Whether the Big 12 ever stopped to consider the contradiction is unclear. The NCAA already regulates one of Monster’s key stimulant ingredients under its drug-testing rules, yet the conference is now taking millions to put the brand all over Big 12 sports. That is what makes this deal so hard to ignore. College athletics may be chasing bigger sponsorship money than ever, but this one has created an obvious problem. The product being promoted around athletes is tied to an ingredient their own governing body already monitors. Doctors and health experts are now calling that contradiction out.

More than 20 doctors and scientists are now challenging the Big 12 over its Monster Energy deal, warning that the conference is giving a powerful college-sports platform to a product marketed heavily around young consumers. Their message to Big 12 leaders, including board chairman Doug Girod, is blunt. Pause the rollout before Monster branding becomes impossible to separate from the athletes and fans the conference says it wants to protect.

“The reason for focusing on the Big 12 is primarily the scale and demographics of its audience,” said John Higgins, a sports cardiologist with the Houston Rockets and Rice Athletics who is part of the group.

“Big 12 games can reach roughly 10–18 million viewers per weekend, with particularly strong exposure among younger fans. That makes the conference an especially important environment to examine when considering the marketing and consumption of energy drinks among young people.”

Doctors say the health concerns are not theoretical, especially for teenagers and young adults. Heavy consumption of highly caffeinated energy drinks has been linked to elevated blood pressure, heart palpitations, and potentially dangerous heart-rhythm problems.

The NCAA already regulates caffeine under its stimulant rules, making the Big 12’s decision to put an energy-drink brand across college sports even harder to ignore.

Its 2026-27 policy bans eight major drug classes, including stimulants, anabolic agents, narcotics and hormone-related substances. The NCAA also warns that related substances can still be banned even if they are not specifically named. It goes further by putting the responsibility directly on athletes.

The NCAA warns that supplements can contain undisclosed banned substances, that athletes have already tested positive and lost eligibility after using them, and that these products are ultimately taken at the athlete’s own risk. A confirmed positive test can lead to a player being declared ineligible and withheld from competition.

That is what makes the Big 12’s Monster partnership so difficult to defend on optics alone. College athletes are being told to scrutinize everything they consume because one bad test can derail a season, while the same college sports ecosystem is cashing in by putting an energy-drink brand across jerseys, fields, and courts.

And the concern does not stop at drug testing. Excessive consumption can disrupt sleep and trigger anxiety or panic attacks in college-aged adults. Doctors also warn about mixing energy drinks with alcohol at tailgates, where the stimulant effect can mask feelings of intoxication and encourage riskier behavior.

The real fight is over who this deal is being marketed to. Energy-drink companies heavily chase the 18-to-24 crowd, which also happens to be the heart of the college sports audience. Doctors argue that putting Monster’s logo beside the Big 12 brand gives the product an added stamp of legitimacy in front of young athletes and fans.

And the Big 12 has already pushed back, saying energy-drink partnerships are nothing new in college athletics and that major brands in the category continue to aggressively pursue college sports fans.

“Mainstream energy drinks have been marketed worldwide for more than 30 years, and more than 100 billion energy drinks have been sold and safely consumed globally,” the statement said.

“The ingredients in Monster Energy and other mainstream energy drinks — which include caffeine, B vitamins, and other functional ingredients — are found in a broad range of familiar food products that have a long history of safe consumption. Monster Energy contains about half the caffeine found in a similarly sized coffee-house coffee”.

The timing only makes the optics worse. On July 1, the NCAA permanently lifted its ban on energy-drink TV advertising during championship broadcasts, a move it openly tied to generating more revenue.

Six days later, on July 7, the Big 12 announced its $20 million Monster Energy partnership. But the conference did not actually need that NCAA rule change to make the deal, because schools and conferences were already free to sign their own regular-season energy-drink sponsorships.

The Big 12 did not need the NCAA’s rule change. It had already gone further on its own.

The deal signed by Big 12

The Big 12 Conference’s multi-year deal with Monster Energy is a first-of-its-kind, $20 million annual sponsorship agreement. Commissioner Brett Yormark has officially named Monster Energy the “Entitlement Partner” for both the football and basketball regular seasons.

Every single student-athlete playing football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball across the member schools will wear a co-branded Big 12. They will also have to wear the Monster Energy logo patch directly on their uniforms. 

The regular seasons will be branded as the “Monster Energy Big 12 Football” and “Monster Energy Big 12 Basketball” seasons. It will be across all conference platforms, networks, and controlled media assets.

The Big 12 does not appear ready to back away from Monster. “The energy drink category is not new to collegiate athletics,” the conference said, adding that major brands continue to aggressively pursue college sports fans.

But that is exactly what doctors are challenging. Their concern is not whether energy-drink sponsorships are common, but whether the Big 12 should be promoting a product tied to a stimulant the NCAA already regulates under its banned-substance rules.

For now, the Big 12 is standing by the partnership, even as doctors question why college sports is giving an energy-drink brand this much access to young athletes and fans.