Half of top 10 most lucrative college stadium naming rights deals aren’t with Power 5 schools
Conventional wisdom says that schools in Power 5 conferences — the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — should be getting the richest deals for everything. The facts, as usual, defy that conventional wisdom.
Sports Business Journal has released its list of the top 10 most lucrative stadium naming rights deals in college sports. Only four of the facilities which made the list are attached to Power 5 institutions, defying expectations that most fans of college sports would have for the list.
Even the four Power 5 schools which are on the list are probably somewhat of a surprise to fans. At the top is USC, which recently closed a record-breaking deal with United Airlines.
The rest of the list is as follows:
Most expensive college stadium naming rights deals ranked by avg annual value, per SBJ. #sponsorship #sportsbiz pic.twitter.com/4AQgIMShEu
— Windy Dees (@getDeestweets) May 22, 2017
To be thorough, four of the top five are Power 5 institutions, and Houston was recently considered a strong contender for admittance to the Big 12 had the conference voted to expand. Additionally, many Power 5 teams call TD AmeriTrade Park a temporary “home” during the College World Series.
To further understand this fact correctly, it must be understood that many Power 5 institutions simply haven’t ever sold naming rights for their stadiums. If that were more of a common practice among Power 5 schools, this list would be filled with the names fans would expect.
Next: 25 Ugliest Alternate Uniforms In History
The extra revenue that naming rights deals provide is the exact reason why five of the schools on the list come from outside of the Power 5 structure. Power 5 schools get the equivalents of the amounts on this list from many sources such as broadcast rights and conference payouts. Schools like Boise State and North Texas don’t receive such lucrative payments from other sources and thus have sold the naming rights to their stadiums as a method of staying competitive.
USC’s recent deal might be the beginning of change on this topic, and if Power 5 schools selling the naming rights to their stadiums becomes more common, expect the presence of schools from other conferences to vanish from this list. For now, however, this is one area in which the schools outside the Power 5 have a chance to be competitive.