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Pac-12 may seek to raise $500 million by selling stake to private equity investors, report says

Conference tries to keep competitive as rivals cash in on lucrative TV deals

The Pac-12 Conference is reportedly considering a plan to sell a 10% stake in itself to private equity investors for $500 million, as it struggles to keep up with richer college sports conferences.

The Oregonian reported Saturday that the plan was presented by conference commissioner Larry Scott to Pac-12 university presidents and chancellors in November, and discussed in December.

The Pac-12’s fortunes have stumbled in recent years, missing out on lucrative paydays from college football and basketball. The league, which features schools such as Stanford, UCLA and Oregon, has not had a team in the NCAA’s college football playoff in three of the past four years and has had only one team make the men’s college basketball Final Four since 2009.

Other power conferences, such as the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten Conference, are earning $11 million to $15 million more for its schools per year, the Oregonian reported, largely due to blockbuster TV deals, which the Pac-12 lacks. The conference-run Pac-12 Network has been blacked out on AT&T’s T DirecTV for seven years over a rights dispute.

Under the private equity plan, the Pac-12’s media rights would be valued at $5 billion to $8.5 billion, and the $500 million infusion would immediately be dispersed to the Pac-12’s schools.

Lackluster football teams may not be the conference’s only financial problem. The Oregonian reported earlier this year that Scott’s $4.8 million salary is twice as much as his counterparts in the far richer SEC and Big Ten, and the Pac-10 is spending $7 million a year on rent for an office in San Francisco, where it moved in 2011 from nearby Walnut Creek, where office space is significantly cheaper.

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