Ohio Stadium, home of The Ohio State Buckeyes, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this football season with a brand new field sponsor. The school put in new turf over the summer and with it a new sponsor logo will show up on the 25 yard line. Safelite Field as it will now be known for the foreseeable future, the first time that the venue as a whole has been referred to officially as anything but Ohio Stadium.

College football stadiums are thought by many to be sacred grounds and therefore history plays a big piece of the mystique. Changing the name to one of the historically great stadiums in college football would cause an uproar like some could never imagine and because of that, schools are forfeiting millions of dollars in potential sponsorship money. Money drives every level of collegiate athletics and having those extra funds can mean the construction of a new facility, that brings in new athletes, that fills that stands each Saturday, that pours money into the coffers of the university. Pretty compelling.

Ohio State seems to have sidestepped the issues associated with renaming their iconic stadium by just taking money for some paint on their new turf. The terms of the deal with Safelite were undisclosed but one would have to imagine it is a healthy sum of cash to get the right to be the first ever field sponsor of one of the most successful programs in the history of college football.

This isn't a new idea on campus, Ohio State borrowed from themselves as their basketball stadium, the Schottenstein Center named their arena, Value City Arena. Double dipping if you will by honoring the Schottenstein family gift and naming rights but still cashing in on yearly corporate sponsorship within the building.

Where there could now be issues is those actually using the name. To continue with the Schottenstein example, if you watch a television broadcast they refer to the location as Value City Arena, not the Schottenstein Center. No one is up in arms about that because the building was constructed in the late 90s so history is not one of the factors in fan association. Ohio Stadium is the exact opposite.

Ohio Stadium is steeped in tradition and the grounds being referred to as anything but that, "The Shoe," "The Horseshoe," or the like will certainly cause some strife. The narrative in society as a whole is that people and organizations would do anything for an extra buck and this could fall squarely into those beliefs. Hearing on a tv broadcast, "We're here in Columbus, Ohio at Safelite Field..." is likely to ruffle some feathers and it is understandable. Change is hard to swallow for many and change for the sole purpose of making more corporate money doesn't make the idea better.

Ohio State fans are the most dedicated fans in the country and renaming the turf in Ohio Stadium is not going to change that. However, that isn't going to mean that they won't make noise about it. The casual fan may not care but that is not what most OSU fans claim to be, so complaints and annoyances will be heard from the group.

But if you look at it from the school's perspective. Fans may grumble for a little while but that is not going to stop them from attending games, buying merchandise and watching on tv. Far outweighing any downside to the new Safelite Field at Ohio Stadium.

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Saints Sports Network is a Christian group that brings you interesting sports coverage. Our name comes from Ephesians 2:18-21 where it notes that all Christians are saints in God's eyes. Therefore we are saints who write about sports but also want to make sure to share the Gospel. That's where Mound Visit comes into play because we all need a visit to the mound from God in good times and bad to recenter our lives and trust in him. We'll do that by highlighting a Bible verse for you to think and pray about in each newsletter that you receive from us.