Owning commercial US college can gratify leader (9)

I believe the answer is:

admitting

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'owning' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with ownership as well as being present participle verbs.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?

'commercial us college can gratify leader' is the wordplay.
'commercial' becomes 'ad' (abbreviation for advertisement).
'us college' becomes 'MIT' (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
'can' becomes 'tin' (both are metal containers).
'leader' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'gratify' is 'g'.
'ad'+'mit'+'tin'+'g'='ADMITTING'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for admitting that I've seen before include "Letting in" , "Accepting the truth of" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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