SMITH: Tennessee's new deal with Adidas ultimately makes most sense

The grumblings from around Knoxville for the past couple of months became official on Wednesday afternoon when Tennessee announced its move from Nike to Adidas in 2026.It'll be a return to the outfitter where the football team won its last national championship and Pat Summitt had her run of dominance with the Lady Vols.The partnership between UT and Adidas came to an end in 2015 in favor of the famous swoosh. But the Vols are going back.Some on the outside have questioned the move, often quoting the lyric, "checks over stripes." But when the stripes are willing to write the checks being reported to Tennessee in the deal, it all makes sense.ESPN's Chris Low posted on Twitter/X on Wednesday the Vols would be going from $5.5 million annually in their deal with Nike to close to $20 million per year with the three stripes.A pay bump of over 3.5 times the last deal was not something the folks at Nike were interested in matching, even though they had the contractual right to do so.In the new era of revenue sharing between athletic departments and student-athletes, it's a deal that should raise both ships financially.Plus, Adidas has already voiced a commitment to supporting Tennessee athletes in the Name, Image, and Likeness space."The role of a college athletics sideline partner has changed dramatically in the 11 years since we last partnered with Tennessee Athletics," said Chris McGuire, Adidas Vice President of Sports Marketing, North America. "Adidas is establishing a new standard for investment in NIL with this partnership that will sustain UT's powerful athletics program as the university continues competing for championships for years to come."Adidas already has the likes of former Miami quarterback and Tennessee Titans top pick Cam Ward and top class of 2026 recruit Tristen Keys (whom UT is looking to flip from LSU) in its stable. Now it can look to add current Vol athletes.From the fan perspective, the return to Adidas does present some concerns.The most obvious is to get the right orange. Tennessee and its fanbase is quite serious about its Pantone 151, and the last go around with the stripes saw a variety of shades, some that bordered on yellow.On top of that, there is the design element. Across a multitude of sports for multiple programs, Adidas has put out some designs that have been, let's say interesting.Most notably from the first run with Tennessee, their attempts of a Smokey Grey 2.0 look for football with checkerboards on the sleeves. Those got protested so hard they never saw the field, just retail.However, some of the design concerns can be eased. In the press release on the move, Tennessee announced they would still have creative control over all uniforms.With a deal of this size, the onus is on Adidas to deliver on promises to the school and its fanbase in 2026. One of the biggest apparel deals in college sports comes with massive expectations, but if it falls flat, fans have more options than ever to still support the school without it going to Adidas.Second scrimmageAs for the 2025 season, Tennessee football will end week three of fall camp with another scrimmage on Friday morning.It's expected to follow a very similar format to the first one on Saturday, where all three phases of the game got work and there were special situations like redzone execution and third-downs.It would be surprising to hear Josh Heupel name a starting quarterback publicly either before or after the scrimmage. But, On3's Pete Nakos reported on Wednesday the Vols were "trending towards naming" Joey Aguilar as the team's starting quarterback.If true, Aguilar starting wouldn't be a huge shock, given his experience. The graduate transfer has played 25 games at the Division I level, not including his junior college stop. The rest of the quarterback room has just two.Other position battles to watch at the scrimmage and beyond are at center, running back, and wide receiver.