Montana AD Reacts to Utah’s Game-Changing Equity Move

College athletics are getting crazier and crazier by the day. NIL, conference realignment, TV deals, and the transfer portal have completely shocked the state of college sports. Now, we're seeing even more unprecedented breakthroughs.

Ross Dellenger with Yahoo! Sports published a story revealing that the University of Utah is in the midst of securing more than $500 million in capital from an outside source, Otro Capital.

"At the center of the project is the creation of a private, independent offshoot of the athletic department — Utah Brands & Entertainment LLC — in a first-of-its-kind partnership between a university athletic department and an equity partner," - Dellenger

Someone from Otro Capital and Utah leaders will create the new company. Dellenger also says that donors have the "ability to purchase a stake in Utah Brands & Entertainment."

This breakthrough is insane to me, so I had to reach out to Montana Athletic Director Kent Haslam on Wednesday's Daily Drive with Ace Sauerwein to get his two cents on this groundbreaking deal.

Kent Haslam on Utah's Private Equity Deal

"Well, first, [I'm] not surprised," said Haslam. "Talk of private equity entering into college athletics has been buzzed about for months. The Big 10 has been very visible in their ability to try and get $2.4 billion out of the University of California retirement system."

"But when it hit at the university level, and also in a state that I'm really familiar with, grew up in Utah... I think that's where everybody paid attention to this one because a school now has opted to go in and do this and allow private equity, private money, investment bankers come in and invest in their product."

Haslam described it as a large upfront loan.

Credit: University of Montana Athletics

Will Montana get into the private equity business?

"I don't," Haslam said on whether he believes private equity will involve itself with Montana or other like-minded schools. "They're not in the charity business. They're not in the business of just giving money and donating it."

Private firms won't be like typical donors. They won't stick by the teams if they're not making money. It's a business at the end of the day.

There's a lot of great stuff in the interview, so check it out above.