UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

The way this is structured, they are creating a separate, for profit entity with a board of seven members, four of which are from the university and one is an outside donor. The PE firm gets two seats. So the new entity is controlled by the university. Utah is set to receive the majority of the profits from the new entity. The only way the PE firm comes out ahead is if they grow the new entity's revenue. They could lose their entire investment.

This isn't a loan, it is an investment. The university is betting that the PE firm can grow the athletic department revenue better than it can, in exchange for said investment plus a share of future profits.

The vast majority of athletic departments lose money - and they are set to lose more going forward due to the House vs NCAA settlement. So they can either raise student fees, cut sports, try to raise more money or do nothing.

Seems like a creative approach that I'm sure many other programs will be watching closely.