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Morning Edition

November 6, 2025

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ESPN’s top on-air talent are feeling the heat as the Disney–YouTube TV carriage dispute drags on. From Pat McAfee’s blunt critiques to Scott Van Pelt’s facing fan backlash, the network’s stars are grappling with fallout they can’t control.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], and Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]

ESPN Personalities Grapple With Fallout Over YouTube TV Blackout [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Is the ongoing carriage dispute between YouTube TV and Disney [[link removed]] causing internal angst at ESPN? As the battle continues with no end in sight, some signs of stress are definitely appearing.

Pat McAfee, one of ESPN’s most prominent and most widely watched on-air talents, took direct aim at his network’s use of other major personalities, such as Stephen A. Smith, Mike Greenberg, and Scott Van Pelt, to direct people to a Disney website aimed at putting pressure on the Google-owned YouTube TV.

“If you’re on TV, stop telling people to go to a website to save a multibillion-dollar deal,” McAfee said on his eponymous show that he licenses to ESPN. “Nobody cares what you have to say. There will be nothing that we say, or any website that will be visited, that will get this thing [solved].”

McAfee has made a regular habit of skewering figures or strategies with ESPN, seemingly getting away with a level of “diva-like” behavior [[link removed]] that few, if any, others involved with the network can. The ongoing dispute with YouTube TV, however, presents a notable new test to that maxim, as it has commanded the attention of the very highest levels of Disney leadership.

As the blackout of Disney channels on the No. 4 pay-TV distributor began last Friday, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Disney Entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman wrote a company-wide memo on the matter, saying of YouTube TV, “their actions make clear how little regard they have for their customers and are consistent with an attitude which has been prevalent throughout our negotiations.”

That sentiment, beyond core economic disagreements, signals just how far apart Disney and YouTube TV still are, and how this particular dispute could become an extended one.

Fan Blowback

Van Pelt, meanwhile, acknowledged last weekend in his college football reaction podcast [[link removed]] that the fan reaction to his callouts about the YouTube TV situation has been severe.

“I tweet that out, and then eight million views later, everyone’s screaming ‘fuck you’ on my phone in my pocket at me,” Van Pelt said. “And I get it. I ignore it because I’m not in charge here. I can’t fix it. If I could flip a switch and make it so, I swear to you, I would, but I can’t.”

The ESPN stalwart, himself a YouTube TV subscriber, has had to block some of his 2 million followers on X/Twitter because of the vitriol.

“I don’t want to be the person you scream at because I can’t fix it,” Van Pelt said. “It’s business, never personal. It is personal, however, when you tell me ‘fuck you,’ like I did this to you. Because I didn’t. I just am hopeful, like you, that it gets sorted out, but I understand the frustration.”

ESPN declined comment Wednesday, except to point to its statement last week [[link removed]] when the carriage dispute started, reading in part, “We know how frustrating this is for YouTube subscribers and remain committed to working toward a resolution as soon as possible.”

The ongoing situation with YouTube TV, meanwhile, has begun to produce some attrition among its college football audiences [[link removed]].

— Michael McCarthy [[link removed]]and David Rumsey [[link removed]] contributed to this article.

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CFP Rankings Show How Complicated Prize Money Shift Could Play Out [[link removed]]

Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

This season’s debut College Football Playoff rankings [[link removed]] provide a concrete example of how the CFP’s intricate new revenue distribution structure could play out once the final postseason field is set next month.

The first projected 12-team bracket [[link removed]] has two Big Ten teams (Ohio State and Indiana) and two SEC teams (Texas A&M and Alabama) occupying the top four seeds, which each come with a first-round bye and a guaranteed $8 million payday for each school’s respective conference. Each team that qualifies for the CFP earns $4 million for its conference, and another $4 million for advancing to the quarterfinals, whether that comes via a first-round victory or bye.

