Randy Levine

"There has to be an entity that's set up by the people who are going to administer this, run this... We have professional sports executives... These issues have been in professional sports for a long time." The move is clearly toward the professionalization of college athletics—separating the commercial operation from the academic institution. TKO Group (parent of UFC/WWE) specializes in running distinct, high-value sports entertainment properties. As college football morphs into a "Mini NFL" (Ted Cruz's words), the management of these rights and events will likely be outsourced to commercial operators rather than university athletic directors. Long TKO as a proxy for the "commercialization of sports rights." The NCAA retains control; private equity firms (like RedBird/Ares) take the deal private instead of public markets.