More than ever before, college sports are a business for everyone involved.
That money has to come from somewhere, and many schools are finding creative ways to get it. Here are some of the corporate sponsorships funding NIL and other expenses around the Big 12.
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Texas Tech’s new stadium naming rights deal
In July, Texas Tech announced a 15-year agreement with Galaxy, a data center infrastructure company, to rename Jones AT&T Stadium to Galaxy Stadium.
The former name honored the school’s third president, Clifford B. Jones, who donated $100,000 to help fund the construction of the stadium in 1947.
“It goes without saying college athletics continues to evolve,” Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutttold Sports Business Journal. “I look at that as a very exciting opportunity and challenge to reinvent athletic administration, college athletics and how we continue to build toward a commercial media type of organization.”
SBJ reported that the deal will bring approximately $75 million to the school’s athletic department.
A number of other schools around the Big 12 have taken similar steps with stadium naming sponsors.
Sponsored patches on jerseys and helmets
Many teams will wear sponsored ads this season for the first time ever, thanks to NCAA rules passed earlier this year that permits this new development, beginning with the 2026-27 academic season.
The BYU baseball, cross country, soccer, softball, track and field and volleyball teams will wear the BYU Continuing Education logo on their respective uniforms, as the Deseret News reported in July.
BYU’s football team will wear a different jersey patch than the others: Entrata, a Utah-based property management software company.
Utah-based company Entrata will be the first jersey patch partner for BYU football.
BYU AD Brian Santiago: “We are grateful for this new sponsorship with Entrata and excited to welcome them to the BYU Athletics family. Entrata brings great value to BYU Athletics. We are excited… pic.twitter.com/rfyKgT8hWo
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) July 13, 2026
Utah’s football players will wear ads on their helmets in promotion of ALKEME Insurance.
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Oklahoma State will wear Osage Nation patches; West Virginia has partnered with Antero Resources; Cincinnati is with the Jeff Wyler Automotive Group; Kansas has XRP; Kansas State will feature the Purple Wave Auction logo.
Big 12’s partnership with Monster
The conference as a whole has signed with Monster, naming the beverage company its “entitlement partner” for football and basketball.
The agreement will put patches on every Big 12 jersey in both sports, as well as on all of the fields and courts. The multi-year deal will reportedly earn each of the league’s 16 conference members around $1 million per year.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said the partnership “will bring the Big 12 to new audiences, expand our reach and deliver innovative experiences for our fans.”
Utah and the Big 12 selling private equity
With the ever-increasing dollar figures attached to TV rights in both college and professional sports, private equity companies are interested in investing where they can.
A creative revenue stream is Utah’s partnership with Otro Capital, a New York-based private equity firm. Together, they created Crimson Brand Partners, a for-profit company, to run the commercial side of the school’s athletic department.
There’s a lot more to it than that — all the details can be found in a June Deseret News article.
The Big 12 has taken similar steps into the private equity landscape.
In April, it announced a partnership with RedBird Capital Partners which pays the conference $12.5 million and gives each school the option to open a $30 million line of credit with double-digit interest rates, which will be paid back over time, according to ESPN.
Back in May, after the deal with RedBird was announced, the Deseret News reported that no Big 12 school had accepted the line of credit offer.