The switch became official on Tuesday. Adidas becomes the official footwear, uniform, apparel and sideline partner of Ole Miss Athletics on July 1, 2027, under a seven-year agreement through June 2034 across 18 varsity programs, ending a Nike relationship that began in 1999. No financial terms were announced; reported figures put the deal above $20 million per year plus funding for athlete NIL deals, which would clear $140 million over its life.
Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis argued that the NIL funding folded into the announcement is the part nobody is counting, and the part that will decide whether the deal was worth signing.
That money is a recruiting and retention tool, Willis said, and it lands on top of what the Grove Collective already does. He recalled the collective’s framing of how Ole Miss operates, that it has to make a dollar spend like three, and asked whether an apparel partner narrows that gap. The gear recruits too: 18-year-olds care about cleats and drop days, and Adidas will want Ole Miss among the two or three programs it promotes nationally.
Adidas’s North America president called Ole Miss an ascendant SEC program the company pursued aggressively, and Adidas is losing Miami to Nike. Tennessee and Penn State moved earlier. Ole Miss becomes one of only four Adidas schools in the SEC, and from 2027 both programs in Mississippi will wear three stripes, a wrinkle Willis expects to bother Starkville more than Oxford.
Nothing changes this season. Ole Miss finishes 2026 and the following spring in Nike; 2027 is the first Adidas season. Willis closed on the limit: brand deals do not win football games, and Pete Golding will not beat Missouri because of a logo on a sleeve. Money that keeps a roster together is what does.
Photo: Deuce Alexander, September 26, 2026, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images.
Adapted from the October 7, 2026 episode of Locked On Ole Miss, hosted by Steven Willis, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.