College Football Is Coming - Ready To File Bankruptcy?
shailynn
They never tell you what you need to know.
Tuesday, July 2, 2024 1:47 PM
I’m kind of surprised this news hasn’t gained more exposure, but Oklahoma University has filed for bankruptcy. Little is know about the details and not much has been said.
https://www.ou.edu/insideou/articles/nor…
I have an acquaintance that’s has a position within the ACC conference and I asked his opinion on it. He laughed and said “oh you just wait, I could see many more schools doing this in the near future.”
I never understood why Oklahoma would leave the Big12. They were winning the conference almost every year essentially guaranteeing a playoff spot, now in the SEC they’ll be lucky to win once every 5 years if even that. Looks like they needed the money.
Meanwhile to avoid this - the Big 12 is gunning to rename the conference to ALLSTATE BIG 12 or BIG ALLSTATE CONFERENCE or something like that, and get paid, possibly as much as 50 million a year by Allstate which would be divided between conference members. The plan is to “close the gap” between the amounts the SEC and B1G get above the Big12. Probably doesn’t matter because if this happens with the Big12 then the SEC will turn around and be named something like the Taco Bell Conference and get 50 million plus themselves.
At least we get a biggest pool of playoff teams this year so in theory nobody should get snubbed like the 2023-24 season.
https://www.ou.edu/insideou/articles/nor…
I have an acquaintance that’s has a position within the ACC conference and I asked his opinion on it. He laughed and said “oh you just wait, I could see many more schools doing this in the near future.”
I never understood why Oklahoma would leave the Big12. They were winning the conference almost every year essentially guaranteeing a playoff spot, now in the SEC they’ll be lucky to win once every 5 years if even that. Looks like they needed the money.
Meanwhile to avoid this - the Big 12 is gunning to rename the conference to ALLSTATE BIG 12 or BIG ALLSTATE CONFERENCE or something like that, and get paid, possibly as much as 50 million a year by Allstate which would be divided between conference members. The plan is to “close the gap” between the amounts the SEC and B1G get above the Big12. Probably doesn’t matter because if this happens with the Big12 then the SEC will turn around and be named something like the Taco Bell Conference and get 50 million plus themselves.
At least we get a biggest pool of playoff teams this year so in theory nobody should get snubbed like the 2023-24 season.
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16 comments
Are all these new shiny buildings necessary? When I went to college we didn’t even AC in the dorms or in many classrooms. Many of the buildings were constructed in the 20’s and 30’s. Gave the campus style.
They did the right thing. Cash is king and no one will be making more than the SEC.
1. Oklahoma jumping to the SEC has given them a bunch more revenue, but it still isn’t going to be enough to keep the university afloat.
2. Is this one of the reasons Oklahoma jumped to the SEC in the first place? They needed the money, not they “wanted” the money?
The university isn't closing doors no matter what. Too big to fail.
Even if they file for bankruptcy, its just a tool to be used to shed some dead weight or restructure pay and benefits to employees.
An economic slowdown definitely could be rough for a University carrying so much debt.
But some changes have happened, f.e., the uncovering of really morally corrupt practices at some of the for-profit schools, and the manners in which the move to forgive or reduce student-loan debt has gone more mainstream. But I don't really see a full pop coming.
My educational institution (small highly regarded liberal arts college, I graduated in the 80s) went through a rough patch when financial "insiders" convinced the trustees to invest parts of the endowment in dot-coms and similar, which did fine until that bubble burst in the 90s, but over the following two decades the endowment has been quite adequately rebuilt to the point that you can't really see a difference. I think the schools operate outside the typical economic analysis, since they're always able to recoup any shortfall with a single major donor. And that donor won't be making his or her decision on the basis of potential future business factors like whether or not the institution promises to be profitable in the future, they'll be donating on the basis of existing past factors like the fact that the donor got his or her degree from that school.
How football figures into this is a bit of a guess. I think the NCAA over-all needs radical re-organization, because it's pretty clear that many college athletes, especially in a few specific sports, are simply in pre-professional programs. The draft, bringing people from college teams to professional teams, for NBA and NFL are essentially the only path into professional play in those two leagues. Baseball and (ice) hockey are different, there actually are minor leagues which act as feeders.
I might advocate in favor of a European system, in which most athletes simply quit school at about 15 years old to play in lower-tier soccer leagues, working their way upwards to maybe make the big leagues eventually. With relegation and promotion possible -- good teams move from the minors to the majors, and vice-versa, based on league performance -- there's a constant shit of money and fewer dead-beat franchises. Imagine if the Montreal Expos were so bad they had to play the North Carolina Mud Hens next year. That system might work in North America, we have many many more people who would be roughly capable of playing professional basketball and football at a lesser level, except for the fact that the number of available positions is much too small to accommodate them because the paying leagues only exist at the single top-tier level. We would, then, change college athletes into minor-league athletes. Which is roughly what we are already doing, except we're hypocritical about it.
I can see disadvantages to this system, too. America doesn't need yet another generation of unemployables who can't open a spreadsheet, but the great desire to "make it" in pro ball would simply remove many from educational streams. Might be good for them, I dunno, can't guess how bad it would be.