Panini scored another legal victory over the weekend in its clash with Fanatics.

An arbitrator denied the NFLPA’s request for emergency relief over a month after the players’ union initiated the early termination of its contract with Panini, which was scheduled to run for more than two additional years. This decision allows Panini to maintain the sale of NFLPA-licensed products as a more extensive arbitration case runs its course.

“Panini will move forward with the production and sale of fully licensed NFL player trading cards pursuant to the license agreement it holds, which it has and will continue to outperform in all aspects,” Panini lawyer Stuart Singer, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, said in a statement to Front Office Sports.

Facing growing pressures from leagues, teams, creditors, distributors, and accelerating industry trends, Diamond Sports Group is once again asking a court for more time to prepare a reorganization plan.

After previously getting an extension to file that plan on Sept. 30, the Bally Sports parent has gone back to U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas to seek additional time to formally restructure itself.

The company is now requesting a new filing date of Nov. 29 — one that extends well into the upcoming NHL and NBA regular seasons. If approved, DSG would then have an additional two months to solicit approval for the plan from its creditors.

Major League Baseball’s 2023 attendance resurgence beat even the most optimistic internal projections.

After predicting a full-season lift of 6% to 8% in June, the league ended the regular season with a total attendance of 70.75 million, a 9.6% increase. The total is the MLB’s largest since 2017 and the first above 70 million since that same year.

Aside from COVID-impacted seasons, the 2023 figure is also the greatest year-over-year increase at the gate since 1993, when MLB expanded from 26 to 28 teams.

Thank you, Taylor Swift.

NBC Sports’ telecast of the Kansas City Chiefs’ 23-20 win over the New York Jets drew a monster 27 million viewers Sunday night.

Through Week 4, NBC has now televised the two most-watched NFL games this season.

With pop superstar Swift in attendance at an NFL game for the second straight week to cheer on Travis Kelce, the “Sunday Night Football” telecast drew 2 million more female viewers than usual.

It peaked at 29.4 million viewers in the second quarter as the Jets pulled within eight points of the defending Super Bowl champions.

NBC is one of the networks exploring a slice of the 12-team College Football Playoff, Front Office Sports has learned.

The CFP has begun having preliminary discussions for the media rights to the expanded playoff, which are up for grabs in 2026. Unlike the current four-team CFP, owned exclusively by ESPN, the next package will likely include multiple networks.

Last week, the CFP heard presentations from five networks — one of which was NBC, a source confirmed to FOS.

The Las Vegas Raiders are releasing defensive end Chandler Jones, per ESPN's Adam Schefter, after he was arrested for allegedly violating a protective order.

Parting ways with Jones comes after a string of incidents involving the 33-year-old. He has been away from the Raiders all season and placed on the non-football illness list earlier in September. On Sept. 5 Jones began posting expletive-laded videos on social media, including one that said he was done playing for the team. After being locked out of the team's facility he made accusations against team owner Mark Davis, general manager Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels.

On Thursday night, Jones posted that the Raiders sent a crisis response team to his home after alleging he was taken to a hospital “against my will.”

Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani was the most popular player in Major League Baseball this season.

The top-20 list is based on the sale of Nike jerseys through MLBShop.com since Opening Day. Ohtani had finished inside the top 10 twice since he joined MLB, most recently in 2021, but this was the first time he led the league.

The Angels’ two-way star underwent an unspecified elbow procedure earlier this month, which ended his sixth MLB season early. It’s unclear if he underwent Tommy John surgery, though Ohtani did tear his UCL last month, which led to speculation that he would need a second Tommy John surgery.

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs linebacker Brevin Randle was spotted stomping on the back of UTEP Miners offensive lineman Steven Hubbard’s neck after a run by quarterback Jake McNamara in a game Friday night.

Fans on social media took issue with the incident, and UTEP coach Dana Dimel suggested after the game the referees didn’t see what happened.

"The referee, who I really admire, came over at halftime and very gentlemanly said that he missed it," Dimel said, via the El Paso Times. "That's part of the game. (The official) was a class act, I really appreciated that."

Outside of the traditional 7 p.m. ABC/ESPN game, top college football matchups have historically all kicked off in the daylight. Think Big Ten heavyweights during “Big Noon Kickoff” on Fox, or the 3:30 p.m. ET “SEC on CBS matchups.”

