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Morning Edition

January 20, 2026

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FOS went to Miami to watch Indiana complete its wild rise from college football doormat to 16–0 kings of the sport. Yes, they had backing from billionaire businessman Mark Cuban and an enormous alumni base, but Indiana’s first national title in football is so much more than that.

Plus, Front Office Sports broke the news that Drew Brees and the Tennis Channel’s founder are launching a new racket sport, and in another exclusive, Mike Repole and Tom Brady’s NoBull gets a $1 billion valuation.

— Amanda Christovich [[link removed]], Daniel Roberts, [[link removed]] and Daniel Kaplan [[link removed]]

Indiana ‘Culture’ and Cash Land Stunning First Title [[link removed]]

Jeremy O'Brien-FOS

MIAMI — Two years ago, the Indiana Hoosiers were one of the worst college football teams in any power conference. Now, they’re national champions.

On Monday night, the No. 1 Hoosiers beat the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes 27-21, capping off a historic—and now perfect—16-0 season.

Indiana was favored to beat Miami on Monday night at Hard Rock Stadium. But in the grand scheme of things, the unlikeliness of Indiana winning a College Football Playoff national championship cannot be overstated.

The Hoosiers have never won a national championship in football. In fact, Indiana hadn’t seen a national championship in football or men’s basketball since the late Bobby Knight led the Hoosiers to a title in 1987 over Syracuse—almost four decades ago. It’s not like their recent history was much better—just two years ago, Indiana placed last in the Big Ten with a 3-9 record.

When asked if he had ever expected the Hoosiers to be in a national championship, Indiana booster Mark Cuban didn’t listen to the entire question before saying a resounding “No.” He wouldn’t even predict who would win, though everyone knew who he was rooting for. “I don’t make predictions. Every time I made a prediction with the Mavs, I jinxed myself, so I’m staying away.”

How They Beat the Odds

To climb the ladder to success, Indiana participated in the same trends as its opponents. They embraced the era of the unrestricted transfer portal to build a championship-caliber roster—after all, they were led by transfer quarterback (and Heisman winner) Fernando Mendoza.

But there were just as many factors that made them different. The Hoosiers aren’t considered to be in the top five or so programs as far as NIL spending, and they don’t have any five-star players. “You have to understand how you use economics, and I think what’s really set IU apart is—we’re not like, ‘Okay, let’s raise as much money as we can to pay everybody more,’” Cuban said. “It’s more about how do we structure, how do we build a culture.”

And they didn’t participate in one major trend across college football: hiring a general manager. Cignetti proclaimed before the season that he would be the coach and general manager—something that Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson told FOS [[link removed]] was a philosophy he insisted upon even during his interview process in 2023.

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Historic Night

Ultimately, though, the team and staff Cignetti led was able to become the college football team in more than a century with a perfect season. The Hoosiers led 10-0 in the first half, but Miami roared back in the second half—at multiple points, cutting down their deficit to just one field goal. But the Hoosiers were able to fight them off—and an interception with just 44 seconds to go sealed Indiana’s fate. In all, they made history with a score that separated them from Miami by just six points.

“Success brings belief, which brings confidence and more success, and repetition,” Cignetti said during a particularly philosophical moment during Sunday’s pregame press conferences. “Repetition is the mother of learning; you get better.”

SPONSORED BY ATHLETES UNLIMITED

Women’s Sports Is Big Business

The momentum around women’s sports continues to grow exponentially. On Feb. 26, Front Office Sports and Athletes Unlimited are joining forces to host Future of Women’s Sports.

This half-day summit [[link removed]], curated by FOS women’s sports reporter Annie Costabile, will bring together the bold thinkers, trailblazers, and visionaries shaping what’s next with dynamic editorial discussions and opportunities to connect with leaders across the industry.

