Big 12 considering private equity investment of up to $1 billion for as much as 20% of conference

[SMU2006]

22 minutes ago, NT80 said:

This is going to happen in a lot of conferences in the future.  Florida State and Clemson have already been asking for this in the ACC.  Boise gets more revenue in the MWC.

Yes this will certainly be happening in the future, but at least the conference and networks will be ones to dictate the outcome as opposed to private equity.  The PE guys are going to squeeze every ounce of water out of the Big 12 stone that they can and if you're an underperforming asset they are going to treat you like one.  

What's going to happen when the PE guys go to Iowa State, UCF, Baylor, UH or whoever and tell them "hey you guys have nowhere else to go.  You want to stay in the P4?  Prove it.  No revenue unless you earn it on the field."  

Those sort of things will happen with PE if not far worse.

Edited June 14 by SMU2006

[Greenrex]

From The Athletic, today (pretty much a rehash) :

The Big 12 isn’t the only Football Bowl Subdivision conference considering selling its naming rights to a sponsor. At least three Group of 5 conferences have held discussions on the topic as well, including Conference USA, the American and the Mountain West, multiple people involved in the discussions told The Athletic.

New AAC commissioner Tim Pernetti told The Athletic that he brought up the idea of conference naming rights during his interview for the conference’s top job earlier this year, and it remains a point of discussion. With a background in sports business and private equity, Pernetti has been very open to finding new revenue streams for college sports.

“Nothing should be off the table,” Pernetti said.

Pernetti believes brands and companies have a strong affinity for college sports, and there are ways that partnerships can strengthen programs at a time of great change. As Rutgers’ athletic director, he helped sell the naming rights to the Scarlet Knights’ football stadium. He also negotiated the jersey sponsorship for New York City FC during his time as the MLS club’s chief business officer. Pernetti emphasized that it’s not simply about who offers the most money. The brand has to fit.

At the Group of 5 level, schools will see less money distributed from the NCAA in order for the organization to cover the back pay damages from the House settlement, and the new massive CFP contract won’t provide much more money for their leagues.

So everything is up for discussion, including the possibility of renaming a conference or adding a sponsor to the existing name.

“These are the conversations we need to have,” Pernetti said.

[untjim1995]

This is great news. Get these NFL-lite programs away from the rest of us that want to watch amateur college football again. 
 

We don’t need to be playing teams that draw double or more our capacity for games, those who have budgets that make ours look like couch money.  

[ChiefTenBeers2015]

So in the past UNT would play Texas and receive something like )500k…shouldn’t it now follow that those games should pay the team with less budget much more to play, like 4x that much, based on the revenue these athletic departments garner ? Or why play them? 

[NorthTexasWeLove]

47 minutes ago, ChiefTenBeers2015 said:

So in the past UNT would play Texas and receive something like )500k…shouldn’t it now follow that those games should pay the team with less budget much more to play, like 4x that much, based on the revenue these athletic departments garner ? Or why play them? 

It already is 4x that amount in some cases. Getting 1.5+ has been common place for 5+ years. I've seen as high as 2M. It should be 5M, and that would require collective partnering with all G5 conference to set that parameter. It is doable and should certainly happen. 

[NorthTexasWeLove]

On 6/14/2024 at 5:36 PM, untjim1995 said:

This is great news. Get these NFL-lite programs away from the rest of us that want to watch amateur college football again. 
 

We don’t need to be playing teams that draw double or more our capacity for games, those who have budgets that make ours look like couch money.  

In this pendulum of collegiate athletics several teams masquerading as big time programs swing closer to us than UT, bama, FSU, UF, LSU, etc. What is there to do with them. The Kansas State's of the world? 

[Aquila_Viridis]

I really look forward to the DATCU NT University playing in the American Airlines Conference. Maybe they can sell naming rights for each and every yard line too, to be referenced only by the sponsor, not numerically. “It’s second down from the Dr. Pepper Snapple line; they have to get to Toyota.” The field will look like a Monopoly board. Maybe they can sell all the downs too; I think some places already do it for third downs.

[untjim1995]

16 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

In this pendulum of collegiate athletics several teams masquerading as big time programs swing closer to us than UT, bama, FSU, UF, LSU, etc. What is there to do with them. The Kansas State's of the world? 

K-State football is an interesting team to mention. They only have a capacity of 50k, but has finished in the top 20 in the AP poll 15 times since 1993. 

