March Madness Kicks Analysis #1: Shoe Sponsorship

Pssst. Wanna know a secret? If your men’s basketball program is sponsored by Nike and wears Nike shoes during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, you have a good chance of winning a National Championship. Starting this century, go ask Duke (’01), Maryland (’02), Syracuse (’03), Connecticut (’04), North Carolina (’05), and Florida (’06, ’07). That’s 7 of the last 8 championships.

How does this year’s field shoe up? Let’s take a look.

Percentage of Sponsorship

Count of Sponsorship

Nike teams took a dip this year representing 60% of the dancing teams, down from 69% in 2007. My data is still flawed though with 5 unknown sponsorships (not much photo coverage of UMBC, Cornell, Miami, Saint Mary’s, and Mississippi Valley State) and needed verification on two possible independents (Cal State Fullerton and Western Kentucky). Adidas got two more teams, going from 15 to 17 teams this year. And1 and Reeboks are nowhere to be found, and Winthrop continues to be the sole rep for New Balance.

Taking a look at the shoe sponsorships by Regionals doesn’t reveal a lot.

But what is a little interesting is that the three stripped Adidas accounts for three of the four top seeded teams. UCLA, Memphis, and Kansas all ball in Adidas kicks while only the Tar Heels of North Carolina rep Nikes. Is this the year for Adidas to come through?