When the Gophers open their 2021 football season with a home game on Sept. 2 against Ohio State, they could be doing so in a stadium that carries the name of a bank based in Columbus, Ohio, rather than a longtime Minnesota institution.

TCF Financial — whose name is on TCF Bank Stadium and whose Minnesota roots run to the 1920s — will merge with Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares in a deal valued at $22 billion, it was announced Monday. The combined company will use the Huntington name, and the stadium at some point is expected to bear that name.

"It will become Huntington over time," Steve Steinour, CEO of Huntington, told the Star Tribune regarding the stadium's name. "We run with a single brand. But we want to be sensitive to the history and the legacy of TCF, and the stadium, so there's work we'll have to do with the university and other interested parties."

A university spokesman didn't have a timeline for the name change.

"At this point, we're aware of the announced merger, and we will be discussing with Huntington Bancshares leadership what this change will mean for the naming of what is currently TCF Bank Stadium," the spokesman said in a statement.

The contract between TCF and the university is in its 15th year of a 26-year, $35 million sponsorship agreement.