Is the Big 12 short-sighted in title naming rights deal with Monster Energy?

FRISCO, Texas — As the Big 12 positions itself as a “global” conference, it signed over a major portion of its naming rights ahead of the upcoming college football season, commissioner Brett Yormark announced Tuesday.

With Monster Energy drinks dotting the numerous media tables and an all-you-can-drink station at the back of The Star, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, Yormark stood before a video screen that featured the logos of the Big 12 and its “official energy drink.”

It wasn’t just a nice gesture to caffeinate the assembled media and sponsor one of the largest energy drink companies in the world, but a physical embodiment of the Big 12’s new “entitlement partnership” — or essentially the title naming rights for the conference — for football and men’s and women’s basketball.

“Monster Energy represents drive, edge, ambition — qualities that mirror our student athletes and the Big 12 Conference,” Yormark declared. “Our multi-year partnership is a first-of-its kind, built on the right brand and cultural alignment.”

In short, the conference will be heavily connected with Monster Energy for the next few years. But will it have any meaningful impact to a conference fighting for relevancy in a structure heavily weighted toward the Big Ten and SEC?

Details of the new naming deal

Get ready to hear “Monster Energy Big 12 Football” and “Monster Energy Big 12 Basketball” a lot over the next few years.

Not only will the conference use the name Monster before the name of its conference in every regular season setting, but the new partnership will also feature a co-branded logo on a patch for football and basketball jerseys — the first such sponsorship patch deal for a conference — and a similar logo on the field and basketball courts.

Yormark said there will be “additional integration across conference, digital, and social media channels.”

The conference will reportedly receive around $20 million annually from Monster Energy, which equates to approximately $1.25 million per school.

“This is an important partnership for the Big 12 as we continue to grow our commercial business,” Yormark. “Monster Energy is a global, culturally relevant brand that aligns with who we are and where we’re going. Together, we will bring the Big 12 to new audiences, expand our reach, and deliver innovative experiences for our fans.”

The partnership will not preclude schools from signing their own sponsorship deal, but Monster Energy will be the only energy drink that can partner with the league or its schools.

Additional details about the partnership will be released throughout the season, the conference said.

Is it worth it?

For Monster Energy, it’s a great deal — a blip on the radar, monetarily, to have its name plastered all over the conference.

For the Big 12, it feels like a short-sighted deal that doesn’t provide much value to the conference at such a low price — a single donor could seemingly donate $1.25 million to their respective school on any given year without much fanfare.

But the conference is doing that for its title rights?

Was it the best value the Big 12 could get? Was it an easy sell to expand a previous partnership? Did the Big 12 go to market and there were no bidders?

Monster Energy signed a primary title sponsorship of the NASCAR Cup Series for reportedly $20 million annually from 2017-19. But almost a decade later, it seems a title sponsorship hasn’t increased in value — at least in this deal.

As the conference attempts to close the gap on the Power Two, it’ll need to sign bigger deals to have any chance at competing. A school like Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama or Texas could likely sell a patch sponsorship deal for $20 million alone.

Cody Campbell, the billionaire who supports Texas Tech athletics, could kick in that much without much thought; he’s already done more than that in the past couple years.

So why give up the title naming rights at such a low price? Why not just start with a patch deal or something smaller?

If the conference wants to be treated as an equal — or at least close — to its power conference peers, it has to create more value for the naming rights of its conference. Instead, the conference sold itself to Monster Energy for relatively nothing.

“There has never been a better time than right now to be part of this conference,” Yormark said. “We look forward to moving ahead as 16 strong and leveraging our scale and collective influence within college athletics to deliver Monster moments all year long. Our conference goal is to be great every day for our student-athletes and for our member institutions.”

However, the first “Monster moment” was simply a mediocre moment.