What’s new this year is the CFP’s move to straight seeding [[link removed]], after ditching last year’s format that gave the top four seeds—and their extra cash—to the four highest-ranked conference champions. However, where it gets complicated is that the four highest-ranked conference champions will still earn a guaranteed $8 million for their respective leagues even if they lose their first-round matchup.

The third- and fourth-highest ranked league leaders are No. 7 BYU and No. 14 Virginia (which currently occupies the No. 11 seed). In this projected bracket, the Big 12 and ACC would be guaranteed at least $8 million in revenue distribution from the CFP’s performance bonuses, even if BYU and Virginia lost their first-round games.

Teams that advance to the semifinals and national championship game earn another $6 million for their conference [[link removed]] in each round. There is at least $116 million in performance-based CFP revenue distribution up for grabs overall, and potentially more if the above scenarios were to play out.

Next year, the CFP is planning to change its revenue distribution model to a less performance-based model. That could coincide with further expansion, although that is still under consideration.

Conference Battles

After the Big Ten topped the SEC [[link removed]] with four bids in the debut 12-team CFP a year ago, the tables have turned, at least in this initial bracket projection:

SEC: 4 Big Ten: 3 Big 12: 2 ACC: 1 AAC: 1 Independent: 1 (Notre Dame)

The SEC has six teams ranked inside the top 12, but No. 11 Texas and No. 12 Oklahoma are the first two teams left out of the CFP under current projections.

Why the White House Deleted Post Mocking Mamdani With Knicks Logo [[link removed]]

X/Twitter

The White House deleted a post using the New York Knicks logo to mock the city’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani [[link removed]], after being contacted by the NBA team.

The official account for the White House on X posted the altered logo on Tuesday hours after Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo—who was endorsed by President Donald Trump—and Curtis Sliwa in the mayoral race.

The altered Knicks logo read “Trump Is Your President.”

By Wednesday, the post had been deleted. A source close to the Knicks tells Front Office Sports that the team reached out to the White House about the post, and they voluntarily took it down.

“The Knicks remain neutral on political matters,” the team said in a statement to FOS on Wednesday. “We hope all our elected officials, whether current or recently elected, do a great job in office.”

The Mamdani campaign did not immediately respond to questions. The White House press office provided an automatic reply blaming “staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown” for any delays in responses, but did not answer questions.

The exchange comes two weeks after the NBA team sent Mamdani a cease and desist letter [[link removed]] for using his own altered version of the logo, reading “New York Zohran,” in a basketball-themed campaign ad aired during the Knicks opener. The ad, which Mamdani took down, featured men playing basketball, crowd noise, and narration such as “New York, this is our year,” and “We’ve struggled, we’ve had dreams dashed and hearts broken.”

According to the source close to the team, the Knicks had reached out to Mamdani’s campaign about the ad but hadn’t heard back, so they sent the letter concerned that the ad gave the impression that the team had endorsed him, which it had not.

“The Knicks want to make it clear that we do not endorse Mr. Mamdani for Mayor, and we object to his use of our copyrighted logo,” a team spokesperson said at the time. “We will pursue all legal remedies to enforce our rights.”

The Lanham Act, which dictates U.S. trademark law, says an entity “shall be liable in a civil action” if they use another’s identity to promote themselves in a way that could mislead people [[link removed]] into thinking they had received sponsorship or approval.

“Adjustments are being made to the ad and while the Knicks might not be able to publicly support our campaign, we’re proud to publicly support our NY Knicks,” a campaign spokesperson told Bloomberg [[link removed]].

On Sunday night before the election, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, attended a Knicks game and sat in the nosebleeds. Cuomo, the former New York governor, and outgoing mayor Eric Adams attended the Oct. 24 home opener courtside. FOS previously reported that Cuomo and Adams each paid for their own ticket [[link removed]], although Adams had intended to mark it as a city expense before Cuomo joined.

Teams owned by James Dolan are known for ferociously protecting their intellectual property. Last year, the Knicks, Rangers, and MSG Sports sued the anonymous vendors selling bootleg merchandise [[link removed]] outside the stadium, leading a judge to issue a temporary restraining order [[link removed]] outside Madison Square Garden.

