NIL
Morning Buzz
Start your morning with Buzzcast with Joe Lemire: New faces in the NBA conference finals; MLB’s big Rivalry Weekend; US Open renovations; and FIFA Congress intrigue.
The NBA and Gatorade have renewed their four-decade partnership for another eight years, while simultaneously expanding the brand’s sideline presence to include all playoff and NBA Finals games.
As part of the deal—which was negotiated in-house between the league and Gatorade’s parent company, PepsiCo—Gatorade remains a founding partner of the WNBA, the lead sponsor of the self-named G League and will continue to conduct “sweat testing” with several NBA and WNBA teams through its Gatorade Sports Science Institute. The deal also keeps Gatorade as the league’s longest-tenured marketing partner, a relationship that will span nearly 50 years once the latest arrangement expires.
In addition, PepsiCo Foods will remain the Official Chip of the NBA with Ruffles serving as the lead product. Ruffles, as a result, will continue to sponsor the celebrity game during All-Star weekend—which, 41 years ago, is where the NBA and Gatorade famously partnered for the first time.
“The NBA and Gatorade go together, that’s for sure,” said Brett O’Brien, chief sports officer at PepsiCo.
Longtime MLS sponsor Continental Tire has renewed its marketing agreement with the soccer league, which this year was expanded to include presenting rights for the league’s weekly “Sunday Night Soccer” telecasts on MLS Season Pass. The tire manufacturer, which has been an MLS sponsor since 2010, also has marketing rights with all 30 MLS clubs, a rarity within a major sports league. Chicago-based sports marketing agency rEvolution represented Continental in its renewal with MLS, financial terms of which were not disclosed.
F1 has a struck a licensing deal with Disney that will include co-branded consumer products, programming and experiences around the world starting in the coming months and shift into higher gear in ’26. The agreement was revealed Monday night and, at least at first, will center around Disney’s “Mickey & Friends” cast of characters. Social media accounts from the two brands will begin rolling out content this year, and started doing so last night, but the consumer products won’t be ready until next year, according to the companies. Financial terms were unclear, but the deal builds on F1’s recent success in licensing with kid-focused brands like the Snoopy/Peanuts partnership, Hot Wheels and another one with Lego. F1 CCO Emily Prazer told SBJ: “We started testing how we can work with different consumer brands to appeal to families and children and what have you, and you saw what we did at Vegas initially with Snoopy and Peanuts and how we’ve rolled that out this year, but Disney takes it to another level of integration.” This licensing deal is unrelated to ESPN’s U.S. media rights talks with F1, said Prazer, who is also the president of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The current scope of the licensing pact does not involve Disney’s theme parks, Prazer said.
Liberty Media, the owner of F1, called out licensing in its Q1 earnings report this month as one of the areas that the property is seeing sales success. The Lego-F1 deal went viral this month at the F1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix when the sides debuted 10 full-sized race cars made out of millions of bricks combined. Prazer: “What I love about these partnerships that we’re forming with Disney and Lego and others is their ability to take product and bring it to life at the race track in ways that no other sport has really done.”
NFL owners are expected to greenlight player participation in the LA28 debut of Olympic flag football today as part of the agenda for a two-day league meeting outside Minneapolis.
Also during the meeting, owners will likely be asked to approve the sale of four minority stakes in teams, including the Chargers, 49ers, Browns and a previously unreported transaction of a small share of the Miami Dolphins. In that deal, sources told SBJ, Brooklyn Nets owner and Dolphins limited partner Joe Tsai will sell 1.1% of the club, or more than one-third of his 2.9% stake he bought just five months earlier, to a trio of small investors.
Most of the headlines coming out of the meetings figure to revolve around two football competition matters: A renewed drive to ban the “tush push” play, and a proposed change to playoff seedings that would potentially de-value division championships relative to wild card spots.
The Olympics resolution would authorize the NFL Management Council to negotiate the fine points of a deal with the NFLPA to permit one player per club to try out for each country squad before 2028. Players and league executives have said all along they want NFLers in the Games, but injury risk and other concerns remain. Even if this resolution passes, there would be considerable details still to be determined that could influence certain players’ interest in participating.
Fever coach Stephanie White said that the team is “cooperating with a WNBA investigation into alleged hateful speech” from fans at Saturday’s season-opener. The WNBA said Sunday afternoon that it was looking into “alleged hateful comments from fans” during the Fever’s 93-58 win over Chicago at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Sources said that the specific nature of the investigation is “related to alleged racial comments” toward Sky F Angel Reese, and it does not have “anything to do” with the flagrant 1 foul that Fever G Caitlin Clark committed on Reese in the third quarter. Clark said that she “specifically did not hear any hateful comments,” but with a sold-out crowd, she “couldn’t hear much from the fans” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 5/19).