Hosted in Nashville—one of the country’s most dynamic sports cities—this event will forecast where women’s sports is headed and highlight the vast opportunities that still lie ahead. Set in advance of the AU Pro Basketball Championship game, this experience will bring together collaborators in culture, business, and competition to explore what’s next.

This is your front-row seat to the future of women’s sports. Don’t miss your opportunity to join us— request to attend now [[link removed]].

Mike Repole and Tom Brady’s NoBull Gets $1B Valuation [[link removed]]

Matt Rodriguez/Front Office Sports (L); Courtesy of NOBULL

Mike Repole, the beverage entrepreneur best known for selling Vitaminwater to Coca-Cola for $4 billion and BodyArmor to Coca-Cola for $5.6 billion, has his next billion-dollar brand.

Repole bought a majority stake in struggling apparel brand NoBull [[link removed]] in July 2023, and six months later, merged it with Tom Brady’s TB12 and Brady Brand [[link removed]], adding Brady as a co-owner in NoBull. Now NoBull has raised $50 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation, Front Office Sports has learned. It’s the first funding round since Repole bought the company.

The company is also launching NoBull Nutrition, which will start with protein and electrolytes; as part of that launch, TB12 will wind down operations.

Along with the funding and nutrition line launch, NoBull has added influencer and former LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne and Islanders player Matthew Schaefer as new endorsers and partners.

When Repole bought NoBull, it was a company in trouble. The company laid off 35% of its staff in May 2023 and lost its longtime CMO. “Sometimes when brands start to grow, they have growing pains. I came in and saw an opportunity where I can buy the brand, buy the company, and take it from CrossFit to mainstream,” Repole told FOS in an in-studio interview in New York last week.

“I watched Nike and Adidas and Puma and brands like that grow up, and then I also saw these new brands come in like New Balance and Hoka and On Cloud … I wanted to create a brand you can play golf in, lift weights in, walk, run, and nutrition was part of it.”

Repole said he met Brady at the Kentucky Derby in 2018, then they reconnected in 2020 in Florida when Brady was playing for the Buccaneers.

“When I acquired NoBull, I told Tom I think there’s an opportunity here for nutrition,” he said. “As I start to figure out walking, running, weightlifting, training, golf, I want NoBull to be an overall wellness brand. So we merged the two companies together. And Tom’s been my partner now for almost three years, and it’s a great relationship.”

Repole most recently took a major stake in the United Football League [[link removed]] and will be closely involved in its marketing, and has become widely known for his NIL donations to his alma mater St. John’s [[link removed]].

Drew Brees and Tennis Channel Founder Launch New Racket Sport [[link removed]]

Photo of typti players courtesy of Steve Bellamy

America is flush with racket and paddle sports, including tennis, squash, racquetball, pickleball [[link removed]], platform tennis, and padel [[link removed]]—is there room for one more?

An 80-person-investor group led by Tennis Channel founder Steve Bellamy, and including Drew Brees, Nick Kyrgios, Tony Robbins, Chris Pine, JJ Abrams, Tiffany Haddish, and Bert Kreischer think so. On Monday, they’re unveiling typti, a new sport that is a cross between pickleball and tennis. Bellamy will serve as CEO of Typti Inc., the company overseeing the sport’s rollout.

Played on a pickleball court, typti uses a foam ball and small tennis-like rackets that are currently being manufactured for sale. It’s closer to mini tennis than to pickleball. (You can see a video of typti here [[link removed]]).

The investment thesis behind the venture is that an estimated 130 pickleball venues are opening a month, and typti is played on the same courts; thus it has a chance to piggyback on pickleball’s surge. A series of professional typti tournaments is in the works.

Tennis purists have long turned up their noses at pickleball, considering it an inelegant bastardization of tennis. By Bellamy’s estimate, there are 25 million former tennis players who won’t play pickleball but he believes would play typti, which allows players to utilize their tennis skills far more than pickleball affords.

“I am targeting those people to try to get them back on the court,” Bellamy says. “And I just don’t care whether it’s a tennis court or a small court.”

