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Saturday Edition

January 3, 2026

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The business of sports continues to boom—and to surprise. Here’s what FOS journalists think could be coming in a big 2026.

FOS Crystal Ball: Predictions for the Business of Sports in 2026 [[link removed]]

Imagn Images/Front Office Sports

As sports leagues sell more rights to streamers, labor negotiations get more complicated, and politics and sports get more entangled, the business of sports is more of a moving target than ever.

Front Office Sports staffers have peered into our crystal ball to see what’s on the horizon in 2026. Last year, we nailed several predictions [[link removed]], including a new wave of sports betting scandals [[link removed]], streamers getting more rights packages [[link removed]], and more college coach chaos [[link removed]] caused by the NIL era. We also got some stuff wrong: still no PGA-LIV deal, no major EPL club got relegated.

Here are 13 of our predictions for 2026; read the full list on our site [[link removed]].

1. Live Sports Fragmentation: Something’s Gotta Give

Formula One moved its live rights over to Apple [[link removed]], MLS is staying there [[link removed]] despite heavy criticism, and MLB is keeping Friday Night Baseball on Apple. Netflix now has NFL Christmas games, big boxing matches, and over the next few years will have MLB Home Run Derby and the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Amazon debuted this year [[link removed]] as a full NBA regular-season broadcaster.

If you want to see all these games, you’ll have to pay for Apple, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, plus have cable or a live-TV service like YouTube TV. Consumers are getting louder than ever about the aggravation and the cost; the whole system feels very close to boiling over. So what comes next? Probably (ironically) a great re-bundling acceleration that will involve some major competitors uniting their services (we’ve already seen some forms of this), and/or a massive bipartisan political backlash once the fragmentation frustration [[link removed]] gets loud enough.

— Dan Roberts [[link removed]]

2. The WNBA Will Play a Season This Year

After pushing back the CBA deadline more than two months, the WNBA players and owners will figure out a way to share the large amount of money the league has started making throughout the past few years. The season will start on time—or even earlier than ever.

How will they get there? I have no idea. But our recent reporting [[link removed]] makes it clear they are now negotiating over who gets how much within one economic system, not proposing two totally different economic systems. In the end, both sides will declare victory well before the college basketball season is over.

— Dennis Young [[link removed]]

Ayrton Breckenridge/Clarion Ledger 3. The College Football Playoff Will Expand to 16 Teams

What once seemed inevitable has hit major speed bumps this year, as the Big Ten and SEC failed to agree on the format for an expanded College Football Playoff beyond 12 teams. The SEC favors more at-large bids, while the Big Ten wants more automatic qualifiers—at least for its own conference.

Even with relatively modest expansion of four more teams, there’s likely still too much money to pass up, which will ultimately bring the Big Ten and SEC to a resolution. A Dec. 1 deadline to decide on changes for the 2026 season was pushed back to Jan. 23 [[link removed]], which means we will get answers sooner rather than later.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]]

4. A Prediction-Markets Insider-Trading Scandal Will Emerge

The underlying premise of prediction-markets platforms [[link removed]] all but invites an insider-trading scandal. As contracts tied to sports, politics, and real-world events continue to go mainstream, there are obvious incentives [[link removed]] for participants with privileged, nonpublic information to trade ahead of market-moving developments. Is the depleted [[link removed]] Commodity Futures Trading Commission up to the task of policing such behavior?

Sports won’t necessarily be the culprit, but they could be. Maybe a confidant of LeBron James will put max money on next season being his last, a college athlete will tell someone they know about their transfer portal plans [[link removed]], or some team medical staffer will tip off a friend about a star’s season-ending injury before the public—and the odds—catch up. When a high-profile case inevitably surfaces, prediction-markets critics will cry foul, platforms will claim they have the appropriate guardrails, and someone will lose money.

— Ben Horney [[link removed]]

5. Project B Will Fail to Launch

As things currently stand, the international basketball league known as Project B [[link removed]] has provided very little information regarding its plans aside from signing a handful of WNBA stars [[link removed]] to multimillion-dollar deals. The league has remained mum on where it’s getting funding [[link removed]], how much money it has raised, and where it will play its games, slated to begin in fall 2026.

