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Afternoon Edition

October 2, 2025

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Caitlin Clark is throwing her support behind Napheesa Collier, who recently slammed WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert for poor leadership. Clark and teammate Sophie Cunningham are now publicly backing Collier’s criticisms as the league faces tense CBA negotiations and potential labor unrest.

— Alex Schiffer [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]], and David Rumsey [[link removed]]

Caitlin Clark Backs Napheesa Collier in Fight With WNBA [[link removed]]

Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images

Caitlin Clark is standing with Napheesa Collier in light of the Minnesota Lynx star’s broadside against WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

Collier said Tuesday that the league has “ the worst leadership in the world” [[link removed]] in a four-minute statement ripping the league as “tone-deaf” and “dismissive.”

Clark was asked about Collier’s comments at the Indiana Fever’s exit interviews with the media Thursday after the team was eliminated from the WNBA playoffs Tuesday night.

“I have great respect for Phee and I think she made a lot of very valid points,” Clark said. “I think what people need to understand is we need great leadership at this time across all levels. This is the most important time in this league’s history and this is a moment we have to capitalize on. … Phee said it all.”

Collier had referenced a conversation she had with Engelbert earlier this year at Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 winter league she founded with Breanna Stewart.

According to Collier, she asked the commissioner about the low salaries specifically earned by Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers. In her telling, Engelbert responded by saying Clark should be “grateful she makes $16 million off the court, because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.”

Clark was paid just $78,006 this past season on a four-year, $338,000 contract as part of the league’s current collective bargaining agreement, which expires at the end of this month. Negotiations between the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association have been tense, with a new deal [[link removed]] unlikely to be reached before the deadline.

“I hope we have a league,” Clark’s Fever teammate Kelsey Mitchell said in response to a question about her upcoming free agency.

The WNBA has never lost games to a work stoppage. If the Oct. 31 deadline passes without a new CBA, the players could strike, the owners could lock them out, or the sides could continue negotiating without a deal. They could also agree to a deadline extension, which is what happened the last time the WNBA was in labor contract negotiations.

Engelbert released a statement Tuesday saying she was “disheartened by how Napheesa characterized our conversations,” but she did not outright deny her comments.

The Fever said Clark did not have a comment [[link removed]] when Collier and Engelbert first made their comments. On Thursday, in her own exit interview, Clark responded for the first time.

When asked whether she had heard the anecdote before Tuesday or whether Engelbert had reached out to her, Clark shook her head in response to both questions.

Cunningham Torches Commish

While Clark kept her comments about Engelbert and the CBA relatively generic Thursday, her Fever teammate Sophie Cunningham did not.

Cunningham, who like most WNBA veterans will be an unrestricted free agent this winter, had already ripped Engelbert’s comments Tuesday through social media.

“People only know Cathy because of C…. She’s the most delusional leader our league has seen,” she wrote in an Instagram comment [[link removed]]. “AND IT SHOULDN’T EVER BE ABOUT OUR COMMISSIONER IN THE FIRST PLACE,” she added.

Speaking to reporters minutes before Clark in Indianapolis on Thursday, Cunningham elaborated.

“I’m just tired of our league,” she said. “Our leadership from top to bottom needs to be held accountable. … I think there are a lot of people in position of power in the WNBA who—they might be really great business people—but they don’t know shit about basketball.”

Cunningham said she’s heard from NBA players who are “in awe of how terrible” things are in the WNBA. She added there is a “big call” Thursday afternoon among players to discuss CBA negotiations.

“I do know the league came back and really gave us nothing,” Cunningham said. “And so there’s a potential lockout, because I promise that we are not going to play until they get us what we deserve. And that’s kind of where it’s headed, which would be the dumbest basketball decision business-wise ever, considering the moment the W has right now.”

Like Collier, Cunningham is from Missouri, and the two are longtime friends. Cunningham backed the Lynx star and attacked Engelbert’s behavior.

“It’s pretty shameful that she always makes it about her, Cathy, when it should have nothing to do with her,” Cunningham said Thursday.

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FIFA Won’t Move 2026 World Cup Matches Despite Trump Remarks [[link removed]]

essica Alcheh-USA TODAY Sports

FIFA does not have plans to change match sites for next year’s World Cup in North America, despite invective from U.S. President Donald Trump regarding some host cities.

Last week, Trump suggested he could pull matches from some cities [[link removed]] as a matter of public safety, with cities such as Atlanta, Seattle, and San Francisco among those that could be reconsidered.

