Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord is entering the transfer portal.

McCord’s surprising decision to possibly change schools comes a day after Ohio State found out it would play in the Cotton Bowl against Missouri after finishing at No. 7 in the College Football Playoff rankings. It also comes a day after coach Ryan Day was asked about the team’s starting quarterback job for next season and didn’t say unequivocally that McCord was the team’s starting quarterback heading into the 2024 season.

McCord was 229-of-348 passing for 3,170 yards and 24 TDs with just six interceptions in his first season as Ohio State’s starter. Those are solid numbers. But they aren’t like the numbers that either C.J. Stroud or Justin Fields put up in Ryan Day’s offense.

One of the most gruesome injuries of this NFL season was suffered on Sunday not by a player, but by a member of the sideline crew in New Orleans.

Nick Piazza, who was holding the first down marker on the sideline, was seriously injured when he couldn't get out of the way in time as Saints running back Alvin Kamara was being chased to the sideline. The TV broadcast briefly showed Piazza's leg before quickly cutting away when the extent of the injury became apparent.

Today the Saints confirmed that Piazza suffered a fractured fibula and dislocated knee and is likely to undergo surgery next week. The team said Piazza's blood vessels remain intact.

Tiger Woods is not only the face of Nike’s golf business, but he has been synonymous with the brand through every major moment of his career, from his triumphs at Augusta to his unprecedented dominance at St. Andrews and beyond.

That could all be changing soon.

While specific contract details have never been made public, Nike is believed to have paid Woods hundreds of millions of dollars since signing the superstar in 1996, when he was just 20 years old. But now, as the 47-year-old Woods approaches the twilight of his playing career, a surprising report is suggesting that he could split with Nike as early as this month.

The Premier League has completed an $8.5 billion set of domestic media rights agreements that reasserts its presence as one of the world’s most dominant sports properties.

In four-year pacts starting with the 2025-26 season, Comcast’s Sky Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT will broadcast up to 270 live games per season, each retaining their status with the league, while the BBC will continue to broadcast a free-to-air highlights package.

The highly anticipated agreements are described as the largest sports media rights pacts ever completed in the U.K. A 4% increase from the prior rights cycle, the aggregate fees nearly double the recently struck domestic rights in Italy for Serie A.

Florida lawmakers already have an appetite to propose state legislation to protest Florida State not making the College Football Playoff, a source close to lawmakers told Front Office Sports.

On Sunday, the CFP made the controversial decision to award Alabama the fourth slot in the postseason instead of the undefeated Seminoles. The decision was presumably made due to the strength of schedule considerations and the loss of FSU’s quarterback Jordan Travis, who broke his leg in a non-conference game against North Alabama on November 18.

But some lawmakers don’t appear to be accepting this explanation. It’s unclear what direction a bill could take — but legislators are currently discussing multiple options, the source said.

Details of Shaquille O’Neal’s latest venture were detailed in two U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filings on Thursday: an artificial intelligence product for Authentic, the licensing group that owns Sports Illustrated.

The filings for “ASK SHAQ” and “SHAQ AI” include few details of the project, but a source with knowledge of situation told Front Office Sports that the potential A.I. play was the Hall of Famer’s idea and that he first broached it with Authentic only days before the trademark filings.

An A.I. chatbot or similar product remains months off, the source said.

“Authentic owns the rights to Shaq’s personal name brand,” Josh Gerben, founding partner of Gerben Perrott PLLC, told FOS. “This could be a sort of chatbot that’s based on Shaq, where people would be able to go in and ask questions, and A.I. Shaq would answer.”

Former UFC champion Jamahal Hill was arrested Monday in Michigan on a charge of misdemeanor aggravated domestic violence, a Kent County official confirmed to Yahoo Sports on Friday.

The 32-year-old was processed into the system in Grand Rapids at 1 a.m. and has since been released.

He is accused of assaulting his brother, James Anthony Hill Jr, according to TMZ. He allegedly inflicted "serious or aggravated injury" in the incident, court documents obtained by the outlet reportedly show.

As Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant's return to the basketball court looms, so do his upcoming legal obligations.

The 24-year-old was issued a subpoena to appear at an immunity hearing for a civil lawsuit in Memphis, according to a Friday report from ESPN's Baxter Holmes.

