Welcome to The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter where you’ll always find the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis.

Did someone share this newsletter with you? Sign up for free to make sure you never miss it.

🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏈 Planting Seeds. College Football Playoff executives approved the adoption of a straight-seeding model on Thursday. The change marks a significant shift from the previous format, which awarded its four first-round byes to the highest-ranking conference champions. All you really need to know is that the slim chances that Notre Dame might ever join a conference are now completely dead.

📺 High Noon. When it became clear Ohio State’s season-opener against Texas would probably be a noon kickoff, many Buckeye fans voiced their frustrations. In fact, there was reportedly a push from OSU to move the game to the Sunday of Labor Day weekend for an improved timeslot but Texas turned down the offer to stick with Saturday. And noon.

📱 Packing It Up. Veteran broadcaster Mark Packer is moving on to his next chapter. The ACC Network host and commentator announced on social media Thursday evening that he has made the decision to retire. “Given the difficult challenges of the past 3 years on both a personal and professional level, the timing is right,” he wrote. “I can’t wait to travel, write, teach & live again!”

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Mainstream WNBA coverage seems to be getting worse

This week, we’ve covered the feud between Ryan Clark and Robert Griffin III quite a bit on the site and in the newsletter. We did our best not to forget that the entire sordid and stupid affair started because Caitlin Clark fouled Angel Reese last week.

We had two articles on the site Thursday that summarized the situation, and it felt right to highlight them both here so we can all (hopefully) put this dumb story behind us.

First up is “Everybody lost in insane RGIII-Ryan Clark feud,” by Matt Yoder. The story echoes our closer from Thursday’s newsletter and digs deeper into what made this whole saga so incredibly stupid.

Alas, it seems unlikely that lessons will be learned, according to Dr. Katie Lever, who wrote “Sports media learned nothing from last season’s WNBA coverage fiasco.”

This weekend, Clark’s Fever hosts the defending champion Liberty while Reese’s Sky visits the Sparks in Los Angeles. Perhaps having them so far apart will be positive for the WNBA, at least in terms of the emerging narratives.

📣 NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

• “The New York Knicks are gonna have to overcome that and make amends for the embarrassing, historic ending to the debacle that took place last night.” - Stephen A. Smith unloading on his favorite team.

• “Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he showed why he’s the MVP.” - Michael Malone, who was Nikola Jokić’s coach until a few months ago.

• “I have not heard any false notes. My understanding is we’re keeping the band together.” - ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro on the ‘Inside the NBA’ crew.

• “I think Dan was very fascinated by the idea that a Black person could be this smart.” - Bomani Jones on working with Dan Le Batard.

• “We had a tour where we all played together and the guys that left, and it’s their responsibility to bring the tours back together. Go see where they are playing this week and ask them.” - PGA Championship winner Scottie Scheffler on the PGA/LIV merger.

📈 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 📺

• After reports emerged on Thursday that former ESPN executive Justin Connolly is headed to YouTube to serve as the platform’s global head of sports and media, things got ugly. According to Bloomberg, ESPN's parent company, Disney, is suing YouTube for poaching Connolly from Bristol. Per Bloomberg, “Disney filed suit against YouTube in state court in Los Angeles to stop the appointment, claiming breach of contract, interference in a contractual relationship and unfair competition.”

• One day after reports emerged that NBC made a bid for the MLB rights being abandoned by ESPN after this season, we learned that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has held talks with Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Apple about the inventory now available after ESPN decided to exit its media rights deal with the league. Per Puck’s John Ourand, the talks with Apple have been “the most extensive among the streamers, largely on account of their relationship for Friday Night Baseball.”

• Roughly 18 months after launching in 2023, ESPN Bet has yet to establish a significant foothold in the online sports betting industry. According to one notable analyst, the Penn Entertainment product is now on the clock. “This is a such a make-or-break year.”

🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

Tony Reali deserves better than this

It’s a real end of the era today, Friday, May 23, at 5 p.m. ET, when ESPN’s Around the Horn airs its final show. Across 23 years, the show ran for 4,953 episodes. Tony Reali hosted over 4,535 of them.

This week, the man once known as “Stat Boy” has been making the rounds, reminding many people of his charm, personality, and ability to be a legitimate sports TV presence. However, there’s a sense that ESPN doesn’t seem to see what they have in him, or at the very least, seems uninterested in continuing its relationship with the 46-year-old.

Our San Neumann penned Thursday's piece titled “Tony Reali deserves better than this.” In it, he makes the case that there seems to be a disconnect between the host’s potential and what ESPN appears to see.

Read the rest of the piece and tune in for the final episode of Around the Horn to pay respects to a show that has marked afternoons for sports TV viewers for over two decades.