Nobody in Lincoln is complaining. Adidas stood by Nebraska during some down times the last 15 years, when the program had fallen off the college football map. That sort of loyalty has made Adidas and NU a good fit. And it goes both ways, as Adidas has seen schools such as Michigan and Tennessee leave for Nike and Notre Dame for Under Armour.

“Adidas was very good to Nebraska,” Byrne said. “Their service was very top-notch. We were one of the original Adidas schools, with Notre Dame, UCLA and Tennessee. I’m not surprised they are still with Adidas. They treated us well.

“I thought enough of them that I went to Adidas when I was at Texas A&M.”

Those were the early days of the shoe wars in college football, before most people dreamed of the big money schools would rake in to wear a logo from head to toe — or that recruits would one day be swayed by brand names of shoes, not just schools.

“It was funny, one of our first games with Adidas was at Oklahoma State,” Byrne said. “And just before the game, the NCAA said that the (logo) marks had to be a certain size or it was a violation.