In preparation for the July 1 implementation of the House v. NCAA settlement, Texas Tech Athletics integrated its official NIL Collective, The Matador Club, to its booster organization, the Red Raider Club, Monday.

Beginning in the 2025-26 academic year, the Red Raider Club will be responsible for contributing $14 million annually of the $20.5 million departmental-generated revenue collegiate programs are allowed to put forth toward student athletes.

“As we transition to a new model, know that we are ready,” stated Kirby Hocutt, Tech director of athletics, in a news release Monday. “Over the past year, we have studied various impacts of the House settlement on our department and have been ready for this new era in college athletics. Texas Tech will continue to be a leader nationally in this era.”

The move will provide donors one spot to assist Tech Athletics in the new revenue-sharing landscape. Since 1953, the Red Raider Club has been Tech’s primary booster organization for Athletics, while the Matador Club, which was established by donors Cody Campbell, Terry Fuller, John Sellers, Gary Petersen, Tim Culp and Marc McDougal, has served as an NIL collective since 2022.

As both the university and student-athletes transition into a new era of college football, Tech also created a dedicated Revenue Share Administration unit within the Internal Affairs and Compliance area of the athletics department.

This team, spearheaded by former Tech Associate Athletics Director for Compliance Justin Opperman, will be responsible for university NIL agreements with student-athletes, monitoring the annual revenue share cap and third-party NIL reporting.

Furthermore, Tech pledged to enhance its financial literacy efforts for student-athletes through additional courses under the J.T. and Margaret Talkington Department for Student-Athlete Development.

Higher-earning student-athletes will be provided advanced financial strategies in addition to the fundamental curriculum all Tech student-athletes are required.

“Our donors and supporters will have the ability to impact our success like never before,” Hocutt stated in the release, “but it will take all of us.”

Iconic broadcaster Dick Vitale has agreed to a new contract extension with ESPN. His new deal will keep him at the Worldwide Leader through the 2027-28 season.

His new contract extension will also bring his tenure at ESPN to almost 50 years. Vitale has called more than 1,000 games on the network’s air.

ESPN announced the news on Monday in conjunction with the announcement of a new invitational tournament honoring the long-time broadcaster. The Dick Vitale Invitational will begin in 2025.

The first matchup will pit Duke and Texas against each other. The game will be played at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C., on Nov. 4, airing on ESPN.

It figures to be a tremendous showcase for the legend. It will obviously feature two of college basketball’s powerhouses, precisely the kind of game Vitale got famous for calling over the years.

“Dick is the heart of college basketball, and his kindness, generosity and courage are a constant inspiration to us all,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said. “Through the creation of the Dick Vitale Invitational, we will celebrate him and his profound impact on the sport. We are also thrilled that Dick will remain a signature voice on ESPN through the 2027-28 season.”

Vitale made his return to the broadcasting booth this past February after suffering numerous setbacks. In June 2024, Vitale revealed he had been diagnosed with lymph node cancer and would undergo treatment. It was Vitale’s fourth battle with cancer since 2021, previously surviving lymphoma, melanoma and vocal cord cancer.

On Jan. 8, Vitale announced that he’d defeated cancer once again and would return later that month. However, he suffered a fall that ultimately pushed his return back to February.

Getting back to the airwaves was a huge priority for Dick Vitale, who did so successfully. Now he’s thrilled to have a longer-term extension with ESPN.

“ESPN has been such a vital part of my life since December 5, 1979, and I was so thrilled to learn that ESPN Events will have an annual Dick Vitale Invitational,” said Vitale. “Jimmy Pitaro and all my colleagues and friends at ESPN have been so good to me and I am so thankful for all of the prayers and love I have received from them during my cancer battles. ESPN has been family to me and has given me a life that has been even better than my dreams. To the Vitale family, ESPN is ‘Awesome, baby’ with a capital A!”

On3’s Grant Grubbs also contributed to this report.

Amid growing frustrations over NIL in college sports, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey kept it simple: schools are asking for basic “oversight” and “structure” when it comes to NIL agreements.