MLB will “launch a pilot program in the minor leagues of a replay system for check swings” today, which will start in the Single-A Florida State League. The system is an effort to “inject a degree of objectivity into the murkiest calls umpires have to make.” The new rule will “work similarly to the automated strike zone that was auditioned during spring training.” Teams can request a computer to “determine whether a hitter swung.” League officials “caution that the system” remains a “work in progress.” It is still “far too soon to begin to contemplate when or if a version of it will ever come to the majors” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/19).
The Harlem Globetrotters released their 100th Centennial brand logo, which was designed by Matt Lehman Studio of Nashville. The logo displays the organization’s signature red, white and blue color scheme with five stars, symbolizing the original five members of the Globetrotters. Also on display are the dates for when the team was founded, 1926, and next year’s official anniversary, 2026. The organization’s red, white and blue ball sits in the middle of the logo, serving as a link to the past, present and future (Harlem Globetrotters).
The White Sox “unveiled a mural in honor” of Pope Leo XIV. The artwork is “on a pillar near Section 140 at Rate Field.” Getty Images The White Sox “unveiled a mural in honor” of Pope Leo XIV. The artwork is “on a pillar near Section 140 at Rate Field,” where in 2005 Leo XIV “cheered on the Sox” during their Game 1 World Series victory over the Astros. The mural “takes up a pillar on the lower concourse down the third base line, and features Pope Leo XIV in his papal regalia, in a pose that suggests he’s offering a prayer or a blessing.” Above his head, there’s a photograph from the Fox broadcast of the game (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/20).
Vice President JD Vance “presented Pope Leo XIV with a Bears jersey” yesterday. Leo XIV told Vance, “Good choice.” The back of the navy jersey reads, “Pope Leo XIV” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 5/19).
SBJ’s annual 4se event (pronounced “Force”) comes to Chelsea Industrial in N.Y. for two days focused on revenue driving collaborations across sports, entertainment, music, fashion and culture. Super Bowl champions and broadcasters Devin and Jason McCourty are hosts for the event and will kick off a full day of programming at 10 a.m. ET.
The first panel of the day features Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and SMAC CEO Constance Schwartz-Morini on the topic of authentic storytelling. The always popular panel on the top issues of the day features Andrew Grossman, Chief Growth Officer of the New York Mets; Dee Kundra, Managing Director, Americas for FC Bayern Munich; and Shana Stephenson, Chief Brand Officer of the New York Liberty. Also on the schedule, a conversation with super agent David Falk; meet the NFL’s first fashion editor Kyle Smith; how fictional and documentary programming can drive revenue; the behind the scenes story of “The Simpsons” on “Monday Night Football”; how designers are changing the face of sports merchandise and the synergies with brands, sports and fashion; and the day concludes with what properties can learn from the Harlem Globetrotters at 100.
The full agenda is available at Agenda – 4se.
Speed Reads…
USA Baseball and the Durham Bulls will host the All-American Women’s Baseball Classic from Aug. 1-3 at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in conjunction with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball and American Girls Baseball with support from MLB (USA Baseball).
Former MLBer Dexter Fowler, former NBAer Jamal Crawford and MLB host Matt Vasgersian will lead a new “MLB Tonight: Clubhouse Edition” tonight at 7:30pm ET as the series returns for its fifth season (MLB).
The Pac-12 and Mountain West conferences “began their long-awaited mediation” yesterday in an “attempt to settle the poaching penalty and exit fee lawsuits with potentially more than” $100M at stake. As of 5:30pm PT, there was “no indication” the sides had “reached a resolution — or whether the talks would extend to Tuesday and beyond” (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 5/20).
Morning Hot Reads:
The N.Y. TIMES went with the header, “Stephen A. Smith Is Running. To Be Joe Rogan.” Smith is “campaigning for something.” By 2028, he has “teased, it may well be the White House, though some in his life have their doubts.” But what is seeking already is “a crossover American media ubiquity and influence that few have known.”
Also:
Events…
SBJ’s Leaders Club has an event, The Club Social at 4se, today at Chelsea Industrial. At this Leaders Club Social, attendees will be hearing from fashion, sports and culture expert, Daniel-Yaw Miller, who will examine the convergence of these industries and insights from his background as a journalist for the Business of Fashion and his current role advising Upland Workshop with clients like LeBron James. Following the session, Leaders Club members and 4se conference attendees will join for a cocktail reception. For more information on Leaders Club, please visit Leaders Club | Develop Professionally, Grow Personally.
Social Scoop…
To clear up what others have asserted: Juan Soto does not fly separately from his New York Mets teammates on a private jet. He flies on the team plane. There is no private-jet provision in his contract for him or his family.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 19, 2025
The first time a woman played a role on the professional stage in England, it was as this wife of a soldier in a play 50-some years old.
