Taxing College Sports Could Yield Big Money for Uncle Sam

We've become so accustomed to corporate sponsorships of sports that we don't even blink anymore when stadiums are named after banks and airline companies, even on college campuses. Millions of dollars are exchanged and made when shoe companies get to sponsor sports teams. And how many times have you heard a friend joke about the Potato Chip Bowl or the Computer Company Bowl in college football?

Well, a new report by the Congressional Budget Office says that there's money to be made off of those sponsorships, and the government isn't taking advantage. By 2017, the report says, the government could generate more than $200 million in revenue if it started taxing the money made by institutions through sponsorships.

Right now, the money made from these sponsorships is deemed "qualified sponsorship payments," the report says. The goal is to change that.

"Corporations that purchase naming rights to college football bowl games effectively pay less for advertising than they would to purchase similar services from a for-profit organization, such as a professional football team, whose income from the advertising would be taxable at the corporate rate," the report says.

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