The former M.M. Roberts Stadium at Southern Miss is now Renasant Stadium, named for Renasant Bank. This is welcome news for far more than the 13.7 million obvious reasons.
No: 1, Tupelo-based Renasant, which purchased The First Bank of Hattiesburg in 2025, will pay Southern Miss athletics a badly needed $13.7 million over 10 years for the naming rights to the stadium.
Rick Cleveland
No. 2, and more importantly in my mind, the stadium is no longer named for Malcolm Mettle (M.M.) Roberts, the self-avowed racist and Hattiesburg lawyer, who chaired the state’s Institutions of Higher Learning when the expansion of the stadium was funded in the 1970s. For nearly half a century, Black athletes such as Reggie Collier, Sammy Winder, Jerald Baylis, Hanford Dixon, Damien Fletcher and Frank Gore, Jr. and hundreds more have spearheaded Southern Miss football to victories in a stadium named for a man who would have preferred they never be allowed to attend college there. Roberts died in 1982.
That was blatantly wrong. Anybody who has read this column over the years might have noticed I nearly always referred to the stadium by its nickname, “The Rock,” rather than by its official name. Perhaps it was my own little protest, but I’m glad I don’t have to do it any longer.
M.M. Roberts was appointed chairman of the state College Board in 1959 by Gov. Ross Barnett. Roberts presided over the board when James Meredith at first was denied admission to Ole Miss. Indeed, Roberts later voted to withhold Meredith’s hard-earned degree from Ole Miss.
In a speech to professors at USM, Roberts once said these words: “But as I’ve gone along through the years and looked back, I’ve said to myself really that I am a racist. Every time I read a definition I say, ‘Well, that’s me.’ I have no apologies for it, though. It’s me.”
File this name change in the folder called: Goodbye, good riddance.
Enough of that. Let’s examine what this means for Southern Miss athletics and Mississippi sports in general. In short, expect more of the same to follow.
The deal between Southern Miss and Renasant breaks the ice in Mississippi as far as corporate sponsorships and naming rights. Such deals have become common around the country, from Kroger Field at Kentucky, to the Carrier Dome at Syracuse, to Hancock Whitney Stadium at South Alabama, to Hard Rock Stadium at Miami and Heinz Field at Pittsburgh.
As Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter has put it, “It’s all about revenue generation these days.”
The cost of funding college athletics programs continues to skyrocket higher and higher in this age of Name, Image and Likeness, known as the NIL, and the transfer portal. Starting quarterbacks at Power Four schools can make $5 million and more. Friday night starters in the SEC can make half a million a year. An All-American point guard can command millions.
The fundraising issue is magnified at mid-major schools like Southern Miss, which doesn’t receive the more than $70 million annual distribution the Southeastern Conference doles out. The $13.7 million is a huge chunk for USM. While it doesn’t solve funding issues, it certainly helps. The 10-year deal begins with a $500,000 payment this year, escalating to a $1.64 million payment in 2036.
You can expect more deals like this at Southern Miss and other Mississippi schools. There will be corporate patches on jerseys and headgear – think PGA Tour.
And there will be more, such as corporate names for entertainment districts that surround stadiums. In Mississippi, this begins with Renasant Stadium at Southern Miss. Again, much, much more will follow — and soon.