Morant is being sued by Joshua Holloway, who told police the point guard punched him 12 or 13 times during a pickup basketball game at Morant's home during July 2022. Holloway was 17 at the time. He claimed Morant and a friend's strikes were so hard that a "large knot" formed on the side of his head, adding that Morant allegedly went into his home after the incident and came back outside with a gun.

College football entered this conference championship weekend in rare circumstances: with major postseason implications at every Power 5 title game.

Heading into the weekend, seven of the top eight teams in the College Football Playoff rankings were given the opportunity to make their case — and potentially seal their fate — with a win in their respective games.

But a year from now, with an influx of new money coming into the sport, things are bound to look drastically different.

Realignment is consolidating the top conferences to a Power 4 whose championship games will no doubt be impacted by the CFP’s expansion to 12 teams. Conferences are changing how they distribute money, creating a bigger divide between the haves and have-nots — and unsurprisingly, it’s all driven by increasingly lucrative media rights deals from college football’s biggest broadcasters.

The outrage over Deadspin’s coverage of a young fan in face paint and a Native American headdress at Sunday’s Kansas City Chiefs-Las Vegas Raiders game has fueled chatter of a potential defamation lawsuit.

On Monday, Deadspin published a story about the 9-year-old fan, who was captured on CBS from Allegiant Stadium. The article referred in the headline to a young fan in makeup—half of his face painted black, the other half red — as “Black face” and used the moment as a jumping-off point for a discussion about race and the use of Native American imagery in sports.

After the story ran, more pictures of the young fan showed that only half his face was painted black with the other red, one of the Chiefs’ primary colors. That led to outrage on social media and condemnation of Deadspin for not showing the full extent of the face paint.

The Brandr Group, a name, image, and likeness group licensing company, has agreed to drop its lawsuit against EA Sports over its college football game, it announced on Thursday.

Front Office Sports first reported news of the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in June. The Brandr Group alleged that EA was circumventing its agreement with dozens of Division I schools by offering group licensing deals directly to football players. EA had agreed to work with a different group licensing company, OneTeam Partners.

The lawsuit highlighted a major question in the college sports NIL landscape: In the absence of a players’ union, who has the authority to represent athletes in group licensing deals?

“While Brandr remains confident in its position in the litigation and the enforceability of group licensing rights, Brandr has decided that it is in its best interest, and the best interest of its student-athletes, to stand down and monitor the progress of NCAA Football before determining whether further legal action is needed to protect its clients,” the company said in a statement.

Content warning: The following article contains graphic descriptions of alleged domestic violence.

Buffalo Bills pass rusher Von Miller turned himself in to police Thursday on a third-degree felony charge of assaulting a pregnant person, according to WFAA. He was reportedly released from custody after posting a $5,000 bond at the DeSoto Police Department jail.

The Bills and NFL have both released statements confirming they are aware of the incident.

The 34-year-old is accused of assaulting his longtime girlfriend on Wednesday morning at their shared home in Dallas. Miller left the scene before police officers arrived, per ESPN. He is from DeSoto, a nearby suburb. Police contacted his presumed representation in hopes that they will encourage him to turn himself in, according to WFAA.

New details are emerging of a wild story involving European soccer stars and tens of millions of lost dollars.

Former Barcelona and Atletico Madrid winger Arda Turan is among the victims of a $44 million Ponzi scheme that played out in Turkey last year, according to an indictment filed in court last week. The former Turkish national team member told Bloomberg he lost $7.5 million by investing in a secretive fund run by a local bank manager.

According to court documents, Secil Erzan — a now-jailed former manager of a DenizBank AS branch — took large sums of cash from clients, including prominent players, and promised a 250% return on the investments. “People who bring me cash come in with a bag,” Erzan said in her testimony after being arrested in April. “And they leave with an empty bag.”

Legal ramifications from cryptocurrency endorsements has hit another A-list athlete. Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is facing a $1 billion class-action lawsuit stemming from his involvement with embattled exchange Binance.

The federal suit filed in the Southern District of Florida alleges that Ronaldo’s promotion was “deceptive and unlawful,” and that his association with Binance led plaintiffs into unsafe investments.

