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Afternoon Edition

January 9, 2026

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The College Football Playoff semifinal Friday night will feature two teams backed by their school’s wealthiest alumni, while ADs and coaches across the country try to find one of their own. Nike founder Phil Knight has turned Oregon into a national powerhouse, while Mark Cuban recently started donating to Indiana athletics.

— Alex Schiffer [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]], and Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]

Oregon-Indiana Is a Battle of Billionaire-Backed Rosters [[link removed]]

Statesman Journal

Friday’s Peach Bowl pitting Indiana against Oregon might be a glimpse of college football’s future.

The College Football Playoff semifinal will feature two teams backed by their school’s wealthiest alumni, while ADs and coaches across the country try to find one of their own [[link removed]].

In some ways, the game is a battle between the old alumni guard and the new. Nike founder Phil Knight has been supporting Oregon for decades and has helped turn the Ducks into a national powerhouse providing top-notch gear, uniforms, and facilities over the years.

But since NIL became legal in 2021, Knight, who graduated from UO in 1959 where he ran track and is worth more than $31 billion, according to Forbes [[link removed]], has raised his donations to another level. The Ducks’ team salary has been a source of intrigue in college sports the past few years. Oregon’s 2024 roster reportedly cost the Ducks $23 million, according to Washington’s AD [[link removed]].

Knight’s spending has made the Ducks the envy of college football, with other coaches openly jealous of Oregon coach Dan Lanning and his extensive resources.

Before Oklahoma State’s 69–3 blowout loss to Oregon in September, then-coach Mike Gundy claimed the Ducks actually spent $40 million on their roster and argued it should impact scheduling.

“ What I hear, chatter from coaches around the country [[link removed]], is that non-conference scheduling—and I never thought anybody would ever say this—should be based on the financial situation for each school,” Gundy said. “Oregon is paying a lot, a lot of money for their team. So from a non-conference standpoint, there are coaches saying they should play teams that are spending the same amount of money.”

In 2024, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said of Knight: “ I wish I could get some of that NIL money he’s giving Dan Lanning [[link removed]].”

Lanning has come to the defense of Knight each time. “ I think it’s impressive that guys like Kirby [[link removed]] have been signing the No. 1 class in the nation without any NIL money this entire time,” Lanning said on The Pat McAfee Show in July 2024.

“ If you want to be a top-10 team in college football [[link removed]], you better be invested in winning,” Lanning said. “We spend to win. Some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t. … I can’t speak on their situation; I have no idea what they got in their pockets over there.”

Mark Cuban, meanwhile, had never donated to Indiana athletics before Curt Cignetti started coaching there in 2024.

The 1981 IU graduate, who is worth $6 billion [[link removed]], according to Forbes, had given millions of dollars over the years to initiatives such as a sports media technology center and the rugby club, but connected with Cignetti over their shared Pittsburgh roots.

“I’m all in on IU, and coach Cig,” Cuban wrote to The Indianapolis Star [[link removed]] in October.

Cuban, who is a minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, donated to Indiana’s athletic department a year ago, after Cignetti led the Hoosiers to an 11–2 record in his first season that ended in the College Football Playoff.

The Hoosiers are going into Friday’s game 14–0. Cuban told Front Office Sports on Tuesday he recently sent IU an even bigger donation, without specifying how much.

“ Already committed for this portal [[link removed]],” Cuban wrote in an email to FOS. “Let’s just say they are happier this year than last year.”

Indiana previously beat Oregon 30–20 on Oct. 11, and neither program has ever won a national championship, despite Knight’s money.

Knight has turned the Ducks into a college football powerhouse, while Cignetti has laid the foundation for the Hoosiers to do the same. Now, college sports will be watching to see whether Cuban can get them there, too.

SPONSORED BY APPLE WATCH

Turn Resolutions Into Routines

The second Friday in January is known as Quitters Day—the day when most people quit their New Year’s fitness resolutions. But thanks to Apple Watch [[link removed]], you’re not like most people. It has tons of features like daily activity tracking, pace alerts, and a refreshed Workout app, helping you stay motivated and committed to your fitness goals all year long. So that once and for all, we can quit quitting.

Learn more about Apple Watch here [[link removed]].

