📰 American Football

Front Office Sports

Front Office Sports led its week with the NFL telling Saquon Barkley to divest his Polymarket stake and owners spending over $100 million on the midterms.

The Athletic

The Athletic assesses an awful Halloween weekend of Big Ten football and what it means for the conference's College Football Playoff hopes.

College sport · Labour

Business Wire

EA and the NFL will let real stadium sponsors carry their signage into Madden NFL.

Stadium financing

The Current

The NFL drove 6.7 million streaming sign-ups in September.

The Athletic

Further reading from the day's section on What I'm reading next.

College sport · Labour

AP

The Dallas Cowboys agreed to recognize a union for their cheerleaders after years of pay disputes.

Labour

The Stadium Business

The NFL staged its first regular-season game in France and is eyeing Tokyo as early as 2027.

Front Office Sports

The Saints and Steelers played the NFL's first game in France without delay despite civil unrest.

Front Office Sports

The NFL and players' union are discussing an investigation into how the Eagles handled Jalen Hurts's blood clots.

Labour

Vetted Sports

The NFL's 32 Equity partnered with General Atlantic, opening fund-manager economics to owners outside the revenue split with players.

The Athletic

The Athletic's Week 8 roundup, from Minnesota's trophy case to a billionaire's boast.

College sport

The Athletic

The NFL's first game in Paris goes ahead Sunday amid unrest, though the Steelers canceled a fan event.

Sports Business Journal

CBS signed JJ Watt to a multiyear deal as its lead NFL analyst, ending speculation about Troy Aikman.

The Athletic

The Athletic argues college football's audience can absorb playoff expansion while soccer's is still being built.

College sport · Labour

Atlanta Falcons

Arctos acquired a 7.5 percent limited-partner stake in the Atlanta Falcons, with another 2.5 percent pending.

SportBusiness

The NFL's club-owned 32 Equity fund partnered with General Atlantic, which manages $130 billion, to invest across sport, media and technology.

Front Office Sports

Resale prices for World Series Game 1 in Milwaukee reached $2,809 a seat, above entry-level Super Bowl prices.

Sports Media Watch

ESPN is reportedly close to keeping exclusive rights to a 24-team College Football Playoff for over $300 million a year more.

College sport · Labour

Front Office Sports

The NFL says its first Paris game, Saints versus Steelers, is still on despite escalating protests and curfews in France.

The Athletic

A 24-team College Football Playoff would pull many winning teams out of the bowl system, leaving historic bowls struggling to survive.

College sport · Labour

Front Office Sports

An expanded playoff could raise pressure on coaches and keep buyouts, estimated at $185 million in 2026, at staggering levels.

Private equity · Labour

Front Office Sports

The cheapest ticket to the World Series opener in Milwaukee hit $2,809, up 165% in a week.

Front Office Sports

Aikman's $18 million-a-year ESPN deal expires after February's Super Bowl, and NFL teams say front office jobs won't match it.

The Athletic

The Athletic's Week 7 projections have a new, shaky top seed, with two SEC powerhouses out of the bracket.

College sport · Labour

Front Office Sports

Front Office Sports reports Indiana's national title has sped up revenue growth across the university.

Front Office Sports

Troy Aikman confirmed he'll be a free agent when his ESPN deal ends after the Super Bowl.

Refacto AdTech

Prebid proposes having Google's ad server bid into Prebid, which could separate AdX from GAM if Google connects through Prebid Server.

Front Office Sports

The SEC is pressing its lawsuit against LSU and still threatening expulsion, even after LSU backed off adding two former NFL players.

Regulation

OffBall

OffBall argues that network focus on two conferences concentrates coverage and players, and urges fans to enjoy the current season.

College sport

Front Office Sports

ESPN analyst Josh Pate criticized a proposed 24-team College Football Playoff as an ATM for bad decision-making.

College sport · Labour

CBS Sports

The CFP is set to give ESPN its asking price for a 24-team playoff, with a format decision due December 1.

College sport · Labour

Variety

ESPN confirmed Pat McAfee will host an alternate Super Bowl broadcast and select Monday Night Football games.

Front Office Sports

Dylan Raiola starts for Oregon after Dante Moore's concussion, a case study in college football's costly quarterback market.

College sport

The Athletic

Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end and Chicago Bears coach, has died at 86; it was among The Athletic's most-shared stories this week.

The Athletic

CFP expansion talks have moved quickly toward 24 teams ahead of an ESPN rights deadline.

College sport · Labour

Front Office Sports

The CFP's executive director told Front Office Sports a 24-team playoff would be spectacular.

