The Big 12 just put a sponsor on the jersey. Commissioner Brett Yormark used Big 12 Media Days in July 2026 to announce a multiyear partnership with Monster Energy that adds a jersey patch to every football and basketball team in the league.
The deal is worth around $20 million a year and makes Monster the conference's entitlement partner, according to On3. It is the first conference-wide jersey patch agreement since the NCAA began allowing that kind of branding.
What the Monster Energy Big 12 Deal Includes
The regular seasons will now carry Monster's name, branded as Monster Energy Big 12 Football and Monster Energy Big 12 Basketball. The patch appears across football and both men's and women's basketball, and a co-branded logo goes on every Big 12 field and court, with Monster covering the cost of the new court and field installs.
For member schools, the money is the headline. The agreement is expected to pay each Big 12 program roughly $1 million a year, a straightforward revenue bump at a moment when athletic departments are absorbing the costs of direct revenue sharing with athletes.
Is the Big 12's $20 Million Too Cheap?
Not everyone loves the price. Analysts at Yahoo Sports and elsewhere have questioned whether $20 million a year undersells a first-of-its-kind, league-wide inventory, especially with the patch reaching basketball courts and football fields on national television for months at a time.
Yormark's bet is on volume and visibility. The Big 12 is leaning into being first to market, and a recognizable consumer brand across dozens of nationally televised events is the kind of exposure that can be repriced when the deal comes up for renewal.
Why the Jersey Patch Matters for College Sports
Conference-wide sponsorship on the uniform would have been unthinkable a few years ago. It is a clear marker of how quickly the economics of college athletics have shifted, and other leagues will be watching how the Big 12 rollout is received, as Saturday Down South noted.
The next test is on the field. Fans will see the Monster patch for the first time when Big 12 football kicks off this fall, and the reaction to that debut will shape how the rest of the sport approaches uniform sponsorship. More coverage is on the BallerTube news page.
