Class Blog: Naming Rights

Naming rights are something that are taking over the sporting industry. It seems as though pretty much all teams are sponsored by some major company and even most games and events have a title sponsor. College football is where this seems to be most prominent. Every single bowl game has some sort of major sponsor affiliated with it. They range anywhere from the classic Tostito's Fiesta Bowl or the Rose Bowl presented by Vizio or even the Allstate Sugar Bowl all the way to the ridiculous sounding Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl or even the Franklin American Mortgage Music Bowl. Although some of these are classic sponsors and some are some of the most insane sounding things ever, every one of these sponsors do serve a major purpose in the involvement in these games. Sponsors get their name out their everytime the sporting event is shown and in return they should see an increase in business because of this sponsorship. Even professional teams are sponsored by companies. It was huge recent news that the NFL officially changed their uniforms from Reebok to Nike. Who knows, it might not be too much longer till American professional sports teams wear giant sponsor logos on their uniforms like European soccer teams already do.

The Ohio State vs. Michigan matchup is one particular event that could benefit immensely by getting a sponsor for the game. I'm sure every year the campus officials are contacted by multiple Fortune 500 companies to sponsor this humongous rivalry game. Michigan Football is sponsored by Adidas and Ohio State is sponsored by Nike so it would almost have to be a company that each school could mutually agree on such as Gatorade or Verizon Wireless or something like that. I think the major reason as to why this game has not taken on a sponsorship is because of the history and tradition that this game as well as college football has taken on. Just like many classic college stadiums like Ohio State's Horseshoe, The Big House of Michigan, or even Notre Dame Stadium, these places do not have sponsors because it would take away from the classic appeal that makes these programs what they are all about. Of course there is a lot of money if any of these schools ever decided to sponsor The Big Game, but in my opinion you can't put a price on tradition and history.