Gene Swindoll said:
Kenny Payne was told he had the job...then Strickland's father in law Bailey Howell and Larry Templeton got into his ear. Kenny was bringing with him a 50 million dollar Nike contract that would have made State a top 15 Nike school. Note that his father in law is in with Adidas...and when will we ever be rid of Templeton? Greg as AD was a God send. Strickland is a puss.
It amazes me that people actually believe this garbage. First off, I don't care if the ghost of John Wooden is our head coach, Nike is not pumping enough money into MSU to make them a Top 15 Nike school. That's ludicrous. Never mind the fact we can't even get an old football helmet logo out of them, Nike is not investing that kind of money in a school that resides in a state of less than 3 million people. Our market is small potatoes. Plus, that small market is also fragmented by Ole Miss supporters (a Nike school) and other major SEC programs that border us (Alabama and LSU, both Nike schools). There is little reason for Nike to make a huge investment in MSU.
Knowing Kenny Payne is buddies with WWW (shady character) and has Nike friends, I'm thinking he just used his high profile buddies to convince some of our boosters that along with Kenny Payne comes big Nike money and a pipeline to recruiting. Apparently, a few of them bit on that hook, line, and sinker. I don't blame Payne for going that route. How else can you convince an SEC program to hire you at a 7 figure salary when you currently sit 3 seats away from the HC on the bench?
Or, maybe Nike did throw out some numbers, but those numbers were actually very comparable to what Adidas does for us and some pissy boosters embellished the numbers because they didn't get what they wanted in the first place. Either way, these numbers aren't remotely believable.