By now, we're all familiar with Michael Jordan's son Marcus, and Marcus's shoe-related issues at UCF. According to Jordan, UCF told him during his recruitment that he'd be allowed to wear his father's Air Jordan brand. The only problem: UCF is an adidas school, and adidas schools only wear adidas, just as Nike schools only wear Nike. If Jordan wore Jordans, UCF would violate their agreement and jeopardize a $1.9 million deal with the German shoemaker.

Last night, Jordan took to the floor in his father's brand anyway. Adidas, none too pleased at this development, summarily canceled its deal with Central Florida.

This is not as disastrous as it might sound, because, duh, Marcus Jordan is Michael Jordan's son. I think we've covered this before. And being Michael Jordan's son, it seems likely that Nike would be willing to swoop right in and take over UCF's sponsorship, especially since Michael Jordan's son is now on the team. Sports By Brooks's Brooks Melchior has already talked to two "prominent sports marketing execs" who say the wheels on a Nike partnership are already turning. See? No big deal.

It is a big interesting from a purely marketing perspective, though. Nike gets to be the hero; adidas looks like a petulant corporate overlord; and Jordan Brand gets a momentary boost in profile, the sort of old-school brand-loyalty marketing gimmick -- Mickey Mantle prefers Viceroy! Marcus Jordan's feet won't touch adidas! -- dreamed up by the ad whizzes of yesteryear.

You could even go one step further (as Brooks does) and speculate that UCF knew, whether intuitively or through conversations with Nike, that if Marcus Jordan refused to dress in adidas, Nike would come riding in. It makes sense. What athletics budget can afford to drop $1.9 million in sponsor money? Not even elite programs can manage that; UCF certainly can't. And yet the school was all-too-willing to let Jordan walk right out onto the court last night in his father's shoes.Weird, right?

Related: Peculiarity, C-USA Basketball