By WVUA 23 Sports Reporter Theodore Fernandez
Seeing as we are in unprecedented times in college athletics, no announcement concerning the NCAA, its athletes, and its schools, or its conferences should really come as a surprise anymore. But it is doubtful that anybody saw Thursday’s headline coming, as it was announced that the Big 12 Conference is considering signing a naming rights deals.
The Big 12 is reportedly in talks with Allstate on a deal that would change the conference’s name for a figure in the range of $30-$50 million annually. The “Allstate 12 Conference” is the leading candidate for the new name, per sources, but other names including the “Big Allstate Conference” have been discussed.
The money would be divided among the conference’s 16 teams. The money would be invaluable for these schools as programs try and compete for championships against schools from the SEC, Big Ten, and ACC. The Big 12’s current media rights deal with FOX and ESPN, which ends in 2031, pays each school $31.7 annually, less than half of the $75 million that Big Ten schools will under under the conference’s new media rights deal with FOX, CBS and NBC.
The Big 12 has also reportedly been in talks with a financial company that may pay even more than Allstate.
In addition, the conference is reportedly considering a private equity investment deal that would see the conference sell a 20% equity stake to Luxembourg-based equity firm CVC Capital Partners. The deal would pay up to $1 billion.
It is worth noting that a deal like this would be nothing new for Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, who previously worked for NASCAR, where he helped finalize a $750 million naming rights deal with Nextel Communications, a subsidiary of what used to be Sprint Communications in 2008, creating the now-iconic NASCAR Sprint Cup Series name. Yormark has not shied away from acknowledging the potential value of big financial moves for the conference.
“Obviously, it’s going to be a changing landscape,” Yormark said at Big 12 spring meetings back in April. “But I also do see opportunities in that changing landscape, and the work really starts now. A lot of work to be done. I look at this as a bit of a reset for our industry. And we’re prepared for that.”
The Big 12 is far from alone, in fact, the majority of the NCAA’s 10 FBS conferences are reportedly at least considering naming rights deals. Conference USA is in talks with life insurance giant Globe Life on a deal that would rename the conference to either “Globe Life Conference USA” or the “Globe Life Conference.”
The fact of the matter is every single dollar could counts right now among NCAA schools. It looks overwhelmingly likely that, without a drastic change, the SEC and Big Ten are going to pull away and become the “Power Two.” The ACC and Big Twelve both have come within inches of death this decade. The ACC was reportedly just one vote away from dissolution, with school like Clemson, Miami, and Florida State looking to exit the conference in favor of a Big Ten or SEC media rights payout.
There are also the lingering threat of schools being dropped from power conferences. As the two Pac-12 schools who were unable to find Power Four homes,Washington State and Oregon State are now stuck competing in the Mountain West Conference, where they will lose tens of millions of dollars over the next decade and likely never again reach the levels of relevance and prestige they held while in the Power Five.
College sports are a cutthroat world. Schools like Wake Forest, Baylor, West Virginia, Rutgers, and California all rank near the bottom of revenue among Power Four schools and also lack winning traditions or strong conference ties, meaning there is relatively little “historical pressure” to keep them in their respective conferences. These universities know that they could ultimately be on the chopping block and could be forced out of any eventual “superconferences” that form down the line, which is why every last penny they can make now makes all the difference.
There is every incentive for conferences to go and do whatever it takes to get its members more money. If Baylor can get an extra $4 million from a naming rights deal, and it can use that money to coax elite prospects to Waco, Tex., and those elite prospects turn into difference-makers for Baylor when they defeat a Big Ten school in a bowl game, then that naming rights deal was completely worth it for Yormark and the entire Big 12.
It is impossible to tell exactly what the timetables for these deals are. We could see teams start play in September as members of the “Allstate 12 Conference,” or this may take much longer to come to fruition. It also remains to be seen just how many conferences bite the bullet and agree to deals. It is very likely that certain conferences, especially the SEC, may err on the side of tradition and refuse to sell its name for extra cash.
Regardless, it looks as though sponsored conference are upon us, and it looks like they are here to stay in college athletics. There truly is no telling what the next development of the NIL-era is going to be.
