Big 12 Football Builds a Bigger Stage

Notte’s Notes:

• Find your fans. The Big 12 covers a lot of ground both physically and ideologically. So if there’s a chance that alums will come to a championship for something other than football, fan zone events and premium halftime ticket packages aren’t a bad way to reach them. Consider all points of entry when selling beyond the core audience.
• There’s no garbage in marketing. If confetti—sports’ most celebratory trash—can be branded and turned into a quality souvenir, what other opportunities are you missing? Your brand’s detritus might be its fans’ unclaimed treasure.
• Seek a deep bench. A nationally known sponsor is nice, but does it come with a built-in network of agents, affiliates, distributors, etc. who’ll work for your brand in places the campaign doesn’t. Having access to 20,000 financial advisors nationwide who consult with clients regularly about, oh, investing toward their family’s college education seems like a particularly sound marking move for a large collegiate athletic conference.

The Big 12 spent the last three years building a bigger stage for its athletic conference, schools, and student athletes. Now, brand partners are fighting for roster spots.

Heading into college football’s bowl season after a busy 2025 regular season, the Big 12 had 11 of its 16 teams eligible for postseason games. Eight accepted bowl bids, but Texas Tech secured the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff and a first-round bye with a 34-7 win over Brigham Young University at the Big 12 Championship game in AT&T Stadium last weekend.

The championship showcased what the conference has built in the years leading up to this 2025 football season. Heluva Good! planted its “Undeniably Dairy” brand at the Big 12 BLVD Fan Fest pregame party alongside school-specific offerings—like the Cosmo-politain mocktail honoring BYU’s mascot. New naming sponsor Edward Jones sent CEO and Managing Partner Penny Pennington out for the coin toss. Monster Energy pumped up student sections. And Allstate gave fans a shot at $12,000 by kicking a 35-yard field goal.

Country artist Jon Pardi singing at halftime

The conference’s longtime partners at WME Sports and IMG delivered Lanie Gardner for the national anthem and brought country singer Jon Pardi for a halftime show that sold its own premium ticket packages. The WWE—part of TKO—handed a title belt to the game’s most outstanding player, Texas Tech linebacker Ben Roberts, after he snagged two interceptions.

“It's pretty cool,” Roberts said. “Growing up, I used to watch old videos of WWE with The Undertaker and Ultimate Warrior, so getting the belt was pretty special.”

Ben Roberts accepting WWE title belt

Building Beyond the Game

The team effort between the conference and its partners reflects exactly what Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark wanted when he took the position in August 2022. The former CEO of both Roc Nation and Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment (home of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty) brought in WME Sports and IMG a month after his hiring to help build the conference’s presence through media, social, sponsorships, music, and entertainment—notably declaring the Big 12 “open for business.”

Tyrel Kirkham, whom Yormark named the conference’s first CMO and now serves as its chief brand and business officer, has watched tremendous change as the conference grappled with NIL rights and flexible student athlete transfer systems. He’s seen with Houston, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Brigham Young, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah join while Texas and Oklahoma departed.

Amid that shifting field, the Big 12’s embrace of halftime shows featuring Nelly and Ne-Yo, DJ sets by Shaquille O’Neal, WWE crossover promotions, and international events like its football kickoff in Dublin in August helps it compete not just with collegiate rivals in 2025 and beyond—but with fans’ expanding menu of sports and entertainment options.

“The purpose-driven nature associated with our championship, as much as we're talking about the highly competitive nature of what we're building, is what makes us unique,” Kirkham said. “We want all of our key stakeholders to be integral parts in elevating our experiences, and I think we did just that.”

Controlling the Gameplay

Even after its championship ended, one of the main narratives around the game and the 2025 Big 12 football campaign centered on Texas Tech spending more than $25 million this season to bring in 22 players (including 11 who played in the title matchup). But the conference awarded its most outstanding player distinction—and the WWE belt that went with it—Ben Roberts, was a junior from Haslet, Texas, who’d spent all three years of his career at Texas Tech. It was a hero’s journey that a pro wrestling writer’s room couldn’t have crafted much better, for a homegrown player to whom the victory held particular meaning.

“It means everything,” Roberts said. ”Ever since I got to college, that was the goal to play in the Big 12 Championship and win the Big 12 Championship. We did that today.”

One key challenge of transforming collegiate conference sporting events into pop-culture spectacles is using shows, parties, and resources to enhance athletes’ achievements like Roberts’ without distracting from them. With help from the newly formed Big 12 Enterprises—which consolidates marketing, branding, media, communication, licensing, and commercial revenue businesses—Kirkham and his team work with sponsors to ensure each partnership brings focus back to students and institutions.

