SBJ Unpacks: NBC’s Chuck Todd worried about future of college sports

Tonight in Unpacks: NBC’s Chuck Todd, who helped launch Sports Business Daily in 1994, ran through a bevy of sports and political topics at Day 1 of the Dealmakers event today in D.C., and as SBJ’s Alex Silverman reports, he’s worried about the state of college athletics.

• NASCAR finalizes $7.7 billion in media rights deals
• Sports Media Podcast: NFL's Thanksgiving feast and media ethics
• Investments in women’s sports must have the time, patience afforded to men’s sports
• Op-ed: Why alternative sports are breeding grounds for innovation, investment

Listen to SBJ's most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where SBJ’s Austin Karp dishes on Abe Madkour with Mark Cuban selling a majority stake in the Mavericks to the Adelson family, Panthers owner David Tepper’s testy press conference and more.

Chuck Todd fears for college sports’ future

NBC News Chief Political Analyst Chuck Todd is concerned about the future of college sports. Todd, who took a brief detour from politics to help launch Sports Business Daily back in 1994, sat down with SBJ Executive Editor and Publisher Abe Madkour today at the Dealmakers conference in D.C. to discuss a hodgepodge of issues spanning politics and sports. None animated him as much as the direction of college sports following the latest round of conference realignment and the erosion of amateurism, reports SBJ's Alex Silverman.

“I worry that nobody is looking out for the best interests of college sports,” Todd said. “Everybody's worried about the best interests of the SEC, the Big 10, the ACC, Florida State, Miami. As a fan, I get it, but good god, we need a commissioner of college sports.”

Todd pondered existential questions and speculated about potential paradigm shifts that could arise from the increased professionalization of college sports:

• What's stopping the “Power Four” conferences from leaving the NCAA and forming their own postseason basketball tournament that isn’t open to mid-majors like his alma mater, George Washington?

• When is Alabama going to get fed up with receiving the same share of media revenue as Vanderbilt, and will it result in a promotion-and-relegation system?

• Will "Middle America” fall out of love with college sports when top athletes chasing the biggest endorsement dollars stop choosing to play in small towns like Lincoln, Neb., or Pullman, Wash.?

Todd not only believes that unifying college sports is the best way to preserve the traditions that make them great but also that it’s best for business. “I'm convinced if these conferences work together with and pooled their TV rights, they get more money out of the network,” he said. “There’s even more money on the table to be had.”

Todd is also hopeful that new NCAA President Charlie Baker, the former governor of Massachusetts, can right the ship. “If he can't fix the NCAA, then no one can,” Todd said.

The former “Meet The Press” host also offered opinions on a range of other topics at the intersection of sports business, politics and culture: 

• On Miriam Adelson’s pending purchase of a majority stake in the Mavericks: “She's the single most important donor to the Republican Party. Without her they would not have been able to win the House in 2022. She writes the big-fat super PAC checks. She's not writing a check to Donald Trump this year, and it's upsetting him. It's interesting to me that suddenly Mark Cuban has her as a business partner.”

• On Cuban as a potential third-party presidential candidate: "There's a lot about Cuban that could make him an interesting third-party candidate, and there's a part of me that is not sure if he could survive the social media vetting and the way our world works.”

• On the impact of Chiefs TE Travis Kelce’s relationship with Taylor Swift on the popularity of the NFL: “It’s manna from heaven.”

NASCAR finalizes $7.7 billion in media rights deals

NASCAR is on the cusp of announcing $7.7 billion worth of media rights deals with Fox Sports, NBC, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon, reports SBJ's John Ourand and Adam Stern. The average annual value of the deals, including the previously announced CW deal, is $1.1 billion per year, which represents about a 40% increase over NASCAR’s current deals. The deals begin in 2025 and run through 2031.

The 40% increase represents a big win for the racing circuit, especially given the tightening of the marketplace around sports media rights caused by cord-cutting and cord-shaving. As part of the new deals, Fox will get 14 Cup Series races annually in the first portion of the season, including the Daytona 500. After Fox carries its 14 events, Amazon’s Prime Video will stream five events, marking the first time that NASCAR’s premier events will be exclusively streamed. Warner Bros. Discovery will take over after Amazon’s races and carry the next five, which will be simulcast on both TNT and the B/R Sports tier on the Max streaming service. NBC Sports will complete the season with the final 14 races.

Bob Bowlsby steps out of retirement to be Northern Iowa’s interim AD

Bob Bowlsby is back at Northern Iowa, accepting an interim AD role at the school where he first led an athletic department in 1983, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reports. Bowlsby, a member of SBJ’s Champions 2023 class, retired as Big 12 commissioner in 2022.

The Waterloo, Iowa, native comes to Northern Iowa after David Harris left to take the AD role at Tulane, saying “the invitation to help set up the next director of athletics at UNI for success was an opportunity that I simply couldn’t refuse.”

Northern Iowa President Mark Nook “rang Bowlsby to ask for suggestions of possible AD prospects,” as he knew Harris was a top candidate for Tulane. “That conversation evolved into Bowlsby stepping in as interim ‘for a short period of time.’” Bowlsby added that this wasn’t “going to be a six-month engagement. I think it's probably more of a three- or four-month engagement. It's just a good way for me to give back.”

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan doubles down on PIF deal

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan on Wednesday reiterated the tour’s stance in trying to get a deal done with Saudi Arabia’s PIF, saying it’s not a matter of if but “when” a deal is completed, reports SBJ's Josh Carpenter. Speaking at the N.Y. Times’ Dealbook conference, Monahan said he will be meeting with PIF Gov. Yasir Al-Rumayyan next week in further discussions.

