Sport & Story Daily December 5, 2023

Stay Ahead of the Game

December 5, 2023

Good morning! Noteworthy players—including several QBs—have entered the transfer portal.

College football transfer portal 2023: Live updates, news
College football's 30-day winter transfer portal window is officially open, as players have until Jan. 2, 2024, to enter the portal for their one-time transfers. It doesn't mean they have to find their new schools by then -- or that they can't return to their previous schools -- but they have 30 days to decide whether they want to be in the portal.

More than 2,100 NCAA football players entered the portal in last December's transfer window -- the most of any month since the transfer portal was created in fall 2018.
espn.com

Inside USA Basketball's website rebrand from WMT to improve UX, streamline internal operations
In May, as play for USA Basketball started picking up, the national governing body rolled out a new look website with the help of WMT. The build included a custom live-stat integration to account for different competitive matchups happening all over the world, as well as streamlined roster-building and stat-tracking processes.

As the competitive year for USA Basketball comes to close next weekend, USA Basketball’s Michael Terry and Renee Felton, as well as WMT’s Chris Freet spoke with SBJ about the partnership and the success of the overhaul.
sportsbusinessjournal.com

EPL inks $8.4B U.K. TV deal with Sky, TNT, BBC
The Premier League has "reinforced its position as the richest domestic league in the world" after announcing new U.K. TV deals with Sky Sports, TNT Sports and the BBC worth $8.4B over four years from 2025-29. Sky are the "biggest winners from the TV rights auction," as the net will show a "minimum of 215 matches a season, 100 more than at the moment, while TNT Sports has held on to the 52 matches it shows." The BBC "will continue to show highlights through Match of the Day." Meanwhile Amazon "will stop showing live Premier League matches after the 2024-25 season." The EPL said the new deals represented a 4% "increase in the value of live rights -- no other major European league has managed to secure an increase in their latest domestic deals" (London TIMES, 12/4).
^{sportsbusinessjournal.com}

Shohei Ohtani Rumors: Braves Remain in Mix for Angels Free Agent Amid Dodgers Buzz
Don’t rule out the Atlanta Braves as a Shohei Ohtani destination just yet.

Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported the National League East team remains engaged with Ohtani during free agency. Morosi called the Braves "one of the teams I think we have not been giving enough attention to" and noted Ohtani "has prioritized teams that have a chance to win sustainably."
bleacherreport.com

How superstar Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott makes and spends his millions
The 30-year-old Louisiana native is the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys — a team so beloved across the United States that it's been dubbed "America's Team." When he's been healthy, Prescott has thrived under center in The Lone Star State; he's twice earned Pro Bowl nods and was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2016.

All of his success on the field has led to incredible financial gains for the Mississippi State alum. He's signed mammoth NFL contracts, inked lucrative endorsement deals, and made investments in promising companies.
^{businessinsider.com}

Nationwide, National Football League Announce Multiyear Partnership Renewal
Nationwide and the National Football League (NFL) have announced the multiyear renewal of their partnership that ensures Nationwide's ongoing designation as an official auto, home, life, business, agribusiness and pet insurance partner. The centerpiece of the agreement is its continued presenting sponsorship of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. Additional sponsorship in the retirement planning services category will take effect at the start of the 2024 season. The insurance and financial services company has been a league partner since 2014.
^{nflcommunications.com}

Jarred Kelenic trade: Mariners send former top prospect, pitcher Marco Gonzales to Braves in salary dump
MLB's annual Winter Meetings are this coming week in Nashville and the stove is starting to get hot. The Atlanta Braves have acquired outfielder Jarred Kelenic, left-hander Marco Gonzales, and first baseman Evan White from the Seattle Mariners for righties Jackson Kowar and Cole Phillips, the team announced late Sunday night. Atlanta also receives cash in the trade.
cbssports.com

Beer promo gone bad: Iowa indoor golf spot suffers from Hawkeyes’ loss to Wolverines
X-Golf in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, likes to come up with creative promotions. The golf simulator bar is a popular spot for those who live throughout eastern Iowa because of those promotions.

