{"id":83476,"date":"2025-12-14T23:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T23:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/83476\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T23:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T23:50:08","slug":"former-fsu-qb-drew-weatherford-talks-athletics-financing-on-university-conference-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/83476\/","title":{"rendered":"Former FSU QB Drew Weatherford talks athletics financing on university, conference level"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weatherford Capital, the investment firm founded 10 years ago by former Florida State quarterback Drew Weatherford<\/a> and two of his brothers, created national headlines this weekend when news leaked that it is teaming up with Redbird Capital to provide up to $500 million in credit financing to the Big 12 Conference.<\/a><\/p>\n

The deal hasn\u2019t been finalized, but several media outlets reported it could be done within the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

While many have speculated that Florida State and other university athletics departments will soon turn to private equity as a way to fund the greater financial demands of competing on the national landscape in college football, Weatherford explained on a recent podcast that providing credit might be a smoother alternative in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the school level, I think we\u2019re still many, many years away (from most schools selling equity),\u201d Weatherford said during an appearance on the Momentous Sports podcast<\/a> with former UCF quarterback Kyle Israel, who also works in the sports investment space.<\/p>\n

The podcast was recorded weeks ago, but it was released last week.<\/p>\n

While investment firms are certainly interested in tapping into a new sector like college sports, the former Florida State quarterback said his company\u2019s research shows it is, \u201cvery complicated, especially at the university level\u201d to actually sell ownership.<\/p>\n

FSU officials started looking into the possibility of a private equity deal<\/a> several years ago, but the idea stalled in late 2023 or early 2024 due to \u201clegal hurdles\u201d and other complications, according to Sportico.<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the concept of private financing remains extremely intriguing, Weatherford said, because college athletics programs produce very large and very consistent revenue streams.<\/p>\n

Power Four programs like Florida State generate tens of millions of dollars each year in media rights, and that number is essentially fixed, based on long-term television contracts. While ticket sales, concessions and merchandise sales might fluctuate some based on good and bad seasons, Weatherford said the change is seldom greater than 10 percent.<\/p>\n

So it makes perfect sense why investment firms would be attracted. <\/p>\n

And Weatherford, who also serves on the Florida State Board of Trustees, said universities are equally interested in the concept for several reasons. Not only do they desire to be competitive in the current landscape \u2014 while dealing with the financial pressures created by NIL, revenue sharing with athletes and massive coaching salary buyouts \u2014 but they want to be well-positioned for the next round of conference realignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s arguably more important to have capital today than it\u2019s ever been,\u201d said Weatherford, who operates his firm with brothers Will and Sam. \u201cAnd the stakes are way higher too. Because if you don\u2019t win over the next five years \u2014 when the Big Ten, the SEC and the Big 12 media deals come up \u2014 there\u2019s going to be another reshuffle of all of these schools, and you don\u2019t want to be on the outside looking in. So the stakes are really high.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that in mind, Weatherford Capital and Redbird Capital announced in June the forming of Collegiate Athletics Solutions<\/a>, a partnership designed to, \u201cdirectly address the ever-expanding need for smart capital investment in athletic departments across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his podcast interview, Weatherford said CAS is, \u201cthe only dedicated fund for collegiate athletics. We\u2019ve actually raised real capital that\u2019s ready to be deployed.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to reports, Collegiate Athletics Solutions will not take any ownership interest in the Big 12. The firm instead will be providing $500 million in credit<\/a> \u2014 around $30 million for each school in the conference.<\/p>\n

The Big Ten Conference, meanwhile, is reportedly considering a $2.4 billion deal that would transfer 10 percent equity of the league\u2019s lucrative media rights to the University of California pension fund. That concept was paused last month following objections from Michigan and Southern Cal<\/a>, but Weatherford said he thinks there\u2019s a good chance the deal eventually goes through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not done, but there\u2019s a high likelihood that that thing gets done,\u201d he said, adding that the Big Ten would have to extend its current Grant of Rights agreement to make it feasible.<\/p>\n

As part of the agreement, Weatherford said, each school would receive a cash infusion of at least $100 million, with some of the top revenue-generators receiving much more.<\/p>\n

The concept of individual schools selling equity might not be far off, either. University of Utah officials last week approved a deal that could bring in more than $400 million in exchange for selling a minority stake of a new for-profit entity named Utah Brands & Entertainment.<\/a> The university will own the rest.<\/p>\n

As part of the arrangement, Otro Capital of New York would provide the cash and also handle things like selling sponsorships and creating additional revenue streams. The deal has not been finalized, but it will close in 2026 if everything goes according to plan.<\/p>\n

Here is the full Weatherford interview on the Momentous Sports Podcast:<\/p>\n

SIGN UP:\u00a0Join Warchant\u2019s FSU Community for $1 today<\/a><\/p>\n

Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State football fans on the Tribal Council.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weatherford Capital, the investment firm founded 10 years ago by former Florida State quarterback Drew Weatherford and two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-83476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}