Louisville has done a lot of winning lately. More than anyone else in college sports, actually.
The men's basketball team reached back-to-back Final Fours in 2012-13, winning the national championship a year ago. The football program is 23-3 in the last two seasons, including a Big East title and a beat down of Florida in the 2013 Sugar Bowl. The baseball program reached the College World Series in 2013, and the women's basketball program also reached the Final Four that year.
Louisville is the only college athletics program to win a BCS game, appear in both the men's and women's Final Four, reach the College World Series and the men's soccer College Cup finals since 2000. They're one of six schools to appear more than once in each of the BCS, the men's and women's Final Four and the College World Series, and their span of appearances (seven years) is the shortest in college sports.
Tom Jurich's program has been on an incredible run on the court, and it's seen their status in the larger world of college athletics rise in parallel. The Cardinals were nearly kicked out of Conference USA way back when, but then parlayed their success into a bid in the Big East (later renamed the American) and now, this summer, they'll officially join the ACC.
But, on Thursday, Louisville joined even more exclusive company. Adidas signed the Cardinals to a five-year, $39 million apparel deal, an absolutely massive deal.
Of course, there are larger market factors at play here; Louisville performed at the exact right time to sign an extension after Adidas' recent losses of Notre Dame and Tennessee. But, still, the fact that Louisville's name is mentioned in the same sentence with Notre Dame and Michigan - the brightest of gold standards among college sports branding - is enough. No asterisks necessary here.
With such an sizable investment, Adidas is now incentivized to push Louisville as a true national brand alongside Michigan, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Ohio State and a dozen or so other schools undoubtedly offended they weren't mentioned in this sentence.
"Adidas has been a loyal partner for 16 years and I am thrilled that we will continue through this significantly expanded agreement as we move into a new era in the Atlantic Coast Conference," Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said Thursday. "The synergies with the sport of soccer and our new stadium, future innovative uniform designs, and the passion adidas displays towards outfitting all of our student-athletes at the highest level nationally make this a model relationship."
The deal reportedly comes with five separate football jerseys and numerous uniform combinations, so stay tuned.