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- Sport & Story Daily March 25, 2024
Sport & Story Daily March 25, 2024
Sport & Story Daily March 25, 2024

Stay Ahead of the Game
March 25, 2024
Good morning! Madness is the Biz, Not Games

CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES
Arizona’s Sweet 16 Run a Bright Spot Amid $30M Budget Shortfall
One of the more heavily subsidized athletic programs in the country for the last few years, Arizona’s financial situation bubbled over toward the end of 2023. With the university facing a $177 million campus-wide shortfall, President Robert C. Robbins made a point of mentioning that athletics wasn’t generating the revenue that the university expected and hinted that sports could be eliminated if the outlook didn’t improve. A few months later the athletic director was fired.
As Eben Novy-Williams writes, “A deep March Madness run won’t erase the department’s roughly $30 million annual revenue shortfall, but it can’t hurt, especially as the Wildcats prepare to join the retooled Big 12 later this year.”
sportico.com
Buffalo Wild Wings Wastes No Time Signing NIL Deals After Overtimes
Less than 24 hours after Grambling State beat Montana State in overtime for its first March Madness win, star guard Jimel Cofer Jr. posted on social media about his new NIL deal with Buffalo Wild Wings.
As Sportico’s Dylan Manfre writes, “Cofer is one of a handful of men’s and women’s basketball players who will partner with the fast casual restaurant during the NCAA tournaments, many of them capitalizing on what might be a very short-lived spotlight.
Buffalo Wild Wings has made a habit of quick-turn NIL deals, which often come together in a matter of hours and frequently benefit players who were relatively unknown before the tournament.”
sportico.com

NFL Meetings Start With Rules Changes, Headset Sponsorship Deal on Agenda
NFL sponsorship executives will present a deal for Sony and Verizon to share branding on coaches’ headsets, the most valuable available sponsorship asset the league owns. That kind of deal is rarely brought to a vote without confidence it will pass, but the deal could ruffle feathers of influential owners such as the Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, whose stadium naming rights deal is with AT&T, a Verizon competitor.
sportsbusinessjournal.com


March Madness: First round of NCAA Tournament averages record 8.3 million viewers
Across the four networks – CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV – the Men’s NCAA Tournament averaged 8.3 million viewers. That set a new record for the traditional format, which began in 2011, as eight double-digit seeds won their Round of 64 matchups to advance to the Round of 32.
on3.com


TOMMY GILLIGAN-USA TODAY SPORTS
D.C. Attorney General Says Capitals and Wizards Can’t Leave Until 2047
Per FOS: Ted Leonsis’s week started out with a talk with Maryland governor Wes Moore about possibly moving his teams north of the Potomac and ended with the publication of a message from the D.C. attorney general: The Wizards and Capitals aren’t going anywhere until at least 2047.
Monday, D.C. attorney general Brian Schwalb sent a letter to Monumental Sports, Leonsis’s umbrella organization for the Capitals and Wizards. The letter was first published today on X (formerly known as Twitter) by Ben Dennis of DC News Now. In it, Schwalb cited a bond/lease agreement from 2007 that he says binds the teams to the city through ’47 and is unbreakable, even if Monumental pays off the existing bond debt.
sportsbusinessjournal.com


Michigan to Hire FAU's Dusty May as Next Head Coach, Replacing Juwan Howard
Michigan is set to hire Dusty May as its next head coach to replace Juwan Howard, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports. He has spent the last six years at Florida Atlantic and helped lead the Owls to the Final Four during the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
According to the Palm Beach Post, May’s salary increased to $1.25 million per year with a 5% raise each season until 2033. The Columbus Dispatch reported his buyout dropped to $1 million on Feb. 29.
on3.com


Clemson Celebrates Punching Their Tickets to the Sweet 16 in NCAA Tournament for First Time Since 2018
The Clemson Tigers delivered one of their best performances in the past few years in their Round of 32 matchup in the NCAA Tournament vs. the Baylor Bears. The Tigers used some impressive defense to stifle the Bears’ offensive attack, and in the process prevailed 72-64 in nerve-wracking fashion. With the win, they advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2018.
on3.com
Jay Wright Questions John Calipari's Approach to Building Kentucky Roster Through Freshmen
“The era of taking these young freshmen and trying to play against older players is over,” said Jay Wright. “I think he did a phenomenal job with these guys all year, getting to be as successful as they were. You can see they’re playing against grown men. The guys on Kentucky will be far better pros than any of these guys on Oakland or any of these guys in the tournament. But they’re not as good college basketball players.
on3.com
Bill Self After Gonzaga Loss: 'For the Last Month, I've Been Thinking About Next Season'
“I think for the last month, I’ve been thinking about next season, to be honest,” he said. “Not in the moments during the game, but obviously, we played — we had eight guys on scholarship and we play — I mean, that were healthy there late. Injuries are part of the game. That’s not an excuse. But we could have done a much better job as a staff of putting more guys out there that we could play. And so that’s something I’ve thought about for a long time.”
on3.com
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