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Death of college football thread?

PE firms are very attracted to these investments.  Unfortunately some folks view every PE move as a leveraged buyout or raid and that's simply not whats going on here.

The real question is whether this deal will include a long-term GoR / exit penalty clause for anyone leaving the conference.

As I understand it, right now the B1G has no exit penalty. It hasn't come up, because the lesser schools like mine wouldn't leave the gravy train, and the power schools today have nowhere to go.

But it could be that it's about:

• If there is no GoR / exit penalty clause in this deal, the "other schools" want a payout because they predict UM/OSU/PSU/USC will ditch the conference for some super league going forward, so might as well get paid out now while they still have a chance.
• If there *is* a GoR / exit penalty clause, it might be that UM/OSU are fighting this because they want to preserve their ability to ditch the conference is such a super league forms and don't want to be tied down.

Just my $0.02...

you realize there is literally nothing that PE brings to the table for these schools at all. literally nothing. the B1G can hire the same high priced focus groups, accountants, consultants, and lawyers to come up with new ways of generating/streamlining revenue and negotiating better deals from tv networks that PE would push for them to hire anyway.

• If there *is* a GoR / exit penalty clause, it might be that UM/OSU are fighting this because they want to preserve their ability to ditch the conference is such a super league forms and don't want to be tied down.

Just my $0.02...

Private Equity is terrible for the consumer in general and will be terrible for the fans of college football specifically. Private Equity will seek to maximize every last dollar opportunity at the expense of fan service and consumer experience.

I am tied in a lot to PE aggressively taking over the two largest empires on the Las Vegas Strip - MGM & Caesars. You ever wonder why there's no more free parking? Free drink services are cut back to almost nothing at the tables and slots? Blackjack odds were raised in favor of the house from 3:2 to 6:5? And the prices on absolutely everything are nearly doubled in the last four years? Private Equity stepped in and forced these changes for the sake of short term profit. Lost is any sense of courting the customer loyalty that Vegas was famous for and well tipped for - like with free drink service and gambling comps.

Private Equity is more invasive than standard shareholding. A third party shareholder (like myself) purchases a portion of the business with the trust that the business themselves will keep bettering themselves. A Private Equity arrangement is an agreement to take over a business for the sake of controlling the strategy to maximize the company at all costs. On paper, Private Equity looks beneficial, but everybody else (consumer, fans, loyalty programs, etc) suffers the unintended consequences.

How would a PE takeover play out for the Big Ten? Off the top of my head, advertising will be maximized in every way possible. More corporate logos on the field and corporate logos covering the uniforms. Probably strange neutral site games in places like Brazil, like the NFL does to promote their league. A study into whether the Big Ten can become a publicly traded brand with an IPO and ESG score.

An unintended consequence of this would be the formation of a players union that would A) demand a certain percentage of League profits and B) would seek to be disassociated from Student Athlete expectations in a way that would make them professional representatives of a university rather than students of a university.