…. the Saudis decided to “buy” conference and national championships in college football and basketball, or other sports?
There’s an article in today’s edition of The Athletic, based on annonymous interviews with five Power Five athletic directors and two college sports “industry experts” Here are some excerpts…
It looks like Deep Throat was right back during the Watergate investigation when he told Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein “follow the money”.
It’s a good but disturbing article, but it may be firewalled.
There’s an article in today’s edition of The Athletic, based on annonymous interviews with five Power Five athletic directors and two college sports “industry experts” Here are some excerpts…
- Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has already “bought” the PGA Tour for $9 billion, and paid soccer star Christiano Reynaldo $220 million to leave the English Premier League to play in the Saudi pro league for one season!
- Despite English Premier League protests, it took over Newcastle United to become the British team’s majority owner, with the stated objective of winning soccer’s World Cup.
- The Qatari Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, is buying majority ownership of the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals and Washington Mystics including Verizon Center for $4 billion!
- If Saudi Arabia’s fund chose to be involved and become a new version of Nike’s Phil Knight to Oregon or late oil magnate T. Boone Pickens to Oklahoma State, a $100 million investment to several schools—or their collectives—would be a rounding error to the PIF.
- Only one AD interviewed said accepting tens or hundreds of millions in donations to the schools or their NIL collectives from the Saudis or Qatar absolutely wouldn’t happen, another said it absolutely it would. The rest of the AD’s and experts said the pressure on schools to figure out a way to let such investments happen would be impossible to resist, that it might take several years, but it would happen.
It looks like Deep Throat was right back during the Watergate investigation when he told Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein “follow the money”.
It’s a good but disturbing article, but it may be firewalled.
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