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Rutgers Sells Stadium Naming Rights to High Point Solutions

Rutgers has sold the naming rights to their football stadium to High Point Solutions, an IT company, for $6.5 million over 10 years. That seems like a low-ball figure to me. However, Tom Luicci of The Star-Ledger says given the circumstances, Rutgers got "as good a deal as any major college football program has gotten."

Ten other FBS programs have sold the naming rights to their on-campus stadiums. That list includes (in order of money per year):

Minnesota: $1.4 million

Central Florida: $1 million

Maryland: $800k

Texas Tech: $800k

Louisville: $500k

Akron: $500k

Troy: $250k

I know that isn't ten teams yet. Here's why. First of all, the biggest blunder: Syracuse let Carrier give them $2.75 million in 1980 for naming rights for the life of the stadium. Western Kentucky was in a similar situation in 2007 when they took a one-time donation of $5 million. However, it is Western Kentucky, which plays in the Sun Belt and only recently rose up from the ranks of the FCS...so maybe that one isn't a blunder at all. The other case is that of Wake Forest which signed a 10 year deal but is keeping quiet about the financial details.

Rutgers does have "an escalation clause" in the contract that could increase the value of the deal by $50,000 annually. Congrats, Rutgers. You raised the stakes in the college football arms race, especially in the Big East. That's three football teams out of eight (soon to be nine) that have naming rights deals. West Virginia is about to start selling beer at their stadium... (/shameless naming rights suggestion must give BECB a percentage annually).

Sadly for Rutgers, before we went out and picked Louisville in the SB Nation Conference Re-Draft, we didn't know how much the deal was worth or it might have been the Scarlet Knights in the third round instead. No seriously, there was a strategy to the Louisville selection that we can't tell you or else everyone else would know too.