Houston, You Have a Problem

NCAA Championship: Florida's late rally stuns Houston, securing the program’s third national title.

April 8, 2025

NCAA Championship: Florida Stuns Houston With Late Rally to Secure Program’s Third National Title
For 30-plus minutes in Monday's NCAA title game Houston's defense flustered a freewheeling Florida offense into playing its own grinding game.

But in then end, Florida would not be denied. The Gators looked cooked when Houston opened up a 42-30 second half lead. But Florida persevered and rallied for a 65-63 win to secure the program's third national championship while denying Houston its first.
^{Yahoo! Sports}

Judge Wants Range of Issues Addressed in $2.8 Billion NCAA Settlement Before Final Approval
As we reported in the Daily yesterday and as NCAA president Charlie Baker predicted, no definitive answers were given today on the landmark house settlement.

“We’re taking your feedback. We’ll take it to our clients,” NCAA attorney Rakesh Kilaru told [U.S. District Judge Claudia] Wilken. “But I just want to really reiterate here this was a long road to get to this point. We need a lot of schools to approve it. There’s a lot of pieces of this settlement. .... So I cannot make you any promises we’re going to say anything is different because we think what we did is appropriate and enough but we’ll take it under advisement and come back.”
^{AP News}

CBS Draws Best Final Four Audience Since 2017
CBS averaged 15.3 million viewers for the men’s Final Four on Saturday night, per Nielsen fast-national data, marking the doubleheader’s best figure since 2017 (well before out-of-home metrics were factored in). The doubleheader is also up 19% from two blowouts on TBS/TNT/truTV last year (UConn-Alabama and Purdue-N.C. State).
^{Sports Business Journal}

Auriemma and Staley: Women’s Hoops Should Have Its Own TV Deal
FOS’ Colin Salao writes, “Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma have been fierce competitors on the court and lead two of the most successful programs in the sport, but the coaches are on the same page when it comes to the future of women’s basketball. Ahead of Sunday’s title game, both coaches advocated for a new television deal for the women’s March Madness tournament—one that would be independent of any other NCAA championship.”
^{Front Office Sports}

FanDuel Sports Network Deadline Delayed Again for Five NBA Teams
SBJ’s Tom Friend reports: “The soft deadline of April 1 for five NBA teams to extend their expiring deals with FanDuel Sports Network has been delayed for an undisclosed period, sources told SBJ, a postponement that could ultimately induce the Hawks, Cavaliers, Heat, T’Wolves and Bucks to opt back in to their RSNs for at least next season.”

The artificial deadline has been pushed several times while the league office negotiates a potential national streaming RSN with Amazon, YouTube, Apple and perhaps ESPN+, Roku or others.
^{Sports Business Journal}

A Q&A With Rob Manfred, M.L.B.’s Commissioner, on the Future of Baseball
During the interview with The New York Times, Manfred was asked when people will be able to sit down and watch any MLB game they want, as they do with football, to which he said, “I think it will get done at the time of our next national broadcast agreements, after the 2028 season. We need to be out of the business of blackouts, which is essentially telling people that want to watch games that we won’t sell them to you.

“San Diego is a great example. We took over their local broadcasts. We sold tens of thousands of direct-to-consumer in-market packages. What does that tell you? There were tens of thousands of people who wanted to pay to watch baseball.”
^{The New York Times}

Wes Welker is Joining the Commanders as a Personnel Analyst, AP Source Says
AP News’ Stephen Whyno writes, “Welker, a two-time All-Pro wide receiver during his playing days, has coached for Houston, San Francisco and Miami since retiring from the NFL. He was an offensive assistant for the Texans in 2017 and ’18 and coached receivers for the 49ers from 2019-21 and the Dolphins from 2022-24.

“The 43-year-old joins the Commanders after they acquired receiver Deebo Samuel from the Niners to pair him and Terry McLaurin as options for standout quarterback Jayden Daniels in his second pro season.”
^{AP News}

NFLPA Taps Former Biden Admin Official as Chief Spokeswoman
The NFLPA has hired longtime Washington insider Liz Allen as its new chief external affairs officer. In the role, Allen will oversee both communications and public affairs strategy for the 2,200-member union.

SBJ’s Ben Fischer writes, “Allen joins the NFLPA at a dynamic time. The players’ contract with the NFL is not scheduled to expire for nearly six years, but most observers expect owners to push for an 18-game regular season well before that, which could open up a series of high-stakes negotiations ahead of schedule.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

Penn State AD Pat Kraft on Multi-Purpose Stadiums
On the $700 million in Beaver Stadium renovations, " We have a 'Club Level', and it's your traditional club, back-of-house...I think it's like 50,000 square feet of space for the Club. Which, as you know, your buildings have to work for you. That'll be an event space that I think Centre County, Penn State, really needs. We'll be able to host weddings and conferences and all this. So now we're gonna be able to use the building more than we have right now." Listen more to the On The Fly podcast here or watch on YouTube.
^{Apple Podcasts, On the Fly Podcast}

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One Combined Final Four? Talks of a Joint NCAA Tournament Showcase for the Men and Women Resurface
“You will get people to say that it shouldn’t happen,” said Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman. “That the women’s tournament is doing just fine. And that’s not without merit. I’m saying if the NCAA is looking for growth — and it is — and is looking for revenue growth — and it is. I can’t think of many ways you could accomplish that in a significant way versus in an incremental way than combining the two Final Fours.”
^{AP News}

Ex-Villanova Star Kris Jenkins Suing NCAA, 6 Major Conferences Over NIL
The Athletic’s Ralph D. Russo writes, “Former Villanova star Kris Jenkins, whose buzzer-beater helped the Wildcats to the 2016 NCAA Tournament title, is suing the NCAA and six major conferences for restricting athlete pay and his ability to monetize his name, image and likeness while he was in college.

“Jenkins’ antitrust complaint was filed last week in the Southern District of New York. It names the Big East — along with the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — as defendants. Those five conferences, along with the NCAA, were also named defendants in the House v. NCAA case.”
^{The Athletic}

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