Countless stadiums, arenas, golf tournaments and bowl games have sponsors in their titles. The world’s most prestigious soccer league was named the Barclays Premier League until 2016. Private equity firms currently hold ownership stakes in more than 60 North American sports franchises, according to Pitchbook, as well as many of the top soccer clubs in Europe.

But when news broke Thursday that the Big 12 is entertaining both a potential title sponsorship deal with insurance giant Allstate and a $1 billion private equity partnership, you could almost hear the collective reaction: “How dare they?!”

GO DEEPER

Big 12 discussing PE investment, sale of naming rights to Allstate

Kirk Wakefield, a Baylor University marketing professor, had a much different reaction to the possible title sponsorship.

“You wonder why people haven’t done that already,” said Wakefield, who runs a research firm that studies sponsorship impacts for sports leagues and brands. “It’s such an obvious opportunity.”

USC sports business professor David Carter looks at the plight of the Big 12, which lags hundreds of millions a year in revenue behind the Big Ten and SEC, and sees private equity as a matter of Darwinian survival. To win national championships, Big 12 schools need to be able to spend like…

On Jan. 19, two days after he became the most coveted football player in the NCAA’s transfer portal, and mere hours after he welcomed Ohio State coaches for a recruiting visit, Caleb Downs announced his change-of-address plans. The freshman safety who’d earned second-team All-America honors at Alabama committed to the Buckeyes. Not long after, Downs and his father began relocating to Columbus.

Getting there was simple enough. Getting around was another matter.

Some wheels needed to be put in motion.

“I get a call from someone on the coaching staff and they said, ‘Hey, I’m here with Caleb and his dad now. Are you looking to add somebody else to your team?’” says Rick Ricart, the CEO and owner of Ricart Automotive Group in Columbus. “Would you be willing to do a car deal for him?’”

For decades, these were shifty conversations. Local car dealerships had long been conduits for the whispered inducements coaches or boosters promised talented players. When discovered, scandal erupted. Repercussions were often stark. Then came the seismic summer of 2021, when changes to Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules allowed college athletes to earn money without fear of NCAA sanctions.

Car dealers nationwide quickly exchanged leases and keys for players boasting about their new…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

During the season in this space, we often like to begin with a bit of pop culture or history or some other random bit of nonsense unrelated to college basketball. So, uh, is it OK if we just do that for the entirety of this final installment?

Because we’re going to be totally transparent here. For the first time in six years of making mock brackets for The Athletic, we go into Selection Sunday with no earthly idea of what the selection committee is going to do. Oh, sure, there are always small surprises, but for the most part, the field is obvious except for maybe one slot.

Not this year. After one of the wildest Championship Week Saturdays we can remember, which included two power-conference bid thieves and a still-hard-to-believe outcome in the American, we find ourselves utterly confused by the bubble. And whether North Carolina will hold on to that final No. 1 seed or if surging Iowa State will take it. At least we’re not alone:

Been doing this since 2006. It’s never been this hard for the committee, not only because of how close so many of these teams are, but because of the…

In an open letter published Monday, the NAACP urged Black college athletes to “reconsider any potential decision” to attend a public university in Florida following last week’s news that the University of Florida is eliminating its Diversity and Inclusion office.

The Gainesville university’s decision came in response to a law signed last year by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, which prohibits the state’s public universities from using state or federal dollars for diversity programs or activities. In a March 1 memo, the university announced it would eliminate 13 roles, including the chief diversity officer, and reallocate $5 million it was spending on DEI initiatives.

Monday’s letter, signed by NAACP board chairman Leon W. Russell and president and CEO Derrick Johnson, is addressed to NCAA President Charlie Baker and current and prospective college athletes. It predicts that “while the University of Florida may be the first, it won’t be the last.”

Six public Florida universities — Florida, Florida State, Central Florida, South Florida, Florida Atlantic and Florida International — compete at the FBS level.

“Florida’s rampant anti-Black policies are a direct threat to the advancement of our young people and their ability to compete in a global economy,”…

The Athletic has live coverage of Colorado’s move to the Big 12.

Colorado is planning to exit the Pac-12 to join the Big 12 in 2024, the school officially announced Thursday afternoon.

The university’s Board of Regents unanimously approved a resolution Thursday allowing Colorado to join the Big 12 effective for the 2024-25 academic year.

The Big 12’s board of presidents and chancellors had already voted unanimously on Wednesday night to accept Colorado as a member of the conference, a person familiar with the Big 12’s discussions confirmed to The Athletic.

The school would officially become a Big 12 member in the summer of 2024 at the conclusion of the Pac-12’s current media rights deal. With Colorado’s addition, the Big 12 would become a 13-member conference and the Pac-12 would be left with nine remaining schools.

It’s a significant achievement for Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark at the end of his first year leading the conference. USC and UCLA announced they would join the Big Ten one day after Yormark was hired last June. Since then, the Big 12 has aggressively pursued expansion candidates with a focus on adding Pac-12 members.

A statement from the Commissioner. pic.twitter.com/UtGgY5WnTf

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) July 27, 2023

The yearlong…

At the end of May, Brett Yormark flew to West Virginia to convene the Big 12’s spring meetings. The commissioner and his presidents, chancellors and athletic directors gathered at the swanky Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs.

