The Big 12 is one of the legendary Power Five conferences in college athletics. In an era where there is massive upheaval in the sport and long-time conferences, the Big 12 has actually been one of the leagues that have been able to pull schools away from other conferences instead of losing them.
Over the last two years, the conference was able to lure away notable programs like the Colorado Buffaloes, Arizona Wildcats, and Utah Utes. The goal of getting bigger — something the Big Ten and SEC have done over the last decade — is to add value to the conference and more money to their member universities cophers.
Well, it seems the conference has some new strategies to land the Texas Longhorns, Oklahoma Sooners, and other schools some extra money in the years ahead beyond massive TV deals with major networks.
On Thursday, Action Network reporter Brett McMurphy revealed that “The Big 12 Conference and Allstate are in discussions about selling the league’s naming rights to the insurance giant.” If a deal is completed, the various schools in the league will be playing in the Allstate 12 Conference in 2024 and beyond.
However, that is not where the pursuit of more money ends. Also on Thursday, Front Office Sports reporter Amanda Christovich claimed in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the Big 12 is “considering a private equity deal with CVC Capital Partners.” CVC is a massive equity and investment firm that manages funds for investors around the world and has over 450,000 employees.
The moves to add more revenues for the conference schools may be a reaction to ongoing name, image, and likeness deals around the game and a recent major settlement that will see athletes in every sport be compensated by schools directly.