“Evidence now reveals that Binance’s fraud was only able to reach such heights through the offer and sale of unregistered securities, with the willing help and assistance of some of the wealthiest, powerful, and recognized organizations and celebrities across the globe — just like Defendant Ronaldo,” the suit reads in part.

On Friday, 32 University of Oregon athletes, both at the club and varsity level, filed a Title IX lawsuit against the University of Oregon.

The lawsuit could provide the first ruling on whether NIL activities — including funding from collectives — are subject to Title IX, the federal statute requiring gender equity in college sports. It’s one of the biggest unanswered questions in the NIL era.

Renowned NIL attorney Arthur Bryant is one of the lawyers representing athletes on the case.

The lawsuit, which focuses on beach volleyball and club women’s rowing, makes several allegations of inequity that relate either directly or indirectly to NIL.

Nearly four years ago, Mississippi State Auditor Shad White stood next to Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens to announce the first arrests in what became known as the Mississippi welfare scandal.

Several other charges — even a handful from the Justice Department — followed, but there’s been one agency that has remained almost entirely hands-off: the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office led by Lynn Fitch.

Fitch, whose spokesperson did not respond to Front Office Sports for this story, tapped outside law firms to handle the lawsuit that seeks to recover more than $77 million from 47 defendants, including Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. Her office also hasn’t criminally charged anyone connected to the misuse of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds.

“We turned over our entire evidence file to the Attorney General long ago because their prosecutors have jurisdiction,” White told FOS. “We did the same for the federal prosecutors. The AG’s office has not expressed interest to me in pursuing the case so far.”

Content warning: This post contains descriptions of alleged domestic violence and assault.

Vanderbilt forward Lee Dort was arrested on a felony aggravated assault charge Sunday morning and has since been suspended from the team, according to the Tennessean’s Aria Gerson.

Police were called to a dorm room on Vanderbilt’s campus shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday. Dort’s ex-girlfriend told police that Dort, who had turned 21 the day before, took her phone and shoved her against a wall and bedpost in the dorm room, per the report. The woman later slid down the bed and Dort allegedly gripped her neck.

NCAA rules allow Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh to donate to athletic department employees. But they prohibit him from doing the same for players — something the Wolverines coach expressed interest in during a recent call with reporters.

Following Michigan’s thrilling win over Ohio State on Saturday, Harbaugh reiterated his belief that players should get a share of school and conference revenues.

Harbaugh was asked if he would be interested in donating to name, image, and likeness collectives — one of the only ways players can be compensated during their time as athletes, given they’re not allowed to be paid by salaries.

He noted that he has donated portions of earnings to the Michigan athletic department before: In 2021, he gave his bonus salary back to the department to help compensate employees who took COVID-related pay cuts.

The allure and profits of big-time college football have proven irresistible even as the initial costs to get there have risen exponentially.

The University of Delaware will move to the Football Bowl Subdivision’s Conference USA in 2025, as first reported by ESPN.

Upon moving up from the Football Championship Subdivision’s Coastal Athletic Association, Delaware will be the first football program in the country to pay a $5 million application fee to the FBS; the NCAA increased the number from $5,000 as part of a series of changes in October.

It may be a relatively slow period on the pro golf calendar, but the sport is buzzing thanks to rumors that LIV Golf is aggressively pushing to sign its biggest player yet.

Jon Rahm, the No. 3-ranked player in the world and defending Masters champion, reportedly has an offer to sign with the controversial Saudi-backed league for $600 million. That would mark the biggest paycheck yet shelled out by LIV.

Phil Mickelson is currently believed to have accepted the highest offer — around $200 million — while players like Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, and Bryson DeChambeau are said to have received $100 million-plus deals. Tiger Woods reportedly turned down an offer from LIV worth nearly $800 million.

The NBA is investigating allegations Oklahoma City Thunder guard Josh Giddey had an inappropriate relationship with a minor, NBA spokesman Mike Bass told Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill.

Social media posts featuring photos and videos intended to support the allegations went viral after the claims first surfaced Wednesday night. The 21-year-old spoke to reporters at Oklahoma City's practice Friday, in which he was seemingly a full participant. When asked about the recent accusations, he didn't offer an explanation.

"I understand the question obviously, but there's no further comment right now," Giddey answered.

Competitive pushing and shoving is a decades-old tradition on Black Friday, and a college basketball game got in on the action this year.