“If I think it’s not safe, we’re going to move it out of that city,” Trump said. “If any city we think is going to be even a little bit dangerous for the World Cup … we won’t allow it to go.”

Trump’s comments arrived as he has unleashed the National Guard and other federal agents on several cities that will be World Cup match hosts, with plans for more. The situation has had a decidedly partisan bent as the Republican president goes after cities run by Democrats.

The global governing body, however, has reaffirmed that it is sticking with its host city plan first established in 2022, and any decisions to change would remain with FIFA. Specific games were assigned in February 2024 [[link removed]]. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has touted the upcoming final at MetLife Stadium [[link removed]] in that state as something poised to be “the most-watched event in human history,” and the match placements are governed with a series of highly detailed contracts that include a temporary exclusion of established stadium names [[link removed]].

Any movement at this point would introduce a lengthy series of logistical and legal complications. The situation grows more complex as FIFA, wherever it holds tournaments, relies on local and national governments for support on matters such as security and visa processing.

“It’s FIFA’s tournament, FIFA’s jurisdiction, FIFA makes those decisions,” said Victor Montagliani, the organization’s vice president, during a conference in London. “With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them and football will survive their regime and their government and their slogans. That’s the beauty of our game, that it is bigger than any individual and bigger than any country.”

Still, the comments represented a rare divide in a relationship between FIFA and Trump that has grown much closer in recent months. FIFA has an office in Trump Tower in New York, and recently held a high-profile meeting there to hear a proposal to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams [[link removed]]. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has also met numerous times at the White House with Trump.

The governing body, meanwhile, plans to hold the final draw for next year’s World Cup on Dec. 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and that venue is now under direct Trump control as he is its board chairman.

Elimination Day: MLB’s Dramatic Wild-Card Tripleheader Hits ESPN [[link removed]]

Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Major League Baseball has three wild-card elimination games Thursday, providing exactly the type of early-round playoff drama that previously eluded the league and ESPN, and helped inform the network’s decision in February to opt out of its baseball rights deal.

The full day of deciding games began with the Tigers and Guardians at 3:08 p.m. ET on sister Disney network ABC, followed by the Padres and Cubs at 5:08 p.m. ET on ESPN, and then the Red Sox and Yankees in prime time, also on ESPN, and providing another high-stakes chapter to one of the greatest rivalries in sports.

That trio of wild-card Game 3s in just one day surpasses the two such contests that happened between 2022 and 2024, the first three seasons of MLB’s expanded playoff format. ESPN otherwise aired 10 wild-card sweeps, and the minimal drama in those series was part of the acrimonious decision in February [[link removed]] to opt out of the final three years of its rights agreement with the league.

That development happened even as last year’s wild-card series averaged 2.8 million viewers, up 25% from 2023, and was the most-watched first round since the creation of the new postseason format.

“Unfortunately, in recent years, we have seen ESPN scale back their baseball coverage and investment in a way that is not consistent with the sport’s appeal or performance,” the league said in February upon the initial split with the network.

More than seven months after that separation, much of the tension has either been forgotten or mooted. The two parties have an agreement in principle [[link removed]] on a substantially reworked rights package [[link removed]] focused more on local rights and the MLB.TV out-of-market game package. Beginning next year, NBC will pick up the wild-card rights, part of that network’s large-scale return [[link removed]] to a sport it has aired on and off since 1939.

ESPN, meanwhile, enjoyed a 21% audience bump in its regular-season MLB coverage in 2025, part of a much larger run of viewership growth in baseball [[link removed]], and more such boosts are expected when initial wild-card ratings are released later this week.

“There was a mutuality of interest in staying partners,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said about ESPN last month at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit. “It took the parties a little while to think creatively about how we could do that and meet goals that were not exactly aligned. But [ESPN chair] Jimmy [Pitaro] and I had a conversation in Sun Valley, and it kind of went from there.”

L.A. Sweep

The outlier to this year’s run of wild-card elimination games is the Dodgers, who completed a two-game sweep of the Reds on Wednesday. The defending league champions, also fielding the league’s largest payroll by far at $416.9 million [[link removed]], could be regaining some on-field strength after a more uneven season that didn’t see Los Angeles clinch the National League West division until game 159 of the regular season. The Dodgers will now face the Phillies in the divisional series beginning Saturday.

