College Sports, Zero Academics

Sport & Story Daily May 30, 2025: Sportico writes, "As college sports hurtles toward revenue-sharing and a new era of athlete compensation, the faculty’s traditionally modest foothold is all but gone.”

May 30, 2025

“Nowhere are academics in the conversation right now,” Don Bruce, an economics professor at the University of Tennessee, who was appointed to a four-year term as the school’s faculty athletics representative in 2012. said. “And it’s really disappointing.

May 30, 2025

Illustration by Lorenzo Gordon. Photos: Getty, FARA

A FAR Cry: College Faculty Athletics Reps Cling to Waning Policy Influence
Sportico’s Daniel Libit writes, “For years, the NCAA-mandated position of the FAR has struggled to assert its authority within a college athletics landscape driven by commercial interests. Critics have long contended that the position amounted to little more than a fig leaf, albeit one that still managed to occupy a few seats at the national policy-making table. But as college sports hurtles toward revenue-sharing and a new era of athlete compensation, the faculty’s traditionally modest foothold is all but gone.”
Sportico

MLB Photos via Getty Images

Audience Analysis: ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ Up 9% for ESPN to Date
ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” slate is up 9% this season after another strong audience from Dodgers-Mets over Memorial Day weekend. The game drew 1.7 million viewers, which is 11% above last season’s “SNB” average. When including Opening Day numbers, ESPN’s MLB coverage is up 16% from last season in what is likely the final year of a media rights pact between the two sides.
Sports Business Journal

As Live Sports Surge, Scripted Series Fade From Broadcast TV
Sportico’s Anthony Crupi writes, “You needn’t be a sport-jacketed freeloader to suss out the enfeebled state of TV development. Spend just a few moments scanning the 2025-26 broadcast schedule, and the relative lack of scripted series in store for the fall is hard to miss. When the autumn slate kicks off in September, a mere 36 scripted series will air on one of the Big Four networks, which marks a 45% nosedive from a peak of 66 just eight years ago. But for the strike-derailed 2023 docket, the good people at ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox have never trotted out such a meager showing of comedies and dramas at the start of a new broadcast season.”
Sportico

Big Ten On CBS 2025 Schedule: Penn State, Michigan, Oregon Among Teams Featured in Early Season Action
CBS Sports announced its college football schedule for 2025 on Thursday, which included among other highlights the selections for the first four weeks of the Big Ten on CBS. Both Penn State's first game of the season and Oregon's toughest nonconference game get things started in Week 1 and Week 2, before Big Ten conference play steps into the iconic 3:30 p.m. ET slot with USC at Purdue for Week 3 and Michigan at Nebraska for Week 4. 
CBS Sports

Getty Images

Athlos Expanding to Team-Based League, With Sha’Carri Richardson, Other Olympians Taking Stakes
Athlos, the all-female track event founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is “expanding into a team-based league for 2026 and adding field events,” according to Vanessa Perdomo of BLOOMBERG NEWS. The league will be “headlined by Olympic medalists and Team USA standouts Sha’Carri Richardson, Gabby Thomas and Tara Davis-Woodhall, who will all serve as adviser-owners and shareholders in the league.”
Bloomberg News via Sports Business Journal

MLB Eyed Pro Softball League Before AUSL Tie-Up
“We went into the process kind of with two tracks in mind: Are we going to start up and run a league or are we going to make an investment and partner with somebody?” Manfred told SBJ. “That group did an exhaustive review of the options that were out there. And pretty early in the process we settled on AUSL as a real opportunity for us that we thought by partnering with them could move faster than starting from the ground up.”
Sports Business Journal

Mavericks CEO Holds Firm on Vision for New Arena, Entertainment District
Mavericks CEO Rick Welts is “holding firm to the franchise’s vision of a new arena and entertainment district within Dallas” and it “definitely won’t include” the Stars, according to Nick Wooten of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. Its planned location “remains a mystery,” and Welts “offered no clarity” during an appearance yesterday on the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything program. Welts said that the Mavericks “hope to open the new area before the 2031 season” when the lease at the American Airlines Center expires. He added that building a basketball-only arena “will improve the viewing experience for Mavericks fans” and “compel them to attend a game in person.”
Dallas Morning News via Sports Business Journal

