Private equity may have found another way into college sports: the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) postseason.

Private-equity firm Sequence Equity presented a plan for a privatized FCS College Football Playoff to a group of FCS commissioners at the Conference Commissioners Association in Chicago on Tuesday, Front Office Sports has learned. The firm told schools they could extract more value from the FCS postseason at a time when schools nationwide are looking for new ways to make money to compete in the revenue-sharing era.

The conversations are still in preliminary stages, though there appeared to be enough interest to have FCS commissioners reach out to NCAA leadership to discuss the concept, the source said. (The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Hero Sports first reported the news of a new FCS proposal.

According to the proposal, the new playoff would be run by a new private entity. FCS conferences would own the majority of the new entity, but Sequence Equity would take a minority stake and offer “tens of millions of dollars in investment,” the source said.

Sequence Equity describes itself as “a multi-strategy investment platform based in Los Angeles, investing in sports, media, entertainment, technology, and infrastructure.” The proposal includes all Division I FCS leagues. FOS reached out to multiple FCS leagues, all of which declined to comment or did not respond as of publishing. The commissioner of the Ivy League (which will participate in the FCS playoff for the first time this year) declined to comment, the Patriot League did not respond, and the Big Sky was unavailable for comment.

There are currently 13 leagues in the FCS, which is made up of more than 100 schools in Division I that field football programs that play outside of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). 

The new FCS postseason could take a similar shape to the College Football Playoff—an LLC owned by FBS conferences and Notre Dame that operates outside the NCAA that pays out hundreds of millions each year to FBS schools, and has a six-year media-rights package worth a total of $7.8 billion. FCS media rights won’t compare to their FBS counterpart—but the firm believes schools are currently leaving media-rights dollars on the table.

The FCS postseason is currently owned and operated by the NCAA, which hosts a 24-team bracket culminating in a championship game in January. The bracket is composed of 10 of the top-ranked conference champions, along with 14 at-large bids. This year, the championship game will take place at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville on Jan. 5. The media rights for the event are also owned by the NCAA, which agreed to a deal in 2024 to include them in a bundle with about 40 other championships into a deal on ESPN, which pays about $115 million annually in total for the rights to those championships.

It’s unclear when this entity could get up and running, as the concepts are still in the educational and discussion stages. But sending the proposal to the NCAA for discussion was described by the source as the next step.

An upcoming primetime NFL showdown in Dallas is the latest game on the league schedule to get enhanced network treatment. 

NBC’s Sunday Night Football game this weekend between the Packers and Cowboys, a highlight of the early-season schedule, will include the network bringing its Football Night in America pregame show on-site to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. John Fanta, newly hired by NBC Sports to call men’s college basketball games, will also make his FNIA debut to provide updates and highlights from network headquarters in Connecticut. 

The network’s daily fantasy football and sports betting show, Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry, will also air Sunday from the stadium. 

The elevated broadcast plan follows one that many of the NFL’s other rights holders have used for top games on their schedules. 

NBC, of course, did the same thing for the kickoff game Sept. 4 in Philadelphia between the Cowboys and Eagles—a contest that was on course to set a ratings record before a weather delay. CBS was at Lambeau Field with its pregame show for a season-opening matchup between the Lions and Packers that similarly fueled a strong start for that network. Fox then brought its pregame show to Kansas City for the Super Bowl LIX rematch Sept. 14 between the Eagles and Chiefs, also generating historic viewership. 

Comcast-owned NBC additionally has begun to escalate its promotion of the Packers-Cowboys matchup, leaning heavily in to the high-profile, preseason trade between the two that sent standout defensive end Micah Parsons to Green Bay. Directly referencing the tense emotions that led to the departure of Parsons from Dallas, network promotional spots for the game use Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way” as backing music. 

There are still plenty of emotions surrounding Parsons and the return to Dallas. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said there will be no pregame tribute video for Parsons, saying, “I don’t think that’s appropriate.” Parsons, for his part, told the Associated Press it would be “painful” to sack Cowboys quarterback and former mentor Dak Prescott. 