“Getting through [this] the way we have, kind of seamlessly getting to the next series, I think we’re in a good spot,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

Big Ten’s $2B Private-Equity Deal Talks Face Michigan Resistance [[link removed]]

Detroit Free Press

A groundbreaking move that would bring institutional money into a Power 4 conference will have plenty of challenges before seeing the light of day.

The Big Ten is in discussions for a private-capital deal around $2 billion, sources confirmed [[link removed]] to Front Office Sports reporter Amanda Christovich. ESPN first reported [[link removed]] the news.

“Our membership has clearly expressed the need to modernize the operations and structure of our conference to ensure that the Big Ten remains best positioned to offer the highest level of athletic and academic excellence in a rapidly evolving landscape,” the conference told Christovich and FOS in a statement [[link removed]]. “Over a year ago, we initiated a comprehensive evaluation of our practices to identify partnerships that could secure the financial stability of our member institutions and allow us to not only protect, but expand, opportunities for our student-athletes. This is an ongoing process, and we remain committed to finding a path that strengthens the conference for the future.”

One prominent leader has already come out against the potential pact. Michigan regent Jordan Acker, who has served on the university’s board since 2019, posted on X [[link removed]], “I believe selling off Michigan’s precious public university assets would betray our responsibility to students and taxpayers. I will firmly oppose any such effort.” Acker added that he hopes his colleagues at Ohio State and Michigan State “will stand with me as well.”

Michigan and Ohio State are among the Big Ten’s top programs that are still in discussions with the conference about the deal, per ESPN.

Former Minnesota regent Michael D. H. Hsu told FOS he’s skeptical the deal will get done because “Michigan and Ohio State would need to lead this … but they don’t need the money.” Hsu also noted that $2 billion split equally among the Big Ten’s 18 schools, just more than $111 million each, is “not a significant amount of money per school, but it could lead to more deals as others follow suit.”

Breaking From the Pack

In July, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti told FOS the conference was “still thinking” about private-equity bids, although he characterized it as being “a long way from crystallizing.”

Those comments came as the commissioners of the other Power 4 leagues all pushed back against the idea [[link removed]] of bringing PE money into their conference. “We’ve not seen the concept that works,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY Inside MLB’s Wild-Card Postseason Magic

FOS illustration

Major League Baseball has to be thrilled with how the wild-card postseason has shaped up, as three of the four matchups head to a decisive win-or-go-home Game 3 on Thursday. Coming off record season viewership and attendance, FOS newsletter writer Eric Fisher explains how the revamped postseason initiated a couple of years ago has only cemented what has been a tremendous 2025 season for MLB and commissioner Rob Manfred.

Plus, Recentive Analytics CEO Andy Tabrizi explains how his data company helped advise MLB in scheduling the best postseason matchups to maximize their broadcast viewership.

Watch the full episode here. [[link removed]]

STATUS REPORT Three Up, One Down

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Cathy Engelbert ⬇ ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt has joined the chorus of sports media personalities criticizing the WNBA commissioner in the wake of her feud with Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier [[link removed]]. “Engelbert has got to do more than say she’s disheartened in a press release,” Van Pelt said Wednesday night on SportsCenter [[link removed]]. “The commissioner needs to explain how it is that a player such as Collier could ever come to feel this way, and seemingly be speaking for all of her peers.”

NFL TV ratings ⬆ The league is averaging 19.6 million viewers per game broadcast, which is up 8% compared to the first four weeks of the 2024 season, and the highest mark on record. Sports, including the NFL, continue to see a boost from Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel methodology [[link removed]] that has been implemented this fall.

Jon Scheyer ⬆ Duke has extended its men’s basketball coach through the 2030–31 season. The Blue Devils have an 89–22 record under Scheyer, 38, who took over for the legendary Mike Krzyzewski in 2021. Duke, led by top NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg, made the Final Four in April. Scheyer’s salary is not public, since the university is private.

ESPN-Fox streaming bundle ⬆ The previously announced streaming bundle [[link removed]] between Fox One [[link removed]] and ESPN’s direct-to-consumer service [[link removed]] debuted today at a price of $39.99 per month, a $10 discount. The bundle could spike initial consumer adoption of the two services, which thus far has tilted more toward ESPN [[link removed]].

Editors’ Pick ESPN’s Ben McDonald Stays on Padres-Cubs Call Despite NHL Flap [[link removed]]by Michael McCarthy [[link removed]] and Eric Fisher [[link removed]]ESPN sticks with McDonald after his viral hockey “zero chance” jab. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Show [[link removed]] Written by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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