1. John Ourand of Sports Business Journal broke the news Tuesday morning that ESPN has pulled out of negotiations with the Big Ten. The conference, which already has a partnership with Fox Sports, is expected to make deals with CBS and NBC.
ESPN had aired Big Ten football games since 1982.
Don’t worry about ESPN, though. Starting in 2024, the network will have the best package in college football, when it takes over the SEC from CBS.
You can now expect to see a lot more College GameDay emanating from SEC schools and much fewer from Big Ten schools.
Meanwhile, it appears the Big Ten will have a game air on Fox at 12 p.m. ET, CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET and NBC in prime time beginning in 2023.
Since it’s never too soon to look into the future, one creative Twitter user already gave us an idea of what the Big Ten on SEC could look like.
This is also a time to look back. There have been many memorable Big Ten/ESPN moments over the years.
The most famous perhaps was Desmond Howard’s electric punt return touchdown against Ohio State in 1991 as called by the legendary Keith Jackson.
For my fellow degenerate gamblers, though, the most memorable Big Ten/ESPN moment came during a 2013 Northwestern–Ohio State game thanks to Brent Musburger.
At the end of the day, absolutely none of this matters to the college football fan. All the games that were on television before will still be on television. They will just be on different channels. Television channels. Because even in this age of streaming, when it comes to big-time, important live sports, television is still king.
2. This season of Hard Knocks, featuring the Lions, begins tonight at 10 p.m. ET. Allow me to be Captain Obvious here and say that you should expect to see a lot of coach Dan Campbell.
3. Nobody loves a Reese’s peanut butter cup more than me, but this seems like overkill.
4. The Bills’ social media team has been killing it during camp, and they have given us another great watch with backup quarterback Case Keenum going undercover trying to get autographs from his teammates.
5. The next season of Cobra Kai will drop on Netflix one month from today, Sept. 9. The streaming service gave us a preview of what’s to come Tuesday.
6. This week’s Sports Illustrated Media Podcast is a celebration of the show’s 400th episode.
I’m joined by my weekly guest, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York, to talk about the history of the SI Media Podcast, reminisce about my taking over as host after Richard Deitsch left Sports Illustrated and discuss how the podcast has evolved over the years. I also hand out thanks several people, including the audience, for helping the podcast roll along. I also read the latest SI Media Podcast reviews that listeners have written on Apple.
This edition of the SI Media Podcast also features an interview with Alan Sepinwall, the chief TV critic for Rolling Stone. Sepinwall gives his recommendations for what TV shows you should be watching this summer and goes in depth on The Bear, The Rehearsal and Succession. Sepinwall also shares his memories of Tony Sirico and the Sopranos character he played, Paulie Walnuts.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