Tigers and Skubal File a Whopping $13 Million Apart on Salary [[link removed]]

Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

There is a massive financial gulf between the Tigers and ace pitcher Tarik Skubal, and how it gets resolved will not only speak volumes about this year’s compensation for the generational-level talent but also MLB’s entire arbitration system.

As this year’s MLB arbitration filing deadline arrived Thursday, the team submitted a $19 million offer for Skubal’s 2026 salary, while the two-time American League Cy Young Award winner tendered a record-level ask of $32 million.

The pitcher’s figure, if he prevails, would not only smash the existing salary record for an arbitration-eligible pitcher—$19.75 million for the Tigers’ David Price in 2015—but also beat the largest one-year deal for any arbitration-eligible player. Outfielder Juan Soto holds the current record of $31 million, settling on that figure with the Yankees in 2024 before he ultimately reached a record-setting $765 million contract with the Mets [[link removed]] late that year in free agency.

The $13 million gap between the bid and ask figures for Skubal, meanwhile, nearly equals the largest arbitration settlement figure so far this offseason of $15.65 million for Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena.

There are several potential outcomes for Skubal and the Tigers. The parties could agree on a figure for the upcoming season on a one-year contract. It’s also possible that they could strike a multiyear agreement to keep Skubal in Detroit for the long term—but that’s more unlikely given he will become a free agent after the 2026 season and could set a pitcher compensation record there, too. Absent an agreement, Skubal’s arbitration case would go to a hearing that would happen between Jan. 26 and Feb. 13.

Skubal settled last year with the Tigers on a one-year deal of $10.15 million for 2025, avoiding a hearing. Further complicating the current situation is that Detroit is one of nine MLB franchises ensnared in the potential demise of regional sports network operator Main Street Sports [[link removed]], and the club’s future local media revenues are decidedly uncertain.

Amid all of that, the team has also signaled it will listen to trade offers for Skubal, and Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said last month [[link removed]] there are no “untouchables” on the roster.

Bigger Issues

The entire arbitration system is expected to be a core part of likely thorny labor negotiations between MLB and the MLB Players Association [[link removed]] this year.

Players become eligible for arbitration after three years of major-league service time, and it precedes free agency, which arrives after reaching six years of service time. That arbitration eligibility is often the first time that a player can have a real say in their compensation as signing bonuses after the MLB draft, minor-league salaries, and initial major-league salaries are all typically preset.

During the last set of collective bargaining talks between owners and players in 2021–22, MLB sought to eliminate the arbitration system and replace it with a performance-based model. The union resisted that, and instead negotiated for higher minimum salaries as well as a $50 million bonus pool for high-performing, pre-arbitration players.

Pirates ace Paul Skenes, the 2025 National League Cy Young Award winner and the one active MLB pitcher generally deemed to be Skubal’s equal, has been among those particularly taking advantage of that pool. Skenes added more than $3.4 million last year to a base salary of $875,000.

New York Is First World Cup City to Charge for a Fan Fest

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The 2026 FIFA World Cup Fan Festivals sparked outrage online for charging fans for tickets for the first time in tournament history.

The change is notable, but it’s not clear how widespread it is.

So far, only one of the tournament’s 16 host committees has said it will definitely charge tickets for Fan Fest. That organizer is New York/New Jersey, which is selling tickets for $10, or $12.50 with fees, for entry into two of its three organized fan events.

Overall, seven of the hosts have committed one way or the other: New York/New Jersey will charge, while Kansas City, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Vancouver, and Toronto have all said their Fan Fests will be free.

But most of the host committees are still question marks: The other nine have not confirmed whether they’ll stay in line with tradition or charge fans.

Up until this tournament, Fan Fests, which are official FIFA events put on by local host committees, have historically been free. Since the first FIFA-sanctioned fan fests at the 2006 men’s World Cup in Germany, millions of fans in host cities have gathered each tournament in plazas, beaches, and parks for lively watch parties away from the stadium. A FIFA spokesperson declined to answer whether the global governing body had mandated they be free in the past, or if that had just become the norm.

“Discussions around the FIFA Fan Festival reflect the diversity of each Host City, taking into account factors such as geographic footprint, existing infrastructure, community priorities and operational realities,” the FIFA spokesperson said in a statement to Front Office Sports. “As a result, approaches and formats may vary from city to city.”

