"The disagreement over this issue has already frayed relationships and torpedoed goodwill with a company that was as trusted a partner as schools had in college athletics. As multiple administrators pointed out, several athletics directors testified on Learfield’s behalf during the DOJ investigation to help the [IMG/Learfield] merger go through.

Now, with the company under new management after longtime CEO Greg Brown retired in April, there’s suspicion that the company’s private equity owners are using the pandemic to remedy deals that were probably overvalued in the first place."