Could the Big Ten get backing from a private equity fund?
Per Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the conference has been in talks “for months” about private capital investments worth at least $2 billion.
According to ESPN, the investment would also come with a 10-year extension of the conference’s media rights deal through the 2046 season. The Big Ten has one of the most lucrative media rights deals in college sports with CBS, Fox and NBC.
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An extension of the media rights agreement would ostensibly tie the Big Ten’s 18 schools together for the foreseeable future, though we’ve learned to never say never when it comes to conference expansion.
Schools are currently paid out annually via their share of the conference’s media rights agreements as schools got north of $63 million for the 2024 fiscal year. The private capital setup would reportedly divide the league’s annual distributions into 20 parts; 18 shares for each of the 18 teams in the conference, one for the Big Ten itself and one for the investor.
From ESPN:
“Think of it this way — the conference is not selling a piece of the conference,” a league source told ESPN. “Traditional conference functions would remain 100% with the conference office — scheduling, officiating and championships. The new entity being created would focus on business development, and it would include an outside investor with a small financial stake.”
As private equity deals have crept into the sports world in recent years it feels only like a matter of time before a school’s athletic department or a league itself strikes a deal with an investment firm in a manner like this.
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A week ago, the State Street private equity firm agreed to a 3% stake in the New England Patriots at a $9 billion valuation for the franchise. A year ago, the NFL’s owners voted to allow an approved group of private equity investors to purchase shares of teams.
If the Big Ten’s deal gains traction, you can bet that other conferences will look to follow suit. As athletic departments race to break even in college sports’ new revenue-sharing era and conferences are trying to keep up with the Big Ten and SEC’s media rights deals, the search for more and more funding avenues is seemingly never-ending.
This news was originally published on this post .
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