Howard did not verify Blakeney’s plan to sell a stake in the hoops program

Howard University leadership has not yet vetted men’s basketball coach Kenny Blakeney’s proposal to sell a one-third stake in his program for $100 million, the school told ESPN in a statement Tuesday.

The Washington Post reported last week that Blakeney met with a private equity firm in June and spoke with potential investors in July, with the end goal of preventing Howard’s men’s basketball program from “going left” in the ever-changing college sports landscape.

In a statement to ESPN on Tuesday, Howard athletic director Kerry Davis said Blakeney’s plan “reflects his own personal ideas and has not been vetted by university leadership.”

“Men’s Basketball Head Coach Kenny Blakeney is a great leader of young people and has contributed greatly to our athletics department and university, recruiting outstanding student athletes and navigating the program to back-to-back Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championships and NCAA Tournament appearances the past two seasons,” Davis said. . “Like all of our coaches and athletic administrators, Coach Blakeney continues to enthusiastically explore ideas for creating financial support that will allow our student-athletes to be more competitive while representing the university. Over the years, we have been extremely fortunate to secure sponsorships and gifts. That has helped our 21 Division I teams tremendously, from multi-million dollar renovations to our training facilities to engaging student athletes in cultural enrichment programs to covering expenses for them to travel and compete abroad.

“Recent comments attributed to Coach Blakeney reflect his own personal views and have not been verified by university leadership.”

According to the Post, Blakeney is looking to secure an initial $100 million to improve the program’s field and roster, and then either go independent or join a major conference. Blakeney will spend $50 million renovating Barr Gymnasium, while he will spend $4 million to $5 million on names, images and similar money to build a roster.

The recent House settlement will allow schools to pay players directly — up to 22% of average revenue from media rights, ticket sales and sponsorships — with power conference schools expected to be able to spend between $20 million and $22 million.

“I don’t want to have a two-tier system where we can’t compete for the NCAA tournament or the national championship,” Blakeney told the Post. “And from what I’m hearing now, that’s a real possibility, that there’s going to be an NCAA tournament that’s not going to include everybody else; it’s just going to include those Power Four (conference) universities and maybe the Big East that I didn’t sign up for. .”

While Blakeney is the first known college coach to actively pursue private equity investment, this isn’t the first time private investment and college sports have been involved in the past year. ESPN reported in June that the Big 12 was in talks with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for a 15%-20% stake in the league, while Florida State reportedly discussed securing the private equity needed for a possible exit from the ACC.

“We’re just at the beginning of it,” Blakeney said. “But I think there’s a short window of opportunity because of the pace at which NIL is going, the transfer portal is going, the professionalization of our business is happening. It — has to happen quickly. There has to be. Some conversation.”