Why the Big 12 becoming the Allstate 12 is just fine with me

Millions for the league's naming rights could help keep non-revenue sports whole.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

The Big 12 is on the verge of change.

No kidding, right?

We're less than two weeks away from OU and Texas officially leaving the conference and becoming members of the SEC. Then, of course, the Big 12 will add Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.

But there's talk that more than the league's composition is about to change.

Multiple sources have reported that the Big 12 is in talks with Allstate for the naming rights to the conference. That means the very name of the league might be changing, too. What's more, the insurance giant's name wouldn't just be attached to the conference's brand. 

It would be part of it.

The Allstate 12.

Yes, the Big 12 may soon become the Allstate 12.

I know plenty of people are bothered by this, and I understand why. A long-time brand like the Big 12 not only selling out to get corporate dollars but also giving up its actual name feels icky to many and downright gross to some. Plus, it's just the latest sign that college athletics as we know it is changing and is never going back.

But here's the thing: I won't be bothered if the name changes.

Oh, I might roll my eyes a little when I type, "Mike Gundy and his Cowboys rolled into Allstate 12 football media days ... " and I might chuckle a bit when I hear someone call it the Allstate 12 basketball tournament.

But I will be absolutely fine with it because a naming-rights deal for the Big 12 might help buoy non-revenue sports and save student-athlete opportunities.

I don't want to be overly dramatic, but these are desperate and dire times for many athletic departments. With the NCAA set to settle several lawsuits, there will be bills coming due costing billions. Then with revenue sharing for athletes — which I whole-heartedly concur with; athletes deserve more of the revenues they help generate — more athletic departments will need more dollars to compete.

Schools in the SEC and Big Ten will be best equipped to weather the financial storm. The TV contracts that those two leagues have for football are so massive that coffers are much fuller in Oxford and Ann Arbor than they are in Lubbock and Ames.

(Though if the SEC and Big Ten can sell naming rights for their conferences, they'll do it. Folks leading those two leagues have shown themselves to be money grubbers with no shame.)

Schools in the Big 12 aren't destitute, of course. Oklahoma State isn’t. Ditto for the rest of its conference cohorts. But more dollars are more important than ever to everyone.

A naming-rights deal for the Big 12 could be worth $30 million to $50 million a year, according to The Action Network. Divided between 16 member schools, that would be between $1.9 million and $3.1 million per school.

Honestly, that's not a ton of money in major-college athletics today. But maybe those dollars keep a wrestling program from being cut or a swimming team from being gutted. Perhaps they stop a baseball program's recruiting budget from being slashed or a rowing team's travel funds from being reduced.

Football is going to be just fine in college sports' new world order.

Men's basketball likely will be, too.

But what happens with all the other sports remains to be seen. I know athletic directors don't want to slash programs, but it's possible that spending in some areas may have to be reduced or (gulp) eliminated entirely.

College athletics is soon to have more money than ever before, but non-revenue sports could be on the verge of taking a massive and unprecedented hit.

So, go ahead and sell the naming rights of the Big 12. Make it the Allstate 12 if you must. Truthfully, as many states as the Big 12 is soon to be in, having Allstate on the name doesn't seem all that crazy.

Though I would argue, if the Big 12 blows up the name of the conference with a corporate sponsor, there's no reason not to change the number to be accurate, too.

The Allstate 16.

I'll admit I don't love it. Same as I don't love company logos being on courts and fields or corporate patches being on jerseys.

But you know what I don't love way more than that? The cutting of programs and the gutting of teams. If this helps avoid that, I'll happily call it the Allstate 12 — and I might even try not to roll my eyes.