Off the presses…
The Morning Buzz offers today’s back pages and sports covers from some of North America’s major metropolitan newspapers:
Final Jeopardy…
“Who is Desdemona?”
Dec. 26, 2025, 5:40 a.m. CT
NORMAN – For University of Oklahoma defensive lineman Danny Okoye, his current spot – as the face of a social media campaign seeking to spread awareness of a life-saving drug for those who have overdosed on opioids – was a case of fortuitous timing.
Okoye is the first of a series of OU student-athletes who will participate in an NIL (name, image and likeness) deal with the nonprofit HarborPath of Charlotte, North Carolina, to promote Narcan, the brand name under which the generic drug naloxone is distributed.
Dec. 26, 2025, 5:03 a.m. ET
- Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn has proposed the HUSTLE Act to create tax-deferred savings accounts for college athletes’ NIL income.
- The need for congressional intervention is questionable, given that other wealthy groups, like NFL players, do not receive similar legislative protection.
If the hollowness of the bowl season or the irrationality of the playoff system has you saddened by the state of college football, it could always be worse. Congress could get involved.
It’s already bad enough that NCAA apologists want Congress to grant college athletics an antitrust exemption. Now Tennessee Senator (and gubernatorial candidate) Marsha Blackburn, in a timely act of pandering, wants to give college athletes special tax-advantaged savings accounts – “for their own protection.”
Blackburn’s comically named “Helping Undergraduate Students Thrive with Long Term Earnings (HUSTLE Act) would allow certain college athletes to create tax-deferred accounts for their Name Image and Likeness (NIL) income.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m a big fan of saving and investing, especially in a tax-deferred vehicle. But the aim of this act ‒ somehow protecting young people from squandering their NIL riches ‒ raises an obvious question: Where exactly is the constitutional mandate (or even suggestion) for Congress to pass laws discouraging 19-year-old millionaires from buying expensive cars and jewelry?
If Blackburn is genuinely concerned about young, wealthy athletes squandering their money, why didn’t she start with the NFL? A widely cited 2009 Sports Illustrated article claimed that 78% of NFL players “face financial stress or bankruptcy” within two years of retirement. This figure was likely exaggerated, but a statistically sound study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 15.7% of NFL players file for bankruptcy within 12 years of retiring. Yet this hasn’t prompted any urgent Congressional push to save professional athletes from themselves.
If age is really the determining factor in financial responsibility, why is the fastest growing demographic of bankruptcy filers over 65? Why is the median age of someone filing for bankruptcy 49 and not 29?
Blackburn could, of course, propose legislation allowing college athletes to participate in the existing tax-deferred retirement accounts at their respective universities, but that would concede that the players are employees ‒ something universities want to avoid at practically all costs.
Not to be outdone by the Senate, the House of Representatives proposed the SCORE Act, which would grant NCAA institutions exemptions from antitrust laws – essentially codifying the illegal wage collusion the schools practiced for decades ‒ while also legally declaring that players are not employees of the universities that pay for their athletic services. Too many old timers simply can’t accept the end of decades of illegal (and in my opinion, immoral) athletic department business practices, so they are begging Congress to protect them.
Even if you concede the premise that 20-year-olds are incapable of making wise financial decisions and require assistance, why would Congress be the entity to turn to for financial wisdom?
David Moon, president of Moon Capital Management, may be reached atdavid@mooncap.com.
stl.pony said:
Feel like it’s largely being paid for by sales tax the new stadium development will generate.
Not in finance, so someone should absolutely check my math/analysis on this.
State of Kansas has an 8.25% sales tax. For the sales tax to generate 3 billion, the total sales would need to be about 36 billion. According to this article the Royals stadium and Arrowhead stadium collectively generate 55 million a year in tax revenue. (Don’t know what the analysis is to produce that; admit it could be wrong.) If you round it up to 60 million a year, the break even point is 600+ years.
If you take the numbers the Chiefs put out, 1 billion in economic impact for the region and 29 million in tax revenue per year. The break even point from tax revenue would be 1800 years?
I don’t know what is considered the region for the economic impact evaluation and how that changes based on if the stadium is on the Missouri side or the Kansas side of Kansas City. I also remember reading a report about the state fair of Texas that claimed that events like the state fair and sporting events don’t necessarily generate additional economic activity in a region, it just concentrates it into the event rather the wider community. (Admittedly, that could mean more tax revenue for one city in the region over another.) In my layperson’s opinion, a sports stadium deal like this doesn’t seem to be as smart of a decision as offering economic incentives to a Toyota or other non-entertainment business to move to your city.
As Michigan’s coaching search drags on, some overlooked possibilities could be floating back to the forefront. After apparently striking out on established head coaches like Kenny Dillingham and Kalen DeBoer, one SEC coordinator is exactly such a possibility for the Wolverines.
