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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🗣️ Conservative talker and Outkick leader Clay Travis is going to become a free agent across all fronts and may look at new projects.

📺 You think political ads during sporting events are tough to stomach? Just wait until ICE ads begin to invade your television screens.

🏈 The popular NFL Scorigami account has gone off the rails on X due to changes to posting limits on the platform. In case you were wondering, it’s working on Bluesky just fine.

🎙️ Netflix is bringing The Bill Simmons Podcast and other shows from The Ringer to the streaming platform in a new deal with Spotify.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

College GameDay is rewriting the record books

There were a lot of questions for ESPN’s College GameDay as the program entered the 2025 college football season. How would they say goodbye to the longtime face of the program, Lee Corso? Would fans continue to accept Pat McAfee (and vice versa)? How would Nick Saban continue to fare in his new media role? And could Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff make any headway in the Saturday morning ratings battle.

Well at the halfway point of the 2025 season, one thing has become clear. College GameDay is stronger than it has ever been.

Not only did their season-opening goodbye to the legendary Lee Corso strike all the perfect notes, the momentum has only continued from there. This past week from Eugene, GameDay scored its highest-rated West Coast show of all time. While that may seem like a bit of a stretch in terms of drawing a headline, the fine print in the ESPN announcement is what really bears highlighting.

This season has seen the top six College GameDay audiences in the history of the program. And viewership is up over last year by 29 percent.

Of course, “beating the competition” is a not-so-subtle shot across the bow at Fox and Big Noon Kickoff. But right now, GameDay is scoring big enough numbers on its own that it doesn’t have to worry about Fox, Dave Portnoy, or anybody else. Truly, they are now in a league of their own.

Here’s where we have to insert the perfunctory caveat about the new “Big Data” Nielsen era that has seen sports ratings lifted everywhere. But still, that can’t account for all of these gains and the continued strength of the program. At a time when College GameDay could have fallen off or stepped back, it’s only continued to go forward.

GameDay has centered around Pat McAfee as its star in the post-Corso era. From leading hometown cheers at the beginning of the show, to his field goal kicking contest, to his show-ending closing pick, and everything in between, it’s a lot of the former Colts punter.

Yes, some of it does get predictable. And maybe the WWE-inspired promos might grow tiresome at some point if they follow the same formula every week. Maybe GameDay might even be better served ending the show with the field goal kick since that has become such a popular segment, and the picks might be anti-climactic if there’s no high dive involved.

But there’s no denying the energy and enthusiasm McAfee brings to the table each week. And it’s balanced well with the experience of Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard, the wisdom of Nick Saban, and the entire cast. And clearly, viewers at home are responding.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

The Big 12 wasn’t going to take a dig from Oklahoma coach Brent Venables lying down as they fired back at their former member.

Caleb Williams responded to criticism from ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Troy Aikman throughout the Bears’ victory over the Commanders.

Dave Portnoy and Jared Carrabis dueled on social media over ownership of a podcast feed. It all got resolved as a misunderstanding.

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“I think they wanted to keep Molly with the network, and I don’t know if Molly wanted to do that.” - Chris Russo gave his take on the abrupt departure of Molly Qerim from ESPN.

"You know before the work week begins and you’re a little weary on Sunday night, you can turn your channel to NBC and get a game that’s worthy of your attention." - NBC Sports President Rick Cordella is embracing NBC as the place to go for sports on Sunday nights year-round.

“If that’s not the stupidest sh*t. You talk about putting your kids in the kitchen and turning the stove on, when I heard that I said, ‘this has got to be a joke.’” - Charles Barkley does not think the NCAA allowing college athletes to bet on pro sports is a great idea.

️‍🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

The women’s sports bar boom

The growth of women’s sports has been incredible over the past few years. While Caitlin Clark and basketball have drawn most of the headlines, ratings and interest have risen from softball to volleyball and seemingly everywhere in between.

And with the rise of women’s sports has come a new movement alongside it - the rise of women’s sports bars.

In a feature piece at Awful Announcing, Katie Lever visited the 1972 Pub in Austin, Texas and talked to owners Debra Hallum and Marlene du Plessis about the growing industry.

“We were in Seattle, and we went to the Rough and Tumble, and met the owner there, Jen Barnes, and visited with her, and just seeing it in person, and everybody there, it was just incredible,” Hallum said. “You know, some of them were just laughing and hanging out and having a great time, and some of them were there watching WNBA games, some of them had come for trivia, and I looked at Marlene, and I said, I really need to look at Austin, because I think this would be a great fit, a great place for Austin.” 

1972 opened its doors this past spring and, although Hallum says the pub is still in a “growth phase” after six months in business, it has seen solid crowds for marquee events like women’s March Madness and the WNBA playoffs. 2025 was an especially salient year for Texas women’s sports fans, as the Longhorns made their first Final Four run since 2003 and the UT softball team won its first ever national championship. Add in the debut of League One Volleyball and Athletes Unlimited Softball featuring teams in Austin over the past couple of years and Austin is quickly becoming a women’s sports hub in one of the most progressive and fast-growing cities in Texas. 

You can read the article about the 1972 Pub and the rise in women’s sports bars in full here.