Nike Wins Big in Its Exclusive Deals with All Four Playoff Teams

Math, like most things in life, has never been a strong suit of mine. But after reading Mathew Kish's article in Business Journal, I'm left wondering if Nike just committed a robbery.

You might have heard about the new "Diamond Quest" uniforms unveiled by Nike yesterday; Nike will be equipping Alabama, Oregon, Ohio State, and Florida State with alternate uniforms in the playoffs. In 2014, there's nothing out-of-the-ordinary about that. (Nike also released its "Zoom Hypercross TR 'College Football'" shoes today.)

The highway robbery comes in when the numbers are dropped. According to Ad Week, a 30-second playoff commercial will cost around $1,000,000. That's a lot of cheddar. 

And while the $15,000,000 Nike collectively shelled out to the four playoff teams for exclusive equipment rights might seem like a whole lot more cheddar... it's peanuts given the hours of advertisements that will be on display throughout each playoff game.

(Here's Ohio State's breakdown: $2.5 million in equipment and apparel. Nearly $1.5 million in cash, and $150,000 in "discretionary apparel.")

And that's a glimpse into how Nike, the most dominant athletics apparel company in the world, became the corporate behemoth it is today.