An Urban-Bennett Memorial Classic game between Jacksonville and Robert Morris devolved into chaos Friday when basically every player and coach got involved in a massive on-court brawl. Punches were reportedly thrown and both head coaches needed to be restrained.

Once the melee ended, the referees opted to eject every player from the game except for the ones who were playing at the time of the brawl, leaving both teams to play the remaining time with no substitutions. Per FanSided's Tristan Freeman, the total number of players to be ejected was 17.

Blackhawks' GM Kyle Davidson: Corey Perry will be away from team for ‘foreseeable future' originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

Chicago Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson held a media availability on Saturday morning to address Corey Perry's status as questions continue to swirl around his mysterious absence.

"There's no update on that end," Davidson said. "He's away from the team and will remain so for the foreseeable future. I'm unable to provide any further update on that front."

Davidson said he "understands" there's speculation out there as to what's going on, but respectfully didn't want to get into details. He did, however, provide some sort of clarity on one front.

The Texas Longhorns handed Texas Tech a blowout loss Friday and taunted Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark while they were at it.

By clinching a Big 12 conference title game berth in the 57-7 win, Texas secured another opportunity to make a point ahead of their departure for the SEC next year.

Back in August, Yormark spoke at a Red Raider Club luncheon and made some controversial comments as he rooted for the Red Raiders to beat Texas in their regular-season finale. He bolstered his address with a reference to Texas Tech's 37-34 overtime win against Texas last season.

On Saturday night, Cal and UCLA will face off in the final regular-season football game for the Pac-12 as we know it. Going forward, the conference will only have two schools and no media deal.

Beginning in 2024, Oregon State and Washington State will be the only remaining members. The dominos began to fall with UCLA and USC, which announced their intentions to join the Big Ten in 2022, and continued this summer with the exits of Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Arizona State to the Big 12 and Stanford and Cal to the ACC.

The reason for the collapse: The conference failed to put together a compelling offer for a new media rights package. The final offer was a deal with Apple that guaranteed little more than $20 million per school and provided far less reach than the linear networks offered to the Pac-12’s competitors.

Las Vegas has long been seen as a frontrunner for MLS expansion. But when the league grows to 30 teams in 2025 with the addition of San Diego FC, Sin City is still set to remain on the sidelines.

However, the city’s efforts to add yet another professional sports team has received a ringing endorsement from one of the most influential owners in MLS: David Beckham.

“It’s a real opportunity. We’ve seen the hockey team come in and do incredibly well, and obviously the Raiders being here,” the Inter Miami co-owner told Bloomberg. “In the future, who knows with MLS and if a team comes here to Vegas.”

Beckham was in Vegas for last weekend’s heralded Formula 1 race and came away impressed with the city’s potential for more pro sports.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Holy Grail of inducing viewers to shop while they watch is as old as the TV business itself.

The result is usually an “epic failure,” according to technology consultant Shelly Palmer, chief executive officer of The Palmer Group.

While a record 182 million Americans are expected to shop in-store and online from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation, 130 million are expected to shop on Black Friday alone.

Enter Amazon, who paid the NFL $100 million for exclusive rights to the league’s first ever Black Friday game, according to Peter King of NBC Sports.

Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison on Jan. 5, as he was granted parole in a hearing at Atteridgevale prison Friday. The decision comes almost 11 years after the former South African sprinter killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

In 2013, Pistorius shot Steenkamp four times through his bathroom door with a licensed 9mm pistol late on Valentine's Day. Accused of killing the 29-year-old in anger, Pistorius claimed he mistook her for a hiding intruder. He was convicted of manslaughter in 2014, a charge that was ultimately amended to murder. His sentence was increased from five to 13 years and five months in 2017. He turned 37 this week.

Pistorius was allowed house arrest in 2015 during a brief hearing for one of the many appeals in his case. He was imprisoned again afterward. He has been completing his sentence in the jail that hosted his Parole hearing on Friday, which is located in South Africa's capital of Pretoria.

Ole Miss football player DeSanto Rollins’ lawyer, alleged that head football coach Lane Kiffin “intended to harm” Rollins and offered up examples of how Kiffin “intentionally treated” Rollins differently from white players, according to a court filing obtained by Front Office Sports.

