Nike releases all teams from Bat Contracts

UPDATED ON SEPTEMBER 14th at 12:00PM

Nike has put out a press release stating they have NOT released teams from their bat contracts but will allow teams to use other manufacturers bats. You can check out the full article with Nike’s statement by clicking here. 

We were able to catch up to a former college player who used the bats last season. He stated the following:

The biggest problem I had with the bats was durability. It seemed like with the Nike bats that as you hit more with them, they didn’t get “broken in.” They were more prone to break on the caps, or especially with the Aero MC2 or M1 bbcor bats, right on the bottom of the handle. It could have been a personal preference for hitters on the team but nobody liked the way they felt or sounded (the red Aero Fuse had a deafening ping) off the bat whether it was barreled up or not. In the fall before we got our shipment of Nikes in, guys would mess around with other bats and the feel was considerably different. I’m not saying I didn’t hit well or our guys didn’t hit off the charts because we swung Nike bats (it’s the Indian not the arrow right?). Any player knows that if you are forced to swing a bat that seems to be a disadvantage compared to other products, it’s going to bother you. I loved being a Nike school but I would say of all the gear they put out, their bats are on the bottom of the list.

Original Post

Alex Scarborough of The Tuscaloosa News reports that all Nike contracted schools have been released from their bat contract after it was found out that the Nike bats underperformed. This affects Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Miami, North Carolina and Southern Cal who all used the bats last season with only North Carolina making the College World Series. 

You can check out the full article by clicking here which has some shoddy reporting though as it does not discuss how offense was down across the country with the move to BBCOR bats.