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Afternoon Edition

October 10, 2025

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The Big Ten is looking to push through its plan to take billions of dollars in private investment from a California pension fund early next week. But just days before a potential vote, some university trustees were still uninformed about key details.

— Amanda Christovich [[link removed]] and Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

Big Ten Vote on Investment From California Pension Expected Next Week [[link removed]]

David Banks-Imagn Images

The Big Ten is looking to push through its plan to take billions of dollars in private investment from a California pension fund early next week, multiple sources told Front Office Sports, first reported by Yahoo Sports.

But some high-ranking university officials at Big Ten member schools were still uninformed about key details of the plan, just days before a vote could take place, two sources told FOS.

Officials at member universities were aware the deal would be with a California teacher’s pension fund, the sources told FOS. But as late as Friday morning, some were unaware of which specific pension fund was in consideration.

Presidents of Big Ten schools are potentially voting on the investment Monday or Tuesday. The deal no longer includes private-equity firms, sources told FOS.

On Friday afternoon, Yahoo Sports reported [[link removed]] the deal would come from UC Investments, the pension fund within the UC system. UC Investments currently manages a portfolio totaling about $190 billion, including retirement, endowment, and cash assets.

The new deal would see the pension fund invest $2.4 billion—at least $100 million per school—for a 10% equity stake in Big Ten Enterprises, a spin-off of Big Ten conference assets like media rights, Yahoo Sports reported. UC Investments would then receive an annual distribution and the ability to sell off its stake in the future.

Representatives from UC Investments and from the UC Office of the President did not immediately respond to an FOS request for comment.

The chaos began Oct. 2 when ESPN first reported the news of a $2 billion deal and that it could include private-equity funding. The report said a decision would have to include unanimous approval from Big Ten university presidents, and it could happen by the end of October. The agreement would also include an extension of the grant of rights deal, which binds all the schools together for a certain number of years and is usually signed in conjunction with a media-rights agreement, until 2046.

Multiple conversations with university and Big Ten officials took place this week after that report was published, the sources said. But a lack of transparency from Big Ten officials has led to confusion about which pension fund would be investing in the league, they said. One source said Friday that it appeared some news reporters were more in the loop than trustees of certain Big Ten universities.

A letter sent to Big Ten schools by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) confirmed this dynamic, saying [[link removed]], “I have been informed by regents and trustees of Big Ten member institutions that they have not been fully briefed on the deal under consideration.”

—Additional reporting by Daniel Roberts [[link removed]]

SPONSORED BY DEALMAKER

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Newly confirmed speakers include two-time Olympic gold medalist Kristen Faulkner, former Knicks and Jazz executive-turned-investor David Checketts, and New York Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky.

They’ll be joined by leaders from HBSE, The Chernin Group, NOCAP Sports, Goldman Sachs, Andalusian, RedBird Capital, Monarch Collective, DealMaker, and Sequence Equity for conversations exploring athlete ownership, emerging investment models, and the future of sports funding.

This event is sold out. Learn more [[link removed]].

ESPN Streaming Service at Core of New Spectrum Plan [[link removed]]

Spectrum

Two years after a bitter carriage fight [[link removed]] temporarily took ESPN and parent company Disney off Spectrum systems, the sports media giant is at the center of a push by the largest U.S. pay-television distributor to resolve growing disruption between linear TV and streaming.

Spectrum now includes 10 streaming services as part of its pay-TV plans at no additional cost, with others set to be added in the coming months in its “seamless entertainment” push. Other major distributors such as Comcast and DirecTV offer similar bundles, but Spectrum has sought to expand on that by introducing a new app store this week in which customers can manage, authenticate, and add on to all those streaming apps within a single platform.

The unlimited version of ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer offering [[link removed]], also included with major carriers such as Charter, is a core part of this. Other sports-related apps involved in the Spectrum initiative are Fox One [[link removed]], Peacock, Paramount+, HBO Max, and The Tennis Channel.

“We knew that we had to find something that brought real value to our consumer and utility, which we’ve achieved, or we should just focus on being a broadband company,” said Chris Winfrey, CEO of Spectrum parent company Charter Communications. “We became unencumbered to think outside the box.”

