re: USC and Michigan may leave the Big Ten.

The fact that there are adults in charge of major universities who think having private equity groups invest as partial owners of their (state university) athletic programs is a wild and obscene notion. The Occam’s razor explanation honestly involves bribes to the individuals involved.

Click bait article if there ever was one

Would be interesting playing USC, but the cross coast thing makes us like everyone else.

USC I can see trying to get out of traveling all over the country and wanting back in the PAC 12....Michigan will never leave the BIG 10

This is the biggest story in CFB. Ultimately it looks like the Big Ten will end this if they’re smart and fire their commissioner over it.

On one side you have USC who is rightfully pissed at the unequal revenue share of the deal where OSU, UM and PSU all get more than everyone else. UM upset that their grant of rights would be extended 20 years out, basically trapping all of them in that bad conference forever.

On the other side you have PSU, UCLA, Maryland, Rutgers and others who are somehow broke and unable to keep up in the new landscape without help. You have OSU who has $30 million a year just on servicing their debt. Also all the schools like Northwestern and Purdue rightfully afraid of being culled are more than willing to sign away on the long term grant of rights.

If they go ahead on the PE deal without USC and Michigan it would end the B1G. By 2030 the top B1G schools would be trapped in a conference with an even worse product with steadily declining viewership and media payout that would wildly swing in the SEC favor. USC and Michigan go independent. Conveniently the lower exit fee for the ACC starts in 2031.

You could see a new conference formed with:
Notre Dame
USC
Michigan
FSU/Clemson/Miami/GT/UNC/Duke/Virginia

Much more money in joining together for a deal than everyone staying independent. Could see a cherry picked 8 or 10 team conference that would rival the SEC in quality of product.

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$2.4 billion investment from the California Pension Fund.


Wut?

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CalPERS California Public Employee Retirement System) is the largest pension fund in the US. And they are actively looking to increase their percentage allocation directed towards private assets (I think from ~14% to ~17%, but dont quote me on that), in an effort to increase cash flow to better fund the states retirement obligations.

It seems that taking an ownership stake in the Big 10 is part of their plan to achieve that increase in private asset ownership.

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USC and Michigan go independent. Conveniently the lower exit fee for the ACC starts in 2031.

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There’s been talk on X from some Big ten folks that they very well could get rid of Tony Pettiti. The reasoning is if Michigan goes and USC goes, the entire conference falls apart and they can’t afford that to happen because they would then lose OSU. What the likely outcome is they fire the Commissioner and bring in someone else who calms the waters a bit. It’s a lot easier to replace one guy than it is to replace several lucrative programs

quote:

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On one side you have USC who is rightfully pissed at the unequal revenue share of the deal where OSU, UM and PSU all get more than everyone else. UM upset that their grant of rights would be extended 20 years out, basically trapping all of them in that bad conference forever.

On the other side you have PSU, UCLA, Maryland, Rutgers and others who are somehow broke and unable to keep up in the new landscape without help. You have OSU who has $30 million a year just on servicing their debt. Also all the schools like Northwestern and Purdue rightfully afraid of being culled are more than willing to sign away on the long term grant of rights.

If they go ahead on the PE deal without USC and Michigan it would end the B1G. By 2030 the top B1G schools would be trapped in a conference with an even worse product with steadily declining viewership and media payout that would wildly swing in the SEC favor. USC and Michigan go independent. Conveniently the lower exit fee for the ACC starts in 2031.

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USC and Michigan are under a grant of rights until 2036. They aren't going anywhere any time soon.

Michigan's problem is less the length of the deal, than the fact that they don't think that giving some investor 10% of future media revenue is a good idea; they happen to be right about that, but so many of the schools in the league need a cash infusion that short term thinking seems likely to prevail.

What this tells you is that a lot of schools in the Big Ten are worried about being able to spend all the money allowed under the House settlement. They don't have the money to fully fund scholarships in all sports, and are going to be stretched to come up with the $20.5 million in revenue sharing that will be needed to keep pace with the SEC schools.

This should be considered a bigger deal than is being generally reported. Michigan is not backing down. And apparently neither is USC, though their sticking point appears to be specific payout terms rather than general opposition to private equity. The other 16 schools are trying to push this through. If Michigan and USC left, they could go team up Notre Dame and have a wealthy mini-conference.

Kudos to Michigan. They are aptly calling this a desperate payday loan. This deal will destroy the B1G.

We should really try these in college football.



And you saw correctly, Boston College gets left out. Syracuse and BC in the other.