The Ohio State Buckeyes are at the Center of Nike and Adidas's Turf War

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The brand war that is happening right before our eyes in both college and pro football is very fascinating to watch.

From the 30,000-foot view, it would appear that Nike is losing its grip on what was once a stranglehold across all sports and with the biggest athletes at all levels. Now, Adidas has made a run on the turf that was once owned completely by Nike, and they are finding some success.

A lot of Adidas's main efforts in acquiring brand players have centered around the Buckeyes. The first major move was last year when they poached Jeremiah Smith from Nike, and then it was on.

They started to grab up specific athletes across the country, and then they made a huge move to sign future Buckeye five-star recruit DJ Jacobs to their athlete roster heading into his senior year of high school.

On Thursday, they announced that former Buckeyes' quarterback Lincoln Kienholz was the latest to sign on to be an Adidas Athlete. He is going to be QB1 for the Louisville Cardinals, who are yearning for a program renaissance with him at the forefront.

Nike didn't just go down quietly. On Thursday, they had their clear campaign release, where they had all of the Nike schools announce which athletes on their roster were Nike athletes.

The Buckeyes are obviously one of the biggest Nike schools in the country, and they dropped their post that featured some legitimate stars on their roster. Headlined by running back Bo Jackson, the list also included safety Jermaine Matthews and future star Chris Henry Jr. 

Henry Jr. is the top and newest addition to the Nike family, which was also announced on Thursday. 

Henry Jr. is a guy who is truthfully low risk, high reward for the brand. He is on a path to become the next great Ohio State wide receiver, and the hope is that he goes into the NFL and has a 15-year career of being a full-time star, all while wearing the swoosh.

Matthews and Jackson are more of a low-risk, low-reward investment because neither guy has sustained star potential in their future. They are both very, very good players, but the likelihood that they will be doing it years into the future is not high. 

For now, these three are the headliners for the Nike Buckeyes as Adidas tries to gain market share in what has become one of the biggest industries in the world, college football.

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