The Fan Fests underscore a wider issue between FIFA and the host committees at this summer’s men’s World Cup, which is that the governing body requires that local organizers shoulder heavy costs while limiting opportunities to make that money back, such as selling sponsorships at stadiums. Host committees petitioned for hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from federal and local governments [[link removed]] to help with security costs, and in one extreme case, the San Francisco 49ers have promised to cover any deficit [[link removed]] the Bay Area Host Committee cannot make up. In response to concerns about Fan Fests, FIFA loosened its rules [[link removed]] around what it will require from each host’s fan event, and several have already scaled back how many days their events will run. In some cities, it’s estimated that running a Fan Fest will cost about $1 million per day. “We’re not looking to put undue financial burden on anyone,” FIFA exec Amy Hopfinger [[link removed]] said last summer.

FIFA’s public host city agreement with Seattle [[link removed]], for example, says it is “intended” that the Fan Fest will be free to spectators. The New York/New Jersey contract said the host committee can collect revenue from the Fan Fest [[link removed]], and its spokesperson tells FOS that its ticketing plan received FIFA approval.

The New York/New Jersey organizing committee insists that its policy is intended to anticipate attendance levels for crowd management and will not be a major revenue driver.

Organizers in Boston tell FOS they’re hoping not to charge. Three hosts—L.A., the San Francisco Bay Area, and Dallas—said they could not answer questions about pricing because their Fan Fest announcements are still in the works. The remaining cities—Seattle, Miami, Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey—did not respond, and it’s not clear whether they will charge.

Read Margaret Fleming’s full story [[link removed]] for everything we know about every Fan Fest and how much they’ll cost.

SPONSORED BY APPLE WATCH

Turn Resolutions Into Routines

The second Friday in January is known as Quitters Day—the day when most people quit their New Year’s fitness resolutions. But thanks to Apple Watch [[link removed]], you’re not like most people. It has tons of features like daily activity tracking, pace alerts, and a refreshed Workout app, helping you stay motivated and committed to your fitness goals all year long. So that once and for all, we can quit quitting.

Learn more about Apple Watch here [[link removed]].

STATUS REPORT Two Up, One Down, One Push

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Rick Carlisle ⬆ The Pacers’ coach won his 1,000th career game on Thursday night with a 114–112 win over the Kings. Carlisle had to endure a franchise-record 13-game losing streak before becoming the 11th coach in NBA history to reach the milestone, with Indiana’s last win coming on Dec. 8, also against Sacramento.

SEC ⬇ The SEC will not have a team playing for the national championship for the third consecutive season, after Miami eliminated Ole Miss [[link removed]] from the College Football Playoff. The conference had the most teams in the Playoff with five, but it had only one team (Ole Miss) remaining in the semifinals. Before the 2023–24 season, the SEC had representation in the championship game eight years in a row and won six national titles.

Dolphins ⬆ Miami has a new GM, as it has reportedly agreed to terms with Packers VP of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan. Sullivan joined Green Bay in 2003 as an intern and has remained in the organization since, operating in his current role since 2022. The Dolphins will now turn their attention to hiring a head coach after firing Mike McDaniel [[link removed]].

MLB expansion ⬆⬇ League commissioner Rob Manfred appeared on WFAN on Thursday afternoon and discussed his desire to expand [[link removed]] to 32 teams. While expansion does not appear to be close, Manfred said adding two more teams [[link removed]] would allow MLB to realign geographically, with eight divisions of four teams in each. According to Manfred, this structure would ease the travel burden on players, including reshaping the playoff format so East Coast and West Coast teams do not play until later in the postseason.

Editors’ Picks Paramount Says Netflix-WBD Deal Is ‘Presumptively Unlawful’ [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]The CBS Sports parent company alleges the Netflix deal is “clearly anticompetitive.” WNBA Union Highlights Big Gap With NBA Health Benefits [[link removed]]by Colin Salao [[link removed]]WNBA players have far more limited health benefits. NHL Deepens Ties to Polymarket, Kalshi As Other Leagues Stay Away [[link removed]]by Ben Horney [[link removed]]Its new Rangers deal comes after Kalshi broke the ice with the Blackhawks. DAILY TRIVIA Factle Sports

Can you rank the NFL players by the most career sacks?

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Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Games [[link removed]] Show [[link removed]] Shop [[link removed]] Written by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]], Margaret Fleming [[link removed]] Edited by Lisa Scherzer [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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