Welcome to SEC Unfiltered, the USA TODAY NETWORK’s newsletter on SEC sports. Look for this newsletter in your inbox Monday through Friday. Today, SEC columnist Blake Toppmeyer takes over:
P.T. Barnum got a new idea. This one pertains to college sports. How fitting, considering college athletics is a bit of a circus.
Excuse me, it’s not Barnum who thought up this bright new idea on how to generate more cash from suckers. It’s Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark.
I sometimes get the two confused.
Yormark’s Big 12 is considering selling off naming rights to the conference in a move that would generate tens of millions in annual revenue, according to multiple reports.
Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported that the Allstate 12 Conference is a leading contender for the conference’s new name, if a deal is reached with the insurance giant.
This is unsurprising. Yormark pushes the boundaries and makes deals other commissioners wouldn’t — or at least haven’t yet.
To wit, Yormark previously hatched “Big 12 Mexico,” with plans to play Big 12 games across the border in a number of sports, including men’s and women’s basketball and potentially football.
Already, schools are selling off stadium naming rights. Bowl games are sponsored. Corporate sponsor logos are coming to college football fields. Sponsored jersey patches might be next. Even some coaching positions generate revenue via endowments. You might know Troy Taylor as Stanford’s football coach, but technically, he’s the Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football.
In college athletics, it’s anything to make a buck.
The SEC and Big Ten used new media rights deals to further extend their financial lead, while the Big 12 and ACC try to keep up. On a separate front, schools likely will be cornered into sharing revenue with athletes starting in 2025, a new annual expense of $20-plus million. Those developments leave individual schools and conferences evaluating their budgets and lifting rocks in search of new revenue sources.
When you need more money, you either tighten the belt or you cook up new revenue.
When was the last time you can remember College Athletics Inc. tightening the belt? Many speculated that the COVID pandemic in 2020 would result in more penny-pinching. Then Tennessee offered Jeremy Pruitt a raise and extension, and Auburn swallowed a $21 million buyout to fire Gus Malzahn, who’d never had a losing season.
Penny-pinching? Ha. Major Division I athletic departments won’t stand for that. Better to pass on the bill.
Selling off conference naming rights would hardly be the goofiest idea. And it’s not like the Big 12 would be betraying some rich history. The conference grew out of the Big Eight. Four of those Big Eight teams now call a different conference home. For years, the Big 12 operated with 10 members.
So, would the Allstate 12 really be that strange?
This isn’t Barnum’s only million-dollar idea. (Excuse me, Yormark. There I go again.)
CBS Sports reported that the Big 12 is considering inviting private equity into its henhouse and selling off a 15% to 20% stake in the conference to an equity and investment firm based in Luxembourg.
Ah, yes, Luxembourg, a known great supporter of American college sports.
Next up: Big 12 Luxembourg, wherein Barnum hawks the idea of sponsored handball matches played across the Atlantic Ocean.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered.
