Alabama's Nike deal comes with immediate $2 million bonus

Alabama receives an immediate $2 million signing bonus from Nike. There was no signing bonus when the contract was last amended in 2006. The bonus gets divided equally between the Crim­son Tide Foundation and the uni­versity.
Michigan received a $6.5 million signing bonus when it left Nike for Adidas in 2007.
Nike will pay Alabama $750,000 each year, up from $500,000. Ala­bama's annual supply limit in­creases from $1.9 million this year to initially $2.3 million in 2010-11. The limit increases $100,000 annu­ally and reaches $3 million by 2017-18, marking a 58-percent in­crease from 2010-11. Nike will also fund two paid summer intern­ships, valued at $10,000 annually, for Alabama students.
Nike will continue to pay bonuses if Alabama wins football's BCS championship game ($100,000), wins the NCAA men's basketball tournament ($100,000), plays in a BCS bowl game ($50,000), reaches the men's basketball Final Four ($50,000), wins the SEC football championship game ($10,000), or wins the SEC regular-season men's basketball title ($10,000).
Three new bonuses were added, all for women's basketball: winning the national championship ($15,000), reaching the Final Four ($10,000), and winning the SEC regular-season title ($5,000).
In addition to exclusivity with players and coaches, upper-level university administrators must now wear Nike whenever appro­priate for all public activities. Ex­ceptions are allowed when an ad­ministrator can't wear Nike shoes due to medical conditions or chooses to wear non-athletic ap­parel.
Last month, the University of Wisconsin canceled its licensing agreement with Nike, becoming the first university to do so over concerns about the company's treatment of workers in Honduras. Wisconsin said Nike had not done enough to help workers collect severance payments that they are owed from two factories that abruptly closed last year.
Nike told The Oregonian in Jan­uary that it was "disappointed and concerned" the factory owners failed to pay their employees. But Nike said the factories were owned by subcontractors who are re­sponsible for paying their employ­ees, not Nike.
At least four universities who have licensing deals with Nike de­manded answers from the com­pany last winter about Honduras. One toughly worded letter came from new NCAA President Mark Emmert, who was the University of Washington's president at the time.
"The failure of NIKE to properly respond to those current issues will inevitably jeopardize our busi­ness relationship," Emmert wrote to Nike.
In a statement Friday, Alabama said it had affirmed a commitment with Nike to fair labor practices. "Nike will continue to produce li­censed product and provide prod­uct to the University made in fac­tories that provide fair working conditions and operate consistent with the labor standards in the University's license agreements and Nike's Code of Conduct," Alabama's statement said.