But for the first time, big-time college football is taking over Saturday night: Last week, more than 20 million people watched the sport during primetime across networks — topping “Sunday Night Football.”

The most-viewed game of each week this season has kicked off at 7 p.m. ET or later, according to Sports Media Watch data. Disney’s ABC and ESPN, and Saturday night newcomer NBC, have all enjoyed the benefits of this new trend.

The National Football League is changing its gambling policies to more appropriately levy punishments.

In a memo to all 32 NFL teams from commissioner Roger Goodell, the league stated that any player caught betting on an NFL game will be suspended for a minimum of one year; that punishment increases to at least two years if the player bets on a game involving their own team.

Any player caught leaking inside information for bettors or using a third party or proxy to bet will also face a minimum one-year suspension. Any player caught fixing a game, or even attempting to, will result in permanent banishment from the NFL.

Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones was arrested overnight in Las Vegas after he allegedly violated a protective order.

Jones was arrested without incident, according to TMZ’s Mike Babcock, and was taken to the Clark County Detention Center. Specifics of his arrest or the protective order in question are not known. He was listed as an inmate on the Clark County Detention Center’s website as of Friday morning.

According to The Athletic's Tashan Reed, Jones has an initial court date set for Dec. 4.

A Tennessee judge said Friday she is ending the conservatorship agreement between former NFL player Michael Oher and Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, per the Associated Press.

The agreement, which was reached in 2004, was terminated by Shelby County Probate Court Judge Kathleen Gomes. While in place, it allowed the Tuohys to take over Oher's finances after the couple took him in when he was in high school.

Oher was 18 and living with the Tuohys when he signed the agreement as he was being recruited to play college football. The story of Oher and the Tuohys was the subject of the 2009 movie "The Blind Side" starring Sandra Bullock, who earned an Academy Award for best actress.

The Baltimore Orioles and Maryland Stadium Authority plan to create a large-scale, mixed-use development around Oriole Park at Camden Yards on the heels of a new 30-year lease agreement keeping the MLB club at the venerable ballpark.

Hours after the new deal was announced and the Orioles clinched the American League East Division and AL’s top seed, details of the agreement began to emerge. The pact is highlighted by a 99-year development rights agreement that allows the Orioles to bring in private investment to certain public areas around Camden Yards.

The Orioles will pay $94 million in rent over the full-term of that redevelopment agreement and lead efforts to bring in partners to remake areas around the ballpark including Camden Station and the B&O Warehouse.

The PGA Tour’s negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund just got a lot more interesting.

Endeavor, Fenway Sports Group, and Henry Kravis, the billionaire founder of private equity firm KKR & Co., are exploring investing in the PGA Tour, according to Bloomberg. Those potential investments could be alongside the PIF — or even offer a completely new opportunity altogether.

The PGA Tour confirmed that PIF negotiations have “resulted in unsolicited interest from other investors,” which could be a move to potentially quell concerns from politicians.

BioSteel’s bankruptcy could be more costly to the NHL, and others caught up in the proceedings, than what’s been detailed in court documents so far.

Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act filings reviewed by Front Office Sports show only about $15 million in liabilities for sports-related deals. But the NHL deal alone is valued at about that much for the upcoming season, according to multiple sources who spoke to FOS on condition of anonymity.

No financial terms or even the length were released when BioSteel’s deal to become the “Official Hydration Partner” of the NHL and the NHLPA was announced in July 2022. Bankruptcy filings showed that the deal runs eight years, and another listed $6.4 million owed to NHL Enterprises.

The XFL and the USFL, two competing spring football leagues, will merge operations. Few details are available, from the new league's start date to its name, but the initial obvious takeaway is that both leagues need one another as ally, rather than competition, in order to survive.

The USFL was the first out of the gate, beginning operations in 2022 and becoming the first spring football league in nearly four decades to have a second season. While the league boasted eight teams aligned with specific cities, it played all of its debut-season games in Birmingham, Alabama. A slow rollout to other cities (including Memphis, Detroit and Canton, Ohio) began earlier this year.

