Law School Buys Naming Rights to Minor League Stadium

We've discussed all kinds of naming rights deal on this blog, but I think this one is unique.  Sure, the University of Phoenix put its name on the Cardinals dome in Glendale, but UoP advertises so much, it would be impossible to spend more than ten minutes online and not be hit with a UoP popup ad.  Now, comes the illustrious Thomas M. Cooley Law School who goes and buys the naming rights to the home stadium of the Lansing Lugnuts, a stadium that is currently known as Oldsmobile Park.  That's right, it's named after a defunct automobile brand.  You might expect the University of Phoenix to advertise or even purchase naming since it is a for profit enterprise, whose parent corporation Apollo Group, Inc., is publicly traded.  However, Cooley is a nonprofit law school, with supposedly the best interest of its students as it primary focus.

Just what is Cooley Law School, for those of you who are not familiar with the legal education landscape.  Cooley is a fourth tier school, with a student population of just under 3,900 students.  For comparison sake, my law school class started with 140 students and was closer to 100 by graduation.  I think the answer to the question of why a law school would seek to put its name on a minor league baseball stadium is easily found in that statistic alone. 

Instead of using the tuition dollars from that vast pool of students to improve the faculty and the placement office, which in this desperate job market for lawyers needs all the help it can get, it decides a far better use of such funds is to name a minor league baseball stadium?  I don't know what the naming rights cost Cooley, but GM was paying $1.5 million for the rights.  Cooley got a deal since it is only paying $1,485,000 over the 11 year life of the naming rights agreement.  Nevertheless, I guess it's more important to get all the tuition dollars you possibly can, then it is to educate the students once you have their money.  That could be why Cooley has the level of respect within the profession that it does.