Dallas City Council Approves New Wings Practice Facility, Set to Open Next Season
The Dallas City Council yesterday approved a proposal in a 12-3 vote to “design a practice facility” for the Wings in southwest Dallas that “would open before next season,” according to Taylor & Chhetri of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. The facility would be based in an area home to Joey Georgusis Park, where a city initiative dubbed “Project X3” is taking place.
Dallas Morning News via Sports Business Journal

Report: Detroit Advances in Efforts to Land WNBA Expansion Team
Detroit has “heard ‘positive things’” from the WNBA office in its efforts to land an expansion team, as Pistons Vice Chair Arn Tellem said that he is hoping to “hear good news here very soon” about the city’s bid led by Pistons owner Tom Gores, according to Coty Davis of the DETROIT NEWS. Tellem said, “I would not be sitting here today if I wasn’t optimistic.” Tellem revealed that the WNBA has been “impressed by Detroit’s diverse ownership group,” which also includes Lions principal owner & Chair Sheila Ford Hamp and General Motors CEO Mary Barra. Other investors include Basketball HOFers Grant Hill and Chris Webber…
Detroit News via Sports Business Journal

Seattle Kraken Name Lane Lambert as New Head Coach
Lambert, 60, was most recently an associate coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He has one previous stint as an NHL head coach with the New York Islanders for parts of the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, with a 61-46-20 record. Lambert was also on the staff for the Stanley Cup-winning Washington Capitals in 2018.
The Athletic

Jay Leach a Finalist for Bruins Coaching Position: Source
The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa reports: Leach, 45, recently concluded his first season as a Bruins assistant coach in charge of the defense. The Bruins hired Leach to join Jim Montgomery’s staff after he spent the previous three years as Dave Hakstol’s assistant with the Seattle Kraken. Hakstol was replaced by Dan Bylsma.
The Athletic

NFL. Global Director, Sponsorship
The Global Director, Sponsorship is part of the Global partnerships team that manages and executes League sponsorship deals and relationships. The specific duties for this role are to lead the team as they manage the day-to-day relationships of League partners including all activations, strategy, planning, creative and work across departments to support initiatives with our partners. The position also requires sales skills and asset creation/development with execution. This person will also be responsible for renewing partnerships, selling opportunities, and generating revenue as Global opportunities continue to grow. Apply Now.

Nike. Senior Director, Sports Marketing, Athlete Integration
The Sports Marketing Athlete Integration team is responsible for ensuring our athletes are integrated into all facets of NIKE, Inc., driving value for both the athlete and for Nike. This role is responsible for developing a holistic strategy for our Sports Marketing Athlete portfolio, through a tiered approach. It requires strategic visioning and cross-functional collaboration to redefine how we integrate athletes into all areas of the business, ultimately driving value for our Athletes and results for Nike. Apply Now.

Los Angeles Lakers. Executive Director, Corporate Partnerships
The Executive Director, Corporate Partnerships is a proactive, high-energy sales executive with a deep love for the sports industry. This is a high-pressure, high-reward role. This position will leverage a positive reputation in the sports industry with the Lakers iconic brand to generate team revenue. It is ultra-responsive, corporate-client focused, and is responsible for business development and client relationship management, while maintaining Lakers brand guidelines.
Apply Now.

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Charlie Baker Unfazed by Speculation of SEC Leaving NCAA, Gives Timeline for Tournament Expansion
The Athletic’s Matt Baker writes, “As the NCAA determines which voices should get the most power at the table, the SEC is seeking more authority than the governance proposal, which would give 65 percent of NCAA decision-making power to the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC.”
The Athletic

CFP 5+11 Model Gaining Traction as Leaders Eye Next Steps
ESPN’s Heather Dinich writes, “A critical component is the SEC's choice between staying at eight league games or moving to nine, a topic ACC sources say could be revisited in their league after years of being dormant if prompted by playoff expansion. The linchpin to those scheduling decisions is one thing every conference seems to agree on: the need for clarity about how the CFP selection committee ranks its teams, starting with how strength of schedule is determined and applied.”
ESPN

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