“If you want an unregulated, open system, just raise your hand and let me know,” Sankey told reporters on Monday. “And universally, the answer is, ‘No, we want oversight. We want guardrails. We want structure.’ Those individuals don’t have the luxury to just say that in meeting rooms, period. They don’t have the luxury to just be anonymous sources. They have a responsibility to make what they’ve sought — what they’ve asked for — to make it work.”

This comes on the heels of the multibillion-dollar House v. NCAA settlement, approved Friday, which allows schools to directly compensate athletes. Now, some of the nation’s top conferences are “bullish,” per ESPN’s Heather Dinich on their ability to enforce NIL rules under the new structure.

Following the settlement, former MLB executive Bryan Seeley was named CEO of the newly formed College Sports Commissions.

With specific rules and enforcement mechanisms still to be determined, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said it will be up to Seeley to establish and oversee the boundaries moving forward.

“We’re in the process of developing some of those rules and structure and overall implementation of that,” Phillips told reporters. “Now that we have Bryan on board, I think we’ll be able to move a little bit quicker. But we want to get this right. It’s one of those areas that until you have somebody leading the College Sports Commission, it’s difficult to get together with that individual and start some of that framework that will be in place.”

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark emphasized the importance of patience with the newly formed College Sports Commissions, calling it a case of “progression over perfection” as the organization begins shaping the future of college athletics.

“Our schools want rules, and we’re providing rules, and we will be governed by those rules. And if you break those rules, the ramifications will be punitive,” Yormark said.

Despite looming questions and plenty of work ahead, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said the settlement has made college athletics a “much better place” than it was just 48 hours ago.

“What’s not debatable is that this new model does bring stability and fairness to student-athletes in college sports,” Phillips continued, “and we’ve been in an unregulated environment with no rules and no enforcement. It has paralyzed the NCAA in Indianapolis, and we’re responsible for certainly some of that. We’re now going to have a foundation and structure laying out those rules. The new structure provides our student-athletes with more opportunities and benefits than ever before.”

Money divides us, always has, always will. From the cars we drive to the house we buy, to the clothes we wear, money separates us and judges us. Last Friday, in a U.S. District Court ruling, that gap became so wide in college sports that the industry has now been reduced to a money grab. And, my oh my, let the hostility begin.

Universities now pay their athletes. A coach now will judge who can get what and how. Until now, it was influential school alums who spent the cash under Name, Image and Licensing. A lucky few on a team would get the bread but it could be tolerated. After all the quarterback on the football team is a Heisman Trophy candidate. But now everyone is in the mix and everyone will know exactly what their coach thinks of them.

This becomes personal. A coach makes the decision, not an anonymous benefactor. A football coach who has developed a relationship with a nose tackle now has to tell him he is worth only so much if he is to be paid at all.

“This has changed the value of team, loyalty, struggle and achievement,” said Lenny Wagner, who retired last January after coaching football for 35 years.“ There were multiple reasons for my retirement but this was definitely one of them.”

Everyone is for sale. That’s the short of it.“ Follow the money” no longer just refers to the Watergate break-ins and the dethroning of a president. Money moves America along, whether it’s politics or the price of eggs. What’s interesting however is the NCAA being able to hide behind the laughable phrase“ student-athlete.”

Not anymore. Friday’s ruling has stripped away the illusion of college athletes tied to higher education. College athletes are entertainers and they must get paid. They are the employees of their university. They must be compensated. It is a fair and just ruling.

The problem? Who gets what? The Power Four schools have suggested a monetary breakdown this way: 70-75% of available funds go to football, 10-20% to men’s basketball and the remainder to other college sports.

Let the screaming begin. If those percentage breakdowns are realized, other college sports then would have to be eliminated. One needn’t be a fortune teller to know many women’s sports would need to be axed.

Oh, what to do? Now it gets interesting for there is a solution out there. Would college presidents have the courage to stand up to football?

The solution is simple. Clemson’s football coach Dabo Swinney provides it. Swinney makes $11.5 million a year. Clemson’s total athletic revenue in 2022 was $74 million. Is it absurd the school’s football coach gets 16% of that? One man? Just one man?