Surprisingly, the game will be the first on a Sunday night in Dallas between the two, despite the teams’ rivalry being one of the NFL’s best for decades. 

The commitment of additional resources to NFL game productions is also not surprising, given the hefty viewership registered so far this season. The first two weeks of the NFL season overall have averaged 20.7 million viewers per game, the best mark at that point of the schedule in league history. 

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — New York may be the largest private jet market in the country, but helicopters are stealing the show this week at the Ryder Cup, for the right price.

Since executive airports in the area are no strangers to private aviation, the Ryder Cup is not having an extremely sizable impact on runway demand like The Masters has in Augusta each April. There are also other major events taking place, like the United Nations General Assembly.

However, with traffic to and from Bethpage Black Golf Course getting thicker by the day, some fans are paying a premium to avoid the congestion—in the air. 

Blade, which bills itself as an urban air mobility company, is selling seats on helicopter rides from midtown Manhattan directly to Bethpage for $1,575 over the weekend. Blade struck a deal with the PGA of America (which runs the Ryder Cup’s U.S. operations) to set up 15 landing zones on-site at the Bethpage Red Golf Course, which is not in use during the Ryder Cup. Rides into nearby Republic Airport, which then require a car ride into Bethpage, cost $1,250.

The company expects to transport approximately 3,000 passengers this weekend as the “official air mobility partner of the 2025 Ryder Cup,” but it still has some competition.

FlyHouse—a private aviation company that has its foot in golf via deals with Ryder Cup players Justin Rose and J.J. Spaun—has been getting an inordinate amount of helicopter requests from clients around New York, too, one of its executives told Front Office Sports. Those trips can be as expensive as $6,000 for a one-way flight from Westchester, which is less than 50 miles from Bethpage, into Republic.

Fly With Me

Despite the uptick in helicopter activity, there is still plenty of private jet travel around the Ryder Cup.

Magellan Jets told FOS that flight operation volume in the area is up 19% compared to the same time last year.

Airshare, which also has a special pact with the PGA of America as its “official private aviation provider,” is offering a unique luxury experience for some of its top clients. Those lucky guests are staying in Manhattan, and then instead of fighting the Long Island traffic out to Bethpage, are being shuttled to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, and then taking a 20-minute private flight to Republic.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — U.S. players being paid isn’t the only Ryder Cup financial first happening this week at Bethpage Black Golf Course.

All attendees are receiving free food and nonalcoholic beverages for the first time, as the PGA of America (which runs the event’s U.S. operations) builds on its growing concession strategy that’s been implemented at PGA Championships for the past four years.

With general-admission tickets on Friday through Sunday costing $750 at face value, one perk is various market locations throughout the course, where fans can walk through grab-and-go layouts and take drinks like water, Gatorade, and soda; food like burgers, hot dogs, and other sandwiches; and snacks like chips, pretzels, and cookies. There is no limit to how many times an individual can visit any given market. 

While the PGA of America has found success with the unlimited food and beverage options at PGA Championships (GA tickets cost $250 for that tournament in May), the unique nature of the Ryder Cup presents some different logistical challenges.

“The first is just the morning crowd,” Ryder Cup director Bryan Karns told Front Office Sports. “When we did this at the PGA Championship, on Friday morning, you might only have 3,000 to 4,000 people on-site before 10 a.m., because people are coming out more at lunch, late afternoon.”

That more late-arriving crowd means less focus on breakfast food and drink items. “The Ryder Cup is a different spectrum, where by 10 a.m. you’ve got maybe 80% to 90% of the people on-site already,” Karns said.

Bottoms Up

While fans can have as much food and drink as they like at Bethpage, alcohol is still being sold at the premium prices expected for a major sporting event.

Standard beer and wine options mostly start at $15, while transfusions and other golf-themed cocktails range between $17.50 and $19.50. Specialty cocktails from Ryder Cup sponsors like Elijah Craig bourbon and Tito’s vodka are also selling for $19.50. Brut champagne from Moët & Chandon is going for $22, while a mimosa costs $29.