Louisville basically just built an in-house NIL agency

Louisville basically just built an in-house NIL agency and opened the door for private equity to buy into their athletic department. College sports is not going back. The University of Louisville board just approved a new nonprofit called Cardinal Ventures, Inc. Its whole job is to run revenue sharing and NIL deals directly with athletes instead of relying only on outside collectives. On top of that, they cleared the way for a separate for-profit company that could eventually let private investors buy into Louisville's athletic revenue just like a pro team. Board chair Larry Benz basically said there is no playbook for this, so they are creating their own structure that can move fast but still report back to the university. The Cardinal Ventures board will include the school president Kim Shassel, A.D. Josh Heird, and outside experts in marketing, contracts, and pro sports to make Louisville more agile in this new era. This all follows their running out of time paper where Louisville leaders argue the current model is broken and push for new rules and even a salary cap on revenue sharing while still spinning big in football and men's basketball. Right now they are saying the quiet part out loud. You have to invite more money in just to survive, then eventually figure out how to cap it before everything collapses. If you have a friend who still thinks college sports is about amateurism, send them this. And if you want more breakdowns of how schools are turning into mini pro franchises, hit follow and comment your thoughts.