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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏈 Justin Tucker on the offensive. The Baltimore Ravens kicker was implicated in an exposé published by The Baltimore Banner on Thursday which alleged Tucker engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior” at four high-end spas and wellness centers. Shortly after the report was published, Tucker released a statement of his own, attacking the Banner for “journalistic failures.”

🎤 Colin Cowherd to the Windy City. The FS1 host confirmed on his show earlier this week that he’d be moving to Chicago, where his daily radio program will emanate from the Fox-owned Big Ten Network studios. Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel recently reported that Cowherd was nearing an extension to remain at the network.

🎾 The US Open’s, open. The year’s final Grand Slam tennis event will now begin one day earlier, as the first round will start on a Sunday, aligning the tournament with its peers in Australia and France. The lone holdout among the Grand Slams for the Sunday start is, of course, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club over at Wimbledon. Beyond adding some flexibility for inevitable delays, it gives the tournament another weekend TV window to capitalize on.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

ESPN and ACC renew their vows

College sports might’ve just stabilized itself, if only for a minute. Thursday, ESPN re-upped its television contract with the ACC — a move that was widely expected among industry insiders. The network had until Feb. 1 to agree to the extension, which takes ESPN’s base deal with the conference, an agreement that began in 2016, all the way through to its 2036 conclusion.

As many of you already know, college athletics looks a little bit different now than it did when that original deal was consummated. And it sure as heck will look different in 2036 compared to when former ACC commissioner John Swofford inked the multi-decade tie-up with the Worldwide Leader in 2016.

Unfortunately for the ACC, what looked like a surefire way to remain in the upper echelon of college athletics ten years ago has largely left the conference fighting for relevancy against its well-to-do rivals in the Big Ten and SEC.

The recent turmoil surrounding the conference — including lawsuits from two of its most brand-friendly members, Clemson and Florida State — centers around the growing financial discrepancy between the ACC’s television revenue and that of its P2 peers. 2016-era deals just don’t cut it in an NIL world.

Luckily for the conference, they were able to secure a few (small) provisions in the updated agreement to help alleviate some of those financial woes and placate their litigation-happy members.

One such provision sets aside a percentage of the ACC’s television revenue for a “brand” fund which would be allocated to the schools that generate the most revenue for the conference, presumably based on metrics like TV ratings. For the golf-inclined, think of this as similar to the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program, an annual allowance given to the tour’s most popular golfers — or, as some would put it, an annual eight-figure allowance to Tiger Woods. The ACC will similarly reward its long-established brands under the new program.

Another provision involves the Atlantic Coast Curious Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The recent national runners-up have an agreement to play a handful of games against ACC members each season. ESPN and the ACC will now look to leverage this partnership so the Fighting Irish play the league’s marquee programs more often, thus creating more attractive television matchups.

While these “value adds,” as the conference is putting them, don’t necessarily bode well for the Wake Forests and Boston Colleges of the world (who continue to catch strays in reporting on this topic), they don’t really have much choice in the matter, lest they want to end up like Washington State and Oregon State.

And for ESPN, picking up the option is a clear win. The network has now locked in ten more years of solid inventory at below market rate, with no threat of top ACC teams bolting for the P2, which would’ve required the network to pony up even more money to the SEC, or see departing school(s) become a competitor over at the Fox-associated Big Ten.

So, at least for now, conference realignment has reached a natural détente. But don’t let that fool you. There’s still plenty to sort out with the future of college sports.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

⛸️A tragic day for figure skating⛸️

👏 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🗣️

• ESPN is adding Udonis Haslem as a full-time NBA analyst, according to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports. The so-called Mayor of Miami finally called it quits last season after a two-decade stint with the Heat. Haslem appeared on ESPN’s NBA coverage during last season’s playoffs. Clearly, he left a positive impression on network brass.

• Max is launching a new way to watch NASCAR races. Starting this week, the streaming service will offer “NASCAR Driver Cam” feeds for every driver that include an in-car camera view along with synced audio of the team’s radio communications. Each feed will also feature telemetry data and real-time stats. Max will additionally offer multi-view options should a viewer want to watch four cars at once.

• LIV Golf will officially tee off its season on FS2, the little-watched sibling cable network of FS1. According to YouTube TV’s advance schedule, first and second round coverage will be on the deuce, while final round coverage will get the bump to FS1. The league’s opening tournament in Riyadh will be played under the lights at night to accommodate better television windows stateside.

📈 DATA DUMP 📊

• Comcast had its Q4 earnings call on Thursday, and much of the data coming out of Peacock paints a rather grim picture. The streamer lost $372 million last quarter, actually an improvement from losing nearly double that figure in Q4 2023. Per Rich Greenfield of LightShed Partners, the streamer has lost more than $9 billion since its launch, and is projected to lose an additional billion in 2025. Not great for the business that is supposed to replace the profits of linear television.

• On the bright side, Peacock’s subscriber base is still growing. The streamer saw a 16% increase in subscribers during Q4, bringing its total to 36 million. Annual revenue was up 46% to $4.9 billion.

️‍🔥The Closer🔥

Greg Olsen isn’t happy as No. 2, and he wants everyone to know

Reality is setting in for Fox’s No. 2 NFL analyst Greg Olsen. The former Carolina Panthers tight end, who was voted as part of the most-popular NFL broadcast booth by Awful Announcing readers, will not be calling the Super Bowl this year for Fox, despite having called the Big Game for the network just two years ago.

Olsen has largely played it cool when it comes to his demotion, until recently. After all, he was sent down to make room for the $375 million man himself, Tom Brady. Broadcasting skill aside, no one can reasonably fault Fox for making that call.

But now in the lead up to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Olsen is beginning to make some noise in the media. Fox’s No. 2 went on a bit of a blitz earlier this week, speaking with The Athletic, the Charlotte Observer, and Charlotte NBC affiliate WCNC all about one thing: calling another Super Bowl.

Unfortunately for the three-time Pro Bowler, those jobs are all taken. Brady, of course, is locked into his well-publicized 10-year deal. Tony Romo at CBS, Cris Collinsworth at NBC, and Troy Aikman at ESPN are all also in place for the foreseeable future. Even Kirk Herbstreit at Amazon — who does not have a Super Bowl — is tied up for two more years.

So why all the fuss now? Surely, Olsen knows the situation.

Perhaps he’s “softening the ground for if Brady has a bad Super Bowl,” one person at Awful Announcing suggested. He could simply be angling for the Amazon job if that comes open in a couple of years time, another staffer pondered. Or maybe he knows something about Brady’s future (re: the Las Vegas Raiders) that the public does not.

Me? I’d like to propose a slightly different theory. I think Olsen might be pushing for a three-man booth. The fact that he’s airing his grievances now, to me, signals that he’s looking for a change by next season. Why make such a public stink if, at the end of the day, you’re back working the same job for the same employer?

“I don’t know what the future holds. I enjoy working at Fox,” Olsen told the Charlotte Observer. “Fox has been very good to me. They know. I’ve been very honest with them that I’m not content just calling one o’clock regional games for the rest of my career.”

Well, unless Fox adds a third chair to its top team next season, one o’clock regional games is where Olsen will almost certainly remain.

The other leading theory, for me, is that this is a money problem. Olsen took a substantial pay cut when he went down to the No. 2 team. If Fox starts paying him more like a No. 1 announcer again, maybe those one o’clock regional games won’t feel so bad after all.