NIL deals. Badgers fans can head to our Wisconsin page, or find your school on RallyFuel.
Adidas runs a different set of pipelines entirely, including an affiliate network open at more than 100 schools. We break those down in How adidas Actually Signs Athletes.