The XFL began operations in February 2023, shortly after the Super Bowl. It began with a much larger geographic footprint than the USFL, with its eight teams spread out over multiple locations, including Seattle, Orlando, Washington D.C., St. Louis and three cities in Texas.

Spring leagues have struggled with a range of challenges. Both the USFL and XFL initially operated under different ownership, the USFL in the early 1980s and the XFL in the early 2000s. A 2019 league known as the Alliance of American Football folded before even finishing out its first season, and a second version of the XFL fell prey to the pandemic.

This round of realignment isn’t quite over just yet.

The American Athletic Conference and Army remain embroiled in deep negotiations over a marriage that could commence in a “few weeks,” AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said from suburban Chicago on Wednesday. The mutual interest between the school’s football program and the American has evolved into a serious endeavor where financials — potentially the final step — are now being explored by league executives.

“We are definitely pursuing it,” Aresco said in an interview with Yahoo Sports. “There’s a reasonable possibility it gets done. Army is interested. We certainly are.”

Army, independent since leaving Conference USA in 2004, would join the AAC as a 14th member and only in football. A month into their courtship, the two sides continue to work through various hurdles in an effort to have the Black Knights join the league beginning next season.

As part of a potential agreement with the league, Army would continue its annual rivalry game with Navy on the traditional date on the second weekend of December. The game will not count in the conference standings, and the two schools will not play in the regular season. However, they could meet in the conference championship game as the top two finishers in the regular season, Aresco said, and then would play again in the Army-Navy Game.

The Ryder Cup will begin Friday morning with four foursome pairings that will kick off the three-day event with a flourish.

In foursomes, players alternate shots on one ball. Players must alternate tee shots. The events are match play. The United States currently holds the Ryder Cup but has not won in Europe in 30 years.

Europe look to lean on home advantage as the biennial competition heads to Italy for the first time in Rome.

The United States claimed a commanding 19-9 victory on home soil at Whistling Straits in 2021, winning back the trophy from Team Europe.

But the US have not won on European soil since 1993 and many of Europe’s best players are peaking at the right time. After the drama of the Solheim Cup, with Europe rallying to earn a draw and retain the cup, Luke Donald’s side will take confidence this week.

Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to miss the next 8-10 weeks following successful back surgery, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced on Thursday.

The team announced that the procedure was a microdiscectomy to address a lumbar disc herniation. The announcement comes as a surprise after the star goaltender returned to practice with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

While that initially appeared to be a step in the right direction, it created a setback for the 29-year-old.

Vasilevskiy's absence will be a major blow to the Lightning, who have made sparse investments in goaltending depth. The spotlight will fall on backup Jonas Johansson, a journeyman who signed a two-year $1.55 million contract with Tampa Bay in the offseason.

The 28-year-old spent most of 2022-23 with the Colorado Avalanche's AHL affiliate, and hasn't played more than 15 games in any of his four NHL seasons. While he's only played 35 games in the NHL, the early returns aren't particularly promising for the Swede.

Drake Callender arrived at Inter Miami’s facility Wednesday unsure whether Lionel Messi would play.

Or at least that’s how Callender tells it. “It was when I walked into the locker room,” Miami’s goalkeeper said when asked how he found out that Messi would miss Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup final. “I didn't see his jersey up, and I knew he wouldn't be part of the starting squad.”

Which is somewhat hard to believe, but not implausible. Inter has wrapped Messi’s injury in a veil of secrecy. His status has been uncertain entering three of Miami’s last four games, and the club has never actually specified what body part is bothering him.

The assumption, prior to Wednesday, was that Messi’s injury was minor, and his rest was somewhat precautionary. The Houston Dynamo, Miami’s opponent in the Open Cup final, prepared Monday and Tuesday as if Messi would play, multiple players said. Thousands of fans donned his jersey with a similar expectation.

One by one, College Football Playoff decision-makers entered Big Ten headquarters on Tuesday morning, walked up the two flights of stairs and gathered in a room to, potentially, decide the future of the industry’s postseason.

The CFP Management Committee — the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick — is expected to further explore this week a change to the expanded playoff model, a concept approved last year and scheduled for implementation in 2024.

