A stacked conference championship weekend begins on Friday night. Fifth-ranked Oregon faces No. 3 Washington in the last-ever Pac-12 title game as that conference breaks up — and other championship games could be joining it in the near future.

The commissioners of the Power 4 (the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC) appear to be split on the long-term value of conference title games under an expanded College Football Playoff, according to a report from Yahoo Sports.

“It’s been the right way to do things for a while,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said. “But down the road as the playoff changes, are there other ideas to consider? Yes.”

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips echoed that sentiment: “We are in a period of change and assessment. Conference championships should be assessed. Is it necessary to play a 13th game?”

The downside is that conference championship games can be worth more than $40 million in some media rights deals, per the report. Understandably, some college leaders don’t want that to change.

“From a marketing, brand and reach perspective, it’s of huge value for us,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said. “We look at it as a tentpole event. It’s a great game, but also a great show.”

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey called a title game an “important part” of determining a conference champion — and the expanded playoff will give automatic bids to at least five conference champs.

Terminating conference title games for each of the Power 4 would likely require contract negotiations with their broadcast partners and could take years to put into effect.

Legal ramifications from cryptocurrency endorsements has hit another A-list athlete. Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is facing a $1 billion class-action lawsuit stemming from his involvement with embattled exchange Binance.

The federal suit filed in the Southern District of Florida alleges that Ronaldo’s promotion was “deceptive and unlawful,” and that his association with Binance led plaintiffs into unsafe investments.

“Evidence now reveals that Binance’s fraud was only able to reach such heights through the offer and sale of unregistered securities, with the willing help and assistance of some of the wealthiest, powerful, and recognized organizations and celebrities across the globe — just like Defendant Ronaldo,” the suit reads in part.

Binance is already facing $4.3 billion in federal penalties after CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations and resigned from the company.

The lawsuit arrives as a collection of Ronaldo non-fungible tokens has lost much of its original value, as have many other crypto-related assets. Still, Ronaldo remains one of the world’s most recognizable and highly paid athletes, bringing in $200 million per year from Saudi Arabian team Al Nassr.

Neither Ronaldo nor Binance has commented on the lawsuit.

More Fallout

The lawsuit is merely the latest in a series stemming from athlete support of crypto assets. Among those who have been entangled in similar disputes: Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, Trevor Lawrence, and Stephen Curry.

The recent conviction of FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has especially raised the pressure on those involved in that company, including Brady and O’Neal, and likely strengthens the plaintiff’s case in a separate class-action lawsuit. 

At least three major investors are submitting bids for a minority stake worth as much as $1.1 billion in the German Football League’s media rights, bringing the long-considered plan a step closer to fruition. 

Days after the governing body for German professional soccer reportedly invited five suitors to submit bids, Blackstone, CVC Capital Partners, and EQT are each tendering offers, according to Bloomberg. Advent International, also in the original group, remains interested in a potential stake deal.

The DFL is designed to help bring in outside investors and much-needed cash, particularly as the league attempts to keep up with heightened competition from European powerhouses such as the Premier League and La Liga. A recent DFL letter to the clubs discusses “securing the sporting and economic competitive position of the federal leagues.” 

This is the third attempt to sell part of the DFL media rights to private equity, with several of the firms being considered (including CVC, Blackstone, and Advent) previously showing interest. A prior effort in May failed to win sufficient support, and the DFL discontinued a similar initiative in 2021. 

Deal Terms

The DFL is seeking bids of up to $1.1 billion for a stake as high as 8% in a vehicle holding the DFL’s broadcasting rights. 

Notably, bidding terms require that suitors, as well as their own backing investors, come from Western nations, thus excluding highly resourced investors from the Middle East and China that have increasingly become a force elsewhere in sports. The DFL is also reserving the right to exclude bidders from holding more than a 10% stake in a rival league. 

New details are emerging of a wild story involving European soccer stars and tens of millions of lost dollars.

Former Barcelona and Atletico Madrid winger Arda Turan is among the victims of a $44 million Ponzi scheme that played out in Turkey last year, according to an indictment filed in court last week. The former Turkish national team member told Bloomberg he lost $7.5 million by investing in a secretive fund run by a local bank manager.

According to court documents, Secil Erzan — a now-jailed former manager of a DenizBank AS branch — took large sums of cash from clients, including prominent players, and promised a 250% return on the investments. “People who bring me cash come in with a bag,” Erzan said in her testimony after being arrested in April. “And they leave with an empty bag.”

Turan invested $13.9 million altogether in the fund. A former teammate on Turkey’s national squad, Emre Belozoglu — whose club career included stops at Atletico Madrid, Newcastle United, and Inter Milan — was also an investor in the fund. (Belozoglu has not commented on the case.)

As the scheme began to unravel, one businessman involved in the fund put a tracking device in a bag of cash he “invested” — and found out that the same cash ended up with another person involved in the scheme, who received it as an interest payment.

The situation is still developing, and DenizBank says it has triggered an internal audit.