“I would be very surprised if Georgia Tech doesn’t go with Nike,” said Jonathan Jensen, an assistant professor of sports administration at the University of North Carolina.
The re-branding at Oregon State was provided free of charge by Nike, a process that reportedly took almost two years and involved input from athletic department administrators, coaches and athletes. The company has done it for North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, among other partners.
“Nike does those things not as a money maker, but to deepen relationships,” Jensen said.
Stansbury was at Oregon State for much of that rebranding process, although he had left to take the head job at UCF (another Nike school) by the time of the launch in March 2013. In January 2016, after his return to Corvallis, Ore., Nike took him and two other athletic directors – Virginia Tech’s Whit Babcock and Iowa State’s Jamie Pollard – to China, Vietnam and Hong Kong to tour its factories. The trip, paid for by Nike, also included sightseeing, posh hotels and first-class dining.
“You can see how Georgia Tech, from a branding standpoint, could really benefit from working with Nike in terms of their rebranding, like Oregon and UNC and Oregon State have with Nike, where they might be willing to take a little less cash than they have been receiving throughout, to switch over,” Jensen said.