Big 12, college corporatism hastening NCAA’s demise

College athletics are careening toward becoming a full-blown private commercial enterprise like the NFL or NBA. Meanwhile, the NCAA is hurtling toward an untimely demise and irrelevancy.

In late May, the NCAA ceded ground to the major conferences when it settled one of its antitrust lawsuits, enabling universities to pay their student athletes directly.

While competition among schools may be strengthened as a result, conferences are still trying to find new means of squeezing profits from athletic departments.

Per CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, the Big 12 is considering a private equity investment of up to $1 billion for up to 20 percent ownership in the conference. On Thursday, ESPN’s Pete Thamel — a veteran college sports reporter — described what it could mean on “The Pat McAfee Show.”