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 ✍️

👊 Dueling accounts. Chad Johnson revealed on Nightcap that DK Metcalf swung at a Lions fan Sunday after the fan used a racial slur and made vulgar comments about Metcalf's mother. The fan told the Detroit Free Press the incident escalated after he called Metcalf by his full legal name, DeKaylin Zecharius Metcalf. The NFL is reviewing the incident.

🤰 Slip of the tongue? Bill Simmons may have let it slip that Taylor Swift is pregnant during Sunday's live podcast, casually mentioning Travis Kelce is "getting married to Taylor Swift, having a kid with her" while discussing the Chiefs tight end's probable retirement.

📱 Inappropriate messages. Former Michigan coach Sherrone Moore sent Instagram messages to multiple women in sports media as his tenure unraveled, The Athletic reported Monday. At least one exchange happened on game day, with messages sent hours before kickoff and 20 minutes after his postgame press conference.

🏈 Rivalry on hold. The Notre Dame-USC rivalry is taking a break after 78 consecutive years, with the schools failing to agree on a game date for 2026. Notre Dame is replacing USC with BYU for a two-year series — the same team the Irish refused to play in a bowl game two weeks ago.

🎯 Conference demand. Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire took another shot at Notre Dame, saying, "Be in a conference, and you're in the playoffs. If they're in the ACC, they're in the playoffs."

🦁 Scorned mentality. Nate Burleson explained on The Dan Patrick Show that Lions players believe the NFL has it out for them, recalling teammates telling him when he arrived in Detroit, "The league doesn't like us... when a game is on the line, it tends to go the other way."

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

The Group of Five playoff idea is terrible, and here's why

Oregon beat James Madison 51-34. Ole Miss throttled Tulane 41-10. Immediately, the same tired proposal resurfaced: create a separate playoff for Group of Five teams. Let them compete at "the appropriate level" while Power Four programs fight for the real championship.

The idea collapses under the slightest scrutiny.

A separate Group of Five playoff would attract virtually no viewers. The FCS Championship between North Dakota State and Montana State drew 2.41 million viewers, impressive for FCS but less than a sixth of what Tennessee-Ohio State delivered in the CFP first round with 14.68 million. The entire FCS playoff postseason averaged just 1.3 million viewers across ESPN platforms, less than 10 percent of what a single CFP game delivers. A Group of Five playoff would produce similar numbers, meaning Tulane and James Madison would compete in front of a fraction of the audience they just reached, playing for a championship everyone understands isn't the real championship.

Creating a separate tournament also wouldn't eliminate blowouts. You'd still have five conference champions competing against each other, and one would dominate, while the rest would lose by similar margins to what we just saw. The format would create a championship celebrated for approximately 24 hours before everyone moved on to talking about the real playoff. The winner gets a trophy and a highlight package while the rest of the country keeps scrolling.

The system is already changing anyway. When conferences and Notre Dame agreed to the next CFP contract in March 2024, they guaranteed at least 12 teams starting in 2026 but expressed a strong preference for 14 teams. The memorandum of understanding guaranteed automatic bids to the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12 champions, as well as the highest-ranked Group of Five champion. That Group of Five slot isn't going anywhere. The format details remain undecided, with the Big Ten and SEC holding most of the control, but the basic structure protects conference champions while creating more at-large spots for Power Four programs. By the time anyone could implement a separate Group of Five playoff, the current 12-team format will have evolved into something different anyway.

The worst part is the condescension embedded in the proposal. The separate playoff pitch frames itself as doing a favor to Group of Five programs. Let them compete at the appropriate level, give them something to play for, they deserve their own championship. This is the language people use when they don't want to admit they're proposing relegation. James Madison didn't build its program over the past decade to compete for a lesser championship that nobody outside Harrisonburg cares about. These programs want to compete at the highest level, recruit against Power Four schools by telling prospects they have a path to the actual playoff, and see their conference championships mean something beyond "you're the best team in a group we've decided doesn't matter." A separate Group of Five playoff eliminates all of that and formalizes the two-tier system everyone already suspects exists, where your tier is determined by which conference your school joined decades ago, based on geography and politics that have nothing to do with football.