In the wake of the latest wave of realignment, officials are considering adjustments to the approved 12-team format, described as a 6+6 model as it grants automatic qualifiers to the six highest-ranked conference champions and at-large bids to the next six highest-ranked teams. While plenty of other topics are expected to be discussed over the next two days in suburban Chicago — a new television deal, the revenue-sharing model and weighted voting structure — the format looms as the most urgent and impactful matter.

The New York Jets are planning to sign quarterback Trevor Siemian to their practice squad pending a physical, according to multiple reports.

Siemian's anticipated signing coincides with persistent questions and criticism surrounding starting quarterback Zach Wilson, who has struggled through the first three weeks of the season after taking over for an injured Aaron Rodgers in Week 1.

Siemian, 31, last played as a backup to Justin Fields with the Chicago Bears in 2022. He made two appearances, including one start with Chicago. A six-year NFL veteran, he's previously played as a starter and a backup with the Denver Broncos, New Orleans Saints and a previous stint with the Jets in 2019. He started two seasons with the Broncos from 2016-17 and has primarily played as a backup since.

Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones claims he was taken to a hospital "against my will," according to the most recent post in a spate of uncharacteristic social media activity from the 11-year NFL veteran.

The Raiders placed Jones on the non-football illness list last week due to what the team has described as a personal matter. He has been away from the team since he began sharing accusations about the Raiders, owner Mark Davis, general manager Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels during Labor Day weekend.

On Monday night, Jones shared photos of journal entries and an apparent statement of "patient rights" via X, formerly known as Twitter. He captioned the post, "First day out but I'm still aligned," implying he was released from the facility that day.

His journal entries describe the experience of being transported to Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas by "5 to 7" Las Vegas Fire Department officials who told him he had been put on a "court hold" by the police department. He eventually landed at a behavioral health facility last week, according to his writing.

Breanna Stewart won her second MVP award after a career-best scoring season in her first season with the New York Liberty, the league announced Tuesday. She edged out Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas, who made triple-double history, and Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson, who won the 2022 award.

Stewart earned 20 of the 60 first-place votes and 446 total points (23 second-place and 17 third-place votes). Thomas was second with 439 points (23 first-place votes) and Wilson third with 433 points (17 first-place votes).

This is the second time in league history that the winner received fewer first-place votes than the runner-up. Sheryl Swoopes won the 2005 award over Lauren Jackson with four fewer first-place votes.

The 2023 award is the second-smallest margin (seven points) between the top-two finishers in WNBA history. The 2005 award was the smallest with two points separating Swoopes and Jackson.

Players receive 10 points for a first-place vote, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one for fifth.

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce didn't crack the top 10 of the NFL's best-selling jerseys for 2022, but after three weeks he might have already captured the crown for the entire 2023 season, thanks to Taylor Swift.

A spokesperson for apparel manufacturer Fanatics told The Associated Press that sales of Kelce's jersey blew up Sunday with "a nearly 400% spike in sales throughout the Fanatics network of sites, including NFLShop.com."

Kelce had a nice day on the field with seven catches for 69 yards and a touchdown during a 41-10 rout of the Chicago Bears. But having Swift, a 12-time Grammy Award winner, sitting in an Arrowhead Stadium suite with his mom, Donna, and cameras catching her numerous reaction shots was a big factor in the sales boost.

There are still more questions than answers regarding the PGA Tour’s still-unofficial union with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, but the 2024 golf calendar is starting to come into focus.

The PGA Tour has already released the schedule for its next FedEx Cup season, which begins in January, and now emerging details of LIV Golf’s 2024 plans reveal some clashes with its current rival and soon-to-be partner.

While LIV’s acting COO Gary Davidson told Front Office Sports in August that the schedule could be released within weeks, it still hasn’t been formally announced. But according to Sports Illustrated, a major shift from LIV’s 2023 strategy will be the circuit’s willingness to go head-to-head with some of the PGA Tour’s biggest events, which it avoided doing this year.

Fox appears to be choosing live sports over scripted entertainment after ending its five-year, billion-dollar run with the WWE.

In October 2024, WWE’s Friday night showcase “SmackDown” will transition from Fox to USA Network under a reported five-year, $1.4 billion deal with NBCUniversal. Fox had reportedly been paying about $205 million a year for the rights.

The move will leave Fox with a programming void on Friday nights — and college sports could be the network’s top choice to fill those primetime slots.

