☕ Morning Coffee
For 27 years, Ole Miss has been a Nike school. On Tuesday, that officially ended.
Adidas becomes Ole Miss’s footwear, uniform, apparel and sideline partner on July 1, 2027, in a seven-year deal through June 2034 that covers all 18 varsity programs. The school didn’t announce a number. Brett McMurphy reported more than $20 million a year plus NIL funding, which would put it well north of $140 million if it holds.
That’s a we-made-it number. It’s also not the best part of the deal.
Adidas understands and respects what makes Ole Miss special, including our iconic colors, marks and uniforms.
Keith Carter
Colors, marks and uniforms. He named all three, and the school says Ole Miss keeps creative liberties over its uniforms. Nobody in Oxford was worried about getting paid. The worry was turning on the TV in 2027 and seeing a team that didn’t look like Ole Miss. Ole Miss took the bigger check and kept the pen.
👉 Ole Miss Kept the Pen: Why the Adidas Deal Is Bigger Than the Money
🕵️ Who Chased Whom
Adidas North America president John Miller called Ole Miss “an ascendant SEC program that we’ve pursued aggressively to bolster our portfolio of NCAA partners.”
Pursued aggressively. Keith Carter said long before any of this leaked that Ole Miss would explore the market, and the market answered. Tennessee and Penn State left Nike for Adidas, Texas A&M and Mississippi State were already there, and Miami is reportedly heading the other way to Nike. Adidas lost a national brand and went out and got another one. Twenty-seven years of loyalty is nice. It doesn’t pay a roster.
👕 Keep It Ole Miss
Nothing changes this season. Ole Miss wears Nike until the current deal ends in June 2027, so every mockup you see this week is a fan’s guess. The ask from here: bring back the road jerseys with the red numbers and stripes, modernize the cut and the cleats, and leave the identity alone.
The fan base is not asking for a costume. It is asking for Ole Miss to look like Ole Miss.
Steven Willis
🎙️ Today: Walker Jones
The line in the announcement that isn’t getting enough attention: funding for student-athlete NIL deals. That’s a recruiting tool and a retention tool, and it lands on top of what the Grove Collective already does.
Walker Jones of the Grove Collective is slated to join Locked On Ole Miss this afternoon. He’s the one who said Ole Miss has to make $1 spend like $3. The questions we’re bringing:
- How does the Adidas NIL money work alongside the collective?
- Does it change what Ole Miss can offer a recruit, or keep a player out of the portal?
- Is it now $2 spending like $3?
Got a better one? Drop it in the Discord before the show.
🥚 The Egg Bowl In Three Stripes
Mississippi State is an Adidas school. Starting in 2027, both programs in the state will wear the same three stripes, and that is going to look strange on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Only one of them just got a press release calling it ascendant.
🏈 Two Days To Nashville
Brand deals don’t win football games. Pete Golding isn’t beating anybody because of a logo on the sleeve, and the next game is Saturday.
| Game | No. 9 Ole Miss (3-1, 1-1 SEC) at Vanderbilt (3-2, 0-2 SEC) |
| Kickoff | Saturday, 2:30 p.m. CT / 3:30 p.m. ET |
| TV | ESPN |
| Where | FirstBank Stadium, Nashville |
| Weather | 30% chance of showers after 1 p.m., 70% Saturday night (National Weather Service, forecast issued 5:46 p.m. CDT Tuesday). The second half is the likeliest to be wet. |
📻 On Locked On Ole Miss
Out now: “Ole Miss Kept The Pen,” the Adidas special. What’s official, what’s only reported, who chased whom, the uniform ask and the NIL piece.
This afternoon: Walker Jones of the Grove Collective (slated).
🔗 Five Clicks
1. The official announcement
Seven years, 18 programs, and the Carter and Miller quotes in full, straight from Ole Miss Athletics.
2. SuperTalk Mississippi on the deal
The creative-liberties detail, and why the uniform conversation has already started.
3. Miami reportedly heads back to Nike
The other side of the ledger, and why Adidas went shopping in the SEC.
4. Ole Miss kept the pen
The full Hub breakdown: the money, the control, the NIL piece and the honest part.
5. Ole Miss at Vanderbilt game page
Saturday, 2:30 p.m. CT / 3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN. Two days.
💬 Join the Everydayers
The Vanderbilt thread is open in the LOOM Private Discord, free to join. Today’s argument: keep the uniforms exactly the same, or let Adidas take a swing? And bring your NIL questions for Walker.
Everything else lives at olemisshub.com, and if you want the show ad-free plus the members-only room, take your fandom to the next level with the Everydayer Club.
It’s a three-stripe week. Hotty Toddy. 🦈
