Cody Campbell questions Tony Petitti’s motives behind potential Big Ten private equity deal

As the Big Ten considers a private capital deal, a prominent voice in the college sports business space has questions. Texas Tech chair Cody Campbell wondered about commissioner Tony Petitti’s motives behind the potential deal.

Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported the Big Ten is in “deep negotiations” with UC Investments to infuse more than $2.4 billion into the league. It would be a potential 20-year agreement which would also extend the conference’s grant of rights by 10 years.

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After Dellenger’s report, Campbell quoted the post with a question about Petitti’s role in the situation. He also expressed concern about the impact such a deal could have on the college athletics landscape.

“It would be very interesting to know (and somebody should directly ask) how much money Tony Petitti will personally make from this @bigten Private Equity deal – both in the immediate term and over the course of the extended grant of rights,” Campbell wrote on X. “Big Ten members (and all of college football) should know the exact amount. The answer should be “Zero Dollars”, and maybe it is?

“But this deal he’s pushing so hard doesn’t seem to make much business sense on the surface, and it will have a major and damaging impact on the entire college sports ecosystem…”

Under the proposal, each Big Ten school would receive an average of $140 million upfront, according to Dellenger. A decision on the deal must be unanimous, though Michigan regent Jordan Ackerpublicly spoke out against the move when the news first broke. However, Dellenger reported UM and Ohio State have “warmed to the idea.”

Tony Petitti sees ‘responsibility’ to ‘maximize resources’

Speaking with reporters at Big Ten men’s basketball media day on Thursday, Tony Petitti addressed the idea of private capital. In his position as commissioner, he sees a need to make sure the conference has the necessary resources. If a “strategic investment” fits that criteria, he said it’d be worth discussing.

“The responsibility in the office that I feel as a commissioner is to maximize the resources for our member institutions,” Petitti said to On3. “We’re among the highest sport sponsorship in the country. We have, basically, the most student-athletes given the size of the league and the fact that we have 28 championships, and we have many institutions that sponsor more than the 28 championships that we sponsor. I think in a world that’s changing like it has with the settlement and revenue-share, the obligation in the conference office is to make sure that we’re resourced properly. That largely has been media deals, sponsorship, all of those things.

“So setting up a structure that can maximize that activity is important. Whether or not we need a strategic investment to help us, we’ll determine. But it’ll be done by all 18 leaders and I think it’s no different than looking at the other buckets that we have to maximize resources. It’s one other avenue that may or may not be available to us.”