A new ad campaign featuring comedian and actor Tracy Morgan and former Knicks star John Starks leans even further in to the notion of ending divisions between linear and streaming content. The “ Where’s My Knicks Game?” ad [[link removed]] depicts a scenario in which the Spectrum voice remote is used to find a Knicks game, regardless of whether it’s on a national cable network, a regional sports network, broadcast TV, or a streaming app.

Born From Conflict

The genesis of Spectrum’s current efforts lies in a particularly fractious distribution fight two years ago in which ESPN and other Disney channels were dark on Spectrum for 11 days, a particularly busy sports period that included the end of the 2023 US Open, early-season college football, and threatened to impact the start of Monday Night Football that year.

The resolution ultimately arrived when Charter gained the right to market Disney streaming products to its subscribers and include them in its TV packages. Speaking late Thursday at a Spectrum event, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said that was a difficult concept to grasp at first.

“This was a unique idea at the time, and honestly, it wasn’t something we were contemplating,” Pitaro said. “We were going into that discussion thinking it was going to be a traditional renewal on the distribution side. So once we heard their presentation, we needed to take a step back, regroup, and reevaluate.”

Now, the Disney-Spectrum relationship is “better than ever,” Pitaro said, and the deal has served as a key template for others that have been struck since then, including a subsequent renewal between the two companies in June.

“It’s about taking friction out of the whole process for the consumer, and that’s nothing but goodness for Disney and for ESPN,” Pitaro said.

Virtual Vision

Spectrum, meanwhile, has struck a separate deal with the Lakers and Apple to show “select” live games in the 2025–26 season in the Los Angeles market through the Apple Vision Pro, and then more broadly on a replay and highlights-oriented basis.

The effort is the latest in a series of initiatives by various leagues, teams, programmers, and distributors to show live sports in immersive and virtual reality settings. While providing perspectives not otherwise available, these types of video productions have not scaled significantly, as the more isolating nature of the immersive hardware conflicts heavily with the social and communal quality inherent to watching sports.

In an Expanded March Madness, Big Ten Favors Straight Seeding [[link removed]]

Talia Sprague-Imagn Images

As March Madness inches closer to a probable expansion, the Big Ten is advocating for a straight-seeding model that will likely keep its teams in a strong position.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said that he favors the structure in which teams would be slotted strictly on ranking and judged quality, with no additional deference given to conference winners. In last season’s March Madness official seed list [[link removed]], 23 of the bottom 24 teams were automatic qualifiers from small conferences.

“I think part of the motivation for the NCAA is a recognition with these larger conferences, you’re going to force teams closer to .500 records in their conferences,” Petitti said, also in part referencing recent conference realignment and expansion. “What access do they have? I think, overall, with the system we have now with the large conferences, more access is better.”

Petitti’s comments arrive as deliberations continue about enlarging the Division I men’s college basketball tournament [[link removed]], with a 76-team model arriving as soon as 2027 gathering steam [[link removed]]. The expansion from the current 68 teams would help expand access to bubble teams left out on Selection Sunday and then left in a scramble [[link removed]] to consider lesser tournaments, or simply ending their seasons.

What Petitti is championing, however, likely ensures Big Ten teams would escape a preliminary round in which lower-ranked teams—primarily those winners from small conferences with just a single March Madness bid—would have to win an opening-round contest to reach the main, 64-team draw.

“We’re biased, [but] we think our teams will be seeded higher as the field goes in,” he said.

There are multiple financial layers to the March Madness discussion as each additional win in the tournament earns an additional “unit” for their conference, and most recently, those units were worth about $2 million [[link removed]]. There are also outstanding questions about what an expanded tournament would mean for future rights fees [[link removed]].

Talks around future March Madness structures and perceived fairness are also rising as the Southeastern Conference placed a record 14 teams in the 2025 tournament [[link removed]].