The International Revenue Service (IRS) has significantly lowered its threshold to tax ticket resellers, impacting those who have resold tickets to sporting events or concerts on marketplaces such as Ticketmaster and StubHub.

Ticket platforms will now be required to report information on sellers’ proceeds to the IRS if their ticket sales in 2023 surpass $600. The previous IRS threshold applied to ticket resellers who reached $20,000 in revenue and more than 200 transactions, but the new law can be applied to just one transaction if it’s more than $600, according to Fox Business.

Regardless of whether resellers earned a profit, ticket platforms must send users who sold more than $600 in tickets a 1099-K form to fill out for the IRS. However, sellers will only owe additional taxes if they made a profit on their ticket by selling it for more than they bought it for.

ONE Championship founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong had conversations about acquiring Bellator MMA, although the discussions didn’t go as far as the Professional Fighters League’s pursuit of the Paramount-owned organization.

“We believe that organic growth is the right path for ONE Championship,” Sityodtong told Front Office Sports. “Other organizations may feel the need to merge if they’re lacking in one area or another. From ONE Championship’s perspective, we believe in our global brand.

“The reality is that when you look at combat sports globally, there are two 800-pound gorillas: UFC in the Western Hemisphere and ONE Championship in the Eastern Hemisphere.”

The Arizona Diamondbacks have seen an accelerating wave of facility deals around Major League Baseball, with Baltimore, Milwaukee, Tampa, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Oakland all making progress this year to varying degrees on new or upgraded facilities.

Now, the franchise would like its turn.

Team president and CEO Derrick Hall told the Arizona Republic that the franchise would like to remain at Chase Field, their current downtown Phoenix home, but have not found the public-private agreement necessary to fund $400 million to $500 million in facility upgrades.

Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. has reached a point no man in MLB history has come close to after belting his 40th home run of the season on Friday night.

Acuña not only became a member of the elite 40/40 club – 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in a single season – but he is the only player in MLB history to have 40 homers and 60 stolen bases in a single year.

No other player has ever had a 40/50 season, let alone 40/60.

The Chicago Bears’ rough week just got even worse.

A manager at Soldier Field in Chicago told ABC7 that more than $100,000 of equipment was stolen from a parking structure at the stadium overnight on Wednesday. Suspects allegedly stole lawn mowers and Gator Utility Vehicles, and tore down a security fence in order to drive the equipment out of the garage.

The Bears are on the road this week and will take on the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.

In a fully expected ruling, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken on Friday certified the injunctive relief class for In Re College Athlete NIL Litigation, a case where the NCAA and Power Five conferences are accused of violating antitrust law by restricting name, image and likeness and preventing conferences from sharing broadcasting revenue with the players. As Sportico detailed, Wilken presided over a contentious class certification hearing on Thursday involving attorneys for the parties.

Neither the NCAA nor Power Five conferences opposed certification for this class, since it concerns injunctive relief—a demand the court compel the NCAA and Power Five conferences to change rules. The case is brought by Arizona State swimmer Grant House, former Oregon and current TCU basketball player Sedona Prince, and former Illinois football player Tymir Oliver. Whether the trio represent thousands of former and current college athletes or merely themselves, their demand for changes to rules would be the same.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have gone public with their demands for stadium funding — even proposing relocation if $1 billion in taxpayer money is not secured.

“Do you want to keep the NFL in Jacksonville?” That was the response from Jaguars president Mark Lamping at the AXS DRIVE conference when asked about a theoretical vote from Jacksonville residents on approving the team’s desired deal.

In June, the Jaguars released renderings of their “Stadium of the Future” — a large-scale revamp of the publicly owned TIAA Bank Stadium that would include a stadium canopy to beat the Florida heat. The project could surpass $2 billion in total costs, and the team is seeking a 50-50 split with the city.

When college football leaders met in August to discuss next year’s potential changes to the College Football Playoff’s format, the conference picture was simply too murky to make any decisions.

CFP executive director Bill Hancock said they needed to “wait until the dust settles.”

Since then, the ACC has added Cal, Stanford, and SMU, leaving just two Pac-12 remnants in Oregon State and Washington State — and an overwhelming sense that the Power 5 layout was shrinking to a Power 4.