Of course, it’s not absurd. Swinney would say he’s worth it because his Tigers provide the bulk of that funding. Therein lies the irritation. He would be thinking about himself and not the university he represents. He would forget the purpose of any university is not to turn out NFL players but to educate and send off graduates for the betterment of society.

But according to one study 16 of the top salaried college football coaches make more than the president of their universities. If college football coaches feel they are rulers of their fiefdom why should they feel otherwise? According to Front Office Sports, the average salary of the 20 highest-paid NFL coaches is $8.98 million. The average salary of the 20 highest-paid college football coaches is $8.99 million.

I think Dabo is not volunteering for a salary reduction. So Clemson has to drop gymnastics and volleyball and baseball and softball? So what? We all love football, don’t we? Clemson is a football factory. You wouldn’t want to put any of those workers out of a job? And you wouldn’t want to annoy much less anger Dabo Swinney, the master puppeteer, by forcing him to acknowledge Clemson has classrooms and professors and kids who don’t give a damn what happens on Saturday because they need to study for their calculus final on Monday.

In the meantime, the plot thickens. On the first weekend in June, a convention was held at Westlake Village in southern California. By invitation only. Forty NFL coaches attended, including 49ers offensive line coach Chris Foerster, along with the Seattle Seahawks general manager, as well as a dozen college staffers. Oh, some selected high school coaches. At night everyone went to the Hollywood Bowl to hear Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson perform.

And one other thing. The high school guys were told what the college and NFL coaches look for in the preps. Can’t start too early you know. This preparing for The Day. What day?

The day a pimple-faced kid in the seventh grade throws a little bit like Patrick Mahomes, moves a lot like Lamar Jackson and has a strong body like Josh Allen. Sure he’s only 14 but the NFL coaches know genius when they see it. It’s stupid to pass on that kind of talent.

And pass on baseball and basketball and paddle ball and soccer and hockey and gymnastics and chess and checkers and. ..okay, okay, I got a little carried away. A little bit. Not much. Colleges and universities now are in on the action. Maybe Swinney will ask his university president to scout someone for Clemson. Just as a favor between friends, you know. Dabo might throw in a new BMW to sweeten the deal.

Who knows? There might even be another Michael Jordan out there waiting to be found. That is, of course, if Clemson still has a basketball team.

To comment write to bobpadecky@gmail.com.

The specter of private equity money has loomed as a possibility for funding college athletics programs for a while now.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark floated the possibility of private equity entering the college sports world last summer and he was only one of multiple conference commissioners to do.

Earlier this year, the Big Ten was reported by Sportico to have taken “preliminary bids from private equity firms.”

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The concept of hedge funds getting involved in college athletics has seemed to be an eventuality, the only question being when it would happen.

Wrote Forbes contributor Joe Moglia in April, “The latest shockwave to hit college football may come from private equity. As billions of dollars in TV revenue have flooded into Power Four football and top players are able to bring in six- and seven-figure name, image, likeness (NIL) deals, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that college football is a business. Big business.

“These are professional student-athletes, and the teams are major sports franchises,” he continued. “But, at the same time, it’s an industry that is being heavily disrupted. In other words, college football is a ripe hunting ground for hedge funds and private equity.”

With the approval of the House settlement, part of which allows schools to pay upward of $20.5 million to student-athletes directly, athletic departments are in need of an influx of funds, and private equity has plenty of them. So it should be of little surprise that private equity has indeed found its way into college athletics.

Sports Business Journal reported early Monday morning that Elevate, a “global agency network” that supports “over 1,000 ambitious brands across sports, entertainment, consumer products, and retail,” has created a $500 million initiative to invest in college sports, backed by private equity firm Velocity Capital Management and the Texas Permanent School Fund.

The purpose of the initiative? To “provide a new funding source for collegiate athletics programs pursuing capital-intensive projects like facility upgrades and renovations,” write Ben Portnoy and Chris Smith.

Per SBJ, Elevate has already come to terms to fund two unnamed Power Four conference programs, with the expectation to come to terms with three to six additional programs before the 2025 season begins in late August.