Labour

Front Office Sports

WNBA semifinals opened with 1.15 million average viewers, up 10% despite NFL competition.

Women's sport

Front Office Sports

The NFL asked the Supreme Court to treat sports event contracts as state-regulated gambling, citing $1.8 billion of NFL trading on one Sunday.

Sports betting · Regulation

Front Office Sports

NFL teams accepted 963 penalties through four weeks, the most since 1978.

The Athletic

Some college football contracts now carry six-figure Heisman bonuses, with schools insuring against the payouts.

College sport

Front Office Sports

The referees' union will contest the NFL's suspensions of two officials over conduct toward players in Week 4.

Labour

Variety

Disney is seeking up to $12 million for backup Super Bowl LXI spots despite saying in August it had sold out.

CBS Sports

The CFP is weighing expansion from 12 to 24 teams, though a 2027 start remains uncertain.

College sport · Labour

Front Office Sports

Tony Romo's $180 million CBS deal set the benchmark for top NFL analysts, and he has now left the network.

Front Office Sports

FBS broadcasts are averaging 1.7 million viewers, down 11% from 2025, with only two games topping 10 million so far.

College sport

The Athletic

CBS Sports and its lead NFL analyst Tony Romo have parted ways following his arrest in July, one of The Athletic's most-shared stories this week.

The Athletic

Analyst Ryan Paganetti's X account is followed by NFL head coaches and is influencing league rules.

Front Office Sports

The NFL suspended 49ers owner Jed York for six games and fined him $500,000.

Front Office Sports

College football's breakout star of the season faces speculation about whether he stays at Mississippi State.

College sport

Front Office Sports

College football broadcasts are averaging 1.7 million viewers across Nielsen-rated networks, down 11 percent year over year.

College sport

Front Office Sports

The league issued more than $300,000 in fines for acts it deemed unsportsmanlike during Week 2 games.

The Athletic

DHS published a video using highlights of the former Philadelphia Eagles safety.

The Athletic

Michigan-Iowa, Penn State-Wisconsin, Oregon-USC and Washington-Minnesota will clarify the Big Ten's Playoff picture.

Labour

Sharp Text

Andrew Sharp on the new Washington Commanders stadium and the spread of domed venues.

Stadium financing

The 4th Quarter

The newsletter argues a $25 billion-revenue league that already runs 32 Equity should run its own fund rather than rent out its balance sheet.

Private equity

Sportico

Sportico reported the NFL is in talks to create a fund seeded by team owners and an institutional partner, with the league as general partner.

Front Office Sports

The NFL averaged 20.4 million viewers in Week 2, its most-watched second week in records dating to 1998.

Front Office Sports

Fox averaged 27.2 million viewers for the Cowboys' 37-20 win over the Commanders, the most-watched telecast of the season on any network.

Front Office Sports

Alabama's athletic director says a 24-team College Football Playoff looks inevitable, with a decision on the 2027 format due by December 1.

College sport · Labour

The Athletic

The Chargers and Texans fell to 0-2 and both Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels were injured in Week 2.

Front Office Sports

Field temperatures on Nashville's artificial turf reached 157 degrees on Sunday, strengthening the union's case for natural grass in the 14 NFL stadiums that use turf.

Stadium financing · Labour

The Athletic

The Athletic spoke to more than 70 sources to compile roster-cost ranges for 68 Power 4 teams.

College sport

Puck

Dylan Byers argues the pile-on over the 60 Minutes premiere ignored the NFL lead-in and Nielsen's new methodology.

Front Office Sports

The opening of the $2.2 billion stadium is the start of a broader NFL venue development cycle.

Stadium financing

Front Office Sports

Opening week averaged 19.5 million viewers per game, down 13% from 2025 but still the third-most-watched opening week in a decade.

CNBC

Netflix's content chief said the streamer will keep talking about NFL international rights and picks games that qualify as cultural events.

Front Office Sports

Front Office Sports on how far Amazon has come in its fifth season as an NFL broadcaster.

Front Office Sports

Texas and Ohio State delivered record college football viewership for a second straight year.

College sport

The Athletic

The Athletic finds the true value of 100-plus college football player deals is murky and open to interpretation.

College sport

Forbes

Patrick Mahomes is again the NFL's highest-paid player, about $14 million ahead of Josh Allen.

The Athletic

NFL Week 1's twelve Sunday afternoon games averaged 53.75 points, putting the Week 1 scoring record within reach.

The Athletic

An Akron season-ticket holder won a drawing to call his team's opening drive, and learned in four plays that football rarely follows the script.

The Washington Post

The Post profiled the billionaire Trump ally blowing up college football.

College sport