Private equity firms would run college football much better than school presidents and ADs

As a college football fan, the initial inclination is to recoil at the very idea of our beloved sport getting into bed with a private equity firm and selling its soul for a massive influx of new cash to help fund the expensive impending revenue sharing with athletes.

The No. 1 objection you always hear is this: “If a private equity firm gets involved by loaning billions of dollars to college athletic programs across the country, then those firms will have the power to tell college athletic directors and presidents how that money would best be spent.”

Question: Is that really such a bad thing?

If you ask me, college ADs and presidents need to be told how their money should best be spent because, quite frankly, they’ve done a lousy job of managing their money for generations.

The only reason college athletic programs have been able to turn a profit over the decades is because they have not had to pay their employees, er, student-athletes and have essentially been getting free labor. It was a great — albeit illegal — business model while it lasted.

Now that colleges will soon start paying their athletes as part of the groundbreaking settlement in the House vs. NCAA class-action lawsuit, there is a mad dash for more cash. Lots more cash. As we know, this growing insatiable appetite for more moolah is why the Pac-12 imploded, why Texas and Oklahoma bolted the Big 12 for the SEC and why FSU and Clemson are trying to to sue their way out the ACC for a more lucrative deal in the SEC or Big Ten.

Now, according to some excellent reporting by Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, we learn that Smash Capital, a private equity firm led by former Disney executives, has met with at least two dozen Power 4 athletic directors to discuss a plan called “Project Rudy” — a proposal for a college football super league of the nearly 70…

Source link : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mike-bianchi-private-equity-firms-093000363.html

Author : Orlando Sentinel

Publish date : 2024-10-14 09:30:00

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