Its latest idea, however, “Pour Until Iowa Scores,” turned into a lot of pouring thanks to a struggling Iowa Hawkeyes offense during the Big Ten championship game.
^{theathletic.com}

A Monday Night Football First: Packers-Giants on ABC & ESPN & Titans-Dolphins on ESPN & ESPN+ to Be Played Simultaneously; Re-Imagined Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli Provides Opportunity to Watch Both Games on ESPN2 & ESPN+

ESPN’s Monday Night Football will present two games, kicking off at the same time (8:15 p.m. ET), to conclude Week 14 (Monday, Dec. 11), as ESPN and the NFL transform a Sunday afternoon environment into a primetime window. The latest schedule innovation during ESPN’s most comprehensive NFL season in the company’s history, features multiple games with playoff implications, as the Green Bay Packers visit the New York Giants (ABC and ESPN+) and the Tennessee Titans are at the Miami Dolphins (ESPN, ESPN+ and ESPN Deportes).

Adding to the first-ever side-by-side Monday Night Football event, Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli (ESPN2 and ESPN+) will offer fans the ability to watch both games simultaneously, with the Manning brothers commentating on the important MNF matchups concurrently, delivering fans the most exciting action from each game in real-time.
^{espnpressroom.com}

Sports Media Reacts to Final SEC on CBS Broadcast
Saturday marked the final SEC broadcast for CBS, as Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson called Alabama’s upset victory over Georgia for the conference championship.

CBS is moving on to become a media partner for the Big Ten for the next decade, but not before Nessler and Danielson could offer their final thoughts on Saturday’s broadcast.
barrettsportsmedia.com

Winter Meetings preview: Ohtani, trades, Hader & more
Music City welcomes the baseball world to town this week for the annual Winter Meetings, but which teams -- and which players -- will have something to sing about by the time everybody leaves the Gaylord Opryland Resort on Thursday?

Rumors will buzz throughout the lobby -- well, multiple lobbies, to be exact -- as some of the top free agents seek deals for 2024 and beyond. The same goes with the trade market, which features a number of All-Stars who could be trading in their current uniforms for new ones by Opening Day.
^{http://mlb.com}

Brisbane Mayor resigns from Olympic Forum over Gabba plan
Mayor of Brisbane Adrian Schrinner has resigned from the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Intergovernmental Leaders’ Forum and criticised the Queensland Government’s plans to redevelop The Gabba ahead of the Games.

In a statement published over the weekend, Schrinner said he would be resigning from the forum with immediate effect, adding that he will no longer “fall in line” and support the Government’s current plans for The Gabba.
^{thestadiumbusiness.com}

Titans fire special teams coordinator Craig Auckerman
After a disastrous day on special teams, the Titans have fired coordinator Craig Auckerman.

Head coach Mike Vrabel made the announcement at his Monday press conference.

“There’s no real precedent to anything — you try to get a feel for what’s best and what’s needed,” Vrabel said, via Jim Wyatt of the team’s website. “And whether we’ve done something in the past, there’s times we haven’t run a certain coverage or we have’t run certain plays. And these decisions are about timing and feel. So, that’s the decision that was made.”
^{nbcsports.com}

If the NFL wanted good refereeing, it would have it
You do have to appreciate that the officiating crew on the league’s Sunday Night game, supposedly the marquee matchup of the week where the entire NFL world tunes in, was able to pack in so much moron-acy into one final drive. The density of clueless officiating in the last minute of Chiefs-Packers was not all that different than a black hole.

First, there was this on Patrick Mahomes, though you can understand why refs have such a hard-on to call penalties on the quarterback because that’s the way the league wants it…
^deadspin.com

Bill Belichick declines to answer whether he wants to keep coaching the Patriots
Amid increasing talk that Bill Belichick is in his final season as the head coach of the New England Patriots, Belichick himself says he’s looking no further than this week’s game.

Belichick was asked after Sunday’s loss to the Chargers, “Do you want to stay here and keep coaching the Patriots?”

“I’m looking forward to this week and playing the Steelers,” Belichick answered.
^{nbcsports.com}

Mizzou sells out of Cotton Bowl tickets in hours; game includes big payout for SEC
The University of Missouri said Monday it has already sold out of its allotment of tickets for the upcoming Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, less than a day after being selected for the college football bowl game.
^{bizjournals.com}

The Top Ten NBA Draft Prospects in College Basketball 1.0
This is an exciting NBA Draft class because the parity of the players shows there are no clear tiers at this point. In years past, players started to differentiate themselves into draft tiers before the season beginning. This year, it seems that players will be using their seasons as their try-out. Even with NBA scouts having previous viewings and notes on these players for a couple of years, there is still almost certain to be a lot of movement as we continue toward the June NBA Draft. 
_on3.com

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