Venmo hosted the Black Crowes, but also joined PayPal in a June deal that pays players directly as a result of the NCAA’s legal settlement earlier this summer. Edward Jones supplemented its midfield logo and coin toss with the "Big 12 Championship Drive Against Hunger," donating $12,000 to food banks in each of the 16 Big 12 communities and had fans at AT&T Stadium’s Fan Zone box up meals for more than 100 North Texas families.

Edward Jones also created a career tour that brought student athletes in to discuss wealth management and finance careers while providing access to the conference’s alumni council and advisory board for future connections.

"Financial fulfillment looks different for everyone. It's deeply personal. For some, it's shared experiences and traditions that bring people together; for others, it's creating opportunities or leaving a legacy," said Hema Widhani, Principal and Chief Brand, Experience and Marketing Officer at Edward Jones. "This partnership with the Big 12 allows us to celebrate those moments while making a meaningful impact in the communities we serve, far beyond the field."

Even the WWE takes its partnership with the Big 12 beyond the field—or the ring. During this football season, WWE’s Smackdown traveled to Big 12 campuses and joined Iowa State and Kansas State in Dublin. The WWE has also accepted athletes from Baylor, Arizona State, Oklahoma State and other Big 12 institutions into its Next In Line NIL program.

“There's just so many points of intersection between us and WWE,” Kirkham said. “Knowing where we started a couple years ago to where we are now, it's really gratifying to see the steady inclination of this partnership… and that only comes with a willingness to dream bigger and to try to put things out there to see if they will materialize.”

Finding the Right Teammates

The Big 12 worked with five media partners this year, securing major deals with Fox and ESPN plus sublicensing agreements with TNT, NBC/Peacock, and CBS. But its championship game starts at 11 a.m. central on ABC, giving the conference and its name partner an open Saturday to set the tone.

When Edward Jones signed on as the Big 12 Conference Championship’s new sponsor in November, it replaced Dr. Pepper—which had held the position from 1996 to 2010, then 2018 to 2024. While no stranger to football as Edward Jones sponsored the Rams’ St. Louis stadium from 2002 until the team’s 2016 departure for Los Angeles, the brand brought something that particularly appealed to Yormark: national reach.

"College football is a tradition that brings together multiple generations, creating shared experiences and memories for everyone," Widhani said. "With a client in every county across the U.S., we are proud to support the communities where our clients live and cheer, and where our 20,000 financial advisors help them plan for their futures."

Edward Jones could address college students about financial planning and wealth management precisely when that guidance proves most valuable. For its debut Big 12 title game, Edward Jones gave the conference its own site and launched a campaign featuring Milo Ventimigli of Gilmore Girls fame.

Edward Jones launched a social media campaign around the Big 12’s food drive—donating $1 per share for content supporting North Texas-based Lovepacs— and recruited Big 12 student athletes and staff to volunteer at local food banks throughout the holiday season. At halftime, the brand awarded one student a $10,000 scholarship.

"Teaming up with the Big 12 allows Edward Jones to connect with millions of fans across the country in a pastime they love sharing with their friends and family,” Widhani said. “This sponsorship gives us an opportunity to enjoy rich moments with our clients as we seek to serve them more completely and help them financially achieve what is most important in their lives."

The Year-Round Play

The championship represents just the starting point for a brand like Edward Jones. Kirkham envisions a Big 12 calendar that kicks off during summer football media days, rolls through fall sports and football before hitting basketball media days, the football championship, the conference’s 12.12 Day of giveaways and prizes, bowl game, football schedule release, and men’s and women’s basketball into March Madness. The conference has brought streetwear brands and DJs to its basketball championships and held clinics in New York’s Rucker Park to spread the Big 12’s influence.

The Big 12 has made clear that its athletic calendar isn’t just games— it’s a yearlong string of sports and cultural events where brand partners can embed themselves.

“It's very important for us to ensure that we're continuing to take advantage of the narrative,” Kirkham said. “We are here for a reason. We know we deserve to be there, and we take advantage of these moments, and we believe in ourselves—when people weren't talking about us, we were the ones that were having those conversations to let the world know that we were a competitive conference and we could create a unique experience for our student athletes.”

That effort hasn’t gone unnoticed within the conference. It shows up in headlines, like BYU head coach Kelani Sitake turning down a Big 10 job at Penn State to stay in Provo. It also appears in smaller gestures, like football players lingering after the championship to scoop up Big 12-branded confetti as souvenirs.

Big 12 Championship in 2025

The 85,519 fans who filled AT&T Stadium certainly noticed— they made up the biggest Big 12 Championship crowd of all time. So did the average 9 million fans on ABC, making it the third most-watched conference championship behind the SEC (16.9 million) and Big 10 (18.3 million). Even as more sponsors join the expanding Big 12, the difference registers from the field.

“This is what I grew up dreaming to do. Just playing football on the highest stage possible,” Tech’s Roberts said after the Big 12 Championship. “And I'm able to do that today.”