Rollins’ attorney, Carroll Edward Rhodes, made a series of rebuttals in a Tuesday filing in response to a motion to dismiss filed by Ole Miss and Kiffin, including how an unnamed Rebels kicker remained on the team after a positive drug test.

“All of Kiffin’s actions and inactions were intentional, deliberate, malicious, grossly negligent, negligent, and taken in reckless disregard for the rights and mental health of Rollins,” Rhodes wrote. “All of the actions and inactions [of employees of the Ole Miss athletics department] were grossly negligent, negligent, and taken in reckless disregard for the rights and mental health of Rollins. Kiffin was malevolently ingenious in the manner he discriminated against Rollins.”

New York Knicks owner James Dolan is stepping away from NBA league-related responsibilities while his team sues another.

In a memo sent to Commissioner Adam Silver and the league’s other 29 owners, Dolan resigned from his position on the NBA Board of Governors’ influential advisory, finance, and media committees. Knicks general counsel Jamaal Lesane has already begun sitting in for Dolan’s responsibilities on those committees’ meetings, per ESPN.

“Given all that has occurred lately, I have come to the conclusion that the NBA neither needs nor wants my opinion,” Dolan wrote in the memo.

TGL, the indoor, technology-driven golf league backed by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and a host of big-name investors, will delay its debut from the start of next year to 2025, following extensive damage to the tournament facility in Palm Beach, Fla.

The dome over the facility deflated overnight last Tuesday because of a power failure, causing widespread damage to the dome itself. TGL officials noted that there were no injuries and most of the technology within the tech-heavy facility was not affected. However, given the tight combination of repair time, synchronization of player availability and broadcast windows, TGL officials decided to delay the opening until 2025.

Drone footage of the facility makes clear the extent of the devastation from the collapsed dome, and the repair work that would be necessary

The Las Vegas Grand Prix finished late Saturday in dramatic fashion, with the dominant Max Verstappen overcoming a collision and a penalty to claim his 16th victory in 17 races.

And after a deeply troubled beginning to the event, even Verstappen reversed his prior grumbling about the extravagance of the event and ultimately sang its praises. That change of sentiment arrived as the race week drew more than 315,000 spectators and ultimately delivered on its original promise of delivering a visually stunning nighttime spectacle along the Las Vegas Strip — capped with a resumption of the Bellagio fountains that had been turned off and a post-race fireworks show.

“I hope everyone enjoyed it. We definitely did,” Verstappen said. “[I’m] excited to come back here next year and try to do something similar.”

The Professional Fighters League’s monthslong pursuit of Bellator finally concluded on Monday.

PFL announced that it had completed its acquisition of Bellator from Paramount, a move that gives PFL a roster of fighters — in size and independent rankings anyway — that is close to UFC’s roster.

“Today, the MMA market changed,” Donn Davis, PFL’s founder and chairman, told Front Office Sports. “PFL is now a global powerhouse in MMA, and as I’ve said before, we started the company with the aim to be a premium No. 2 in MMA. We achieved that today. We set a new goal to become the co-leader at MMA. With the acquisition of Bellator, we now have the fighter assets, and the ability to be the co-leader at MMA.”

FOS reported in September that PFL was in talks to acquire Bellator. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The NFL is suspending Denver Broncos safety Kareem Jackson four games after his hit on Minnesota Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs Sunday night.

The league announced the suspension Monday afternoon while citing "repeated violations of playing rules intended to protect the health and safety of players." The suspension is the second of the season for Jackson for repeated illegal hits to opponents' heads.

Jackson lowered his helmet and hit Dobbs in his facemask on the first possession of Denver's 21-20 win. The hit dislodged the ball and resulted in a forced turnover for the Broncos, who converted the fumble into a field goal.

It’s been over a year since news broke that leaders from the Big 12 and Gonzaga met in person to discuss the potential of the Bulldogs joining the conference.

Rumors have persisted during the ensuing months without confirmation either way — but now there could finally be some movement.

The Houston Chronicle reported that Big 12 school presidents are expected to meet this week to discuss expansion, and could even vote on adding Gonzaga. A source familiar with the situation confirmed to Front Office Sports that there has been some positive momentum around Gonzaga’s potential move to the Big 12, but noted it isn’t a slam dunk.

