Brookings Institution senior fellow Phillip Levine contends the recent surge in colleges offering free tuition based on household income serves as an effective messaging tool to prevent prospective students from being deterred by high sticker prices, and Inside Higher Ed's Olivia Sanchez notes that schools that report these transparent pricing models successfully drive enrollment interest among lower- and middle-income demographics. Rice VP for Enrollment Yvonne Romero explains that students previously excluded themselves without realizing they qualified for aid against the school's $97K cost of attendance. Rice now covers full tuition and living expenses for families earning under $100K, while Colby College caps family contributions at $20K for households earning between $150K and $200K. Levine emphasized that simplified financial models are critical for maintaining socioeconomic diversity following the Supreme Court's restriction on affirmative action: "Their main contribution is a one-sentence communication device to get across the point that college might be less expensive than you think. For many students, it’s just communicated to them the assistance of financial aid that already existed. They already would have gotten free tuition—they just didn’t know it." (link)

Investment firm Atairos - former majority owner of Learfield - holds a 31.1% stake in Aston Villa parent company V Sports following a $124M capital injection, joining co-owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, who each retain 34.46%, according to The Athletic's Jacob Tanswell. The firm, founded by Michael Angelakis - who recently returned to Comcast as CEO - with $4.1B in initial capital, provides long-term equity to fund the club's infrastructure growth—including the Villa Park North Stand rebuild and a new entertainment venue—after Aston Villa booked £411.4M in pre-tax losses over the first six years of the V Sports era. The partnership also accelerates the ownership group's multi-club network expansion, highlighted by recent investments in Real Union and FC Annecy. While Angelakis remains a silent partner publicly, an anonymous source close to him tells Tanswell that Angelakis, alongside the wider company, wished to be involved in Villa due to several appealing factors, including their rich history, loyal fanbase and world-class management team." (link)

Juventus is seeking shareholder approval for a capital increase of up to €250M ($283M) as the club projects another financial loss for the current fiscal year. Reuters reports the Agnelli family's holding company, Exor, which owns roughly 65% of the shares, pledged to support the issue and immediately inject €60M into Juventus. The financial maneuver follows a reported €66M loss for the year ending June 30, up from €58.1M the previous year, fueled in part by a failure to qualify for the UEFA Champions League. Investors have poured approximately €1B into Juventus over the past seven years, and leadership detailed the goals for this latest round of funding via a released statement: "The move is intended to strengthen the club's equity base and sporting competitiveness, support potential upgrades to strategic real estate assets including its Turin stadium, and improve its financial sustainability." (link)

Brazil President Luiz-Inacio Lula da Silva announced plans to ban sports betting and online casino gaming less than two years after the country established a regulated framework, according to Sportico's Eben Novy-Williams and Jacob Feldman. The proposed prohibition threatens a national gaming industry generating $5.7B in annual net revenue, with Brazilian households spending roughly $11.57B per year on online wagers. FanDuel parent company Flutter estimated that an immediate halt to operations would reduce its 2026 revenue by $70M, while recent polling indicates 75% of citizens support a complete ban. Novy-Williams and Feldman point out the rollback aligns with similar global restrictions, including the English Premier League outlawing front-of-jersey gambling sponsors and the WTA and ATP reportedly forcing tournaments to contribute 10% of betting sponsorships toward harm mitigation programs. Brazil Finance Minister Dario Durigan: “We are facing a public health issue ​involving online betting. It is a serious problem.” (link)

Using it’s Talent Benchmarking solution, Collegiate Sports Connect analyzed the salary data for experienced professionals from Power 4 conferences with CFO, Chief Financial Officer, or Finance in their title.

The following report indicates a significant investment in financial stewardship. The range reflects the varying complexities and budget sizes across different institutions, but the strong median salary underscores the high value placed on this critical role.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL REPORT »

Meta is launching a new enterprise business line to sell artificial-intelligence tools to commercial customers, hiring former MongoDB CEO Chirantan "CJ" Desai to lead the unit under CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The division will bundle business products—including its Muse productivity assistant, coding tools, and messaging agents—as the company seeks commercial returns on more than $100B in 2026 AI infrastructure investments. Zuckerberg detailed the infrastructure leverage behind the move: "use our strengths that few other companies have: advanced models, leading agents, large-scale infrastructure, and years of working closely with many businesses." (link)

