It’s been another newsy week in Big 12 country. 

Utah rolled out a private equity deal, Brett Yormark lit into Notre Dame, and one of the conference's most high-profile players is hitting the transfer portal.

Paul Finebaum even said something nice about the Big 12, which might be the most shocking headline of all.

Here are my biggest takeaways from the week.

Utah Signs a Groundbreaking Private Equity Deal

Private equity is officially in college sports, and it’s starting in the Big 12. 

Utah announced Tuesday that it’s creating a for-profit company (Utah Brands & Entertainment LLC) in partnership with a New York private equity firm, Otro Capital, to infuse as much as $500 million in cash into Utah athletics. 

The university’s foundation will own Utah Brands & Entertainment LLC, which will oversee corporate sponsorships, ticketing, event-related revenues, and campus-wide university trademarks and licensing.

Utah is likely the first of many schools that will follow this model. Schools like Michigan State, Kentucky, Clemson, and North Carolina have already created separate companies to handle sponsorships, ticketing, marketing, and more. They have done it without a private equity partner, at least for now.

The Big Ten was also looking at doing this with Big Ten Enterprises before its private capital deal was temporarily shelved. 

The idea is to create one entity that can streamline and maximize revenue coming from those sources. Otro Capital has plenty of experience in professional sports. Among its leaders is a former President of the Cleveland Browns and SVP of the Dallas Cowboys. 

Otro Capital likely sees the marketing, ticketing, and licensing of a major college athletic department as low-hanging fruit for revenue growth. They’re banking on that and will take a cut of future revenue as minority partners in exchange for the $500 million cash infusion. 

There is also an opportunity for high-level Utah donors to buy into Utah Brands & Entertainment LLC and receive future dividends. 

Otro Capital will not have decision-making power or control as part of the deal. They cannot cut sports or decide how much Kyle Whittingham can pay his quarterback. 

Utah views this as a necessity to survive in the current college athletics landscape. Trying to fund over $20 million in revenue sharing every year, along with beyond-the-cap NIL money for a competitive football and men’s basketball roster, is like paddling a canoe through a monsoon. It feels nearly impossible if you’re not blessed with Texas Tech oil money. 

Utah President Taylor Randall expressed the idea that doing nothing in the current environment is more of a risk than partnering with a private equity firm. If you get left behind like Oregon State or Washington State, the university will lose a ton of money over time. 

Randall has been a huge Utah sports fan since his childhood. It is refreshing to have a university president who sees the extreme value in athletics as the front door of the university. 

While Utah is not saying this publicly, if this money helps elevate the program into a Power Two league or a future Super League, it will be well worth it financially for the university as a whole and all parties involved.

There are obviously big risks when you get into bed with private equity. I highly, highly encourage you to read Alexander Baker's breakdown of Utah’s Otro Capital deal to get a full grasp of the risks involved. It is well worth your time. 

I do not love that college sports are in a place where private equity seems necessary to survive. I would certainly prefer a world without those risks being taken on by something I love so dearly.

But after talking to people close to the situation and reading Baker’s work, I do think this is a very innovative deal with a lot of upside. I also tend to agree that it is a better risk to take than sitting back and doing nothing.

Above all, I immensely respect and appreciate that Utah has leadership at the university and athletics department levels that is so open and progressive about generating revenue in this era. 

If we’re being honest with ourselves, the Big 12 is going to need more of that to compete at the highest level as a conference. 

Brett Yormark Slams Notre Dame

Notre Dame dominated the national college football conversation much of the week for all the wrong reasons. The Fighting Irish’s pouting spree over being left out of the College Football Playoff caught everyone’s attention, including Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark.

Not only did the Irish reportedly turn down a Pop-Tarts Bowl invitation to play BYU, but Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua also publicly accused the ACC of orchestrating a targeted attack on the Irish’s playoff candidacy that he says caused “permanent damage” to their relationship.

In reality, the ACC did what it should have done: promote Miami, a full-time conference member with a head-to-head win over Notre Dame.

Notre Dame is an ACC member in every sport but football and has a scheduling partnership with the league in football. Miami is a full conference member and a flight risk. Of course the ACC is going to take care of the full member who could bolt if it isn’t kept happy.