Project B is just the latest women’s basketball league to be born out of the WNBA’s inability to pay players fair market value. It opens a larger question: As negotiations for a new CBA continue [[link removed]], will the WNBA position itself as the premier women’s basketball league in a strong enough way that warrants players’ exclusive commitments? We may have to wait for the next CBA to see that accomplished. In the meantime, there are too many uncertainties surrounding Project B for me to buy into it.

— Annie Costabile [[link removed]]

Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images 6. The Clippers Will Get a Light Penalty for Cap Circumvention

It’s been four months since journalist Pablo Torre published a report alleging the Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer used a deal with fraudulent financial firm Aspiration to circumvent the NBA salary cap [[link removed]] to pay star forward Kawhi Leonard. But the league has yet to penalize the Clippers, despite commissioner Adam Silver vowing they will “get to the bottom of this” at the FOS Tuned In [[link removed]] summit in September.

If the NBA does hand down a penalty, expect it to be a slap on the wrist, perhaps a loss of one or two draft picks, which would be fewer than the five originally docked against the Timberwolves for cap circumvention in the 1990s.

— Colin Salao [[link removed]]

7. The PE Gold Rush Will Arrive in College Sports

The first athletic department PE deal was announced in early December, when Utah’s board voted to approve selling a minority stake in athletic department assets (which had been spun off into an LLC) to a firm called Otro Capital [[link removed]]. Sports consultancy firm Elevate had previously inked private-credit deals with two power-conference athletic departments. The Big Ten had advanced in conversations to sell an equity stake of conference assets to UC Investments, the employee pension fund for the University of California system—but talks stalled [[link removed]] after two schools refused to sign on to the deal.

Expect a flood of more announcements early in 2026, with a variety of shapes—from private credit to equity. The Big 12, for example, has restarted talks with a joint entity run by RedBird Capital and Weatherford Capital to offer private-credit deals [[link removed]] of up to about $33 million to each Big 12 university. FCS leagues and the NCAA are in talks to create a privatized FCS playoff [[link removed]] alongside firm Sequence Equity. Boise State is working on a private-capital deal [[link removed]], too. Schools across the country are ready and eager to take private money.

— Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]

8. The NBA Will Expand to 32 Teams

Commissioner Adam Silver has been talking about NBA expansion [[link removed]] since the COVID-19 pandemic, but he has procrastinated on doing so in recent years. However, 2026 will be the year Silver finally adds two more teams to the league. After hedging his comments throughout the past year, his press conference ahead of the NBA Cup [[link removed]] indicated he’s finally going to go through with it. Silver mentioned Seattle as a possible expansion market, as well as Las Vegas—while speaking in Sin City itself.

Expansion has been a six-year-long conversation, and for Silver to be conscious of sounding like a tease, that’s good enough for me to assume it’s happening. Both expansion teams would fetch the league billions of dollars, landing owners a check worth hundreds of millions for themselves.

— Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]

Rhona Wise-Imagn Images 9. The 2026 World Baseball Classic Will Be a Massive Hit

The international tournament, run by Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association, is set to return in March. It’s been on a slow, steady build since its 2006 debut. There have been lots of great moments on the field, but competing against the peak of college basketball, the World Baseball Classic has often been more of an event for baseball die-hards.

That changes this time around, as the field will feature an unprecedented array of superstars. After many prior iterations with some top players sitting out due to injury worries, the upcoming WBC will feature most of MLB’s leading talents, including Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, Kyle Schwarber, and Bobby Witt Jr. The growth is already apparent as Netflix snapped up the event’s Japanese rights [[link removed]] last summer, as opposed to a native Japanese broadcaster. Fox will again show the tournament in the U.S.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

10. The Enhanced Games Will Happen—and Make Everyone Uncomfortable

A competition allowing athletes in track, swimming, and weightlifting to use performance-enhancing drugs is scheduled for May 24, 2026, in Las Vegas. The Enhanced Games says it will pay athletes millions of dollars in prize money, including up to $1 million for breaking certain world records. Many of the world’s biggest sports entities have heavily protested the idea [[link removed]] and banned their members from participating, but that hasn’t stopped the Enhanced Games, which is backed by Donald Trump, Jr., from making splashy signings with several former Olympians.

After spending much of this year covering the downfall of Grand Slam Track [[link removed]], I’m wary of flashy new leagues that promise big prize money actually getting off the ground. But if the Enhanced Games does hold its first event as planned, it’s going to send shockwaves. I think it will start a lot of conversations about the integrity of sports, and one way or another, the sporting community will have to reckon with the Enhanced Games.

— Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images 11. Travis Kelce Will Retire and Sign With a Streamer

Travis Kelce will hang up his cleats this offseason, and he will have endless options for what to do in his post-playing career. Ultimately, my sense is he will land with one of the NFL’s big-tech partners, whether it’s Netflix, YouTube, or Amazon. If I’m up against a wall, I’d say Amazon, since it has a head start building a relationship in partnership with the New Heights podcast [[link removed]] at Wondery.

— Ryan Glasspiegel [[link removed]]

12. The World Cup Will Be Messy

The economic boon that the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup [[link removed]] is projected to bring to North America—an estimated $40.9 billion in GDP—will likely be overshadowed by the Trump Administration’s politics and its desire [[link removed]] to have an outsized hand in running FIFA’s contest [[link removed]].

The U.S. State Department recently said it would prioritize visa applications from businesspeople considering “significant investments” and for tourists planning to visit “for major sporting events which showcase American excellence.” Andrew Giuliani, who is leading the White House task force on the World Cup, has not ruled out the possibility of ICE targeting host cities for immigration enforcement. And it doesn’t appear that fans from 19 countries—including World Cup–qualifiers Iran and Haiti—will be exempt from travel restrictions already in place. Beyond visa [[link removed]], security, and immigration enforcement concerns, teams will have to travel among countries and time zones during the group stage, meaning less recovery time for some. Will we pull it all off? Probably. Will it be the shining event Trump hopes it’ll be? Probably not.

— Katie Krzaczek [[link removed]]

13. Everything Will Be Tradeable—Especially Sports

Despite current controversy and legal challenges, trading on prediction-markets platforms continues to proliferate. DraftKings and FanDuel are entering the arena [[link removed]], and prediction-markets data is even being integrated into major mainstream news organizations like CNBC and CNN. News sites, financial-brokerage apps, the weather app, your favorite sports scores app—all will offer opportunities for users to trade events contracts. As Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan told Anderson Cooper, the idea is that the wisdom of crowds is “ the most accurate thing we have as mankind right now. [[link removed]]”

It doesn’t matter whether your expertise is in the 10-year Treasury bond, Portuguese presidential politics, or Heisman Trophy winners. Prediction markets—which have already encroached on traditional sportsbooks’ territory—provide more assets to trade and more risk to take. They attract everyday consumers who might feel left out of the stock market. If you’re not sure whether Nvidia’s $184 share price is over- or under-valued, perhaps you’d be more comfortable wagering on who will win the Lightning–Maple Leafs game, or which airline will be first to sell Zyn on flights.

— Lisa Scherzer [[link removed]]

Check out the full list on our site [[link removed]].

SPONSORED BY CISCO

The NFL’s Invisible Tech Engine

The NFL looks seamless on Sundays—but behind every replay angle, mobile ticket scan, and moment of fan connectivity sits a powerful tech backbone [[link removed]]. Increasingly, that backbone is Cisco.

From Buffalo to Las Vegas to San Francisco, teams are adopting Cisco’s unified technology platform: AI-ready data centers, modernized workspaces, and digital resilience designed for the pressures of the modern game. Nearly two-thirds of NFL stadiums already rely on Cisco networks, and the Super Bowl will showcase the full scale of the partnership.

The league’s true competitive edge [[link removed]] is now invisible—secure, fast, intelligent infrastructure.

Read more [[link removed]].

Staying Alive The Pac-12 Comes Back in 2026

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Three years after getting picked apart and left for dead in a vicious round of conference realignment, the Pac-12 is back from the ashes.

In 2026, the conference will add seven teams (including six full-time FBS football-playing members) and commence a media package with three networks. [[link removed]] It will maintain its status as an FBS football league with continued access to the lucrative College Football Playoff, plus its access to men’s and women’s basketball automatic bids.

Most importantly, the Pac-12 name will live on, though the conference will have nine member schools, eight of them football members. (What’s in a conference name anymore, anyway? The Big 12 has 16 schools; the Big Ten has 18.)

It’s a remarkable resurrection for the conference left for dead two football seasons ago. Read more from FOS college sports reporter Amanda Christovich [[link removed]] on what’s ahead for the new Pac-12 [[link removed]].

Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Show [[link removed]] Written by Front Office Sports [[link removed]] Edited by Meredith Turits [[link removed]], Daniel Roberts [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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