The Big 12 Conference's new partnership with Red Bird Capital to offer every team a $30 million line of credit doesn't appear to be all that popular with member school.
According to Front Office Spots, more than half of Big 12 schools say they are declining the option.
The conference agreed to the first-of-its-kind conference-wide private capital deal earlier this month. The deal was expected to deliver at least $12.5 million — to the league office to drive commercial development and business growth; offer schools an opt-in capital credit line of $30 million each; and create a strategic business partnership that could pay off when the conference next goes to market for its media rights contract.
Schools were given a year to decide whether to take the money. Should they decide to do so, the conference would withhold a portion of their annual school distribution for the private-equity firms on an annual fixed repayment schedule.
Front Office Sports reported last week that it has confirmed Texas Tech, Iowa State and Colorado have declined the offer. Baylor, Cincinnati, Houston, TCU, UCF and West Virginia have told local news outlets that they are holding off on the credit line for now.
That leaves BYU and Utah as the remaining uncertainties.
BYU athletic director Brian Santiago told Deseret News that his program will also be declining the money.
“I think we can reasonably say private equity will never be a part of the sports program at BYU," Santiago said. "That’s affirmative. That’s something that everybody knows.”
Utah had no comment.