The public spat sparked speculation about the future of the Irish’s relationship with the ACC. A little light banter about the Big 12 potentially getting involved was all it took to send social media off and running.

But the fun did not last very long. Yormark shut down any notion of the Big 12 sliding into Notre Dame’s DMs with pointed comments about Bevacqua’s tirade at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum.

Safe to say Bevacqua will not be sending Yormark a Christmas card.

Honestly, I like the fire from Yormark. Somebody needed to publicly check Notre Dame’s ego. Heck, even Paul Finebaum praised what Yormark had to say. 

I did initially wonder if this could hurt the Big 12 in future playoff negotiations. Notre Dame can be an ally for the ACC and Big 12 when the SEC and Big Ten try to throw their weight around, but I am not sure the Irish have quite the sway they think they do.

Yormark has to spend plenty of time in the negotiating room with Bevacaqua while sorting out the next iteration of the playoff. It sure seems like he was as fed up with the way the Fighting Irish have been acting as the rest of us. I also get the sense that Yormark is tight with ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, so he is likely sticking up for a friend, too.

Yormark said what we’ve all been thinking and tweeting, and for that, I thank him. 

Yormark Praises the Selection Committee; Not BYU

It was not just Yormark’s comments about Notre Dame that made waves. He also turned plenty of heads in Provo with what he had to say about the College Football Playoff selection committee.

I definitely understand why that would have BYU fans upset. If I were in their shoes, I’m sure I would feel the same way. 

But I do think there’s a pretty reasonable explanation here. 

It’s fair to say Yormark probably waited too long to campaign hard for the Cougars to be included in the playoff field. He waited until the final week of the regular season to start making the case. It began with this appearance on TNT during the Arizona-Arizona State game. 

He then doubled and tripled down on his case that BYU should be included during multiple press conferences before the Big 12 Championship Game. 

I point all that out to show he did make an effort, even if it felt to some like too little, too late. If I were Yormark, I would have spent more energy going after ESPN for repeatedly excluding BYU from the conversation and from playoff bubble graphics.

So why did he choose to lightly support the committee instead of taking that opportunity to napalm them the way he did Notre Dame? I think he’s keeping the big picture in mind. 

It’s disappointing that BYU got left out, but Texas Tech also got a first-round bye and a top-four seed. That’s huge progress for the league from last year, when the conversation in late November was about how the Big 12 could get left out of the playoff entirely if Arizona State won the league title. 

Texas Tech is ranked ahead of three one-loss teams from the SEC and Big Ten in Oregon, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M. That’s a pretty healthy show of respect. Tech’s one loss is to 8-4 Arizona State. The other three lost to Indiana, Georgia, and Texas. 

The Big 12 also wound up with five teams in the top 21 of the playoff rankings and three in the top 15. If you would have told me that at the beginning of the season, I would have taken it in a heartbeat. 

If Yormark unloaded on the committee after all of that, he would risk alienating other major players in the playoff negotiating room. The Big 12 could lose what little leverage it has in shaping what the playoff looks like moving forward.

And before you scoff at that, remember that the Big 12 played a key role in stopping the 4/4/2/2 format that would have required the league to sign off on only being half as valuable as the Big Ten and SEC. 

My guess is Yormark is protecting the Big 12’s positioning for the future by not going scorched earth over BYU right now. You don’t have to agree with it. I understand if you don’t like it. But I do think it’s at least a reasonable and plausible explanation. 

What You Need to Know

• Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham seemed to confirm the report that ASU QB Sam Leavitt is entering the transfer portal. 

• More details about Collin Klein’s staff at K-State are coming out. Here are coaches from Chris Klieman’s staff who won’t be retained. 

• Former K-State QB Trey Scott will be Klein’s GM. Scott’s experience as an NFL scout and agent gives him an ideal skillset for the role. 

• Klieman’s defensive coordinator, Joe Klanderman, is taking the Baylor defensive coordinator job, according to ESPN. 

• Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark tells CBS Sports that he’s in favor of expanding the College Football Playoff next year. 

• The Big 12 crushed the ACC in conference championship game ratings. Here’s the proof.

• Next season, you should be able to hear the conversation replay officials are having during reviews. The Big 12 says it will join the ACC in presenting that audio. 

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