Shoe's on Other Foot: Nike's Jordan Brand Recruits UM Football Team

One of the biggest parts of the University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh’s job is being able to recruit talented players from around the country for the team.

So it was probably a strange for the first-year Wolverine coach to be the recruitee and not the recruiter recently. But that was the case when the head of one of Nike’s signature labels wanted UM associated with it, according to a Detroit Free Press report.

»Via the Detroit Free Press

That label? The Jordan Brand. And the executive giving Harbaugh the hard sell? None other than His Airness himself, Michael Jordan.

Whatever Jordan said to Harbaugh must have impressed him because the Wolverines have become the first football team under the Jordan Brand umbrella. Jordan even announced the move with a video on Twitter:

Big House. Big plans. Welcome to #TeamJordan @umichfootball. #GoBlue https://t.co/elqGkDowH6

— Jordan (@Jumpman23) August 13, 2015

Michigan had already signed a deal with Nike that begins in 2016, and the school’s men’s and women’s basketball teams have exclusive contracts with the Jordan Brand, the report stated. Adding football gives the label the hat trick when it comes to outfitting UM’s first-tier sports.