Sport & Story Daily March 28, 2024

Stay Ahead of the Game

March 28, 2024

Good morning! College Sports Keeps Evolving

‘An Expensive Game’: March Madness and NIL Collectives Are Intertwined
FOS drives home two points:
1 - At schools across the country, collectives are fueling NCAA tournament runs and vice versa.
2 - In this quasi-professional world, bigger checks earn better results—and the people writing those checks feel validated.
^{frontofficesports.com}

Ad Giant GroupM to Double Down on Investment in Women’s Sports
As Sportico’s Anthony Crupi reports, “In advance of the 2024-25 upfront bazaar, GroupM—which last year controlled an estimated $64 billion in global media spend—not only plans to supercharge its annual investment in women’s sports but is also working toward developing a marketplace exclusively dedicated to transacting against an often-overlooked segment. GroupM clients that already have committed to up their women’s sports spend during the spring/summer ad sell-off include Adidas, Unilever, Google, Discover, Mars, Nationwide and Universal Pictures.”
^sportico.com

The Time Has Come For Power Five Football to Break From NCAA
Joe Moglia wrote a guest column for Sportico, writing, “It’s the two-minute warning when it comes to the NCAA’s losing battle against pay-for-play in college football. The Power Five’s spin-off seems inevitable–it’s merely a matter of when.”

Moglia ends the article with: “Since the NCAA can’t seem to put together a winning strategy, what are the power conferences waiting on? There’s no time like the present to spin off and start doing things right by establishing a new model for the business of college sports.”
^sportico.com

Your Vision Insights: Which media outlets do U.S. Soccer Fans turn to for news, highlights and content?

With the recent news of Yahoo Sports partnering with OneFootball to launch a soccer content hub, we wanted to see (as of February 2024) where U.S. soccer fans go for sports content. We’ll be tracking how this partnership impacts soccer fan preferences over time, but currently, ESPN leads the way with 54% of soccer fans leveraging the outlet for sports news, followed by Fox Sports (38%), NBC Sports (34%), CBS Sports (34%) and Yahoo Sports (20%).

NFL Owners Don’t Vote on Tom Brady’s Bid to Buy a Minority Share of the Raiders
“I wouldn’t say it’s a delay,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “We go through a thorough process. ... I think it’s making progress.”

“The number just has to be a reasonable number for purchase price from Tom, is the only thing,” Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said at the league meetings in October. “If reasonable value says … that 10% should be $525 million, you can’t pay $175 million.”
^apnews.com

PGA Tour’s Media and Entertainment Ambitions Move Closer With New Studios Set to Open Next Year
As SBJ’s Josh Carpenter writes, “The culmination of those efforts is the Studios facility, which will house between 250 and 300 employees and launch with seven studios (with capacity to grow to 12). ESPN+ production teams for PGA Tour Live will be in the venue, and tour-specific studios for both the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Champions also will be available. The main studio inside the venue will be encased in LED video/graphic walls with a 30-foot ceiling.”
^{sportsbusinessjournal.com}

D-backs Reveal New Plan to Address Concerns About Chase Field's Roof
Per the SBJ, D-backs President Derrick Hall said that the team has learned of a possible fix for the retractable roof concerns at Chase Field, which they plan to "implement next offseason," according to Nick Piecoro of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. Due to “concerns about the stability of cables in the pulley system that allows the roof to open and close,” the team has been “unable to operate the roof when fans are in attendance.”
^{sportsbusinessjournal.com}

Sources: College Football Oversight Committee Pushing to Expand Coaching Role of All Staff Members
As Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reports, “The NCAA Football Oversight Committee introduced a legislative proposal this month that would expand the abilities of a football support staff, permitting all staff members to provide players skill and tactical coaching instruction — both during practice and games. The proposal, introduced for a second straight year after failing to get approval last spring, eliminates the policy limiting coaching instruction to only the NCAA’s maximum of 11 “countable” coaches: the 10 assistants and head coach.”
^{sports.yahoo.com}

Clark, Iowa Claim Another Record With Most-Viewed First-Round Game in Women’s NCAA Tourney History
Per Nielsen via AP News, The Hawkeyes’ 91-65 win over Holy Cross on Saturday averaged 3.23 million viewers on ABC. The viewership surpassed the 2.50 million who watched last year’s Elite Eight game between Iowa and Louisville, making this the most-viewed women’s tournament game ever — excluding Final Four contests and title games.

It was the third Iowa game this season where the viewer average was over 3 million. The seven Iowa games on network television — ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox — have averaged 2.27 million. Iowa’s regional semifinal game against Colorado on Saturday will be on ABC.
^apnews.com

Utah Coach Says Team Was Shaken After Experiencing Racist Hate During NCAA Tournament
“We had several instances of some kind of racial hate crimes toward our program and (it was) incredibly upsetting for all of us,” Utah coach Lynne Roberts said. “In our world, in athletics and in university settings, it’s shocking. There’s so much diversity on a college campus and so you’re just not exposed to that very often.”
^apnews.com

The Man Who Broke the NCAA
Mega litigator Jeffrey Kessler opens up about smashing the college sports cartel, the reality of “pay for play,” and the $10 billion antitrust case that could change everything.
^puck.com

NCAA President Charlie Baker Calls for Ban on College Prop Bets
"Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity and competition and leading to student-athletes and professional athletes getting harassed. The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats, and many are responding by banning college prop bets," Baker said in a statement.
^espn.com

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