“I plan to roll it out at every facility I’m involved with,” Brees, who is an investor in pickleball clubs in locations like New Orleans and also part owner of the LA franchise in Major League Pickleball, told Front Office Sports. “This opens up a realm of opportunity for pickleball facilities. Now you can play this other sport that is really, really fun. Has different rules, has a different racket, different ball.”

Brees is more than an investor, he’s also one of a handful of people who has played typti and helped develop the rules with Bellamy. Brees played tennis as a young junior (12 and under) and says he beat Andy Roddick three times (to be fair, Roddick was two years younger and won their final match). Bellamy says Brees is informally one of the top 10 typti players nationwide. Bellamy and Brees have been playing the game with about 30 former college tennis players, who will form the nucleus of the nascent pro typti circuit.

The duo met at a pickleball conference on Necker Island two years ago and soon after began developing typti, a game Bellamy says he had brainstormed even before he launched The Tennis Channel in 2003.

“Steve and I for the last two years have gotten together multiple times to actually play the sport, and it was really just like a test, like a trial,” Brees said. “It was, ‘Hey, let’s just see how it feels. Let’s play around with different rules. Let’s play on a padel court, let’s play on a pickleball court.’”

The game has some unique features. Players must win three points to win a game, but if at two points the player in front loses game point, the right to game point transfers to the opposition even if they had no points. Players need five games to win a set. And in an element that is sure to raise eyebrows, players can play the ball off the net and on the bounce use anything but the racket strings to get a second chance to hit it over: racket handle, feet, and hands are the most likely. The ball is heavier than the wiffle ball used in pickleball but lighter than a tennis ball, so it bounces high enough that if a player hits into the net, they have time to try to save the point with the wacky second method.

Jeff Clarke, the former Kodak CEO who was the first to write a check for the typti venture and hired Bellamy in 2014 at Kodak, said the emerging sports company has grand plans.

“The business model not only includes creating a game, selling design and selling patented rackets and balls, but it involves the entire media presence of tournaments, obviously on television or YouTube,” Clarke said. “Bringing that together, not only the creative new game, the merits of the new game, but also the whole media side of it, is a proactive part of the business model.”

You might wonder where typti got its name. Bellamy learned at Kodak that its founder believed brand names should consume exactly five letters and essentially be meaningless (Kodak, Crest, Prell and Evian were examples he cited). The word starts with a “t” as a homage to tennis, but the rest of it Bellamy cooked up in his marketing brew.

The Racquet Sports Professional Association has agreed to add typti as a sixth racket sport its pros teach. And Bellamy recently closed a deal with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association to offer a collegiate championship with prize money.

Monday’s press conference at California Smash, a pickleball club in L.A. co-owned by Marcellus Wiley, will enumerate the sport’s celebrity investors and tournament plans.

“We’ll be announcing that there’ll be at least $500,000 worth of prize money tournaments that are going to happen in the near future,” Bellamy said. “And then we’re in discussions on a million dollar prize money tournament. I’m trying to basically grow the Wimbledon of typti.”

Editors’ Picks Bills’ Sean McDermott Firing Marks Staggering 10 NFL Coaches Out [[link removed]]by David Rumsey [[link removed]]Black Monday has come two weeks late for the Bills. College Football Playoff Meetings End Without Expansion Decision [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]ESPN has given the CFP a deadline of Jan. 23. Trump Vows to ‘Protect’ Army-Navy Game Amid CFP Expansion Talks [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]Trump vows an executive order giving Army-Navy an exclusive broadcast window. Question of the Day

Did you watch the College Football Playoff title game Monday night?

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

Monday’s result: 59% of respondents say Super Bowl ratings won’t take a hit despite the playoff exits of Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.

Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Games [[link removed]] Show [[link removed]] Shop [[link removed]] Written by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]], Daniel Roberts [[link removed]], Daniel Kaplan [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]]

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