They are a program that could easily be left behind in a breakaway by the top programs. Their academics are not great, as well as the fact that they are clearly not delivering a huge TV pull. But they do have a history of being a solid program since Snyder got there and started building them up and they have a history of travelling well. 

Public schools like those in the Big 12 now are all in danger of being left behind, too, but I bet they won't be in the first schism, just for political reasons and because they are still bringing in bigger numbers by a large amount than the G5s. But the private schools in the Big 12 and the lesser brands of those city schools/directional schools in the conference are probably left out, similar to SMU, Wake Forest, Syracuse, and Boston College in the ACC.

The question for us is if UNT would be able to be in a division setup with these schools. If so, it would be still a huge plus for us. If not, then it's a gigantic negative.

[NT80]

3 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

K-State football is an interesting team to mention. They only have a capacity of 50k, but has finished in the top 20 in the AP poll 15 times since 1993. 

They are a program that could easily be left behind in a breakaway by the top programs. Their academics are not great, as well as the fact that they are clearly not delivering a huge TV pull. But they do have a history of being a solid program since Snyder got there and started building them up and they have a history of travelling well. 

Public schools like those in the Big 12 now are all in danger of being left behind, too, but I bet they won't be in the first schism, just for political reasons and because they are still bringing in bigger numbers by a large amount than the G5s. But the private schools in the Big 12 and the lesser brands of those city schools/directional schools in the conference are probably left out, similar to SMU, Wake Forest, Syracuse, and Boston College in the ACC.

The question for us is if UNT would be able to be in a division setup with these schools. If so, it would be still a huge plus for us. If not, then it's a gigantic negative.

I think of them like Oregon State and Washington State.   Large, regional fan bases, but not really National brands.  They will be left behind too.

[untjim1995]

1 hour ago, NT80 said:

I think of them like Oregon State and Washington State.   Large, regional fan bases, but not really National brands.  They will be left behind too.

I think they have two possibilities to stay a Power school--the B1G and SEC are the Powerful 2, but the Big 12 survives as a league of the best of the rest and gets to keep a Power status, even though they make much less. Or the B1G expands, continuing its march into the MIdwest and West, adding more AAU schools that includes KU and Mizzou. Then the SEC says they want some exposure in the MIdwest, and they add in KSU, which would fit in fine with them academically. 

Or they get left behind, as you mention above. I just could see the politicians in these states, that are full of graduates of these big state schools that aren't directional or names after a city, being able to get the K-State's, Iowa State's, Texas Tech's and Mississippi State's of the world to stay at the top level. At least int he first iteration of the schism.

But if that schism means that UNT gets to play in a level of competition and a conference with the sparer SWC schools that also includes other regional AAC teams, I'd feel like UNT really won in that setup. A new school SWC, with Tulsa, SMU, TCU, Baylor, UH, Rice, UNT, UTSA, UTEP, and Tulane. That would be incredible for us. But if that new competition ended up being the teams I listed, but not UNT, because SMU, TCU, and Baylor team up again to keep us away from them regionally, then it would depend on if we are able to at least still be playing at that same level. If we are, but we are playing Texas State, NMSU, and other SBCUSA schools, it'll suck, but at least we would still be able to play at the same level. But if the current power schools that get left behind all create some new level of play and just add in a few current G5 schools that doesn't include us, we need to immediately understand that football here just was never meant to be greatness and act accordingly.

[NT80]

20 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

But if that schism means that UNT gets to play in a level of competition and a conference with the sparer SWC schools that also includes other regional AAC teams, I'd feel like UNT really won in that setup. A new school SWC, with Tulsa, SMU, TCU, Baylor, UH, Rice, UNT, UTSA, UTEP, and Tulane. That would be incredible for us. But if that new competition ended up being the teams I listed, but not UNT, because SMU, TCU, and Baylor team up again to keep us away from them regionally, then it would depend on if we are able to at least still be playing at that same level. If we are, but we are playing Texas State, NMSU, and other SBCUSA schools, it'll suck, but at least we would still be able to play at the same level. But if the current power schools that get left behind all create some new level of play and just add in a few current G5 schools that doesn't include us, we need to immediately understand that football here just was never meant to be greatness and act accordingly.

Yes, I feel UNT is positioned well (facilities, size, and geographically-wise) to fit in a group like that. 

I would also see that as a win for us in these times.

[UNTLifer]

21 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

A new school SWC, with Tulsa, SMU, TCU, Baylor, UH, Rice, UNT, UTSA, UTEP, and Tulane. That would be incredible for us.