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I mean, it's one LLC, Michael. What could it cost?
When I started FOIAball last summer, the first thing I did was create an LLC. It was annoyingly expensive.
I did mine in New York. It’s pricier than some states, but I live here, and it has extremely strong legal protections for journalists. All told, between filing fees and myriad associated costs, it ran me over $1,000.
Which is a steal compared to what universities are spending to start LLCs for their own athletics departments.
Those cost a lot more. These LLCs are being spun up by high-priced consultants and lawyers who are charging a mint as schools scramble to shift management models on the fly.
But it’s not just the money. It’s cover, too. In one instance that FOIAball found, a school set up its LLC in a completely different state.
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When Kentucky poached J Batt from Michigan State, the school hired him for two roles. He’s both its athletics director, a title you’re familiar with, and CEO of Champions Blue, LLC, the athletics department’s new, revenue-generating arm.
In the press release, you can guess which title took priority.
Champions Blue launched in 2025, but the structure is something Batt is familiar with. In his short time at Michigan State, he helped spin up an LLC structure for the Spartans.
Which puts him at the forefront of a movement that, despite no proven track record of success, schools are suddenly paying boatloads of money to adopt.
Recently, Clemson, Michigan State, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and Louisville have also started independent LLCs.
Kentucky was the first, announcing Champions Blue in April 2025. But it’s not a new concept for the school. Back in 2014, the university created an affiliated, non-profit corporation, Beyond Blue, which took over management of the school’s hospitals.
There’s an understandable logic to it. As Sports Business Journal’s Ben Portnoy explained on a recent Phantom Island podcast, these entities are basically just bringing their third-party multimedia rights deals in-house.
As college football’s revenue grew astronomically, private companies like Learfield took over marketing and other revenue-generating tasks for schools, selling tickets and sponsorships while taking a cut.
These LLCs are new structures that, less encumbered by government red tape, allow athletics departments to operate more like normal businesses.
Even though Kentucky had a blueprint for doing this, the Wildcats still brought on a Big Four consulting firm to handle its transition.
According to records obtained by FOIAball, the school hired Deloitte two months after announcing Champions Blue. The one-year contract with the firm has four action items, which are, naturally, too dense to parse.
Kidding. We only pretend to be stupid here. Deloitte was tasked with creating and implementing a transition plan; building out roles and job expectations for the new entity; ensuring it worked in concert with the university’s IT, procurement, finance, and HR departments; and creating messaging around the campaign to brief stakeholders and sell it to the public.
All told, Deloitte charged the school $2,770,000. You can see the full contract here.
But Deloitte isn’t the only firm making a killing. When Virginia Tech announced its LLC, Doug Bowman of 247 Sports found it had been registered by a South Carolina law firm.
Grayson Law Firm touts its ability to create these new ventures right on its homepage.
“We design, implement, and operate next-generation athletic foundations and affiliated LLCs to advance the commercial reach of athletic departments.”
It doesn’t, however, pick you a unique name. Working with Virginia Tech, the firm established Hokie Ventures. With Louisville, they created Cardinal Ventures. At Michigan State, they made two: Spartan Ventures and Spartan Media Ventures.
According to records obtained by FOIAball, Grayson worked with Michigan State from September 2025 to January 2026. Across five invoices, they charged the Spartans over a quarter of a million dollars.
Those invoices reveal something unique about MSU’s agreement. The school housed one of the entities outside the state of Michigan.
Working under a non-profit, state-run university, most of these LLCs are created as non-profits.
Spartan Ventures is registered in Michigan as a non-profit. But Spartan Media Ventures is a for-profit business, which means fewer reporting requirements. And it was incorporated not in Michigan but in Delaware.
Michigan State trustees have already raised concerns about the structure. Not only will it likely operate outside state records laws, trustees were reportedly told they had to sign NDAs before viewing documents about the venture.
Entities set up in one state can do business in another. After incorporating in Delaware, Spartan Media Ventures registered with Michigan. But why would a school like Michigan State set up a for-profit entity in another state?
I think it's odd. And I’m not alone. In a September piece in Sports Business Journal, an expert on non-profits setting up for-profit LLCs in Delaware said that kind of structure raises a lot of disconcerting questions.
“There must be advantages for … nonprofits to own a for-profit LLC. They don’t have to disclose much about the LLC … Will the owners disclose the LLC’s tax return or expenditures, including payments to attorneys and staff? Heck, will the owners of the LLC disclose the identity of the owners of the LLC? As a for-profit, can the LLC engage in political speech? Would the owners sell interests in the LLC to others? Are … board minutes open to the public? How far can this for-profit joint venture regulate and interpret NCAA rules … Is there no transparent conflict of interest management?”
“I have so many questions,” the attorney concluded.
Me. Too.
So I sent those same questions right back to the author of the piece: Clay Grayson. Of Grayson Law Firm!
In his article, Grayson was discussing the College Sports Commission’s for-profit setup, finding it maddeningly opaque and demanding greater transparency, given it reported to the Big Four conferences, which are all non-profits.
Non-profits like… Michigan State. Which, at the time of the piece, Grayson was working with to set up its for-profit LLC in Delaware.
I’m sure he’ll get back to me soon.
Thanks, as always, for reading and supporting FOIAball. We’ll see you tomorrow!
Lucille Bluth via the television, Kentucky jersey via Fanatics
