In a previous journalism life, I had a job that partly involved coverage of sports partnerships. I was miserable. There is a certain kind of person equipped to extract value and meaning from the latest naming-rights deal or jersey patch arrangement, and I am most assuredly not it.
Every time I wrote about it, or read about it, or thought about it, I felt like a small chunk of my soul was being sucked out of my body through a cocktail straw. I would wager a healthy chunk of you reading this post feel the same way, although you are welcome to get at me if I am downplaying the percentage of StrongSide readership that gets jazzed about this laundry detergent partnering with that team to deliver fresh smelling clothes to everyone in section 217 during the first intermission.
So, at the risk of dismaying the good people in public relations, 99 percent of the time, when I get something in my inbox announcing a rights deal of some sort, I just cannot be compelled to care about it. And I can get away with that in part because, thankfully, we have an outstanding business magazine, D CEO, that does care about these things and covers them super well.
Yesterday delivered that blissful 1 percent: a sponsorship deal that not only staved off thoughts of a mid-afternoon nap, but actively made me want to learn more about it. That’s because the WWE will be partnering with the Big XII championship game at AT&T Stadium on December 2nd, with several accompanying gimmicks you’d imagine.
Should we address the obvious? If I am not the demographic for this—I don’t watch a ton of WWE these days—I’m at most one zip code over. I harbor a well-documented love for professional wrestling, and we’re the sort of shop that is as happy to tell a great pro wrestling story as we are a great football or basketball one. (In related news, keep an eye out for the December issue. No matter how much or little you care about wrestling or a certain upcoming blockbuster movie starring Zac Efron, I bet you’ll enjoy it.)
That said, most bowl game sponsorships are tedious, and this appears to be making a very good-faith effort not to be, what with the MVP being presented with a championship belt instead of a trophy and said championship being presented by a pro wrestler instead of a C-suite executive. As friend of the program Chris Vannini notes, this puts the Big XII in league with the Sun Belt as FBS conferences presenting championship belts to conference-game MVPs, which matters because who doesn’t want more championship belts in the world?
Culturally, this fits pretty snugly: the list of pro wrestlers with Big XII ties runs deep, with state of Oklahoma, in particular, producing the likes of Dr. Death Steve Williams, Bill Watts, Wahoo McDaniel, and Jake Hager (all University of Oklahoma alums) as well as Gerald Brisco (Oklahoma State). And ardent consumers of both the college football conference and the pro wrestling company won’t have to squint hard to notice the parallels between the Big XII’s impending expansion to a bloated 16 teams and the perpetual struggle for WWE (as well as its chief rival, AEW) to give many of the best talents on its overstuffed roster enough air time. (Good on them for finally getting Johnny Gargano back on television.)
Is the above logo—and the soon-to-be accompanying merchandise line—a tad jarring? Will it be more than a little ridiculous to see, I dunno, The Miz cutting a promo about how incredible Running Back X’s 194 rushing yards were? Yes and yes.
But I will be entertained, and I will remember this, so what’s not to like? Besides, of course, the newest flood of partnership-centric press releases that arrived in my inbox while I wrote this blog.
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