In September 2025, HERO Sports reported on a pitch to FCS commissioners from an outside group, Sequence Equity, looking to invest in and help operate the playoffs outside of the NCAA umbrella.
The concept would be similar to the College Football Playoff business model, which is an LLC owned by FBS conferences and Notre Dame. It runs the FBS (CFP) national championship bracket outside of the NCAA postseason tournament umbrella and handles revenue distribution, sponsorships, media rights, and operations.
In the pitch given to FCS commissioners, the new playoff system would be operated by a new private entity, which would be owned by FCS conferences while Sequence Equity takes a minority stake. Sequence Equity would reportedly inject tens of millions of dollars in investment into the playoffs.
Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill talked with HERO Sports on the FCS Football Talk podcast last week and provided an update on where those conversations stand.
“We had commissioners meetings last week in Florida and had FCS meetings,” Wistrcill said. “We talked again about the Sequence Equity option. I would say it’s still in an exploratory phase. There’s various levels of interest around the room with it, and very excited about what Sequence is thinking about. There’s some hurdles around the NCAA. We’ve brought them in on the conversations and had multiple conversations with them as well. There’s some hurdles there as far as what can we do currently with the NCAA and their media contract with ESPN that expires in 2032. Versus, do we wait until then and explore this further? What we have is, we have a willing partner that’s really excited to walk down this path with us. And I feel it’s our responsibility to make sure we flush out every angle of that, both the good and the bad. And I think we’re doing that. So I take it as we’re past the crawl phase, kind of into the walk phase. We’re certainly not to the run phase yet.”
“But we’ve got real discussions going on,” Wistrcill continued. “Many of us are talking to people within our conferences about what we’ve learned and the pros and the cons. We continue discussions with the NCAA on their potential involvement in this or not. And then we also have to work with their media partners, both from a broadcast standpoint, as well as a sponsorship standpoint. So lots of moving parts. No real definitive direction yet. No real answer I can give you to this is how it’s going to play out. But just know that the discussions are still active and ongoing. And there’s still a lot of interest from many of us at the FCS level.”
The FCS playoffs are viewed as an undervalued sports property with proven metrics (TV audiences, strong brands, etc.) but with underachieving monetization.
The 2025 FCS quarterfinal round was the most-viewed since 2011. The semifinals were the most-viewed since 2009. And the championship game drew its third-highest viewership ever (2.3 million viewers).
A stronger TV deal, more sponsorship opportunities, and other ways to maximize revenue are all possibilities under a private model. And as Division I athletics continues to get more expensive, added revenue streams are vital.
A financially incentivizing FCS playoff system could also stabilize realignment to make the FCS more attractive while also rewarding teams for investing in FCS football and earning revenue with postseason success. The current system requires FCS schools to bid on hosting playoff games while returning around 85% of ticket revenue back to the NCAA. That draws the ire of athletic directors.
“It was at our commissioner’s meetings the last week in September in Chicago when we heard the pitch,” Wistrcill said. “And at first, it’s kind of like, you hear and see a big number, and you’re like, ‘Alright, what’s the catch?’, right? It’s like, this is too good to be true. And if it seems too good to be true, then chances are it is, right? So a lot of this is just educating people like me and others. This is just a space that college athletics has not operated in. I mean, I’ve been in this business for 34 years and never really spent much time thinking, talking, learning about equity and what it could mean in a space like college athletics. And then, for something like this, the creation of an LLC that could operate the championship outside the NCAA. So there’s been a lot of educating myself, other commissioners, some of our presidents, NCAA staff.”
“And so, that’s the part that has taken a long time, because rightly so, we have a really good championship,” Wistrcill added. “It also loses a lot of money. Our schools, I’ll speak specifically to the Big Sky, we’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to win a national championship. Now, our schools will sign up to do that every year. But that doesn’t seem right, that schools would have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to win a national title. So that’s kind of the, without getting into too much detail, the part that’s, it’s not a roadblock, it’s more of a hurdle, is, OK, if we do this now, how do we fit this underneath the NCAA umbrella, the ESPN media broadcast rights, and then the CBS WBD sponsorship package? How does that even look? There’s lots of cooks in the kitchen. Versus 2032, when that doesn’t necessarily have to be part of it, maybe it still is, maybe not. So just flushing out all those various options, talking to all of those people, and getting people comfortable with, OK, we’re ready to take the next step and involve more presidents and have more presentations. And so that’s the part of crawling and walking, that it’s just going to move slower than some people might have wanted it to.”
Per its website, Sequence Equity is a multi-strategy investment platform based in Los Angeles, investing in sports, media, entertainment, technology, and infrastructure. The firm works with owners, operators, and institutions to structure and deploy capital in ways that strengthen operations, expand reach, and support long-term value creation.
Sequence Equity’s co-founders (Marcus D. Stroud and Brandon M. Allen) attended Princeton, an FCS member.
“I see our role, by our role, me and the other commissioners, we’re the caretaker of this championship,” Wistrcill said. “We have to look out into the future, five, 10, 15, 20 years from now, when there will be all new people in that room. We have the opportunity to make it better. And we have to explore all options. Our schools are under tremendous financial pressure to grow, to continue to find new opportunities, new revenue streams. And that’s part of my job at the Big Sky, is to spend time in those areas. I gotta run all those things to the goal line. And this is just another one of those. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. But it’s my responsibility to the Big Sky membership to flush all of this out and also share with them along the way, here’s the good and the bad, and the pros, the cons, and here’s the roadblocks. And what do you guys think? And I need your feedback. That’s the stage that we’ll be entering here, is greater discussion because we’ll have some more details there. But that’s the responsibility that I think we feel as the caretakers of this wonderful championship is, how do you take something that’s really good and potentially make it better?”
The full conversation with Wistrcill can be heard below.
