Blakeney’s strategy to sell stake in Howard not vetted

Jeff Borzello, ESPN Personnel WriterAug 6, 2024, 01:16 PM ET

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• Basketball recruiting insider.
• Signed up with ESPN in 2014.
• Graduate of University of Delaware.Howard University leadership has not yet

  vetted males’s basketball coach Kenny Blakeney’s proposal to sell a one-third stake in his program in exchange for$100 million, the school informed ESPN in a declaration on Tuesday.The Washington Post reported last week that Blakeney met a personal equity firm in June and talked with possible financiers in July, with completion objective of avoiding Howard’s men’s basketball program from getting”left behind “in the ever-changing college sports landscape.In a declaration provided to ESPN on Tuesday, Howard athletic director Kery Davis stated Blakeney’s

  plans “reflect his own individual concepts and have not been vetted by University leadership.””Guys’s Basketball Head Coach Kenny Blakeney is a great leader of boys and has made a substantial contribution to our Sports Department and the University at big, recruiting incredible trainee professional athletes and browsing the program to consecutive Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Championships and NCAA Tournament appearances the last two seasons,”Davis said.”Like all of our coaches and athletic administrators, Coach Blakeney continues to enthusiastically explore ideas to create financial backing that will permit our student professional athletes to be more competitive as they represent the University. For many years, we have actually been very lucky to protect sponsorships and gifts that have actually tremendously helped our 21 Department I teams, from a multi-million-dollar renovation of our training center to covering expenditures for trainee athletes to participate in cultural enrichment programs allowing them to travel and contend abroad.”Recent remarks credited to Coach Blakeney reflect his own individual ideas and have not been vetted by University management. “According to the Post, Blakeney is looking to protect an initial$100 million to improve the program’s arena and roster, and then either go independent or sign up with a bigger conference. Blakeney would put$ 50 million towards renovations to Burr Gymnasium, while he would then spend $4 million to $5 million in name, image and likeness cash to develop a roster.The current Home settlement will allow schools to pay players directly– up to 22 %of the average earnings from media rights, ticket sales and sponsorships– with power conference schools expected to be able to spend in between$20 million and $22 million.” I do not want to have a two-tiered system where we’re unable to compete for the NCAA tournament or the national championship,”Blakeney informed the Post.” And from what I’m hearing today, that is a genuine possibility, that there’s going to be an NCAA tournament

  that isn’t going to consist of everyone else; it’s simply going to include those Power Four [conference] universities and possibly the Big East. That’s not what I registered for.”While Blakeney is the very first known college coach to actively pursue personal equity investment, this isn’t the very first time personal financial investment and college sports have been intertwined in the in 2015. ESPN reported in June that the Huge 12 was in talks with private equity company CVC Capital Partners for a 15% -20 %stake in the league, while Florida State has actually supposedly gone over securing personal equity if needed for a possible departure from the ACC.”We’re just at the beginning of it,” Blakeney said.”But I do feel like there is a brief window of chance due to the fact that the speed that NIL is moving, the transfer website is moving, the professionalism of our company is occurring. This s– needs to happen fast. There has to be some conversations.

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