Consumer belt-tightening driven by high prices and rising borrowing costs is pressuring discretionary leisure businesses like Dave & Buster's and Lucky Strike, according to Bloomberg's Katherine Schwartz and Dorothy Ma. Moody's downgraded Dave & Buster's debt outlook to negative following a second-quarter earnings miss and CEO departure, with its 2031 loan trading at 61.8 cents on the dollar and stock down nearly 60% this year. S&P downgraded Lucky Strike to B- as its 2032 loan dropped to 79 cents on the dollar and stock fell 35%, while the broader consumer discretionary sector recorded a 6.7% distressed ratio on the ICE US High Yield Index. Despite debt pressure facing operators like Six Flags and subprime lender America's Car-Mart, select companies like AMC Entertainment stabilized performance by securing $4B in financing. Crescent Capital Head of Tradeable Credit John Fekete: "The interest rate and inflation environment is making it challenging for both the business owner and the customer. On the business side, labor costs are higher and goods and material prices are higher. Then, on the customer side, you have the lower income consumers who are under a great deal of pressure." (link)

More from Bloomberg as Davide Barbuscia, Brian W Smith, and Gowri Gurumurthy report Paramount Skydance generated sufficient demand to cover a $44B bond sale to finance its $110B acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The debt issue—part of a $52B financing package that includes $7.5B in loans—featured a $12.4B high-yield tranche yielding up to 9% that attracted over $23B in orders, as well as $32B in investment-grade debt marketed by Bank of America and Citigroup that drew over $51B in indications of interest. While S&P and Fitch assigned investment-grade ratings to the first-lien notes based on commitments to reduce leverage from 7 times earnings to 3.75 times by 2028, Moody's rated the debt one notch below investment grade, citing governance and financial risks: "Credit metrics at closing will therefore resemble those of highly speculative issuers with very low single-B ratings. High leverage, concentrated ownership, plans to prime existing senior unsecured bondholders, and management’s mixed track record in meeting financial targets reflect significant governance risk." (link)

Tech hyperscalers including Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle are reshaping global credit markets as they prepare to issue over $1T in new debt to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure over the next several years, according to the Financial Times' Euan Healy, Emily Herbert, and Michelle Chan. Goldman Sachs estimates investors have already provided $500B to AI-linked entities this year, driving record-breaking foreign-currency bond sales such as Amazon's $10B Canadian offering and Alphabet's $3.9B Australian issue. The concentrated borrowing volume is forcing other corporate issuers to alter their timelines and prompting concerns from Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that tech companies are competing directly for capital against the $31T US Treasury market. Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Sløk: "The credit story in hyperscalers rests on a single consensus assumption, that operating cash flow triples from $600B to $2T. If this doesn’t happen, then the risk is that the AI trade weakens, with credit spreads widening, capex plans getting cut and ultimately US GDP growth slowing." (link)

Most finance leaders at large companies are increasingly optimistic about their firm's prospects, with 90% reporting positive outlooks in the third quarter despite mixed views on the broader economy, according to CFO Dive's Danielle McLean. The latest Deloitte CFO Signals report, which surveyed 200 finance chiefs at North American companies valued over $1B, found that 53% are willing to take greater risks, while 83% consider the U.S. equity market to be overvalued. External risk factors remain prominent, as respondents identified cybersecurity (50%), the economy (49%), inflation (48%), and supply chain disruptions (47%) as their top concerns. The findings mirror recent sentiment indices from the Business Roundtable, the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Atlanta, and Duke University, with the Deloitte report noting: "[CFOs] continue to express strong confidence in their own organizations despite mixed views of the broader economic landscape, indicating they may trust their own preparedness more than they trust the market environment." (link)

Continuing the theme of CFO sentiment, CFO Dive’s Grace Noto reports that finance chiefs remain optimistic about long-term business prospects despite ongoing inflation and geopolitical headwinds. The U.S. Bank CFO Insights Report, which surveyed 1,000 executives, found that 71% maintain a positive three-year outlook—up from 64% in the spring—even as 37% prioritize cost reductions. Respondents cited geopolitical tensions (38%), high borrowing costs (35%), and inflation (34%) as primary external concerns. Artificial intelligence integration also continues to strain balance sheets, with 51% of leaders reporting their technology spending exceeded projections, prompting 72% to focus on investments that drive productivity rather than reduce headcount (28%). U.S. Bank Head of Loan Capital Markets Bill Mulvihill: "I think a lot of companies are feeling pressure two ways from AI on a cost perspective. One, just the direct spending that they’re having to make at their firm into AI, but also I think given the massive build out in data centers and AI-related infrastructure, they’re just seeing a rise in costs. ... I expect companies to be more thoughtful and efficient how they deploy AI. I think you’re going to see companies move to really analyze: Is this the right use of AI spend in our company?" (link)