The current system is imperfect. The alternative is worse. JMU-Oregon and Tulane-Ole Miss were not competitive games, and Tulane coach Jon Sumrall admitted afterward that his team "maybe didn't help the critics." But the current system at least maintains the principle that every FBS program competes for the same championship. Win your conference, and you have a shot. Lose your conference championship game, and you'd better hope the committee thinks you're good enough to earn an at-large bid. That produces blowouts when the automatic qualifiers aren't as good as the teams that get left out, but it's honest about what the playoff is supposed to be: a competition to determine the national champion that includes representatives from every major conference.

A separate Group of Five playoff abandons that principle entirely. Some schools compete for the real championship while some compete for a consolation prize, and we all pretend that's fair because at least everyone gets to play for something. College football already has a version of that system in the FCS playoffs. If the proposal is that Group of Five programs should drop down to FCS to compete at "the appropriate level," then just say that. Don't dress it up as creating opportunities or giving these programs something to play for.

The debate about Group of Five access will continue as long as the playoff exists, but the solution isn't building a separate tournament that nobody will watch while pretending it's doing those programs a favor. The solution is to admit that college football has always been about money and conference affiliation, and that the playoff was never going to fix that. The current format tried to balance inclusion with competition and satisfied nobody. Whatever format comes next will try the same thing with different math, and in five years, everyone will be arguing about the same issues because the fundamental problem remains: some schools have more money, better recruits, and decades of built-in advantages. A separate Group of Five playoff doesn't solve that. It just makes it official.

🎺 AROUND AA 🎺

Regional sports networks took another body blow over the weekend when reports emerged that Main Street Sports Group, the owner of FanDuel Sports Networks, could fold as early as next year if a potential sale to the streaming platform DAZN falls through. The collapse would leave 29 franchises across MLB, the NBA, and the NHL without a local broadcast partner, potentially mid-season.

The biggest winner if Main Street goes under? ESPN. Drew Lerner breaks down why the Worldwide Leader's recent MLB broadcast deal could pay off much faster than anyone anticipated. ESPN's agreement included out-of-market rights via MLB.tv, but also in-market streaming rights for the six clubs currently under MLB's broadcast arm — and crucially, in-market rights for any additional teams that cede local broadcast rights back to the league.

Nine MLB teams currently air on FanDuel Sports Networks: the Cardinals, Braves, Brewers, Reds, Royals, Tigers, Angels, Marlins, and Rays. If Main Street folds and those teams revert to MLB's production apparatus, ESPN could suddenly hold in-market streaming rights for nearly half of Major League Baseball.

Not all nine teams would necessarily cede rights to the league — the Braves especially seem likely to find another partner — but picking up even a handful would be a massive coup for ESPN, which bet big on local rights over a more substantial national package when it decided to leave Sunday Night Baseball behind.

Click to read the full piece on how ESPN's MLB gamble could pay off years ahead of schedule if the regional sports network model finally collapses completely.

👏 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🗣️

• Snoop Dogg will work the second half of Peacock's Clippers-Warriors game on Jan. 5, calling the action courtside alongside Terry Gannon and Reggie Miller. It's another expansion of NBC's partnership with Snoop, following his successful Olympics work, with the rapper also set to host "Snoop's Holiday Halftime Party" during Netflix's Christmas Day Lions-Vikings game.

• The NBA is hoping to "greenlight" NBA Europe during its March Board of Governors meeting, seeking bids in the $500 million to $1 billion range. Any European club in a FIBA-affiliated league will be able to earn a merit-based spot, with the new league scheduled to begin in Fall 2027 and revenue split 50-50 between current NBA owners and NBA Europe club owners.

• Prime Video is touting Thursday Night Football as the most-watched season in the 20-year history of the broadcast, averaging 14.96 million viewers per game. The steady growth means streaming has become second nature for football fans, positioning Prime Video as a potential host of the Super Bowl in the not-so-distant future.

• ESPN launched its Always in Season marketing campaign to reduce post-football-season churn for ESPN Unlimited, which gained approximately 3 million subscribers between its August 21 launch and the end of October. The $30 per month service will soon be available to YouTube TV subscribers as the network attempts to remind fans that its offerings extend beyond NFL and college football.

