Your College Football Team, Now Brought to You by Whiskey

At SHI Stadium at Rutgers University, advertisements for Eric LeGrand Whiskey flashed across the Jumbotron and on digital billboards during football games this season as bartenders used it to whip up old-fashioned cocktails in premium seating areas.

Last year, Rutgers University Athletics partnered with the whiskey, its very first partnership with a spirits brand. Now during home games, it’s everywhere.

Fans have started tailgating with it, said Bill Tankiewicz, 48, a Rutgers football fan who works in finance and lives in South Plainfield, N.J. “We take the bottle and have shots of it before the game,” he said, laughing. “Tailgating is the best part of football anyway, and this makes it more fun.”

No one is more tickled by it than Eric LeGrand, the former Rutgers football player who was paralyzed during a game in 2010 and went on to create a namesake bourbon. Mr. LeGrand reached out to the Rutgers athletic department to see if they wanted to work together. “This is my home away from home,” he said.

Eric LeGrand, a former Rutgers football player who was paralyzed during a game, reached out to the university with a business opportunity regarding his namesake bourbon.Credit…Anthony Nazario for The New York Times

In the last couple of years, alcohol brands have begun directly sponsoring college athletic departments for the first time. A number of teams competing in the College Football Playoff, which kicks off Friday, have recently partnered with spirit companies. Last year, Teeling Whiskey announced its four-year sponsorship of Notre Dame. In August, Buckeye Vodka became a sponsor of Ohio State Athletics and Ole Smoky Distillery became the “