By Mike Vorkunov and Tom Luicci/The Star-Ledger

Tom Mendiburu was traveling with the Nets to London in March, his company having already signed on as one of the founding sponsors of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, when conversation turned to Rutgers University.

Nets CEO Brett Yormark also runs Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment — hired last summer to secure naming rights for Rutgers Stadium. He presented an idea to Mendiburu: Would his Sussex County company, High Point Solutions, be interested?

It took only one meeting between the fast-growing supplier of online server and router hardware — founded by Tom and his brother Mike — and Rutgers brass to reach a deal in principle later that month.

The 10-year, $6.5 million contract will result in Rutgers Stadium being named High Point Solutions Stadium, according to a person familiar with deal who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

Neither High Point Solutions nor Rutgers detailed the financial commitment, which will be formally announced during a news conference Tuesday.

The deal was first reported on NJ.com, The Star-Ledger's real-time news and information site.

While the initial parameters of the deal would pay Rutgers $650,000 annually, another person familiar

with the deal said naming-rights deals often include escalation clauses — and the annual value could climb to more than $1 million.

Other recent university deals include the University of Central Florida and Bright House Networks, who agreed to a $15 million, 15-year deal in 2006, and the University of Maryland, which signed a $20 million, 25-year deal the same year for its football stadium.

“I am satisfied and excited,” said Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti, without mentioning High Point by name. “The climate is difficult for everybody. ... We feel really, really good about it, not only given the climate but also because we were being picky about a partner. We were trying to find someone who has the same core values and a New Jersey-based company. And in the end, we’re thrilled with the results.”

The name of the game for Rutgers has become financial independence for its athletic department. During the 2008-09 school year, Rutgers’ athletic revenue was $159,641 more than its expenses, according to the USA Today college athletics finance database. However, that included a nearly $18 million state subsidy.

“I don’t feel like we have an expense problem; we have a revenue problem. ... Our goal is to become a financially self-sufficient organization,” Pernetti said. “Now it’s not going to happen overnight, but you’ve got to get on a path to get there.”

The contract is still waiting for final signatures, Tom Mendiburu said, but the heavy lifting is done.

“First meeting we had just felt right,” said Mendiburu, who oversaw High Point’s boom from $200,000 in sales in 1996 to $60 million by 2000, according to a 2001 story in Inc. magazine. “It was a natural fit. And then we decided to go ahead and make the agreement.”

For a set of Jersey-born-and-bred brothers, aligning themselves with the state’s university wasn’t that hard a decision.

“It’s kind of surreal,” Mike Mendiburu said. “Look at where we came from. We started in our home in northern Sussex County and now we’re marquee sponsors for a leading football team in the United States. That’s a big deal. ... We’re really proud to be associated with Rutgers.”

Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano, after news of the deal broke during his annual golf outing today at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club in Bedminster, declined to comment until Tuesday’s news conference.

The Mendiburu brothers started High Point in 1996 in Wantage, right near High Point State Park, the inspiration for their company’s name. Tuesday, the company is an IT, networking and infrastructure solutions company primarily serving large corporations (Cisco, Lucent and Nortel are clients) and big enough to become a major investor in the sports naming realm as part of their “market focus.”

In 2009, High Point struck a five-year, $3.2 million deal for the naming rights on the Chairman’s Club at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Nets’ future home. And earlier this year, the brothers came to a five-year, $1 million sponsorship agreement with Quinnipiac University to lend the business’ name to their multi-purpose arena.

“This is our first football sponsorship and our first stadium,” Mike Mendiburu said. “I think it’s a win-win. It’s a win for New Jersey, it’s a win for Rutgers, it’s a win for High Point.”

The search for Rutgers Stadium’s naming rights began publicly last June. Lasting 10 days short of a year, “there was no shortage of interest from C-level executives (chief executive and operating officers) across the state and the New York area,” said Lawton Logan, the senior vice president for U.S. Business Development at IMG College, a partner with BS&E in the process.

“Rutgers and their athletic department are very highly regarded.”