The college basketball discussions, meanwhile, are continuing as a similar, but separate, discussion is happening around expanding the College Football Playoff format from the current, 12-team model. Those negotiations have stalled in recent months [[link removed]] as conferences such as the Big Ten and SEC have disagreed on how to allocate automatic bids.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY Are Las Vegas Aces WNBA’s Greatest Dynasty?

FOS illustration

The Las Vegas Aces are close to clinching their third WNBA title in four seasons, as they lead the Phoenix Mercury 3–0 with a chance to close it out on the road. As the Aces blow through the WNBA’s first best-of-seven Finals, FOS women’s sports reporter Annie Costabile joins from Phoenix to explain the historical dominance of Las Vegas and where things stand with collective bargaining discussions.

Plus, former college basketball star Deja Kelly joins Baker Machado and Renee Washington to offer a player perspective of the tension between WNBA athletes and commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

Also, Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show has competition.

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

STATUS REPORT Two Up, Two Down

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Philadelphia sports fans ⬇ The City of Brotherly Love suffered a particularly rare confluence Thursday as the Phillies’ season ended with a throwing error to close out a National League Division Series loss to the Dodgers, the Eagles suffered an upset loss to the Giants, and the Flyers fell to the defending NHL champion Panthers. It was just the second time all three teams lost on the same day, with the other occurrence happening in 1983.

Islanders facial hair ⬆ The NHL team’s players are now allowed to grow beards following the offseason departure of president and GM Lou Lamoriello, who had required players, coaches, and staff to be clean shaven. The team’s shift is not unlike the change made earlier this year by the Yankees [[link removed]], and it could aid in player recruitment and retention.

Early-season NBA attention ⬇ As the NBA begins the 2025–26 season later this month, and with a new set of domestic media deals, Lakers superstar LeBron James will not be active. James, one of the league’s most popular players, has been sidelined for at least three weeks due to sciatica on his right side, and he will miss his first season opener in a career entering its 23rd season.

NFL drama ⬆ Twenty-four NFL games have featured a winning score in the last two minutes of regulation or in overtime, the most at this point of the season in league history. Such tightness in the on-field competition is also a contributing factor in viewership that has reached a 15-year high [[link removed]]. The Buccaneers, by themselves, have four such victories.

SPONSORED BY AT&T

She’s Connected With Deyna Castellanos

As part of AT&T’s commitment to elevating athletes, “She’s Connected by AT&T” [[link removed]] highlights women in sports and beyond who make their dreams a reality while inspiring the next generation. Since 2020, “She’s Connected” has shared unique success stories from women in sports, including WNBA star A’ja Wilson, Paralympian Scout Bassett, and now NWSL forward Deyna Castellanos.

Castellanos is more than an international soccer star; she’s an example of how visibility and connection can open the door to greater possibilities. When not competing in the National Women’s Soccer League, she is empowering young women from all over the world to continue their education and sport through the Queen Deyna Foundation.

Check out her full “She’s Connected by AT&T” episode now. [[link removed]]

Conversation Starters After Maple Leaf fans watched their team beat the Canadiens on Wednesday, they stuck around to watch the Blue Jays beat the Yankees on the jumbotron to secure a spot in the ALCS. Check out the crowd’s reaction [[link removed]]. At a Raiders-Colts game, an Indianapolis cheerleader noticed a young fan was deaf, so she signed with him in ASL so they could communicate together. Watch them here [[link removed]]. Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, better known as “Sister Jean” and a longtime fixture at Loyola basketball games [[link removed]], died at age 106. A chaplain for the team, she retired from her role at the university earlier this year due to health concerns. Editors’ Picks Judge Dismisses Drake’s Super Bowl Defamation Suit [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]The judge said diss tracks aren’t considered facts. WNBA Officiating Task Force Still Taking Shape After Outcry [[link removed]]by Annie Costabile [[link removed]]How refs are trained and instructed was a major issue this year. Track Start-Up Athlos Makes ‘Millions’ but No Profit Yet [[link removed]]by Dennis Young [[link removed]]Alexis Ohanian called being profitable by the 2028 Olympics a “great goal.” Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Show [[link removed]] Written by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]] Edited by Lisa Scherzer [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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