With this week’s launch of the newest U.S. sportsbook, a Goliath gets to feel what it’s like to be David.

ESPN Bet is now live in 17 states — but it’s starting off with about a 2% market share of American sports gamblers.

That market share comes from the remnants of PENN Entertainment’s Barstool Sportsbook product, which has been folded into a $2 billion partnership to license ESPN branding. PENN will pay Disney $150 million annually for the next 10 years and is granting Disney about $500 million in stock warrants to purchase PENN shares.

There was a conspicuously empty seat on the LSU bench Friday, which only raised the volume on questions about what is happening with Angel Reese.

Last season's NCAA women's basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player was nowhere to be seen during the Tigers' game against Southeastern Louisiana. No explanation was given for the absence before the game, and LSU head coach Kim Mulkey declined to give one after, per The Advocate's Reed Darcey.

Reese's absence came three days after she was benched in the second half of a win against Kent State. When asked why she sat Reese and senior guard Kateri Poole, Mulkey again declined to provide any detail.

PULLMAN, Wash. – The president of the NCAA wants to restart discussions about getting helmet radio technology in college football as a way to avoid the controversy currently engulfing the Michigan Wolverines.

Charlie Baker, the new NCAA president, told USA TODAY Sports in an interview Friday that “my goal is going to be to try to get it back on the agenda” after previous discussions about it at the NCAA level didn’t go anywhere.

He declined comment on the NCAA’s investigation into Michigan, which is facing allegations that it violated an NCAA rule prohibiting in-person advance scouting of opponents to steal play-calling signals. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh this week accepted a three-game suspension as punishment for it as part of a settlement with the Big Ten Conference.

As the Las Vegas Grand Prix prepares for Friday night’s qualifying event, track safety has become a major concern.

In the leadup to Formula 1’s return to Las Vegas, major construction on and around the Strip — which was repaved to meet racing regulations — inconvenienced locals for months.

Now, following an early end to the opening practice session on Thursday night and delay of the second practice due to a loose drain cover, drivers are speaking up about their dissatisfaction with the 3.8-mile track along the Vegas Strip.

Oregon State and Washington State will not be able to take control of the Pac-12 for at least a month, according to a court ruling.

On Tuesday, a local judge ruled that Washington State and Oregon State — the only two remaining Pac-12 schools — can take control of the conference until the case goes to a trial. But Washington, which added itself as a defendant in the lawsuit in order to speak for departing schools, swiftly requested that the state Supreme Court court block this decision.

On Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court agreed to prohibit the WSU/OSU decision from going into effect temporarily.

The court has not issued a decision on whether it will hear the appeal, however. OSU and WSU will have until Nov. 28 to file a response — and the 10 departing schools have until Dec. 8 to file a counter.

The English Premier League has docked Everton FC 10 points for violations of Profitability and Sustainability Rules, formerly known as Financial Fair Play. It’s the largest points deduction in league history and the first punishment in the top flight of English football handed out relating to profitability and sustainability rules — but it might not be the last.

An independent commission hired by the EPL found that Everton lost £124.5 million ($155 million) in the period ending with the 2021-22 season; under PSR, clubs are only allowed to record losses of up to £105 million ($130.8 million).

The sanction has immediate effect, meaning Everton instantly dropped into 19th place and the relegation zone of the Premier League table.

Journalism watchdog Tom Jones of the Poynter Institute has a reputation for fairness. But even he wonders if Charissa Thompson committed a fireable offense by admitting she sometimes made up sideline reports with coaches.

“I cannot cannot believe she said that. I’m stunned she would admit that on the air,” Jones said Thursday. “It completely sabotages every sideline reporter there is. Why should audiences now trust other sideline reporters – when one of the most prominent ones admits she makes things up?”

A hot take? Maybe, maybe not.

That was just one of the passionate reactions among sports media Thursday afternoon after Thompson’s interview with Barstool Sports’ popular “Pardon My Take” podcast went public.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow's wrist injury went into the conspiracy realm during Thursday night's game.

In the second quarter against the Baltimore Ravens, Burrow threw a touchdown but right after he let the pass go he reached down and grabbed his wrist in obvious pain. He tried to throw warmup passes on the sideline afterward but couldn't grip the ball. He didn't return to the game.

