Florida Atlantic University made the news last week -- for all the wrong reasons.
They officially have taken the thug nature of The National Religion to the next level!
They are at least close to a naming-rights deal for their football stadium with the GEO Group.
The GEO Group is a private prison firm -- notorious for abusive conduct of their prisoners.
Fits in right well with the current nature of football, especially down there in Florida and the like, don't you think?
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This story got a friend of mine thinking, and asked me to do a research project...
Well, I found this article from Business Week...
It's a slideshow of the 23 NFL stadiums (including the currently-constructing Farmers' Field in Los Angeles) with corporate naming rights (as of August, 2011). (9 stadiums do not.)
What my friend wanted to know is the correlation between the year of the contract and berths in the NFL playoffs.
So, let's group them by year:
1997: San Diego. (Qualcomm) Chargers went 4-12, would not make the playoffs until 2004-05.
1999: Washington (Fed Ex) Went 10-6, won the NFC East and a playoff game. First playoff berth in seven years; would be six seasons before they returned.
1999: Tampa Bay (Raymond James) Went 11-5, won the NFC South, defeated the aforemented Redskins in the Divisional Round. Made the playoffs the next three years, culminating in a Super Bowl title.
2001: Pittsburgh (Heinz -- though it should be noted that the Steelers and Heinz have had a long-standing partnership) 13-3, Home Field Advantage, lost to the Patriots in the controversial AFC Championship.
2002: Saint Louis (Edward Jones) After back-to-back Super Bowl trips, they went 7-9. They did make the playoffs the next two years, though.
2002: Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial) 12-4, Home Field Advantage, lost to Tampa Bay in the NFC Championship.
2002: Detroit (Ford, though the Ford family has ownership of the Lions) 3-13, hadn't been to the playoffs in three seasons, would be 2011 before they got a playoff berth.
2002: Houston (Reliant) Their first season in the league, they went 4-12. Would also be 2011 before they got to the playoffs.
2003: New England (Gilette) Already with one Super Bowl under their wing, they would win the next two.
2003: Baltimore (M&T Bank) 10-6, win the AFC North. Would be 2006 before they got back to the playoffs, but have been there every year since 2008.
2004: Carolina (Bank of America) 7-9, would make the NFC Championship the next season.
2004: Seattle (Qwest then, Qwest has been acquired by CenturyLink) 9-7, won the NFC West, second of five consecutive playoff appearances, defeated the aforementioned Carolina in the NFC Championship to get to the Super Bowl the next season, only to get ran over by the stripes.
2006: Tennessee (LP) 8-8, would make the playoffs the next two years.
2006: Phoenix (University of Phoenix) 5-11, would make the Super Bowl two years later.
2008: Indianapolis (Lucas Oil, another long-time sponsor) 12-4, only got them the Wild Card. (6 teams in the AFC were 11-5 or better, and, since none were in the AFC West, one of the 11-5s got left out!) Lost in the Katrina Super Bowl the next year.
2010: Minnesota (Mall of America) 6-10 after being one Khan Noonian Favre interception/Bountygate plot from making the Super Bowl.
2010: New York (Met Life): Giants went 10-6 and didn't make the playoffs. (They'd win the Super Bowl the next year.) Jets went 11-5 and lost to the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game.
2011: Jacksonville (Everbank) 5-11.
2011: Oakland (O.co/Overstock.com) 8-8. Haven't been to the playoffs since the ill-fated Super Bowl with Jon Gruden.
2011: Denver (Invesco) 8-8, "won" the AFC West and a playoff game with Tebow Time.
2011: Miami (Sun Life) 6-10
So, to summarize:
Of the 23 teams with current corporate naming rights on stadiums:
10 made the playoffs.
5 more made the playoffs within two years.
At least a half a dozen had an imminent Super Bowl berth.
So could there be at least a playoff causation with new stadium naming rights in the NFL? I'd say it's very possible!
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