REPORT: Tim Pernetti leaves New York City FC

Darren Rovell just broke this story: Tim Pernetti, the chief business officer of New York City FC, is leaving to become president of IMG College Multimedia.

Former Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti named president of @IMGCollege Multimedia, will oversee biz with 90+ schools

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 29, 2015

IMG College, for those who don't know, is the nation's largest collegiate sports marketing company, representing more than 200 of the nation's top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and many of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country.

Through its licensing affiliate, The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), IMG College also represents the exclusive trademark licensing and consumer product rights for more than 200 top schools, conferences and bowl games, and provides a comprehensive suite of solutions-based services to schools in ticketing; stadium seating; fundraising; premium events and hospitality.

Finally, it produces 35,000 hours of radio programming annually on the largest network in the country, manages 5,000 hours of TV programming produced annually, is the leading publisher of college sports publications, and averages nearly 19 million unique visitors per month across its collegiate digital platforms.

While it's unclear what set of circumstances led Pernetti to leave New York City FC just as preseason training was getting underway -- and with the season only a month away -- it's worth remembering that Pernetti's background is in college athletics. Prior to taking over as New York City's chief business officer, Pernetti was the athletic director at Rutgers. He left that position under a cloud, as the men's basketball coach was sacked for abusing his players, and Pernetti was seen as having been insufficiently on point when it came to dealing with this.

We'll have more as we get it. At this point in time, no one at New York City FC was available to comment.