Your school's fiercest rivalry is for sale, just like everything else in college sports

Hey there, and thanks for making NIL Wire part of your day.

Last week, more than 90,000 fans descended on the Cotton Bowl for the Texas-Oklahoma game. What many of you might not know is that the game’s official name is the Allstate Red River Rivalry. Today’s dispatch covers the rise in naming rights deals and whether they make sense. Keep reading for more!

— Kyle

You’re just one day away from a new bath or shower.

With Jacuzzi Bath Remodel you can rest assured your bath or shower upgrade is in good hands. With our professional and experienced team, the remodeling process is easy, affordable and stress-free. From a straight-forward quote to complete mess-free installation in as little as one day, we can help you transform your bath or shower into a stunning and relaxing sanctuary where you will love starting your day — and ending your night.

Right now Jacuzzi is waiving all installation costs plus offering no interest and no payments for up to one year.

Learn More

Some installs may take longer. With purchase and installation of any complete bath/shower system from participating third-party Jacuzzi Bath Remodel dealer in your area ("Dealer"). Offer and options will vary by Dealer/location. Not combinable with other offers. Add’l terms apply. Subject to change. Expires 12/28/25. †Financing offer available through third-party lenders under terms of applicable loan program. No interest for 12 months if paid in full within 12 months. Interest will be charged to you from purchase date if purchase balance is not paid in full within 12 months. Subject to credit approval—not all buyers will qualify. Add’l terms apply. See or call Dealer for details.

Your school's fiercest rivalry is for sale, just like everything else in college sports

When a federal credit union in northwest Ohio wanted to expand into Toledo, it turned to sports. 

And when the University of Toledo and Bowling Green were searching for revenue streams, they turned to a local federal credit union to sponsor the Battle of I-75. 

Is this a model for other schools to follow? Rivalries aren’t limited to school pride anymore. They’re emerging as marketable assets, and athletic departments are finding ideal partners eager to invest.  

“If you can extract a little money out of it, I don’t know that it’s particularly problematic,” sports economist Victor Matheson said, “especially if you get enough money out of it to buy yourself a good offensive line.” 

The Red River Rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma first aligned with SBC for a sponsorship in 2000. In 2004, Ohio State and Michigan joined the rivalry-game naming rights chase — for less than 24 hours. The SBC Ohio State-Michigan Classic was announced on Oct. 24. The two-year deal would have paid each school $530,000. But it quickly unraveled after an uproar from fans of both schools. Even Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman raised objections. 

When the deal was nixed, NCAA president Myles Brand called it “a triumph of integrity and tradition over the over-commercialism of a great event.”

How quaint! 

“In college sports, we’ve been slow to fully onboard the necessity of the business part of what we have to do to survive,” Bowling Green athletic director Derek van der Merwe said. “Now that we fully acknowledge the fact that this, whether it’s revenue sharing or NIL deals, has now become so inherent in what we’re trying to do to build programs, it’s much more normalized. I mean, I remember 20 or 30 years ago, we were still holding out, saying we’re not going to put advertising in stadiums, and we’re not going to commercialize this product. 

“Today, given the expectations, the growth of expenses, the challenges associated with fully funding the operation, creativity and innovation are at a premium now. Any partner that’s willing to step into this space to support it, we’ve accepted that.” 

Two decades after Ohio State and Michigan reneged on their deal, we’ve moved beyond the point of a sponsorship sullying a rivalry. The Rose Bowl Game has a presenting sponsor. Ohio Stadium has a Safelite logo on its field. Michigan Stadium has luxury suites. The West Virginia-Marshall series was sponsored by a lobbying group called Friends of Coal. Jersey patches are probably coming next season. 

That’s not to say everyone should roll over and cede to the corporatization of college sports. It’s more of a pick-your-battles situation. If Ohio State-Michigan, Alabama-Auburn and Florida-Florida State have corporate sponsors and logos attached to their rivalries, it won’t dampen the atmosphere or the stakes. Isn’t the price tag worth exploring?

