SPRING IS THE time of change, new beginnings and ... naming rights deals for Cougar football? Washington State President Kirk Schulz tells Cougfan.com he is optimistic that by the end of the spring, WSU will be able to announce naming rights deals for both the field at Martin Stadium and the Cougar Football Complex. Schulz said dialog is ongoing with “several potential partners.”

Cougfan.com broke the story in April that WSU and Darigold were in serious, though far-from-complete, discussions focused on field naming rights.

Schulz of course wouldn't name names of any kind in our conversation but tells CF.C he is "optimistic we’ll make an announcement on some form of corporate agreement, if you will, sometime during the spring semester.”

While naming rights for the WSU soccer complex and other venues also are being discussed, he said, the field at Martin Stadium and the Cougar Football Complex are front and center of current talks.

Schulz said a deal to rename Martin Stadium itself also is a possibility but not the current focus.

“We’re having discussions on several of them, but I think the ones we’re really focused on right now is the football operations building and the field at Martin Stadium -- and it’s the field IN Martin Stadium, not the field AND Martin Stadium. Those are the two we’re focused on ...” he said.

The timing of it all is working in Washington State’s favor with the Cougars coming off a school-record 11-win season, and owning 37 victories over the past four years -- the 11-th best mark in the Power 5 over that timeframe.

“The good news is our football product is seen as really nationally relevant, exciting, and there is lots of interest seen in what we’re doing along the West Coast,” said Schulz. “So we’re in a really good point in time to be talking about some of these things with potential partners.”

The size and terms of the deals being considered are not known publicly.

The field at Martin Stadium has never been named. The idea began to gain currency more than a decade ago when former athletic director Jim Sterk, in the days before college football TV money soared, searched for ways to fund facilities improvements and floated the notion of selling both field-naming rights and rights to renaming Martin.

Related commentary: Time is now to rename Martin Stadium

MARTIN STADIUM OPENED IN 1972 ON TOP of the old Rogers Field, and the naming rights cost the family of former Gov. Clarence Martin a total of $250,000. It doesn't appear the donation carried stipulations on the length the name had to stay on the venue.

When Sterk first began talking about field- and stadium-naming rights, the numbers believed targeted under 10-year deals were $5 million to $10 million for the life of the contract for the field and $10 million to $20 million for the stadium name.

Based on CF.C’s cursory research, most deals for naming rights have involved renaming stadiums rather than fields. One exception was Cal’s Kabam Field at Memorial Stadium -- a $1.2 million per year deal ($18 million total) -- which was cancelled after three years. The going rate for major-college stadium renaming appears to be in the $1 million-plus per year category.

Two of the nation's most notable field-naming deals are in the Pac-12, with USC's $4.7 million per year pact with United Airlines and Washington's $4.1 million per year agreement with Alaska Airlines

Also from our recent conversation with President Schulz:

RANKING THE 2018 COUGS: Are they WSU's best team ever?