After more than three months of due diligence and league review, Michael Andlauer has at last completed his record-setting, $950 million acquisition of the Ottawa Senators.

After prior approval by the league’s executive committee, the Board of Governors also unanimously cleared the transaction, which represents the highest price ever paid for an NHL team, and deal is now officially closed. The approval process also follows a separate and protracted sales process lasting seven months.

Andlauer is scheduled to hold a formal press conference Friday at the team’s home arena, Canadian Tire Centre, to discuss the deal and his plans for the franchise.

Fanatics strikes again.

Michael Rubin’s $31 billion sports memorabilia behemoth has earned another key victory in its battle with longtime trading card company Panini.

Fanatics is set to start its WWE trading card licensing deal several years early — immediately taking over the rights held by Panini until now. WWE — which already had an apparel deal with Fanatics — has reportedly ended its Panini deal, which was set to expire in 2026, due to breach of contract. Specific details are unclear.

Adidas is taking legal action to block five trademark applications filed by LIV Golf, claiming that the Saudi golf league’s “L” logo is too similar to the apparel brand’s iconic three-stripe logo.

Adidas filed a Notice of Opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark that claims LIV Golf’s logo “incorporate[s] three stripes in a manner that is confusingly similar to the adidas Marks in appearance and overall commercial impression.”

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben opined that Adidas is unlikely to win its case. Still, a likely scenario could be an agreed-upon settlement that limits how LIV’s “L” logo appears on certain products.

The Walt Disney Co. could pocket a $4 billion-plus windfall by selling ABC. But the loss of the broadcast network poses troubling implications for ESPN, as the sister networks have become increasingly intertwined regarding televising sports.

To combat the actors/writers strike, ESPN just announced ABC would simulcast 15 “Monday Night Football” games compared to five last season.

Disney also uses ABC to broadcast the NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

The Mouse House has managed to box Fox Sports out of NFL Draft coverage by offering a college-centric version of the Draft on ABC since 2019.

For Texas and Oklahoma, the price of leaving the Big 12 in 2024 and joining the SEC a year early could’ve been much higher.

In 2021, when the two schools announced their decisions to leave the Big 12 in 2025, reports pointed to $160 million in forfeited TV revenue if the Longhorns and Sooners joined the SEC any earlier. However, earlier this year, when the Big 12 announced Texas and Oklahoma would depart in 2024, the cost was stated as $100 million combined.

Now, new details of the buyout reported by USA Today are showing the convoluted nature of the agreement — and frustration from remaining Big 12 members.

Michigan State intends to fire head football coach Mel Tucker for cause.

Tucker was suspended without pay last Sunday after details of an investigation into claims that he sexually harassed a prominent sexual assault awareness activist surfaced. On Monday, MSU athletic director Alan Haller said the school provided Tucker with written notice of intent to terminate his contract.

Multiple outlets reported last Saturday that Tucker allegedly harassed rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy after she was hired to speak to the team. Tracy operates a nonprofit company that works with college football teams and other organizations to raise awareness about sexual assault and harassment. She was hired by Michigan State “for the sole purpose of providing a sexual misconduct prevention educational program” to the football team, the school said.

The NFL announced Monday that it is filing a grievance against the NFLPA, claiming that the union advised players to feign injury to gain leverage in contract negotiations.

The league announced the grievance in a memo that was reported by NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. The memo names NFLPA president and former Cleveland Browns center JC Tretter.

Running back negotiations became contentious this offseason as All-Pros Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs and Jonathan Taylor failed to secure long-term contracts. Barkley and Jacobs eventually signed one-year deals after being placed on the franchise tag while Taylor remains sidelined on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list on the final year of his rookie contract.

Simona Halep figured she’d be exonerated when a tribunal finally ruled on her doping case.

“I was confident after the hearing because there were so many things that made no sense and that are not fair,” the two-time women’s tennis singles Grand Slam champion said in an exclusive interview with Front Office Sports.

But a tribunal, which issued Halep a four-year ban last week, basically disregarded all the evidence her attorney and the experts presented at a June hearing to explain why a drug — one banned since it has been shown to boost endurance — was found in her system.

