The Big 12 Conference, the revamped Division 1 college athletic conference, has signed Hill + Knowlton Strategies after a competitive national search.
H+K’s Dallas office takes the lead with support from Washington, D.C.
Despite its name, the conference has 10 member schools which compete in 23 sports and is one of six conferences with an auto bid for college football’s high-profile Bowl Championship Series.
Amid a broad re-shuffling of college sports divisions as teams eye lucrative TV revenue, Texas A&M and Missouri left the Big 12 Conference last year after a million-dollar Big 12 branding push by GSD&M, Austin. Those schools have been replaced with Texas Christian University and West Virginia.
The New York Times in September called the conference a “dysfunctional family.”
“The image has suffered obviously, because of institutions leaving the conference, so we’re going to celebrate the addition of the two new members on July 1st," the conference’s new commissioner, Chuck Neinas, told ESPN in February.
The Big 12 also includes Baylor Univ., Iowa State Univ., Univ. of Kansas, Kansas State Univ., Univ. of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State Univ., Univ. of Texas and Texas Tech Univ.
H+K’s scope covers brand positioning, marketing communications, media relations, digital communications and stakeholder engagement across the organization and its 10 member schools.
Bob Burda, associate commissioner of communications for the Big 12, said the selection committee liked K+K’s personnel, “their understanding of our business challenges and their ability to move quickly.”
The conference is reportedly negotiating an extension of its lucrative TV rights, which would be worth $2.5B through 2025, according to Sports Business Daily.
H+K’s Dallas office staffs about 50 with clients like AT&T, Tenet Healthcare, Ford, Energy Future Holdings and Omni Hotels.