In a recent episode of Andy and Ari On3, Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman pointed out that the current coaching carousel has been virtually obsessed with established head coaches. Kentucky hired Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein as its next coach, but otherwise, schools have passed on coordinators in favor of coaches with head coaching experience.
Both Staples and Wasserman singled out Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann as a strong coaching possibility who Michigan should consider. “Why hasn’t he been in the conversation,” asked Wasserman. “He’s been intereviewed by schools, they just haven’t hired him,” noted Staples. “Normally, multiple coordinators would have either gotten these jobs or been finalists for these jobs.”
“If I were Michigan, I would hire Schumann over all the others,” said Wasserman. “I feel like if you’re Michigan, you want to get the guy that reshapes how you do things. It’s not that Jedd Fisch wouldn’t or Jeff Brohm wouldn’t….Don’t you want to go get the younger coordinator from Georgia who recruits his ass off and has been around big builds and has he defense playing like this at the right time and try to build you program around that?”
Schumann is only 35 years old, but has spent the last 17 seasons with either the Alabama or Georgia programs. He went to Alabama to be a student assistant coach under Nick Saban, then moved up to graduate assistant and then to Director of Football Operations.
When Kirby Smart left Alabama to take the Georgia head coaching job, Schumann went with him. First, he was the inside linebacker coach. In 2019, he added co-defensive coordinator to his responsibilities and ahead of 2024, he became the sole defensive coordinator
Georgia has historically been a very aggressive big-play-oriented defense, but Schumann has helped remake them on the fly. In 2025, the Bulldogs have held opponents to 15.9 points per game, second in the SEC, despite being near the bottom of the conference standings in sacks (tied for last), tackles for loss (next to last), and turnovers forced (13th).
Schumann was considered in 2023 for the Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator role, but hasn’t been significantly linked with another collegiate job. Despite his relative youth, his experience inside two of the foremost college football dynasties of recent vintage makes him an intriguing possibility, should Michigan decide to take a chance.
As much as the state of college athletics these days drives people to distraction, coaches and administrators don’t have many options.
So, you don’t like players being paid? You don’t like players have the ability to transfer to another program anytime they choose? You don’t like lawyers and agents raking in huge amounts of cash? What can unhappy fans do about it?
You can stop supporting your favorite program. You can stop going to games or even watching games. If enough people do that, what they will accomplish is making it more difficult for their favorite programs to win. They will change nothing.
Despite all of it, coaches are expected to win. Athletics directors are expected to provide the resources for them to win. They have no choice but to play the game with the rules – or lack thereof – in place today.
Is it out of control? Of course it is, in football and basketball. Will there be efforts to mitigate the damage that is being done to the sports so many love? There will be. Will they be successful? Maybe, but so far we’re not seeing it. Yet, TV ratings are higher than ever. Stadiums are filled. It’s still fun, which is what it was always meant to be.
For sure, there are some misconceptions out there.
Players, in fact, can and do sign contracts. There is nothing to keep them from signing multi-year contracts, but those are iffy for both sides. Maybe a player turns out not to be worth what he is being paid. Or maybe he turns out to be worth more than he’s being paid.
None of this is simple. It is further complicated by agents who are neither qualified nor interested in much anything beyond making money for themselves.
Maybe, one day, someone will find a solution. Maybe Congress will step in and help, though there has been no indication that is close to happening.
Players and coaches are better-trained, better-informed and more knowledgeable than they have ever been. Players are not the spoiled, entitled young men they are accused of being. They are being pulled in all sorts of directions by family, agents, boosters and others with agendas of their own.
Almost every effort to find common ground has blown up.
The December signing period was meant to give players who had made up their minds opportunities to get the recruiting process over with. Previous to that move, it was rare for players to graduate early and enroll in time for spring practice. Now, it’s what every coach wants and most players want.
NIL was supposed to be about players having opportunities to earn spending money, maybe even get a car. It was never meant to make anybody wealthy. Along came collectives, and that changed.
Penalty-free transfers were supposed to be about players having opportunities to go in search of more playing time. Instead, added to NIL, it become a monster. Without penalty-free transfers, things would be different today.
For now, if people let this destroy their love for the game, they are letting the forces of chaos win. It’s still college students – yes, they are students – playing football. And they pay a fearsome price in blood, sweat and mental challenges to do it.
Once the portal has opened and closed and rosters begin to be set, things will calm down. The focus will return to where it should be, on those who play the game and the season ahead.
***
To all of you who do us the honor of coming here to read and comment and debate, and to Ron Sanders, Nathan King, Christian Clemente, Jason Caldwell and Patrick Bingham, my valued colleagues, I wish joy, peace and love on this day.
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