SMU has raised $100 million from a group of 30 donors to support its transition to the ACC, the Texas school announced Monday. The funding will help the Mustangs compete with “powerhouse athletic programs” as it joins the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024.

Southern Methodist University is already seeing increased ticket demand for its sports teams since its early September announcement of its plan to leave the American Athletic Conference for the ACC. Season ticket sales for Mustangs men’s basketball have increased 30% in the last week while “hundreds of new football season tickets” have also been sold.

“SMU is entering an exciting new era, made possible in large part by this small core group of donors,” SMU Director of Athletics Rick Hart said Monday in a statement. “Every metric we have has jumped in the last week, and we look forward to continuing that momentum both this year and next year as we begin ACC play.”

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has agreed to restructure his contract to pay him $210.6 million in guaranteed salary between this season and 2026, the most ever for an NFL player in a four-year span.

Escalators in his restructured deal could increase his total 2023-2026 compensation to $218.1 million, according to Ian Rapoport. The two-time Super Bowl champion and defending MVP signed a 10-year, $450 million extension with the Chiefs in 2020 that keeps him under contract through the 2031 season.

Mahomes’ original contract had incentives that could push his total compensation to $503 million, making it the largest athlete contract in American professional sports history.

A Kansas basketball player has reportedly been suspended after being hit with a rape allegation.

Guard Arterio Morris, who played at Texas last year, is said to have received the punishment on Friday.

According to the Kansas City Star, the alleged incident occurred in the early morning of August 26, and the accusation was reported to the University of Kansas Police Department the night of August 27.

Police are said to have confirmed that the location of the alleged incident was at McCarthy Hall, which houses the men's basketball players.

Los Angeles Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani missed his 11th straight game Friday and appeared ready to miss more, as his locker was cleared out once the game ended.

The next morning, the team announced Ohtani is on the 10-day injured list and will miss the rest of the season. General Manager Perry Minasian is still expected to elaborate at some point as the Angels attempt to end a three-game skid against the Tigers at 9:07 p.m. ET.

Amid Ohtani’s uncertain future in Los Angeles, reporters noticed the absence of his personal items following the Angels' 11-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers at home. Some of his things were even in the trash, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Spain’s Women’s World Cup-winning players announced Friday that they’re continuing their boycott of the National Team despite the resignation of federation president Luis Rubiales and dismissal of coach Jorge Vilda.

The players sent a joint email to the Royal Spanish Football Federation explaining that they were not ready to return to play for the national team following their World Cup victory celebration stained by Rubiales’ unwanted kiss on the lips of player Jenni Hermoso. On Friday, a Spanish judge ordered a restraining order against Rubiales from coming within 200 meters of Hermoso.

A statement signed by 39 national team players was posted Friday on X, calling for continued changes to the country’s soccer leadership. The players will not be available to play in Spain’s upcoming UEFA Nations League matches against Sweden and Switzerland.

Goldman Sachs will soon offer their clients the ability to buy into pro teams, the latest development in a growing industry push to find new ways to keep up with rising franchise values.

A newly created division of the financial services giant called Sports Franchise in Investment Banking, co-led by Goldman Sachs executives Greg Carey and Dave Dase, will provide extremely wealthy clients with the opportunity to invest not only in teams but also other entities in sports and entertainment. The effort also combines Goldman Sachs’ prior activities in sports mergers and acquisitions and in sports financing.

The division will focus on the “global sports ecosystem across all major sports, including federations, leagues, franchises, and clubs, as well as sports media, entertainment, and tech businesses,” according to an internal memo seen by the U.K.’s Financial News.

Last year, George Kliavkoff said Deion Sanders’ arrival in Boulder could help boost the conference’s overall media value. It might be the only thing the beleaguered Pac-12 commissioner was right about.

Now, everybody wants a piece of their success. ESPN and Fox, who comprise college football’s broadcast duopoly, are using No. 18 Colorado’s success to gain an edge in their ongoing battle.

The Buffs have become the main focus of college football, from debate shows and traveling Saturday pregame broadcasts to game windows.

Because the Pac-12 has deals with both ESPN and Fox, the networks trade the rights to Colorado games depending on the week. That dynamic will continue next year when the Buffs join the Big 12, the only Power conference with a future media rights deal that includes both networks.