NASCAR will debut an in-season tournament on TNT for the 2025 season. Plus: NBC announces first two Big Ten Saturday Night games of the season; Fox affiliates to air syndicated version of Good Morning Football; Bill Belichick will regularly appear on the Manningcast this season; WNBA looks to Toronto for expansion franchise; ESPN NFL rules analyst John Parry departs the network; Stadium to produce content for new Chicago RSN outfit.
NASCAR will institute an in-season tournament in 2025
NASCAR is set to introduce an in-season tournament competition to its race schedule in 2025, Sportico reported Monday. The competition will be a bracket-style head-to-head format between 32 drivers across the five Cup Series races aligned with TNT’s portion of the schedule. TNT recently announced Dale Earnhardt Jr. will serve as a race analyst beginning next season. Seeding for the bracket will be conducted during the final three races of Amazon Prime’s portion of the schedule. NASCAR has attempted to inject excitement into its calendar of late, conducting a street race in Chicago, a preseason race inside the LA Coliseum, and returning to North Wilkesboro, NC in recent years. The in-season competition is the circuit’s latest effort to keep viewers engaged. (Sportico, 5.13)
NBC announces first two Big Ten Saturday Night games
NBC announced the first two weeks of its Big Ten Saturday Night football schedule at its upfront on Monday. The network will open with Fresno State-Michigan on August 31st, before renewing the Colorado-Nebraska rivalry game the following week. Last season, Deion Sanders‘ Colorado team proved to be a ratings coup for networks airing Buffaloes games. The team played in five of the fifteen most-watched regular season games of the year, more than any other school. That includes a stretch through the first five weeks of the season where Colorado was either the first or second most-watched game of the week. The weekend will prove a big undertaking for NBC, as the network will also air three standalone NFL games: the season opener on Thursday, the Peacock-exclusive Brazil game on Friday, and its normal Sunday Night Football window to close the weekend.
In other college football scheduling news, Fox will reserve its Friday night prime-time hours this fall for college football, college basketball, or the UFL, per a report in Deadline on Monday. The move to live sports on Fridays for Fox was widely anticipated after letting go of WWE Smackdown, which is headed to USA. (NBC, 5.13) (Deadline, 5.13)
Fox affiliates to air Good Morning Football
A new syndicated version of NFL Media’s Good Morning Football will air on Fox affiliates starting this September when the show launches its extended format, The Hollywood Reporter first reported last Thursday. Fox owns and operates television stations in 29 markets, including 14 of the 15 largest markets in the country. Sony Pictures Television is handling distribution for the syndicated version of Good Morning Football, and will now look to sell the show in other markets.
The NFL announced its intentions to syndicate Good Morning Football in March, the same time it announced the show would move its production from New York to Los Angeles. The morning show will move from its traditional three-hour format on NFL Network to two separate formats: one for NFL Network and one for syndication. The shakeup comes as NFL Media continues cost cutting measures. Last week, reports emerged that the weekday evening show NFL Total Access had been canceled after 21 years on the air. The network also cut Michael Irvin, a staple of its NFL Gameday Morning pregame show. (The Hollywood Reporter, 5.9)
Plus: Belichick, WNBA, Parry, Chicago RSN
— Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick will make regular appearances on ESPN’s Manningcast, Peyton Manning announced Friday on The Pat McAfee Show. Belichick will make his appearances early in each game. In addition to his regular Manningcast appearances, Belichick plans to appear regularly on The Pat McAfee Show during the NFL season.
— The WNBA is finalizing terms for an expansion franchise in Toronto, the CBC reported Friday. The franchise would be slated to begin competition in the 2026 season. Toronto billionaire Larry Tanenbaum, a minority owner in the Maple Leafs and Toronto FC, will own the team. (CBC, 5.10)
— ESPN NFL rules analyst John Parry will depart the network to take a role as an officiating liaison for an NFL team, per a report by the officiating website Football Zebras on Sunday. Parry started on ESPN’s Monday Night Football in 2019 following his third career Super Bowl as an official, replacing Jeff Triplette as the network’s rules analyst. ESPN is still in the early stages of finding his replacement for the upcoming season. (Football Zebras, 5.12)
— The new Chicago RSN outfit that will air White Sox, Blackhawks, and Bulls games beginning in October will receive its content through Stadium, contrary to reports last week that suggested otherwise. The company will still be launched by Standard Media Group, who will handle distribution, but content will be provided by Stadium, the network purchased by Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf in 2023. (Chicago Sun-Times, 5.9)
