The Syracuse Orange and its peers around the country are witnessing an unprecedented transformation of the collegiate athletics system.
There are many factors at play here. Conference realignment. The explosion of the transfer portal. Name, image and likeness. Television contracts, mainly pertaining to college football. The possible expansion of the NCAA Tournament in men’s basketball.
The list goes on and on.
In recent days, ESPN’s Pete Thamel published an interesting article that includes comments about the state of college sports from Syracuse University’s chancellor, Kent Syverud.
Can private equity money help untangle the mess of college sports? “What are you looking for if you are private equity? You are looking for a poorly managed business that nevertheless has a strong market. That's the definition of college athletics." https://t.co/2zfylKxCmc
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 26, 2024
This quote, in particular, is striking, albeit not entirely surprising. Syverud told ESPN, “It’s been obvious the whole college sports system has been a dead man walking for three years, driven by legal developments. What’s going to come out of it is the thing that hasn’t been clear. The current system can’t continue, it’s a dead man walking.”
It’s a fragile time for the Syracuse Orange and others in collegiate athletics.
Thamel’s piece notes that financial entities, including private equity firms, venture capital companies and others, may have an interest in getting involved in the college sports system in some way, shape or form.
Candidly, this doesn’t surprise me at all. College sports, principally college football and basketball, are tremendously lucrative. The NCAA is incompetent, NIL regulations to me are a mess, and two leagues – the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten Conference – are head and shoulders ahead of everyone else, including the Atlantic Coast Conference, where the Syracuse Orange is a member.
The NCAA doesn’t have all that much to do with college football, specifically as it relates to the College Football Playoff, and who knows what March Madness will look like in the years to come.
My point here is that college football and basketball are big businesses, so for private equity, VCs and others to want to get in on the action isn’t shocking at all, in my humble opinion.
Closer to the ‘Cuse is Thamel’s reporting that there is a “Think Tank” group out there “attempting to figure out a solution that includes more than 130 FBS football teams while keeping intact Olympic and women’s sports.”
Syverud is among those involved in this “Think Tank” group, along with some prominent names in the U.S. sports community, like billionaire David Blitzer and Mark Abbott, a former president of Major League Soccer (“MLS”).
Thamel writes that this group, which includes Syverud, “has engaged leaders around the sport in conversations over the past few months.”
Frankly, a solution to improving the collegiate sports system seems quite challenging to achieve, at least for now, because there are so many moving parts.
NIL is a hot-button topic among federal lawmakers. Conference realignment is fluid. If we’re talking the Syracuse Orange’s ACC, last month Florida State’s board of trustees voted to sue that conference to challenge the ACC’s grant of rights.
Who knows how that will shake out, but the long-term viability of the ACC is unclear, despite it adding three new members in California, Stanford and SMU.
The Pac-12 Conference, in its current form, is no more, with most of its members headed to other leagues, namely the ACC, the Big Ten and the Big 12 Conference. The SEC is only getting stronger with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas.
Syverud said in part to ESPN, “I don’t have a philosophical objection to almost anyone who wants to be part of the solution or can be a part of the solution. That includes legislators, that includes NIL boosters, private equity and it includes college presidents and athletic directors.”
NIL is, without question, on the minds of many Syracuse Orange fans, as the ‘Cuse looks to compete in the name, image and likeness arena with its counterparts in the ACC and others around the country.
Last September, a new commercial NIL collective did launch to provide name, image and likeness opportunities to Syracuse Orange players in all ‘Cuse sports.
That entity, Orange United, is managed by the Atlanta-based Student Athlete NIL (“SANIL”), which runs numerous other commercial collectives across the country.