Yep, that’s a real headline. The Big 12 Conference and Monster Energy are now in NASCAR.
Riley Herbst will debut the Big 12 and Monster Energy skin on his Toyota Camry XSE at the HyVee Perks 250 in Newton, Iowa, this weekend. It’s the latest branding collaboration since the conference announced that a Big 12/Monster patch would be added to the large share of the league’s uniforms beginning with the 2026-27 school year.
Whether you like NASCAR or not, it’s certainly an advertising perk of the league’s $20 million deal, which generates roughly $1 million annually for each of the league’s 16 members. The recent collaboration came under heavy scrunity from fans and business suits alike for the perceived undersell for the brand’s image and likeness.
Brett Yormark is eager to put the Big 12 logo just about wherever he can, and while it’s a departure from what a lot of conferences are doing at this particular moment, time will tell whether his business efforts will keep the league afloat or merely delay financial hardships in a new world of college athletics that demands monetization in almost every sector.
NASCAR, though, is a fixture in charter Big 12 states like Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. There’s a lot of eyeballs on professional racing, and considering just how much advertising revenue goes into a single car’s racing skin, it’s no surprise that Yormark or Monster saw an opportunity sitting there in the open.
