As naming rights deals have gradually encroached on North American sports over the past six decades, most college football stadiums have remained blissfully unadorned. Michigan Stadium is still Michigan Stadium, Notre Dame Stadium is still Notre Dame Stadium, and so on and so forth.
However, that may not remain the case forever—especially with the settlement of House v. NCAA on May 23, which will effectively force colleges to compensate their athletes.
In a Saturday conversation with David Briggs of The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork was asked whether the Buckeyes would ever consider selling the naming rights to Ohio Stadium. The administrator was noncommittal.
"Obviously, there's a lot of historic value in that and what that means. If you go back to how they raised the money to build the stadium, every county contributed, and they did not want to take away from state dollars or tuition dollars," Bjork said. "If that ever has to get put on the table, it's the same conversation. At this point in time, you can never say never on anything."
Ohio Stadium was constructed in 1922 as (at the time) the largest poured-concrete structure in the world. It cost $1.49 million (about $28 million today), and was indeed financed via a statewide donation drive.
The Buckeyes would not be the first high-profile program to strike a naming rights deal—USC, for instance, has an arrangement with United Airlines for its playing field—but a complete rechristening of "The Horseshoe" would signal a brave new world in college-athletics commercialism.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ohio State AD Ross Bjork Won't Rule Out Potential Future Stadium Naming Rights Sale.
