A Message to University of Illinois President Tim Killeen

Below is the text of an email I wrote to University of Illinois president Tim Killeen on the subject of the stalled venture capital deal with the Big Ten conference.

Please contact your university leadership if you feel like I do.

President Killeen,

As a 2012 graduate, I am grateful for your decade of stable leadership after the revolving door of feckless and corrupt leaders I experienced from 2007 to 2012 (in particular the Hogan administration). I love the University of Illinois and I'm forever proud to be an Illini, and as recently as last year the leadership impressed me by protecting free speech on campus during Palestine protests (something my now-local University of Michigan could not find the courage to do).

It is for that reason that I'm disappointed that the U of I is backing the UC Investments venture capital deal with the Big Ten Conference. The Big Ten Enterprises framework makes me very nervous about the future of the relationship between the University and the football team.

I have three principal concerns.

The first is that opening the door to venture capital and private equity taking a stake in U of I football will eventually see it completely siloed off from the University in everything but name. The SEC was surely going to do this at some point, but the Big Ten was supposed to also be an academic partnership among elite public institutions and I don't believe the University stands to gain from this deal or what this deal portends for the future. The football team is a great community and alumni relations tool and ambassador for the University and I fear the University becoming subordinate to venture capitalists whose sole concern is their return on Big Ten Football. These returns could be endangered if, for instance, universities associated with Big Ten Football refused to implement some kind of federally-mandated "patriotic curriculum" or refused anti-academic demands from politically-affiliated hedge fund managers. Academia is under attack in this country and remaining a world-class university will require not just courage but every shield we have available.

My second concern comes from having seen how private equity acquisitions have affected businesses for the last 20 years or so. It's a cycle I'm sure you know well; a leveraged buyout burdens a successful company with new debt, and then the least profitable components are sold off to service the debt and enrich the fund that made the buyout. Now imagine down the road there are quite a few corporate raiders invested in Big Ten Enterprises, and they want to streamline things. There are 18 schools tied up in this thing. With the history of Illinois football in the TV era, we will not be a sacred cow. Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan and USC are untouchable brands. Do you think Sam Altman would be sentimental about Maryland Football? At a certain point, Illinois will be a liability. We've improved our standing greatly from five years ago, but my point remains that private equity would absolutely put Illini Football on the chopping block sooner rather than later.

And even if it won't happen to us, we shouldn't sign on to a deal that might condemn any of our Big Ten peers to the same fate.

My third concern is that private equity has optimized enough of our lives. As Americans, we are effectively slaves to the whims of capital markets that are manipulated by forces most people will never be able to control. We have to just sit here and take it as companies charge us more money for worse services, every successful local enterprise is bought up and pimped out by a mega-corporation, and advertising permeates every waking second of our lives.

Of course I'm not suggesting that this is where it ends, and of course I'm not naive enough to be saying that college football isn't already rotten with this problem, but can't there be just one thing in this country that isn't controlled by hedge fund managers? Must they own everything? Can we not have a football team, just as a treat?

Thank you again for your stewardship of my alma mater and please consider what Michigan and USC leadership have to say about this deal. It's not too late to go back.

I'll see you on Senior Day at Memorial. Go Illini!

--
Stephen Braun
University of Illinois Class of 2012
Triangle Fraternity