The Big 12’s new jersey patch deal is making one thing clear: Colorado’s best shot at keeping pace with the sport’s moneyed heavyweights may not come from the market alone, but from Deion Sanders.
Ohio State reportedly landed a jersey patch agreement with JP Morgan Chase worth $17 million annually, a number that immediately put the Big 12’s conference-wide Monster Energy deal under a brighter spotlight. The league’s agreement, which covers 16 schools, is reportedly worth $20 million in total. Shortly after the Ohio State news surfaced, Notre Dame also announced a sponsorship with SoFi that Ross Dellenger reported is worth $20 million per year.
For Colorado and the rest of the Big 12, the math is hard to ignore. Starting in the 2026-27 football and basketball seasons, fans will see a bright green M on Big 12 jerseys, as the conference becomes the first in college sports to roll out a patch deal of this kind across the league. But while Ohio State can pull in $17 million from one sponsor, the Big 12 is splitting $20 million across all 16 teams.
That gap says plenty about where the sport’s biggest brands sit financially. The Big Ten and the SEC have already pulled away as the richest conferences in college football, and Ohio State keeps stretching that advantage by leaning into its pedigree, branding and history.
Colorado is not going to match that kind of individual sponsor money on its own. That’s where Sanders comes in.
The “Prime Effect” has already shown what he can do for the Buffaloes. His arrival brought an immediate lift to the program and to Boulder, Colorado, whether through more attention on the team or a merchandising surge that reportedly jumped over 1,000 percent in Sanders’ first year.
The on-field results have been uneven, and Colorado’s 3-9 finish in 2025 certainly damaged the program’s image. Still, Sanders has kept the Buffaloes relevant in a way they weren’t before his arrival. Travis Hunter winning the Heisman Trophy and Colorado pushing into the Big 12 title conversation are part of that larger rise in visibility.
The Big 12 is the only conference so far to announce a league-wide jersey patch sponsor for football and basketball, but it is not stopping schools from striking their own separate deals. BYU already announced a patch partnership with Entrata earlier in July.
That leaves the question hanging over Boulder: will Colorado chase an additional sponsor for exclusive jersey patches of its own, beyond the conference arrangement with Monster? For now, the Big 12 deal only covers football and basketball, which are the sports most likely to draw the biggest patch money anyway.
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The bigger question now is whether that momentum can outlast the stars who helped fuel it. Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter were central to the surge in national buzz, with both becoming major faces of the program before moving on to the NFL, and Colorado is left trying to show that the interest around Boulder was never only about two names. What comes next for the Buffaloes will say plenty about whether Sanders built a short-term spectacle or something with staying power. [Read more 🡒]