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College athletics is already changing in a big way, as a recent lawsuit put school players in line to receive direct payments from their alma mater.
To get ahead of that and find new revenue streams, the Big 12 is exploring selling its naming rights to a title sponsor, ESPN reports. The deal would see the conference drop the “Big” from its conference name in favor of the title sponsor’s branding.
Sources told ESPN the deal potentially would generate hundreds of millions for the conference. That would make it one of the largest commercial deals in collegiate athletics history.
The conference will make a decision in the upcoming months, sources told ESPN.
The Big 12 distributed nearly $470 million to its member schools in overall distribution last year, and has a new media deal coming in 2025-26. Still, the league trails the Big Ten and SEC in revenue streams, including the biggest one, TV media rights.
ESPN also reports that the Big 12 has talking to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners about a stake in the league between 15% to 20%. That could give the Big 12 another huge cash infusion as the first private equity investment in college sports.
The Big 12 is losing Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC this year, and is adding Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. They join established league members Baylor, Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, and West Virginia.
