The Big 12 Conference could be in line for a massive windfall as it explores selling naming rights for the conference, according to a report from ESPN on June 13.
“The Big 12 is exploring selling its naming rights to a title sponsor, with potential revenue of hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of the deal, sources told ESPN on Thursday,” wrote ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “The commercial sponsor would potentially take the name ‘Big’ out of Big 12 and replace it with the sponsor's name. It could end up as one of the largest commercial deals in collegiate athletics history, not including media rights.”
So, for example, if Apple were to buy naming rights for the Big 12 Conference it would then become the “Apple 12 Conference” — weird, right?
The Big 12 finds itself in a time of massive changes. The Big 12 will have 16 teams in 2024 and has added eight new schools in the last two years while the two most recognizable teams in the Big 12, Texas and Oklahoma, leave to join the SEC in 2024.
In 2023, the Big 12 added BYU, Houston, UCF and Cincinnati. In 2024, the Big 12 adds four teams from the Pac-12 Conference with Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado, which was a member of the Big Eight and then the Big 12 from 1948 to 2010.
