2024: The Year of Simone

Biles “changed the face of her sport and the conversations around athletes”

January 3, 2025

Simone Biles Is SI’s 2024 Sportsperson of the Year
SI’s Stephanie Apstein writes, “Simone Biles is Sports Illustrated’s 2024 Sportsperson of the Year because she won gold, and then another gold, and then another; because she changed the face of her sport and the conversations around athletes in general; because she continues to speak out about issues that matter to her. And perhaps most of all because after she wondered aloud to Chiles whether she was about to relive the darkest period of her career, she took a deep breath, she saluted the judges and she broke into a run.” 
^{Sports Illustrated}

The Baseball Hall of Fame’s Forgotten Position Has Some Hope—Just Not in 2025
SI’s Nick Selbie writes, “Since Jackie Robinson was voted into Cooperstown in 1962, only five players who spent significant time at second base have been elected by the writers into the Hall of Fame. Other second basemen have earned entry during that span via the Veterans Committee, decades after their careers came to an end. But in over half a century, just five were deemed worthy by the writers who covered the sport while they were still playing.”
^{Sports Illustrated}

Denver Awarded NWSL Franchise With Record $110M Expansion Fee: Report
A group led by IMA Financial Group CEO Robert Cohen will pay a record expansion fee of $110 million to become the NWSL's 16th franchise. That total is more than double the $53 million paid by Bay FC and Boston when they were awarded entry, and is reportedly the largest expansion fee ever paid for a U.S. women's sports team.
^{Yahoo! Sports}

Sports Stocks Post Best Year Since 2020 as Betting Powers Rally
Sportico’s Brendan Coffey reports: “Sports stocks gained 18% in 2024, tallying the sector’s best year since 2020. The Sportico Sports Stock Index closed the year at 1,361, led by three stocks more than doubling among two dozen components that posted double-digits gains for the year.”
^Sportico

Jon Gruden Expected to Be ‘Hot’ NFL Head Coaching Candidate Despite Suit, Emails
FOS’ A.J. Perez writes, “Jon Gruden’s troublesome emails and his litigation against the NFL won’t keep him from being in the mix to return as a head coach as the 2025 hiring cycle kicks into gear in the coming days. Gruden is expected to be one of the “hot” candidates among teams looking for a new head coach, a person with knowledge of the situation told Front Office Sports. Earlier this week, NFL Network reported that multiple teams have weighed hiring Gruden.”
^{Front Office Sports}

New Mexico State Parts With AD Moccia in Wake of Report on Sex Abuse in Hoops Program
New Mexico State is moving on from athletic director Mario Moccia in the wake of an investigation that criticized the school’s handling of the sexual abuse scandal that temporarily shut down the Aggies men’s basketball program.

Valerio Ferme, who took over as university president to start the year, announced Moccia’s dismissal Thursday and that Amber Burdge, NMSU’s deputy athletic director for strategic initiatives and leadership, would be acting athletic director.
^{AP News}

New Orleans Security Presence to Be in 'Hundreds' for Sugar Bowl
"We are in partnership with many other partners," New Orleans police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said of the Sugar Bowl, which was won by Notre Dame on Thursday. "Both local, federal, military police, and so forth, will be here, and so we're going to have absolutely hundreds of officers and staff lining our streets, lining Bourbon Street, lining the French Quarter. So, we are staffing up at the same level, if not more so, than we were preparing for [the] Super Bowl."
^ESPN

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey ‘Would Hope There is Interest’ in CFP Format Changes for 2025
The Athletic’s Seth Emerson writes, “SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, one of the architects of the current College Football Playoff format, is ‘absolutely’ interested in tweaking the format for the 2025 season, he said Thursday. While the CFP’s format for 2026 and beyond is wide open because there is not a set contract, any changes to the current 12-team format for the 2025 season would require unanimous agreement among the 10 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences and Notre Dame.”
^{The Athletic}

Bowl Action? There Was Plenty, and the Best Came Far Away From the Spotlight of the College Playoffs
AP News’ Eddie Pells writes, “Colorado and Alabama were among the teams that focused on the “brotherhood” of football and leaned into the idea that even their NFL-bound stars were showing solidarity by playing in these bowl games. At CU, that meant amping up the insurance policies for Heisman winner Travis Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders.”
^{AP News}

Louisville Punter Says He Opted Out of Sun Bowl Because of Unpaid NIL Money
Louisville punter Brady Hodges said he opted out of the Sun Bowl this week because the Cardinals’ NIL collective did not pay money promised to him in September.

“I graduated on December 13th and had every intention on being with the team had they held up their end of the deal,” Hodges wrote on social media. He did not disclose how much money he is owed.
^{AP News}

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