The commissioner covered a range of topics, including that player equity in the new PGA Tour Enterprises will be based on performance. He said there’s also a mechanism in place for equity for players not yet on the tour. Monahan also touched on his mental health and his decision to take leave from the tour for more than a month this summer. “On the morning of June 11, I went for a long walk, I prayed, I came home, and to my wife’s surprise, I said, ‘Honey, I need help.’ She said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘I need help, I’m in a bad, bad, bad place.’"

Sports Media Podcast: NFL's Thanksgiving feast and media ethics

It was a dominant week for the NFL, setting a viewership record on Thanksgiving Day across CBS, Fox and NBC and kicking off the first Black Friday game in its history, which Amazon's Prime Video livestreamed. Sports Media Podcast hosts Andrew Marchand of the N.Y. Post and SBJ's John Ourand put that dominance under the microscope. And now that the NBA is through the round-robin stage of its In-Season Tournament, Marchand and Ourand dissect what they like and don’t like about the tournament and whether it has the staying power to be one of the NBA’s tentpole events.

Two of the most controversial sports media stories in recent weeks made it onto the pod as well. One is the Futurism report that Sports Illustrated had been using AI-generated stories and AI-generated bylines without properly alerting readers. The other is Charissa Thompson’s comments to the “Pardon My Take” podcast that she used to make up sideline reports when she wasn’t able to track down a coach. This week also sees the return of the “MandO Mailbag.”

Investments in women’s sports must have the time, patience afforded to men’s sports

The mention of the “top of the funnel” was an apt one Wednesday, as a panel discussing the value of intentional investing in underserved sectors such as women’s sports was the top of the funnel for SBJ’s Dealmakers conference at Salamander DC, reports SBJ’s Jason Wilson.

Moderated by SBJ’s Chris Smith, the chat between Billie Jean Enterprises CEO Ilana Kloss and Elysian Park Ventures co-founder and Managing Partner Cole Van Nice delved into the challenges of raising funds for sports tech, the genesis of the Pro Women’s Hockey League, women’s tennis and youth sports. Highlights include:

• On investing in women’s sports: “The average hold time for venture capital investment right now is 10 years. These are not overnight builds,” said Van Nice. Added Kloss: “Give these companies running [women’s] sports and teams the same amount of investment, enthusiasm and time to mature.”

• Kloss, on the PWHL (Elysian, backed by the Dodgers, is supporting the hockey league): “[Pro women’s hockey] was fractured. We were able to bring it under one league, get the CBA done. ... Obviously, it’s a huge investment. Without the capital of [Dodgers owner] Mark Walter and the Walter Group, we wouldn’t be able to do it. But that’s what you need -- long-term investment that is willing to put the resources behind it from the beginning.”

• Kloss, on media rights deals for women’s sports: “That's really where the money is. And it's not only the money. Even in tennis, we get equal prize money for matches ... but we don't get equal exposure. Women play two-out-of-three sets. Men play three-out-of-five sets. They get more [exposure], so people know them.”

• Van Nice on participation in youth and college sports: “One of the things that has become increasingly clear to me as a parent and a citizen of this country is this idea that the scholar-athlete is really a national treasure. There's no other country in the world that's organized the way the United States is.”

Legal woes continue for NCAA

San Francisco basketball player Robby Beasley is suing the NCAA after it denied his request for immediate eligibility following his move to the Dons from UC Davis this offseason after beginning his career at Montana. It hasn’t exactly been a banner year for the NCAA in courtrooms, reports SBJ's Ben Portnoy, as cases in California (House v. NCAA) and Pennsylvania (Johnson v. NCAA) have plenty prognosticating a massive upheaval of the current collegiate model, given potential impacts in the revenue-sharing debate that he detailed in this week’s magazine.

This week's SBJ College newsletter also covers:

• 2023 FBS attendance: Houston brings in fans; Akron has work to do
• NIL Corner: The evolution of financial education

Op-ed: Why alternative sports are breeding grounds for innovation, investment

Tonight's op-ed comes from sports entertainment company Pro League Network co-founders Mike Salvaris and Bill Yucatonis and VC firm Eberg Capital partner Andrew Ehrenberg on the value smaller, more experimental sports can provide.

"'Alternative' or niche sports -- often with more flexible rights deals -- are breeding grounds for innovation and are more willing and able to work with newer technologies around betting and fan experience. Just as the G League previews new rule changes for the NBA, niche and alternative sports can embrace experimentation and give the sports and wagering industry a preview into what’s coming next."

• The ATP Dallas Open will have a new home beginning in 2025, with Ford Center at The Star in Frisco replacing the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex on SMU’s campus in University Park, writes SBJ's Rob Schaefer.

• Liberty Media will transform the Las Vegas Grand Prix garage building into what will become F1's de facto U.S. HQ, with year-round experiences like karting, merchandise and an unannounced project with Netflix, reports SBJ's Adam Stern.

• No. 3 Michigan’s 30-24 win over No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday delivered college football’s best regular-season audience since 2011 -- and a record CFB audience for Fox with 19.1 million viewers, notes SBJ's Austin Karp.

• Round 2 of the Rogers Centre's $300 million multiyear renovation project will see PCL Construction rebuild the 100 level of the lower seating bowl, writes SBJ's Bret McCormick.