What’s more, the plan is for Elevate to become a “multi-billion-dollar platform” that invests across college sports in the long term.

Why is private equity interested in college athletics?

The simple answer to this question is the potential for profit.

College athletics is a multibillion-dollar industry that is ever growing.

Per ESPN, the NCAA generated nearly $1.3 billion in revenue in 2022-23, which was up from $1.14 billion the previous year. Most of that revenue (close to 70%) comes from the men’s NCAA Tournament.

College football, meanwhile, brings in an inordinate amount of money to programs.

At the top, as of last year, according to USA Today, programs like Ohio State, Texas, Alabama, Michigan and Georgia all had revenues exceeding $200 million. Of course, expenses were nearly as high, which is where private equity comes in.

The idea is that private equity firms can make athletic departments even more profitable. One way would be by eliminating waste. Multimillion-dollar coaches’ salaries and buyouts have been mentioned as an area rife for change.

“No one with any business sense would allow a major executive to lose repeatedly and then walk away with a multi-million dollar bonus buyout, but this is something that happens regularly in Power Four football. Agents run circles around most athletic directors when it comes to things as basic as employment contracts,” Moglia writes.

Private equity could also get involved “by directly investing in athletic departments, investing in the fan experience, both in and outside of the stadium, or through adding revenue streams outside of the existing network,” Alfie Crooks wrote for Buyout Insider, the idea being that college athletics haven’t been marketed as well as they could be by conferences and the NCAA.

“College athletics remains a relatively untapped market. Its combination of passionate fan bases, strong brand loyalty and long-term income potential makes it an appealing target for investment,” Brian Anderson writes for Sports Business Journal.

There is not an expectation — yet, anyway — that private equity could purchase ownership stakes in college athletic departments/programs, but the potential for that exists in the long run.

Right now, private equity would likely “favor the private credit model because they can better control the exact monetary amount paid out each year,” Bryan Shapiro writes for Duane Morris Sports Law.

Schools, on the other hand, would likely prefer a “traditional private equity model because it allocates risk between the athletic department and investors equally — i.e., if the program increases in value, both entities are rewarded, and on the flip side, if the program decreases in value, the school is not required to pay a specific monetary amount to the investors, which would greatly injure the program and school overall,” Shapiro writes.

What could be the impact of private equity in college sports?

This question has been posed many times over the last few years and various attempts have been made to answer it.

The simplest answer is that an immediate influx of money to departments and programs that otherwise wouldn’t have access to those funds could bring rapid parity to college sports, football especially.

Think lower-tier Power conference schools that rarely, if ever, have been in contention at the top of their leagues legitimately competing alongside the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan and Oregon.

It has already started to happen a bit with the rise of NIL — who can forget Vanderbilt’s 2024 season, during which the Commodores upset the Crimson Tide? — but private equity investment could lead to even more parity.

There is a potential downside, though, and that is the further movement of college athletics away from what it has been for 100-plus years.

Private equity will likely prioritize profits first and foremost and that could lead to some serious changes.

“In all likelihood, the first university to sign a major deal will likely be a smaller Power Four football program,” Moglia writes. “While the biggest programs will have no problem paying players and putting together big NIL packages, smaller schools will likely struggle to be competitive. This is the opening that a firm needs. They’ll approach one of these smaller programs with an offer of $150 million (or more) for 51% of the say in how they run their football program.

“For an AD with little business experience trying to put together a winning program, this will look like a good deal,” he continued. “Cash up front to build a team and a promise from the guys in suits to juice revenue in the future. The problem, of course, is that as soon as this deal is done, revenue growth will become the only priority. The investors won’t balk at putting in their own athletics director and putting profits ahead of players, education, fans and the institution. That’s a horrible, horrible long-term decision for the university, but it’s entirely plausible.”

In a lot of ways, what private equity and college athletics will look like together is as uncertain as the future of college sports in general. And it could be years before any real repercussions are felt from an influx of private equity money into college athletics.

After a few years of speculation that private equity would get involved in college sports, it appears it is now a reality.