During that three-day session, the leaders had extensive discussions about their expansion options. They walked away aligned on a strategy. Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec went so far as to say he’d never seen greater unanimity among the Big 12’s board of directors.

“We have a plan,” Yormark said on June 2.

They all agreed on step one: Go get Colorado. And now they’ve pulled it off.

The Big 12 board met again for a conference call Wednesday night and voted unanimously to accept Colorado as a new member for 2024, a person familiar with the Big 12’s discussions confirmed to The Athletic. Colorado regents then met Thursday afternoon and unanimously approved a resolution to join the Big 12.

What, then, is step two for the Big 12?

The next move may not happen instantly. These processes are complex. But at this point, Yormark is not looking to stand pat at 13 members starting in 2024. He hasn’t been shy about acknowledging he prefers a 14-member league moving forward after Oklahoma and Texas exit for the SEC, and conference sources…

The Big 12 will play basketball, women’s soccer and baseball games in Mexico beginning in December 2024 and plans to explore creating a bowl game in Monterrey, it said Thursday. Here’s what you need to know:

• The games, which will begin with Kansas and Houston playing men’s and women’s basketball games in Mexico City’s Arena CDMX, are part of the conference’s “international extension” into Mexico.
• Big 12 women’s soccer and baseball teams will play exhibitions against clubs in the region, the Big 12 said.
• If the conference is successful in creating the bowl game, which the Big 12 says would begin in 2026, it would be the first bowl ever held in Mexico.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Why is the Big 12 making this move?

Commissioner Brett Yormark has been aggressive in exploring ways to increase the Big 12’s national relevance, including efforts to add new members, emphasizing the league’s basketball strength and trying to alter the league’s image into “younger, hipper, cooler.” Hosting events in Mexico is another creative way to expand the league’s brand to attract eyeballs and revenue. That the launch pits longtime men’s basketball power and four-time champion Kansas with Big 12 newcomer Houston, a resurgent program with rich history and recent…

The Big 12 will announce Thursday it is partnering with Rucker Park to launch a series of youth clinics featuring its head basketball coaches in Harlem this summer and hopes to host exhibition games on the famed playground court in 2024, a conference source told The Athletic.

The conference is aiming to host men’s and women’s exhibition games at Rucker Park in the summer of 2024, pending approval from the NCAA. The Big 12 will send men’s and women’s basketball coaches to New York City to lead the clinics for local sixth graders and younger this summer.

The conference will make the announcement in advance of Kansas State taking on Michigan State at Madison Square Garden in New York on Thursday for a spot in the Elite Eight. The Wildcats have four New York City natives on their team, led by point guard Markquis Nowell and forward Nae’Qwan Tomlin.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, who was CEO of the Brooklyn Nets from 2005 to 2019, is partnering with NYC Parks on the program. Yormark has said he’s determined to grow his league’s footprint to become a more national conference and embrace its status as arguably the top college basketball conference in the country.

“The strength of this conference in basketball, I think, is unrivaled,” Yormark said earlier this…

FORT WORTH, Tex. — American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco marked the start of the AAC men’s basketball tournament Thursday by releasing a statement that once again took issue with what Aresco believes is an unhealthy division between Power 5 and Group of 5 conferences at the FBS level.

“In recent weeks I have seen references to the ‘Power Five’ in interviews and public conversations which suggest that the P5 is virtually the exclusive focus in college athletics,” Aresco wrote in the statement. “This is profoundly misguided, especially in the current environment.”

Aresco spoke with The Athletic on Thursday afternoon from Dickies Arena, the host venue for the AAC tournament, to expand on his comments and what he believes is the negative stigma the power-conference distinction has created for the AAC and others.

Time to ‘rethink’ the divide?

“What’s with this P5/G5 business? It’s time to rethink it,” Aresco told The Athletic. “Let’s just talk about FBS schools. Let’s give everybody a fair shake.”

In the wake of the more recent conference realignments and the upcoming expansion of the College Football Playoff to a 12-team format, Aresco has been increasingly bothered by the continued separation of P5 and G5 programs within the public…

Last July, weeks after USC and UCLA’s stunning Big Ten announcement, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff made a bold realignment prediction: “No Pac-12 school is going to the Big 12.”

Eight months later, we may finally learn whether his confidence was justified or false bravado.

Kliavkoff is facing pressure to deliver a new media rights deal to his members by the end of the month. If the dollar figures or the details are underwhelming, March may be the moment when the Big 12 finally strikes. Sources briefed on the discussions say the conference has been in recent contact with the so-called Four Corners schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — which has renewed optimism that convincing them to join is possible.

Brett Yormark has eyed westward expansion since the day he was hired as the Big 12’s new commissioner last summer. Yormark has never been shy about his interest in expanding the Big 12 into the “fourth time zone” to establish a truly national conference and boost the value of his league’s media rights. The arrival of BYU this summer will get the Big 12 into the Mountain Time Zone. Yormark wants more, though he has always said any additions need to be additive and not dilutive.

“I don’t think any of us are trying to dismantle the…