Lionel Messi continues to pay off big for Inter Miami in the Leagues Cup, scoring nine goals in his first six games and leading the club to the final — and in the process, opening doors that were locked shut before his arrival by the team’s league-worst MLS record. 

Beyond the potential $2 million prize for winning the Leagues Cup — a new competition featuring MLS and Liga MX squads — Inter Miami’s performance has already secured the club a slot in next year’s Concacaf Champions Cup. That competition will provide a crucial opportunity to qualify for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup — which is expanding to 32 teams and will be held in the U.S.

Inter Miami wouldn’t have been able to make next year’s Champions Cup — which offers a $5 million prize pool of its own — via MLS play, but now could automatically reach the Round of 16 with a Leagues Cup victory, while a second-place finish earns a slot in the opening round.

The winner of next year’s Champions Cup will earn one of the remaining two slots for Concacaf teams in the 2025 Club World Cup, where Messi — in Inter Miami gear — could compete against his former European foes on American soil.

Hottest Ticket In Town

Inter Miami vies for the Leagues Cup title at Nashville SC on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on Apple TV. Get-in ticket prices for the match at the 30,000-seat Geodis Park are already nearing $500 in some secondary markets.

On Tuesday, Messi helped attract a record crowd for a soccer match of 19,778 at Philadelphia’s Subaru Park as Inter Miami beat the Union 4-1 in the Leagues Cup semifinals.

Following the SEC’s lead, the Big 12 plans to begin the 2024 football season with 16 schools — and no further expansion in the near future.

“Right now, we’re done,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said, noting that getting to 16 teams itself was a “dream scenario.”

The Big Ten will be the largest conference in 2024 with 18 universities. The ACC could join the Big 12 and SEC at 16 teams by adding California and Stanford, but there’s reportedly not enough support among current schools to approve the additions.

During expansion discussions, Yorkmark also said that he had conversations with UConn and Gonzaga, but those “didn’t work out” since the Big 12 was able to add Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah to bolster the conference when Texas and Oklahoma depart next summer.

Atlantic Coast Winds

Tuesday’s deadline for ACC schools to inform the conference of intentions of leaving in 2024 passed with no moves, but Florida State could very likely still announce a plan to exit in 2025, according to Sports Illustrated.

Giving several years’ notice has been the standard for other major schools, unlike the chaotic exodus from the Pac-12. 

In 2021, Texas and Oklahoma announced plans to join the SEC in 2025 and ultimately settled on leaving early to join in 2024. In 2022, USC and UCLA informed the Pac-12 they would be leaving to join the Big Ten in 2024.

Facing a time crunch and with its survival increasingly in question, Diamond Sports Group is seeking legal assistance.

The bankrupt parent of Bally Sports asked a U.S. bankruptcy court in Texas late Tuesday for the immediate appointment of a judicial mediator to assist with “myriad issues they must confront on the path toward reorganization.”

Last week, that same court reset the deadline for DSG to submit a formal reorganization plan from the company’s intended Nov. 9 to Sept. 30. DSG will have to determine which of its 27 total NBA and NHL team media rights it will keep, a decision that requires meaningful progress on distribution renewal negotiations with Comcast, DirecTV, and Spectrum.

“The debtors have been hard at work on an updated business plan to right-size their business and balance sheet given the tectonic shifts impacting the entire cable industry to increased subscriber churn,” DSG said in its motion. “The debtors believe that the time for appointment of a mediator or mediators is now.”

It is common for bankrupt entities across a variety of industries to seek help from outside mediators to assist with parts of reorganization, particularly those relating to multi-party disputes. That is certainly the case with DSG, as its creditors, the involved teams, leagues, and the distributors all have different objectives.

As the DSG turmoil continues to build, a variety of other linear and streaming entities have shown interest in obtaining local team rights if available.