Teikametrics CFO Brian Beaupre is overhauling his hiring practices as artificial intelligence automates the entry-level financial modeling tasks that traditionally trained early-career professionals, according to CFO.com's Adam Zaki, who explains that industry leaders, including Digits Co-Founder Jeff Seibert and The Accounting Podcast host Blake Oliver, share these concerns. A recent Personiv survey highlighted the downstream impact of this training deficit, identifying senior accountants as the most difficult position to fill across the industry. To combat the trend, Beaupre now pairs tenured staff with recent graduates to teach the underlying assumptions behind automated models and tells Zaki: "What actually keeps me up at night is something upstream of that: the risk that leaning on AI too early in a career erodes the muscle of critical thinking that only gets built by struggling with a problem, getting it wrong, re-learning it, and eventually solving it yourself. ... The AI and tools are the easy part. The differentiator is building people who can recognize a problem worth solving, stay humble about what they don’t know, and earn the trust of the people around them as a real business partner." (link)

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(Posted from most recent over the last 30 days).

(NEW!) Financial Analyst I (2 Positions) (University of Arizona / Tucson, AZ): Help drive Arizona Athletics forward through financial insight, analysis, and strategy. Join our team as a Financial Analyst I and help turn data into informed decisions. More details HERE.

Associate Athletic Director, Revenue Marketing & Business Intelligence (University of Maryland / College Park, MD): Leads data-driven marketing and analytics to grow revenue, attendance, donor engagement, retention, and databases through targeted campaigns, pricing, audience insights, and sales partnerships. More details HERE.

Athletics Business Coordinator (Rice University / Houston, TX): The Business Coordinator will help in the generation of budget reports, purchasing, and deposits for the Athletic Department. More details HERE.

Athletics Business Associate (University of Illinois Springfield / Springfield, IL): Lead the business and HR operations for athletics, including providing insight into budgets, policies and staff hiring. Serves on senior staff. Has opportunity for athletics administration duties. (DII) More details HERE.

Coordinator - Business & Finance (University Athletic Association, Inc. at the University of Florida / Gainesville, FL): Manage key financial processes including accounts receivable and bank statement reconciliations. Support balance sheet reconciliation reviews. Ensure timely/accurate recording of incoming payments. More details HERE.

Assistant Athletic Director, Business Operations, Department of Athletics (R0009158) (Wake Forest University / Winston-Salem, NC): The Assistant Athletic Director, Business Operations, is responsible for a broad range of accounting and business operations functions within the Department of Athletics’ Business Office. More details HERE.

Assistant Business Manager (University of Texas – Austin / Austin, TX): To provide support assigned Sport Programs and Departments within Intercollegiate Athletics, in the areas of budget management, travel, procure to pay, and related business functions. More details HERE.

Data Analyst I (University of Alabama / Tuscaloosa, AL): The Data Analyst I gathers, audits, analyzes, and reports low- to moderate-complexity data under general supervision. More details HERE.

Deputy Athletic Director (University of Washington / Seattle, WA): Washington Athletics has an outstanding opportunity for a Deputy Athletic Director to join their team. More details HERE. What would it cost to move to Seattle? Click HERE.

Assistant Director for Business Services (University of Connecticut / Storrs Mansfield, CT): The University of Connecticut is seeking applications for the full-time position of Assistant Director for Business Services More details HERE.

Assistant or Associate Athletic Director, Business Operations/SWA (Sacred Heart University / Fairfield, CT): Provides operational leadership for Athletics' business functions. Oversees financial management, budgeting, purchasing, contracts, revenue and expense tracking to ensure fiscal responsibility More details HERE.

Associate VP & Chief Commercial Officer/Chief Revenue Officer (Ohio State University / Columbus, OH): Responsible for developing and executing a comprehensive revenue growth strategy for the Department of Athletics and Buckeye Enterprises at The Ohio State University. More details HERE. What would it cost to move to Columbus? Click HERE.

Director, Business Office (Spartan Ventures / East Lansing, MI): This role, in conjunction with the Spartan Ventures CFO, will manage all financial activity related to the organization and contribute directly to the success of Michigan State University Athletics. More details HERE.

Manager, Financial Planning and Analytics (University of Texas – Austin / Austin, TX): This position will serve as a point-of-contact for financial planning and internal control functions within the Department of Athletics. More details HERE.

Director of Athletics Budget and Finance (Syracuse University / Syracuse, NY): The Director of Athletics Budget and Finance oversees the comprehensive stewardship, fiscal integrity, and business operations of the athletic department More details HERE.