Though Dolan did not publicly support a candidate in this year’s mayoral election, he strongly backed Diana Florence for Manhattan district attorney; the independent only received about 5.5% of the vote. The Coalition to Restore New York, a political action committee funded by Dolan’s MSG Entertainment, ran ads against some of Mamdani’s proposals [[link removed]] such as free buses.

Dolan made six-figure donations to Trump’s presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020.

World Series G7 Audience Count Final: 51M Across U.S., Canada, Japan [[link removed]]

John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

The home country of Dodgers stars Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki, and World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto watched the club’s championship march at historic levels.

Major League Baseball said Wednesday the epic, seven-game World Series between the Dodgers and Blue Jays, in which Los Angeles claimed a second straight title [[link removed]], averaged 9.7 million viewers in Japan. Game 6 last Friday in particular averaged 13.1 million viewers on NHK-G, making it the most-watched World Series game ever in that country that was aired on a single network.

Game 7 on Saturday, a dramatic, 11-inning win for the Dodgers, then followed with an average Japanese audience of 12 million viewers on NHK-BS.

While the broadcast plan in Japan for the 2025 World Series differed from last year’s coverage of the Yankees-Dodgers matchup aired on multiple over-the-air networks there and had even bigger audiences [[link removed]], the latest viewership totals still reflect a strong devotion by fans there.

With the time difference, the World Series games aired in Japan in the late morning. When MLB has played in the country and in standard evening time slots, local television audiences have reached 25 million [[link removed]].

Global Power

Overall, Game 7 between the Dodgers and Blue Jays averaged 51 million viewers when combining viewership from Japan, the U.S., and Canada, making it the league’s most-watched game of any type since Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

The Fox broadcast added an average of 27.3 million [[link removed]] for the deciding game, the best U.S. audience for a World Series contest since 2017. Canada, meanwhile, averaged 11.6 million viewers for Game 7 between Sportsnet and French-language coverage on TVA Sports. The Sportsnet audience of 10.9 million [[link removed]] was part of what was the most-watched English-language broadcast in Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and the biggest broadcast of any type for network parent company Rogers Communications.

For the full seven games, the World Series averaged 34 million viewers across the U.S., Canada, and Japan, forming the best Fall Classic audience since 1992 and a figure up 19% from last year. The average viewership of 17.9 million from Canada and Japan in particular also represents the largest international viewership in World Series history.

The World Series, meanwhile, set a new record for merchandise sales, beating the mark set in 2022 for the Phillies and Astros, while also establishing an extended series of event milestones in digital and social media consumption.

SPONSORED BY USAA

Beyond Thanks

This Veterans Day, USAA [[link removed]] is going beyond thanks with the launch of Honor Through Action, our $500 million commitment over the next five years to strengthen the military community. By investing in programs that drive meaningful, measurable change, we’ll help veterans build fulfilling careers, create secure financial futures and care for their overall well-being.

USAA [[link removed]] is proud to lead this effort, advocating for veterans and their families, championing their future and calling on others to do the same; because while saying “thank you” will always matter, showing up for what’s next means everything.

Editors’ Picks Malik Beasley in NBA ‘Purgatory’ Amid Betting Probes, Lawyer Says [[link removed]]by Colin Salao [[link removed]]Beasley said he hopes to re-sign with the Pistons. Michael Jordan Gets Big Win in Antitrust Suit Against NASCAR [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]Jordan’s 23XI Racing co-sued NASCAR in October 2024. NWSL Investor Monarch’s Next Move Is German Soccer [[link removed]]by Annie Costabile [[link removed]]The firm already owns the maximum three stakes in NWSL teams. Question of the Day

Do you think it helps when ESPN personalities speak out about the YouTube TV blackout?

YES [[link removed]] NO [[link removed]]

Wednesday’s result: 40% of respondents said the Disney–YouTube TV carriage dispute has affected their sports viewing habits.

Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Show [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], Margaret Fleming [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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