I thought the news from the Big 12 yesterday was a joke when I initially read it. No way would a College conference put an energy drink’s name in front of its own, right?
Guess again. That’s exactly what they did. They sold the naming rights to their entire identity, rebranding as the Monster Energy Big 12 Conference.
This is not only an embarrassment to the conference, but it opens the door to copycats. I can see it now, Olive Garden Audacy. Car Shield’s Daily Wire. CitiBank ESPN. Spend enough and maybe I’ll become JetBlue’s Jason Barrett.
Let’s look at the math for a second. Twenty million annually for the entire conference. Divided among sixteen member schools that amounts to roughly one million dollars per program per year. Doesn’t that seem awfully low to own the identity of an entire conference?
But wait, it gets worse.
The deal is for conference naming rights over two sports, football and men and women’s basketball. However, a name change like this most certainly impacts every other sport. There is no separation in the eyes of the public. Furthermore, if you add up the total amount of football and basketball games each season, each school plays roughly 70-75 games. Assuming the twenty million figure is correct, that means each school receives roughly 15K per game to rename an entire conference.
Owning the conference’s name is bad enough, but this deal also includes co-branded jersey patches worn by every team in football and basketball, co-branded logos on every playing field and basketball court, and a renaming of the conference’s regular seasons — now officially known as “Monster Energy Big 12 Football” and “Monster Energy Big 12 Basketball.” Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark labeled Monster Energy as the conference’s “entitlement partner” for both sports.
This is the equivalent of a radio sales person selling a $300 per month package to a client for one hundred spots, ownership of a show’s podcast channel, and the naming rights to the media company.
I want to be clear, this isn’t an emotional response. My interest in the Big 12 is low. This is simply business analysis. There is no justifiable explanation to sell a conference’s identity for peanuts. Stupid short-term decisions create long-term consequences. It reminds me of when Major League Baseball tried to replace Cracker Jacks with Crunch and Munch in the early 2000’s. The powers that be forgot that the 7th inning stretch literally said “Buy me some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks“. Fans were not going to insert the Crunch and Munch name into the popular song, let alone buy the product. They revolted as soon as they heard about it.
The difference is, this is much worse.
The Big 12 Conference is 31 years old. It has produced Heisman Trophy winners, Final Four programs, and national championships. Kansas basketball. Texas football. Oklahoma’s dynasty. These are identities built over decades of genuine cultural investment that no sponsorship dollar can replicate or accelerate. When you put an energy drink’s name in front of your own, you are making a statement about what your brand is actually worth to you.
The statement the Big 12 made this week is that it is worth $20 million annually. That number might sound significant until you compare it to what the Big Ten and SEC generate in media rights deals. They earn billions. Twenty million is not a landmark deal for a Power Four conference. It is a sign that the conference needs money so bad they might soon let fans bid to call plays.
Every advertiser and sponsor currently associated with the Big 12 now operates under a brand umbrella that identifies an energy drink ahead of a college athletics conference. Sponsorship is a prestige business. Companies pay to be associated with names that carry cultural authority. When the name of a conference becomes subordinate to the name of a sponsor, the conference’s ability to attract premium partnership dollars from companies that require that authority is diminished — not enhanced.
Yormark called this deal “the first of its kind” in college athletics. He is right. It is the first of its kind. Because no executive has been dumb enough to devalue their conference’s reputation and identity for a one dollar holler.
The history of media and sports business is full of organizations that chased short-term revenue at the expense of long-term brand equity. The Big 12 may look back at this deal as necessary survival in a restructured college athletics landscape. Or it may look back at it as the moment it decided an energy drink was worth more than its soul.
Either way, it made a choice. Publicly. Without fully understanding the negative stain it’d leave on its reputation. If they did any research, it must’ve been done by the group that told Cracker Barrell to change its logo.
Fans are going to dislike this move. That’s not hard to figure out. But the conference might want to take some of that newfound money to investigate whether their identity was worth more than the equivalent of a Jelly of the Month Club membership. Better yet, they can save their time and money and just read this column. It doesn’t take a genius to know that staining your name is a bad business decision. The least they could’ve done was partnered with McDonalds to put the Big 12 logo on the Extra Value Meals Menu.
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Jason Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Barrett Media. The company launched in September 2015 and has provided consulting services to America’s top audio and video brands, while simultaneously covering the media industry at BarrettMedia.com, becoming a daily destination for media professionals. Prior to Barrett Media, Jason built and programmed 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He was also the first sports programmer for SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, which later became 97.5 The Fanatic. Barrett also led 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY, and worked on-air and behind the scenes at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years at ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT producing ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ and ‘GameNight’. JB can be reached on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.