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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

📺️ ESPN makes an announcement about an announcement. The most notable news regarding ESPN to come out of Disney’s earnings call on Wednesday involved the company’s upcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service. With the product on track to launch later this year, ESPN is set to announce both its name and price at some point next week.

🏈 Not just another college sports committee. Following weeks of speculation that he would do so, President Donald Trump is turning his attention toward college sports. According to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the 45th and 47th president is set to create a presidential commission on college athletics, which “is expected to deeply examine the unwieldy landscape of college sports, including the frequency of player movement in the transfer portal, the unregulated booster compensation paid to athletes, the debate of college athlete employment, the application of Title IX to school revenue-share payments and, even, conference membership makeup and conference television contracts,” per the outlet.

🏀 ESPN shakes up NBA Draft Lottery coverage. For the third time in as many years, ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Draft Lottery will have a different host. According to Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel, Kevin Negandhi will host the event, with Kendrick Perkins, Bob Myers and Jay Bilas serving as analysts. This year’s lottery — also known as the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes — will take place at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, May 12, ahead of the playoff matchup between the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks on ESPN.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Let’s talk about sex

Observers of Joy Taylor’s work may have noticed a shift in her content in recent weeks.

Late last month, the FS1 star relaunched her Two Personal podcast without former co-host Taylor Rooks. There, she revealed that she has “to have sex every day,” a comment that provided fodder for an extended — and more in-depth — discussion on Speak co-host Paul Pierce’s podcast earlier this week.

While Taylor hasn’t shied away from sex talk dating back to her days as a Miami radio host, she seems to now be making an extra effort to address such topics on her personal platforms. And that strategy could be viewed in a different light after Wednesday, with Front Office Sports’ Michael McCarthy reporting that the Pittsburgh native’s FS1 contract is set to expire this summer.

Should Taylor ultimately make it to free agency, it would certainly be interesting to see what type of market takes shape. On the one hand, she’s a talented and experienced personality who possesses versatility as both a host and someone who isn’t shy to share her opinion. Conversely, her free agency would be coming just months after a slew of negative headlines stemming from her involvement in the FS1 workplace misconduct lawsuit, which included allegations that she had sexual relationships with (now former) Fox Sports executive Charlie Dixon and FS1 co-host Emmanuel Acho to advance her career.

Unless ESPN hires Taylor for a role similar to the one that she occupies hosting and opining on Speak, it’s hard to imagine where she might land if she doesn’t stay with Fox. As such, it makes sense that she’d already be building up her personal platforms, with McCarthy noting that she “seems to be branding herself as a lifestyle personality who will blend in topics outside sports in her content” while also mentioning the recent podcast appearances.

Perhaps this is all a coincidence and Taylor just so happened to relaunch her podcast at a time in which her contract is nearing due. But her willingness to address subject matters that you wouldn’t typically expect from an FS1 personality — even on her own platforms — is certainly notable, especially in the light of the allegations that have been made against her and the network, as well as her own impending free agency.

🗣️ THE PLAY-BY-PLAY 🗣️ 

On the latest episode of The Play-By-Play, Awful Announcing’s Ben Axelrod and Brendon Kleen discuss Caitlin Clark as a ratings draw, the latest happenings at Meadowlark Media and Amazon’s NBA hires.

The Play-By-Play is available anywhere podcasts can be found, including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, as well as in video form on the Awful Announcing YouTube page.

📣 NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️ 

• “That’s the problem with media is everyone can just say whatever the f**k they want and get away with it.” - Tom Brady on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, discussing Skip Bayless’ comments about his involvement in the Raiders passing on Shedeur Sanders.

• “As far as I’m concerned, you gotta be damn near crippled if you can’t play” - Stephen A. Smith challenging Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland to play through his toe sprain after missing his team’s last four playoff games.

• “This kid’s face should be ingrained in you to be like, ‘this is what the face of hatred is. This is what the face of being a coward is. This is the face of zero accountability. Everything that’s wrong with this generation.’” - Dave Portnoy on Mo Khan, the Temple student who he said uploaded a picture of a “f**k the Jews” sign that was ordered at a Barstool Sports bar in Philadelphia to social media.

🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥 

What does Caitlin Clark mean for ESPN’s life after baseball?

Of all of this week’s sports media stories, there’s one that I can’t help but feel like has flown under the radar.

On Sunday, the Indiana Fever faced the Brazil National Team in a preseason game that was broadcast nationally on ESPN. And to say that the game — which marked Caitlin Clark’s return to the University of Iowa — was a success would be an understatement, as it drew 1.3 million viewers, according to ESPN.

1.3 million viewers. For a WNBA preseason game.

If anybody thought that we were nearing Caitlin Clark fatigue entering her second season in the WNBA, that clearly isn’t the case. If anything, her star power only appears to be growing as the league’s popularity continues to surge.

That’s good news for ESPN, especially considering the programming void that will be left on its schedule following the 2025 MLB season. With the Worldwide Leader having 26 Sunday nights to fill following the end of Sunday Night Baseball, a weekly WNBA primetime showcase appears to be the most obvious solution during the summer months.

Especially so as Clark continues to solidify her status as one of sports’ most proven ratings draws and the league continues to fill with talent from the also popular college game. Just imagine the anticipation for a potential Sunday night showdown featuring the first-ever WNBA matchup between Clark’s Fever and current USC star JuJu Watkins.

At this point, ESPN has yet to tip its hand with regard to how it will fill its baseball-sized void. But considering that a WNBA preseason game at 4 p.m. ET fell just short of the 1.505 million viewers Sunday Night Baseball averaged last season, the answer seems clear.