U. of Phoenix buys naming rights to Cardinals stadium

There is nothing wrong with showing pride in ones alma mater and today I couldn’t help but picture a pimp-strutting Sam Craighead bopping around town with a big shit-eating grin on his face, in his bright purple University of Phoenix Online varsity letter jacket.

You see, the NFL's Arizona Cardinals have a new $455 million football stadium to play in this season. And under a naming-rights deal announced today, the retractable-dome facility in suburban Glendale will be rechristened University of Phoenix Stadium.

The stadium naming venture is part of a marketing effort aimed at emphasizing the university's success with students, Apollo (the University of Phoenix parent company)’s president Brian Mueller said.

"Our next step is to tell the story of an innovative institution that provides programs for working adult students and gives them a chance to do things," he said. "It's a rigorous process and the ones that make it put a lot into it."

Sam’s PhD in the Blogging Sciences just got a little shinier today.