A separate conversation started when the Amazon Prime Video broadcast brought up a video, from WCPO, of Burrow getting off the team bus, and when the video was slowed down, Burrow could be seen with what looked like a brace on his right hand. Burrow wasn't listed on the injury report, and many fans wondered if the Bengals were playing games with the report.

The NCAA presented the University of Michigan with new evidence this week, including that a Michigan booster may have at least partially funded Connor Stalions’ advanced scouting operation and an assistant coach allegedly participated in the destruction of evidence on a computer after the scandal broke, industry sources tell Yahoo Sports.

The revelations altered Michigan’s and Jim Harbaugh’s legal approach.

Both the school and Harbaugh dropped an attempt to secure a temporary restraining order against a three-game Big Ten suspension. A hearing had been scheduled Friday morning in Washtenaw County (Michigan) Circuit Court.

The long-term outlook for Diamond Sports Group is increasingly dim.

It’s already facing the prospects of holding no major pro team rights after the 2024 MLB season, and during a U.S. bankruptcy court hearing Wednesday, lawyers for DSG parent Sinclair Inc. said that chances of a company liquidation next year are growing.

“To Sinclair folks who originally acquired Diamond, they’re kind of bummed. They’re bummed that this business that they put in a billion-and-a-half [dollars] of equity value in, is now going to be shut down,” said Sinclar lawyer David Seligman. “There’s going to be people losing their jobs … Diamond’s business is going to go away.”

The In-Season Tournament continues to be a solid draw for the NBA that only seems to be getting stronger.

Friday’s 122-119 victory for the Los Angeles Lakers over the Phoenix Suns averaged 1.929 million viewers on ESPN, per SportsMediaWatch — good enough to overtake Mavericks-Nuggets (1.796M viewers) as the most-watched IST game thus far.

That viewership figure also represents a 73% increase from last year’s equivalent Friday night game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves (1.12M). ESPN reports that average viewership for the In-Season Tournament is up 55% against the comparable windows last season (1.7M vs. 1.1M).

Netflix finally enters the live sports arena on Tuesday — a pivotal moment for the streaming giant, previously one of the more famous holdouts in the space.

PGA Tour players Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, Max Homa, and Collin Morikawa will be paired with Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, and Pierre Gasly to compete for the Netflix Cup, which begins at 6 p.m. ET live from Las Vegas’ Wynn Golf Club.

Netflix’s app says the event, which will comprise eight holes of match play, will run two-and-a-half hours. The most pressing challenge for Netflix in its live sports debut is making sure the stream goes off without a hitch — something it failed to do earlier this year when it attempted to broadcast a live reunion for one of its dating shows.

The Jimbo Fisher era in College Station will be a costly mistake for Texas A&M.

TAMU is has officially fired its head football coach; TexAgs.com’s Billy Liucci was the first to report on Fisher’s departure.

Texas A&M’s Board of Regents reportedly decided to part ways with Fisher during a meeting on Thursday but is only taking action on it Sunday.

The buyout on Fisher’s contract is worth at least $75 million and could be as much as $76.8 million — more than 15 programs paid in buyouts combined last year — but the transaction will likely be even more expensive for the university.

There’s another plot twist in the Manchester United sales saga.

As British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe looks to acquire 25% of the club and take control of soccer operations from the Glazer family, a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission on Monday shows that Chicago-based Ariel Investments continues to shed its stake in the iconic Premier League Club.

The filing shows that Ariel reduced its position by 831,000 shares, or 13%, during the third quarter of this year. Ariel now holds nearly 5.7 million shares and is the club’s second-largest institutional shareholder behind British investment management company Lindsell Train.

Ariel has been invested in Manchester United for more than two years, and its holding reached 12.3 million shares in March 2022. Soon after, though, it began to reduce its stake, accelerating that strategy last year when the Glazers said they would consider strategic alternatives for the club — including a potential sale or new investment.

Haley Cavinder finally has a new home.

On Monday, the 5-foot-6 guard announced her decision to transfer to TCU and play for the Horned Frogs with her fifth, and final, year of eligibility.

Because TCU has already started its 2023-24 season, it's unlikely Cavinder will join the team for this season. Instead, she is expected to play for TCU in the 2024-25 season.