Louisville not terminating relationship with Adidas despite NOA

The University of Louisville will continue to remain as one of Adidas' flagship schools, despite the NCAA's recent Notice of Allegations against Louisville revolving around former Adidas employees.

The University of Louisville will not be severing their business relationship with the Adidas corporation, despite the NCAA's recent Notice of Allegations.

"Those discussions started when I got here. Those were quick phone calls to adidas when I got here, Mark King at the time. I've certainly met with Chris McGuire, Jim Murphy, the senior representatives of Adidas," Athletic Director Vince Tyra said in a teleconference with reporters Monday. "I think that with those that are carrying forward the values of the organization as they should be and are stated, I think we're comfortable where we are today with what they've done inside their house and they're extremely comfortable with what we've done inside our house to move forward."

On Monday, Louisville received one Level I and three Level II allegations stemming from the recruitment of Brian Bowen and the Adidas pay-for-play scheme during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. 

According to the Level I allegation in the NOA, James Gatto & Merl Code are alleged to have impermissibly offered Bowen's father $100,000 through associate Christian Dawkins in exchange for Bowen's enrollment. Gatto & Code also arranged the provision of $25,000 once Bowen enrolled.

At the time, Gatto was Adidas' Director of Global Sports Marketing for Basketball, and Code was his consultant.

Based on the conversations with current Adidas reps, Tyra believes that Gatto and Code's actions are not indicative of Adidas or Louisville's values and that they were simply "rogue employees."

"I've been crystal clear about our expectations, the standards of conduct, how we intend to do business and [Adidas] obviously shared their's," Tyra said. "[Gatto & Code] don't represent the values of either institution. I think it's easy to jump to the conclusion that that's what either side is all about and that's not the case.

Louisville has been sponsored by Adidas since 1998, and signed a ten-year contract extension with the apparel corporation in 2018 that was worth $160 million, or $16 million per year. At the time, it was the fourth-richest apparel agreement in collegiate athletics, behind only UCLA (Under Armour - $18.67), Ohio State (Nike - $16.8 million) and Texas (Nike - $16.67 million).

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