TCU attended the Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, which allowed the conference to unveil its new "entitlement partner" for the league's top sports.
TCU head football coach Sonny Dykes spoke candidly about the future of college sports through the transfer portal.
Dykes says he favors a one-time transfer limit because of the opportunity for less severe mental impact on the student-athletes.
"I think as adults, we are supposed to protect young people and look out for them the best that we can," Dykes said. "Four schools in four years is not good for somebody."
Among the statements and reports coming out of the administrators in Frisco, the conference's unveiling of a new title sponsorship for football and basketball sent shockwaves through the advertising and marketing industries.
And not in a good way.
The Big 12 announced that an expanded partnership with Monster Energy would make it the official "entitlement partner" of the league's football and basketball competitions. They will be referred to under the names "Monster Energy Big 12 Football" and "Monster Energy Big 12 Basketball," respectively.
The deal with the popular energy drink brand - which had a gross profit of over $8 billion in 2025, according to Macrotrends - pays the conference $20 million per year, including a little more than $1 million going to each school.
Monster is to include Big 12 assets in its marketing across 100 countries, and in exchange, the Big 12's advertising will feature co-branded patches on all football and basketball courts, along with teams' football and basketball jerseys.
"This deal was a year in the making, and the process included speaking to dozens of national brands," Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement. "We ultimately landed in an ideal place with Monster, when you factor in both the net new economics to the Conference, and the financial commitment being made to activate and market the Big 12 to new audiences domestically and internationally."
Front Office Sports reports that the deal has "drawn criticism from multiple industry sources who believed the deal may have both undervalued the conference and could create issues for school-specific assets in the future."
The deal, which one FOS industry source says is "objectively terrible", is considered "the first conference-wide jersey patch deal since the NCAA began allowing such partnerships."
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The main argument against the partnership is the apparent low return to individual schools, with some suggesting that schools' brands are much more valuable than $1 million for the exposure Monster will be getting.
"The jersey patch and field/court logo component isn’t a one-to-one comparison to school-specific deals, however," said reporter Amanda Christovich. "School-specific jersey patch deals offer brands the opportunity to paste their logo independently on a team’s jersey. The Big 12 deal offers only a co-branded patch that will also include the Big 12 branding.
"In addition, the compensation for the league goes beyond the $20 million in annual fees, one source told FOS: The deal requires that Monster pay for conversion fees, and Monster has committed to putting 'dollar for dollar' toward its domestic and international advertisements touting the conference."
"Monster Energy has built its brand on sports and athletes that leave it all out there on the field or the court," Monster Energy chief partnerships officer Mitch Covington said in a statement. "Partnering with the Big 12 continues that tradition of aligning with great sports teams and organizations committed to excellence. Commissioner Brett Yormark and his teams at the Big 12 Conference are always going to be on the forefront of college athletics and we want to support and be part of it."
A college football fan account referenced that UNLV received $2.2 million per year in its jersey patch partnership with Acesso Biologics. It adds that Learfield estimates top Power 4 schools could gross upwards of $12 million or more per academic year through jersey advertisements.
"Monster is paying each Big 12 school $1.25M/year for a patch and more. Sets a pretty low market rate for any schools looking for their own jersey sponsor."
"I said four years ago we’d be 'open for business,'" Yormark said to Sports Business Journal this week. "And I certainly think we have been."
Fans currently don't see it as a deal that's worthwhile.