📣 NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

"I'm incredibly impressed by Jets fans. Just how loyal and dedicated they are with that return on investment. 15 years without a playoff berth." - Ross Tucker paying Jets fans the saddest compliment in sports after watching them travel to New Orleans to sit through a 29-6 beatdown against a 4-10 Saints team.

"They got the last one right, but they certainly got the previous one dead-ass wrong. The defensive guy on the St. Brown touchdown, he's the guy that initiated the contact... It's an awful call, and unfortunately, it cost the Lions a win here and probably a playoff spot." - Rex Ryan calling out officials for the pass interference penalty that negated Detroit's would-be game-winning touchdown against Pittsburgh, while wearing a Lions Grinch sweater on Get Up.

"Why would anyone want that job? There's simply no leadership there, there's no alignment, and the stench of the Harbaugh regime permeates the air in Ann Arbor." - Paul Finebaum explaining on The Matt Barrie Show why Michigan is striking out on top coaching candidates after Kenny Dillingham and Kalen DeBoer both turned down the Wolverines.

"Maybe his girlfriend can help him with his shooting." - Knicks analyst Walt Frazier joking on-air that Heat center Bam Adebayo should ask his girlfriend, WNBA star A'ja Wilson, for shooting advice after Adebayo went 1-for-8 from the field.

"The program means a lot to me. And it's one of the things I want to fix before I go smoke myself to death with cigars." - Biff Poggi pitching himself as the solution to Michigan's "malfunctioning organization," insisting "I know what the hell I'm doing" as the Wolverines' interim coach makes his case to keep the job permanently.

"It was just a way for a coach to take it and use it to his advantage. He was looking for a rallying cry." - Sean Payton praising Liam Coen for seizing on Payton's "small market team" comment about Jacksonville, which the Jaguars coach turned into motivation before beating the Titans.

️‍🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

Stugotz is building his own media empire

Jon "Stugotz" Weiner landed a weekday show on Fox Sports Radio and launched the Stugotz Podcast Network under iHeartMedia on Monday. The move puts him back in live radio for the first time since The Dan Le Batard Show left ESPN in 2021, broadcasting from 3-5 p.m. ET on more than 270 stations nationwide.

Stugotz has been openly miserable about leaving live radio behind. He's said it repeatedly over the past four years. When God Bless Football got excluded from Meadowlark's DraftKings renewal earlier this year, he went independent with FanDuel sponsorship and launched Stugotz and Company in August. Now he's got the Fox slot Doug Gottlieb vacated last week and a podcast network with iHeartMedia backing.

Now he's got the Fox slot Doug Gottlieb vacated last week and a podcast network with iHeartMedia backing.

Stugotz spent Monday's announcement explaining how this doesn't affect his relationship with Dan Le Batard. His new partners gave him permission to work with Meadowlark "as I see fit." He promised nine appearances on The Dan Le Batard Show in January. Then he added that if those appearances don't happen, it's Le Batard's decision, not his. There's "one condition" involved that Stugotz won't reveal.

Stugotz hasn't appeared on the show since July. He promised in October he'd be back within 30 to 45 days. That didn't happen. When asked about it earlier this month, he refused to explain. He's taken public shots at Le Batard multiple times, including saying he'll "show up whenever the f*ck I feel like."

The Fox deal solves Stugotz's biggest problem with the post-ESPN era. He wanted live radio. Meadowlark couldn't provide it. So he built his own podcasts, secured his own sponsors, and found partners who could give him what he wanted. Fox and iHeartMedia bring the platform. Stugotz brings the audience he's built over 20 years alongside Le Batard.

Whether the nine January appearances actually happen depends on whatever condition Stugotz mentioned but won't discuss publicly. He's already set up Le Batard to take the blame if they don't. Either way, Stugotz now has a national radio show, a podcast network, and complete control over his own schedule. The partnership with Le Batard becomes optional.

Stugotz called it building "a f*cking empire." Whether that's accurate or not, he's got what he's been chasing for four years: his own show, his own network, and nobody telling him when to show up.

He spent two decades as Le Batard's sidekick. Now he's got his own show.