According to reports, Howard University head basketball coach Kenny Blakeney is looking for a buyer or a group of buyers to purchase up to one-third of the Howard University basketball program for $100 million.
According to the Washington Post, Blakeney is looking for a way to give the HBCU any advantage in the new post-NIL collegiate marketplace.
As he told the outlet, “College athletics is full-fledged business now. The whole idea is to not get left behind. It’s, ‘How do we include ourselves in this?’ I don’t want to have a two-tiered system where we’re not able to compete for the NCAA tournament or the national championship.”
Blakeney continued, “And
from what I’m hearing right now, that is a real possibility, that there’s going to be an NCAA tournament that isn’t going to include everyone else, it’s just going to include those Power Four universities and maybe the Big East. That’s not what I signed up for.”To that end, Blakeney has spent most of the summer pitching potential investors. However, Ricky Volante, a lawyer and former chief executive of the Professional Collegiate League, says such a deal would be a problem unless the coach can prove he can give investors a return on investment.
“As for the revenue part, that is the chicken and the egg,” Volante told Front Office Sports
. “Coach is going to have to show in which someone is viewing this as a true investment and not altruistically driven. He’s going to have to show how this person gets their return, and in college sports, ultimately, that’s driven through media revenue. Outside of Notre Dame and Texas everyone else’s media revenues are driven through the conference.”Volante continued, saying that how the NCAA’s settlement resolves will greatly influence how or even if Blakeney’s plan will be implemented.
“The potential unknown here is how any of this may be impacted by the House case and the settlement. If that settlement is truly approved and is enforced by the court as a piece of federal legislation, would the NCAA have the legitimate authority to look at this and say, ‘Absolutely not?’” Volante told Front Office Sports
.According to the Post, Blakeney has not discussed the matter with his bosses at Howard; he is waiting to see if he can get any potential investors to bite. Blakeney told the paper he wants to get ahead of this opportunity before it’s too late and sees it as vital to the Howard University basketball program.
“We’re just at the beginning of it,” Blakeney said. “But I do feel like there is a short window of opportunity because the speed that NIL is moving, the transfer portal is moving, the professionalism of our business is happening. This s— has to take place fast. There has to be some conversations.”
Blakeney continued, “I don’t care (what others think.) This is what we’re dealing with. And if we’re not going to turn our eye to what’s hitting us in the face, then we’re not looking at this thing the right way.”
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