College & University Athletics-Capital Markets View of Risks and Rewards

Jeff Davis - Amherst College
Ken Rodgers - S&P Global Ratings

Is College and University Athletics the next minefield that higher education will have to navigate with potentially an impact as significant as the demographic cliff? This session will address the major changes occurring in college and university athletics and how these institutions are and may respond while presenting perspectives from investors and the credit markets about capital markets considerations. Auxiliary revenue, given compressed net tuition revenue, is getting increased scrutiny among capital market participants. Are the changes taking place in college and university athletics the Holy Grail leading to rewards that will enable these institutions to thrive in the future or are they potentially a black whole that can only make college and university's access to capital more difficult?

The panel will have top financial experts from a D-1 school and a leading non-D-1 school as well as recognized experts from a higher education financial advisory firm and one of the leading higher education credit rating agencies.

The presentation will be an active panel led by the moderator and encouraging a lot of Q&A from the audience to make this a memorable session.

Learning Objectives

  1. Describe the number of issues the capital markets believe colleges and universities are facing in running their athletics programs.
  2. Utilize a matrix methodology to assess which decisions are potentially high value and low risk vs. those that may be high risk but low value.
  3. Determine how specific decisions they will be called upon to make or have recently made might be viewed by those that have a role in providing affordable capital.

CPE Available

  • 1 Credit: Finance