Learfield, the colossal college sports media and technology company, spearheaded sponsorship naming rights for 12 rivalries, including the Allstate Red River Rivalry, the Battle of I-75 sponsored by Fremont Federal Credit Union, the Boeing Apple Cup (Washington-Washington State) and the Dillons Sunflower Showdown (Kansas-Kansas State). 

“For sponsors, rivalry games give them access to two fan bases, typically in their business footprint, with all-sport rivalry programs delivering a year-long conversation with fans,” said Shawn Hegan, Learfield’s executive vice president of global partnerships. “College rivalries often have unique, storied traditions that tie the fan bases together, and the sponsor brands can build on that passion to meet sponsor goals.”

The Toledo-BGSU deal is worth a couple of hundred thousand dollars per year. Figures for the Oklahoma-Texas game are more closely guarded than the nation’s nuclear codes, but the assumption is that each school is getting a few million dollars. Ohio State and Michigan, with their noon time slot on Fox and soaring TV ratings, would be the most valuable regular-season property, potentially bringing in tens of millions for each school. 

In a modern landscape dominated by the need for cash and fan bases that have bought into the idea that money equates to on-field success, a repeat of the 2004 uprising is hard to imagine. But deals still have to make sense for all three parties — the sponsor and the two athletic departments. For the schools, it’s not always about the immediate monetary value. A new sponsor could represent the start of an advantageous relationship. 

“I think that there is an increased demand to find alternative revenue streams in order to maximize revenue yield and to support what we consider as ever-increasing costs and ever-increasing challenges of operating in this climate that is radically changing,” van der Merwe said. “We all acknowledge that we have to be creative, we have to be innovative. And if we’re not going to do it, someone else will. This rivalry was a great opportunity to capitalize.”

A northwest Ohio federal credit union makes sense for Toledo and Bowling Green. A partnership between Boeing and the Apple Cup is a no-brainer. Iowa Corn’s sponsorship of the Iowa-Iowa State series is obvious. First Interstate Bank, which has locations throughout the Great Plains, is a match for South Dakota-South Dakota State. 

“If we’re going to grow and expand and serve a larger area, we’re not just serving the area, we’re serving the people in that area,” Fremont Federal Credit Union CEO Nicholas Cray said. “So we were looking very much for opportunities to engage with as much of the community as possible. The Battle of I-75 definitely does do that. It aligns very closely with our commitment to education, and it gave us a chance to partner with, frankly, two fantastic universities in the markets we serve. All of the stars really just aligned for us to be able to support that sponsorship.”

One recent money move did prove controversial: Georgia Tech’s decision to shift a home game against arch-rival Georgia to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, marking the first time since 1913 that the game will be played off-campus. The Invesco QQQ Atlanta Gridiron Classic has a different ring than Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate, the moniker given to the Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry. 

Each school is receiving $10 million in guaranteed money, nearly half of its annual revenue-sharing payment. Georgia is getting another $7.5 million in 2026 when the Florida-Georgia game is played in Atlanta while the Jacksonville Jaguars’ stadium is being renovated.

“This was not a decision that was made lightly,” then-Georgia Tech athletic director J Batt said last year. “As I noted earlier, embarking on the new era of college athletics requires exploring new revenue sources, as that is paramount to our goal of competing for championships at the highest level.” 

Mercedes-Benz Stadium seats 25,000 more people than Georgia Tech’s home stadium, and it’s located only a few miles from campus. The problem: The game wasn’t part of Georgia Tech’s season-ticket package, though its fans were given seating priority. 

“We’ve got to find revenue streams to support operational costs,” van der Merwe said, echoing athletic directors from sea to shining sea.

He’s not wrong. The unfortunate reality, though, is that in the never-ending frenzied rush for cash, fans are often caught in the middle. But should their sensibilities be offended if a logo and bank name get branded alongside their alma mater’s rivalry game? 

The Magic 8 Ball says: Don't count on it.

“There’s going to be more and more things commercialized,” Matheson said. “I suspect the biggest thing coming that will be the most shocking, but also the most amount of money, would be naming rights on jerseys. What’s wildly surprising is not naming rights coming to jerseys, but the fact that it’s taken so long.”