Inside the Big 12's bet on private equity to close revenue gap, compete in the NIL era

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark turned to private capital in a deal that could reshape how conferences make money

Brandon Marcello

May 12, 2026

11:21 am ET

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9 min read

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When Brett Yormark made the call 18 months ago to RedBird Capital Partners, the gap was already hard math, and it was only growing.

The Big 12's revenue was less than half of the Big Ten's $928 million, and with revenue-sharing on the horizon and NIL contracts draining the schools' coffers and lightening boosters' pockets, it was time to act.

Yormark, who became Big 12 commissioner in August 2022, was left with two problems on his desk. The first was the revenue gap. The second was that no one at the conference level had ever been built to close it.

What he reached for was something major college sports had never tried at the conference level: a private-capital partner. After working informally to help close two sponsorship deals worth roughly $100 million over the last year, RedBird and the Big 12 officially became partners.

The deal ties the Big 12 to RedBird Capital Partners and Tampa-based Weatherford Capital through an endeavor called Collegiate Athletic Solutions, which spans three interconnected business lines. The piece that has drawn headlines is an opt-in credit line of up to $30 million per school, with double-digit interest rates. The bigger, untested question is whether the other two legs -- a conference-level commercial-sponsorship operation and a $12.5 million direct investment from CAS to build new revenue-generating businesses for the Big 12 -- can actually shrink the gap with the leagues above the Big 12.

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That is the test case college athletics is watching. Many in the Big 12 are curious, too. After all, their future, whatever the next iteration of college sports resembles, depends on their financial viability.

"The onus is on the schools to innovate," said Robert Klein, president of RedBird Capital Partners. "If they embrace new business models that reflect today's economic framework, we can help them to unlock value."

Schools and conferences across the country are desperate to carve out new revenue streams to counter rising operational costs, coaches' salaries and the latest line item, revenue-sharing contracts with players, which is set to enter its second year after the House v. NCAA settlement paved the way for sharing the financial pie with thousands of players.

RedBird Capital Partners was founded by Gerry Cardinale in 2014 and now manages roughly $15 billion across sports media entertainment and financial services, Klein said. (Part of the company's portfolio is a significant investment in Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS Sports.) RedBird has developed YES Network, NESN and NFL experience arm On Location and also owns Italian sporting power AC Milan.

Weatherford Capital, co-founded by former Florida State quarterback Drew Weatherford, joined RedBird in May 2024 to launch CAS, the platform now executing the Big 12 deal.

In an exclusive interview with CBS Sports this week, Cardinale and Klein walked through how they say the partnership with the Big 12 is structured to buoy the conference amid the ongoing sea change in college sports, and how they think CAS can deliver for member schools that have absorbed real financial damage from the transfer portal and the revenue-sharing cap.

Inside the three-part RedBird model

The first leg is commercial. RedBird Development Group, the firm's in-house sales arm, has signed two major sponsors on behalf of the Big 12, generating roughly $100 million in new revenue that flows down to the schools. The marquee partnership is with PayPal, a deal that includes on-field logos, co-branded credit cards for the conference and its member schools, and a Venmo system to deliver NIL payments to athletes.

The second leg draws on Cardinale's actual track record. The $12.5 million CAS has invested directly into the conference is earmarked for new EBITDA-generating businesses owned at the conference level. This is the playbook he ran with the NFL through On Location, and with the Yankees through YES. He builds businesses that monetize intellectual property rather than simply taking minority stakes in teams and waiting for them to appreciate.

The third leg has drawn the most questions. The private capital credit line CAS has offered to the Big 12's 16 schools, allowing athletic departments to draw up to $30 million over the next year, with repayment taken from the Big 12's annual revenue distribution to schools. At least 11 schools have initially declined the line of credit from CAS.

The label "private equity" is a dirty word for some, particularly in college athletics, where universities had long raised money on their own and generated mil