It just doesn't feel right.Private Equity is a lump-sum term in anything related to putting in money. Not all investment deals look for a 4-6 year outcome In this case it could be:
PE knows how to make money. I bet they would find a way to monetize the non-revenue sports (women's volleyball is surging like crazy now) and I'd bet the house you will see "March Madness"-like events across all sports (e.g. Big X Softball Suaree...live from Las Vegas!) that generate new media opportunities and theoretically cut down bulk travel so Iowa doesn't have to fly to Rutgers, then two weeks later go to Maryland.)
- PE Conglomerate is buying into a partnership and would get 1/20th of distributions
- It values the Big Ten* at $2 billion post money
- The play for investors is more of a long-term annuity that pays it back $100M+ annually in perpetuity or extended time
- I'd suspect it might get points on net new revenue streams until it gets its original investment back
This is a VERY RARE asset, that's the draw to investors. This would be a super minority deal with a number of safeguards.
Do I love it? No. Is it the worst thing ever? Nah. It's another damn symptom of the NIL-with-no-true-cap era...
Very little has since we opted to, or needed to, go to the ACCā¦It just doesn't feel right.
I think they care about 2 things: being ahead of the SEC (they don't care about the rest), and locking themselves in to prevent the formation of super leagues.To be clear, most of the B1G schools cannot succeed well enough with what they presently earn, so they will mortgage future earnings for a one shot cash infusion. These same schools are not managing what they presently have and everyone expects them to manage the cash infusion properly? Shouldnāt they manage their resources properly before giving them money to spend like a drunk sailor on shore for the first time in months?
Then, they pay back the infusion with an ownership stake, which means they earn less for two decades than they would earn without the cash infusion. They can just as easily hire consultants for a fraction of the cost and make more money over time than it will cost them to pay back the cash infusion.
The B1G must believe that the one time infusion will permanently bury the other conferences. This sounds like a the BoTs, presidents/chancellors, and Athletic Directors are breaching their fiduciary duties on bad bet.
Has Maryland or Rutgers proven they can manage money! Does UM, tOSU, PSU, UNL, and Wiscy need a cash infusion? This is more of a payday loan than a serious investment.
Even then, the investors will only receive a 4% ROI on the investment for 20 years. They will not beat the market, they may not beat inflation. Sure, they will have a stake in the B1G but will it be worth that much more in 20 years?
Any tax accountants want to weigh in? Any finance guys want to run the real numbers? Any investors willing to jump on this?
Threatening the tax-exempt status of their AD revenues. I love love it! The lemmings are full speed ahead off the cliff. Time for Congress to seize control of the whole thing.
It's not really a threat, it is a fact. Many schools own property, as do many governments, that make profits and taxes are paid on them. Some schools own businesses, too, and again, taxes are paid. The congressional warning is far more substantive than a threat.threatening tax exempt status is a huge thing, and could derail this.
hard to argue that you should be tax exempt if you are taking a for profit investment.
You forgot to put ācollegeā in quotes bud!Another (final?) nail in the coffin of college football. View attachment 255927
Resistance forms, possibly including Michigan & USC. Current terms require unanimity. Two sticking points: 20 year GOR & unequal distributions.
Thanks. Please keep us posted. This could be a hidden cost making the proposal that much more expensive than the leaked news.A number of posts earlier asked the question whether the entity created by the B1G to manage the media rights and sponsorships, that the investment fund would own 10% of, would be a taxable entity. I am a retired tax expert (both in government and in private practice) but not in this area of the tax law of tax-exempt organizations and unrelated business income of such organizations. I did look at the basic principles of tax law involved in determining that and on first look there does not apā·pear to be a clear answer. (Not untypical of the tax law.) By way of background, the concept of taxing unrelated business income of tax-exempt organizations goes back to the 1950s when New York University owned the Mueller Macaroni Company. It was thought by Congress that it was unfair for a private business enterprise to be tax free when its competitors had to pay income tax. One sticking point in the present B1G case might be would the new B1G entity be in business competition with a taxable enterprise.
I'll do more research on this when I have an opportunity. If this deal goes forward.