Study: Nike Gets Bargains on College Deals While Adidas, Under Armour Overpay

Adidas and Under Armour must write bigger checks than Nike in the lucrative collegiate athletic business.

That's the key finding of a soon-to-be-published paper from researchers at The Ohio State University, Texas A&M and Northern Kentucky University.

The researchers used data in the Portland Business Journal's database of university athletic deals in order to study how much the three sportswear giants pay to outfit college football and basketball teams. The contracts are coveted by companies because of the access provided to young, affluent and socially mobile fans.

The key finding: Nike often pays less than it should.